 Good morning. Welcome to the 11 a.m. public portion of the closed session of the June 9 2020 meeting of the city council If you would like to comment on a closed session item now is the time to call in using instructions on your screen In this part of the meeting that council will receive public testimony thereafter the public line will be closed and Inexplicable Please mute your television or streaming device once you call in and listen through the phone Please note there is a delay in the streaming So if you continue to listen on your television or streaming device, you may miss your opportunity To speak all council members besides myself are participating in this meeting remotely. I Want to thank the public for staying home to view today's city council's meeting But it is your time to speak will hear the That you have been unmuted the timer will then be set to two minutes You may hang up once you have commented on your item of interest. I Would like to ask the clerk to please call the roll Thank You vice mayor Councilmember Byers Here Matthews Here from Here older hearing vice mayor Myers Here and mayor Cummings is absent. I'd like to ask the clerk if we have Public members that would like to speak at this time we do we have one so unmute them now Hi, my name is Zeke Bean. I'm the OE three supervisory unit president We made it clear since before HR approached us that we recognize the position that the city is in and that we're willing to Do our share of a 10% furlough to help the city realize the savings that they are requesting We were not getting we were we are not getting them at the HR in terms of our in terms of some basic protective language We're asking for and so far have been denied Language that state that supervisor not be made to make up for savings not realized from other units who refused to do the furlough if There's savings that are needed above and beyond the requested 16 million dollars in savings We are more than happy to discuss that but if within that 16 million other units did not do their fair share We don't want you taking it out on that It's been denied language that protects us on that We were questioned to have a seat at the table on hiring decisions Because there's a hiring freeze and we're taking a 10% furlough to do our part and there's lots of positions that are still being filled We want to see that the table to be able to make recommendations That would help the city realize savings without having to fill those positions and the decision We've made clear would still be left up to the city and to Martin We've been denied that other than we have been told we can weigh in on supervisor positions only We want accountability in the form of me to language that says once all our agreements are signed regardless of whether or not They're all the same if SCRU gets less if mid managers get less We're okay with that, but if you then come back and open up someone else's contract We want our contract open to if things get better. We have been denied that We're requesting that we allow a process to allow our members If we have any that are in severe economic hardship that they be allowed to apply for an exclusion And that the city will look into ways to have us we the supervisors cover that employees exclusion by way of vacation donations or other things and that has been denied as well and Sounds like I'm running out of time We have a couple other requests that are in the form of Paid time off not hard money and those have been denied and in lieu of those requests We will be asking HR to consider a work share program, which will be no cost to the city It's paid out of unemployment funds So I encourage you to look into that and to encourage HR to seriously consider that and look into that option We'll ask them at our meeting tomorrow We were giving a layup plan by the city Even though we told them that we would be coming back to them with an answer and we thought we've been bargaining in good faith So yesterday they presented a detailed generalized layup We're giving more details on that. So thank you for your time Thank you very much. Mr. Bean Any other hands Any adjourns to closed session face me or mayors we did have a hand go up Okay, I'm sorry. Well, my name is Ken Bear. I'm an employee and resident of the city of Santa Cruz And I see IU chapter president. I'm here. I call out about Item B on the closed session agenda we would we would ask you to direct a job to bargain with us without threats of layoff notices going out this week or To delay environment that you've asked the last meeting If we don't if we are unable to reach an agreement this week Along with that we ask for your help in protecting the city employees that make less than $20 an hour I realize that that would make us slightly under 10 percent However, it's important that we protect the lowest paid employees and also The final thing would be to identify an end to the furlough that both sides can say clearly and Decisively that that things have returned to normal and that we can leave the furlough early current currently that's not been negotiated out and in fact in It is actually the one thing that most people remember from the last furlough is that it continue on Much longer than was required to bring the city out of It's dire straight we have Oregon in good faith and we expect that we will reach a furlough agreement with the city We just need these few things to go forward. Thank you and have a good day Thank you very much, Mr. Bear There are no more There are no more speakers. I will so the council will now adjourn to the closed session And we will be back for our open session beginning at 2 p.m. Today Thank you to our 220 Meeting of the city council I have a few announcements and then on to our regular meeting today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 Streaming on the city's website city of Santa Cruz dot com all council members including myself are participating in this meeting remotely So I want to thank the public bank home to view today's city council meeting You wish to comment on an agenda item today call in at the beginning of the item You're wanting to comment on using the instructions on your screen Please meet your television or streaming device once you call in and listen through the phone Please note. There's the delay in streaming. So if you continue to listen on your television or streaming device You may miss your opportunity to speak When it's time for public comment press star night on your phone to raise your hand When it is your time to speak during public comment, you'll hear an announcement that you've been unmuted The time will then be set to two minutes You may hang up once you've commented on your item of interest. I would like to ask clerk, please call the roll Thank You mayor council members buyers Here Matthews Here Brown Brown is going to be a little late nice mayor Myers and Mayor comings Knowledge that the land upon which we gather is the unfeated territory of the a was was speaking to be tried The ominous and tribal band comprised of the descendants of indigenous people Taking permission Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast is today working hard to restore Traditional stewardship practices on these lands and feel from the source trauma Before we begin today, I just wanted to say a couple words regarding some of the events that have been occurring over the past two weeks Our nation and community have been devastated by tragic acts of violence that have been felt across the world On May 25th, 2020 George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight by officer Derek Chauvin Active violence sparked outrage across our nation a demand for justice Acknowledgements that black people are not treated the same under the law and a demand for police reform On May 29th, the police chief and I call for a town hall meeting to discuss policing in our community Which took place on Wednesday, June 3rd We follow that meeting up with members of the black community on June 4th And we'll be holding meetings with the community to address police violence moving forward Our community has come together and it's demonstrated through numerous peaceful protests that we stand together That we stand against racism and that we stand against the use of excessive force by police I would like to thank the community for standing in solidarity for the lives of black people and people expressed experiencing oppression in our world As a black man and citizen of the United States of America I would like to thank chief mills for his leadership condemning the actions of the Minneapolis police officers and for taking proactive steps to meet with the community and to ban the use of chokeholds and Other forms of restraint and continue to lead the way in making changes to policing I would also like to thank our police officers for standing in solidarity with our community and for providing our community With safety as they march and gathered in our streets While other communities had officers meet protesters with riot gear to your gas and violence Our police officers block streets and exercise restraint even when protesters vandalize the police station and other businesses in our community Thank you for supporting the community and for allowing their voices to be heard In addition to the murder of George Floyd our community experienced an additional tragic act of violence this past weekend On Saturday June 6th in response to a call regarding a suspicious man that may have contained guns and bomb-making materials Santa Cruz County Sheriff Deputy Damon Butts will it was shot and later pronounced dead at the hand of Stephen Corvillo As we continue to learn more about the motive Stephen Corvillo It is clear that he was committed to committing acts of violence at a large scale And it's because of our law enforcement officers and the community members of Ben Lohman We're able to restrain Corvillo that we were able to avoid a catastrophic loss of life I would like to thank all the officers involved for ensuring the safety of our community Sergeant Damon Gutts-Willer were fathers men who cared about their community. They were both victims of hate and unwarranted violence As a community and country we must set an example of how we can do better We need to come together solve our differences hold each other accountable Find ways to effectively communicate Listen and acknowledge our struggles and find a way forward through love and peace Our community will continue to work together to eliminate all forms of racism and discrimination Improve the culture of policing and ensure the safety and security of all our citizens I want to also condemn all the violence that was faced to our downtown businesses And thank our police officers for doing the best they can to protect our community from these violent acts And at this moment I would also like to ask that we observe a moment of silence for both George Floyd And sergeant Damon Gutts-Willer our hearts go out to the families and the communities and may their lives never be forgot Turn the um, we'll start with presentations. We have a presentation from get virtual.org and so I'll turn it over Thank you, mayor. This is Bonnie. Let's come director of economic development and During this time this pandemic and this is just very challenging environment There has been and a real opportunity of Our community to come together and virtual Is an example of just that it is a collaboration and work of the university and ucfc students partnering with businesses in need in our community during this pandemic And without going into details they've prepared a great presentation And i'm going to turn it over either to gideon or smith to take it away Thank you so much, bhani. Hello everyone. I hope you guys are doing good today Uh, i'm smith metha one of the student co-founders of get virtual Our mission is to create small businesses online and improve their financial health Small businesses employ 77 million americans and have accounted for 65 percent of all new jobs over the past 17 years They are not just the economic backbone of the community, but its heart and soul Through get virtuals program. We are creating a revolution where experience entrepreneurial students like us head small businesses Integrate impactful new technology into their operations This not only drives your revenue today, but prepares small businesses to thrive in an increasingly digital economics Our team is led by toby kori and nada milkovich Toby is a successful entrepreneur and a stanford university lecturer Nara teaches entrepreneurship ethics and media at the university of california sand cruise And stanford university in the international honors program They both are proud santa grills residents And we're the student co-founders and project managers of get virtual and we are here particularly because we care I speak for everyone on my team when I say that we're having an incredible experience working directly with entrepreneurs owners And he employs at these companies We're learning how they think about their business operating models while helping us gain networking skills and develop and execute a present I've found this internship at get virtual to be an opportunity to help my community while gaining key skills One of these main skills has been teamwork We have a diverse set of individuals to bring in different solutions to each and every problem This helps us in understanding new perspectives and looking at things from out of the box It also helps each one of us build our morale as everyone on the team is supportive of one another Engaging in the community with us has two main purposes It gives us the volunteers a sense of purpose and it has a long lasting impact on the community as a whole As the nation and the world start reemerging from this pandemic This and many other countless initiatives will play a catalyzing role to stabilize the economy and the viability of businesses We also have valuable individual and organizational partners who have been a fantastic resource Some of these partners include bonnie liscombe Robert singleton and brad barbells We're grateful for their support during this development phase and going forward We are in the midst of an economic revolution New technology is disrupting business models that have been entrenched in the economy for decades And pre-covid-19 the adoption of these new technologies was increasing kind of constantly and linearly as you can see on the graph But today the city march of technological progress Now feels more like a roller coaster. I'm presenting to you using software from a company. I didn't know existed until two months ago Like many others in santa cruz. I'm getting groceries delivered via instacart This is all to say that the way people want to do business is changing faster than ever Small businesses must adapt to avoid being left behind How do we help small businesses avoid ending up like blockbuster barns of noble or other c-corps beginning with Our answer is that we integrate new technology that can not only make a huge impact But it's easier to use than ever before But if it's so easy, why haven't small business owners? Who as we've seen firsthand are incredibly competent and adaptable not taken advantage already Virtually work with businesses and industries from retail and hospitality to health and wellness So far we have delivered about $30,000 worth of services to our clients and begun positioning them to thrive for years to come I'm nikila chair kudota The needs of get virtual are rooted in the times of social distancing guidelines and branch out into long-term health To address erin's previous question One of the needs is that local business owners don't feel capable using virtual tools You want to empower these business owners and familiarize them with virtual tools So that they are comfortable taking the diversity towards their digital world This leads to our second need which is local businesses need to operate remotely during social distancing orders This is as simple as making sure local businesses are up and running As well as the households that financially depend on these businesses And last but not least local businesses lack the training and support needed As we transition out of these guidelines and enter the long term Part of what we do is we engage heavily with our clients and provide them with educational resources Such as live tutorials to help them retain control over their websites as we transition out of covet 19 guidelines A pattern that we've seen thus far is that our clients have been meaning to change But simply have not known where to start or have had the time And while they are under prepared now We have seen their dedication and value for their customers and believe strongly in their ability to compete for years to come My name is giddy and fox In the short term our goal is to help clients stabilize financially in response to the current coronavirus shock Long term we provide the virtual tools necessary to help our clients not only survive but thrive within an increasingly digitized economic environment Once we set up a website for a client we teach them how to become masters of their digital destiny They learn how to upload content these manage online appointments and generally maximize the benefit their website provides Student entrepreneurs also gain valuable experience helping their adopted community persevere through these challenging times By partnering students with small businesses get virtual strengthens their bond within the community Hi everyone. I'm Ananya Mishra Get virtual offers a variety of solutions for each of the customers that we work with We conduct website audits to evaluate aesthetics user experiences and fb osc We integrate features to optimize websites such as calendars and schedulers for online booking Ordering systems for restaurants that seamlessly integrate with to s systems and mobile friendly versions of all of the websites that we design We develop strategies for both social media and marketing. We also contribute to businesses by providing content and materials Our educational tutorials support business owners as they continue to expand virtually in the future So as the women's boutique store located in downtown canopens and capitola This was how the website looked like when we began our project In Ramazzoi and Anandi's words The schema gave virtual shows sincere interest and commitment to helping our business survive Their work to understand our business and who we are so that we could propose an exit work that was relevant to us and consistent with our brand Together we had to figure out a way to virtualize the shopping experience without taking away Anandi and Ramazzoi's values of keeping the customer experience high quality and personable That's we came up with the idea of virtual shopping appointments Now customers are able to sign up for a zoom based on phone call or google hangout appointments Fill out a questionnaire and attend a personalized shopping experience Ramazzoi and Anandi personally review the questionnaires and intake each piece of clothing for the customers keeping in touch with their high customer quality thousands These are a couple screenshots of how the website looks like now the most important one being the virtual appointment schedule in the bottom right corner As of june 1st 80 local small businesses have applied for the get virtual program To keep the get virtual team afloat over the summer during this employment crisis We hope to use a significant portion of our fundraising proceeds to sponsor the livelihood of get virtual co-founders and project managers like myself We have also budgeted eight thousand dollars for get virtual's marketing software Which includes uh search engine optimization and analytics tools as well as three thousand dollars in scholarships for our international students to take the ucse get virtual summer class And any access that we raise will actually go directly into the community in the form of small grants to help newly digital businesses pay the premium fees for their website creation platforms like wix and Shopify Looking forwards we future fundraising will be allocated towards the expansion of get virtual We aim to enlist new mentors hold nationwide student competitions and of course to support many more businesses We calculated that in order to maximize get virtual's impact on small business We aim to raise a total of one hundred thousand dollars in the coming months Our budget for this summer get virtual is still short by forty thousand dollars with this project managers can focus full time On launching the digital campaigns We have been preparing with local businesses as well as to begin processing our 41 waitlisted clients Your donation will help empower small business owners to take charge of their digital presence We are just getting started but after we spread the movement to colleges across the country People will look back and admire the resilience and forward thinking of the business community from which it originated Which is of course right here in sanikers So thank you for your time and please let us please let us know if you have any questions Wonderful presentation and I'm so excited about this program When I first heard about I started telling a bunch of my friends like dude you can go and get help from this group to get an online presence and And it's just been something that's been really excited about learning more about so thank you all for You know all your hard work on this And I do have one question for you If is there a link or Any website we can direct people to if they want to make donations to the program Yeah, we are at get virtual dot org And we have We have a donation link there and also if you have any small business friends Or I'm sure you know many small business owners. If you'd like to direct them there. There's also a sign-up link Great, I'll make sure to send people your way We got a few other council members of questions. So council member mathies and then buyers On your mutants. Are you a 501c3? a profit or Someone's nodding their head there striker. Yes. Okay. It's just serious And uh, you mentioned we have 41 businesses on the wait list. Are you What's the profit I have I have a friend long established local business And this is exactly what this person So I'd like to be able to virtual dot org Yeah, so essentially they sign up on get virtual dot org and then They give us, you know, who they are their business and then we kind of have like an intake interview to get a sense of Their business get a sense of you know, the owner themselves and kind of their expectations for the project And then we kind of make a decision on You know whether if we have the resources to get virtual that is to help their business and We also Make sure that what the business is looking for is kind of in line with Get virtual kind of mission that they're like a Santa Cruz business that they're You know that they're just located in the community and That they're not, you know just trying to that they're not A new business also we we try to work with established businesses That have been a part of the community for a while And we're looking to get them back on their feet I'd like to add that we're currently on nursing volunteers as we speak so we'll be ramping up our process Thanks, the beauty of the program many thanks to not enough of a who's an instructor at ucfc teacher entrepreneurship Through her hard work actually created a course where students get credit And they can give back to the community. She's also created a summer course So helping funding will keep these students on board with us Help trains new classes students both this summer and this fall And as the students have said there's a backlog of 41 We want to chew through those and we're getting new requests every single day. So we're moving to needle here The thumbs up to all of you and if this is one of the programs one of many that really solidify a town-gone relationship You know, we're always working on that Town understand the university and the university kids, you know understand the needs of the downtown in our city So thank you so much. I just wanted to add my appreciation and uh, you know, I am impressed Definitely with all the work you've been doing. This is so awesome to see and I'm looking forward to Watching you grow the program I'm on the visit Santa Cruz board and council member Matthews and I heard from Anandi Just recently about the virtual Shopping program that you were helping work on so it was great to see it here today as well And she was very excited and you know others were as well. So Looks like you'll get a lot of interest in Activity. Thank you. Say, thank you for the presentation. It was really great. Um, I really liked that each of you had a part in it and Just an amazing product that you're offered to our small businesses And I think one thing that Santa Cruz is really proud about is the amount of small businesses that we have in our Count and we work really hard to make sure that those can stay alive through good and bad times. So You're helping all of those businesses in a huge way and I have the feeling that Your number 41 is going to start growing quite significantly. So thanks for all your work. We really appreciate it Great. Thank you so much for the presentation and the great work I just see Bonnie's face on my zoom screen just glowing with pride and I just it's so it's so powerful for our community And and these moments in this time I just have a quick question. How young of students are you willing to work with high school students? Are they eligible to particularly work with you? And okay, I'll follow up with you at offline about that Great. Thank you Council members keep up the good work. This is such an amazing program and thank you all for making this happen in our community Thanks for your time Thanks so much for having us It's been an honor Thank you. Thank you. The your proclamation the clinic june's mental health month We're going to follow up with that with the more extended resolution that will become part of the next council meeting And so with that we'll move on to our next presentation Which is from the community action board that's focused on housing assistance during covet 19 I'm Helen you in story the assistant director with the community action in Santa Cruz county And I'm here along with my colleagues Hi, good afternoon mayor city council. My name is pasadilla. I'm the homeless man And prevention and instrumentation director for community action board of Santa Cruz county Yes, and I know that uh tiffany lake from your housing community development department Is also on the meeting in case there's any questions that come up later on in the presentation But we really truly want to thank you for inviting us to give you a short presentation And an update on our housing assistance and other programming during covet 19 in particular So I am going to get us going With the presentation here. Let's see if I can share screen here. Oh, here we go. Hold on just a minute We'll see the presentation. Hopefully Okay, wonderful. Okay outline of the presentation today So we should we're going to highlight house purpose and program Give a brief overview of rental assistance programming and covet 19 needs and trends Cab and the city's covet 19 partnership and resources A brief overview of other cab efforts and then have some time for questions and answers at the end Familiar with our organization The community action board's mission is to partner with the community to eliminate poverty and create Create social change through advocacy and essential services We do so holding a vision of a thriving equitable and diverse community free from poverty and injustice And we hold the values of equity dignity and diversity service community action and inclusion in doing our work We serve between seven and ten thousand individuals per year through four Main service areas including our homelessness prevention and intervention services that causes the director of Where we have a rental assistance program emergency payment programs and our youth homeless response team, which is one of our newer programs We also have immigration legal assistance and immigrant advocacy and support Through our center cruise county immigration project and our newest addition to the immigration services are thriving immigrants collaborative We have youth and adult employment and reentry services through Kansai and day worker center programs As well as community building and youth development at our davinport resource service center up on the north coast That also serves some folks on the edge of santa cruz as well Our community action for santa cruz county. We were created in 1965 as part of the war on poverty And we're the designated community action agency for this county Community action is across the county or across the nation. Excuse me. There are community action agencies in every county in this country So it's a national and then there's a statewide network of community action agencies And some of the things that make us different as an agency is that we have a tripartite board and this is by design federally That we are mandated to have a third low income representatives A third public sector representatives and one of our public sector representatives is sandy brown councilwoman from city of santa cruz As well as a third private sector representatives. For example, we have A farm worker seat And we have the ceo from the santa cruz community credit union, for example So we have a very representative board By design And then in addition what makes a community action board unique is that we're mandated again To every two years to have a conversation or a dialogue or hearing Discussing poverty in this community and reaching out to our community Speaking with those that are experiencing poverty to hear what their needs And what information what's new what are trends and what are their assets? This is the new thing that we've added really is both asking the community what their needs are around poverty And then what are strengths and what are resiliency that helps them through this? And we do that every two years So in our last needs and assets identification through our community action plan process in 2019 You can see that assets that were identified include community and family support and pride availability of social services Internal spiritual and relational wealth based based Resources as well as access to legal rights assistance those were the main Areas of assets and resiliency for our community And then what has you know unfortunately been a trend For several of our community action plans the last couple of years Access to jobs higher wages consistent employment barriers to accessing resources health needs I think when we We revamped our community action process about four years ago And went even deeper into the community and talked with different groups One of the things that rose for the very first time in our community action plan process as a need And a challenge with discrimination prejudice and stereotypes as impactors of poverty And so that's been an area that we have focused on in much of our work And of course one of the main trends For many years running has been housing insecurity and high rent burden And that is part of the programming that we'll be discussing in the next couple of slides for the presentation I'm going to go ahead and guide you over our overview of rental assistance programming Have had had rental assistance programming along with case management And financial literacy support to avoid addiction and homelessness for over 30 years I'm in all depending on our funding sources between two to four funding source funding We have panic who's sitting core curling pending at the one office is in Santa Cruz near ocean street and downtown Watsonville Funding and depending on funding sources participation on agreement Efforts and initiatives right now in particular during this COVID-19 time Provide weekly food and PPE distribution at our day worker center Which is located on 7th avenue and serves many city of Santa Cruz residents And we are doing job matching by sound only at this time We've also pivoted from weekly to daily food distributions and supports for youth Youngers families and farm workers at the Davenport resource center Our youth homeless outreach team has redoubled his efforts Regarding outreach and partnered with public health partners and others to provide support at pop-ups throughout the community Community to go right to the youth And are also providing support and case management at the transitional age youth or case shelter that's been at the Symptoms center and is getting ready to transition to transitional housing in the unincorporated area soon Our immigration services include DACA and grieving car renewals citizenship and other consultations via phone only at this time And then advocacy through our thriving immigrants collaborative including some community Conversations and dialogues that are all done virtually right now We continue to provide both un- and subsidized job placement assistance for youth and adults impacted by poverty and criminal justice involvement including those on cow works At risk of or re-entering the community for criminal justice involvement And we're very engaged and again most of that is done virtually or by phone And one of our very newest programs is the disaster relief assistance for immigrants or drape program For those undocumented immigrants impacted by COVID-19 and the next slide we'll talk a little bit more about that program But for all of these efforts including our rental assistance and housing programs. There's more information Including contact information on our website, which is www.cabin.org Or our facebook page and both of those are listed below So our next slide is talks a little bit about the disaster relief assistance for immigrants or drape program And we've had a lot of interest in this program. And so we wanted to just highlight that quickly for you all The drape program project is a one-time state-funded disaster relief assistance for undocumented adult immigrants impacted by COVID-19 An undocumented adult who qualifies can receive $500 and direct assistance With a maximum of $1,000 in assistance per household And of course some of these households will be using this assistance for rental assistance and other household needs So in terms of eligibility, how do I know if someone's eligible to receive drape? To apply you must be able to provide information that you're an undocumented adult person over the age of 18 Not eligible for federal COVID-19 related assistance like the cares act stimulus payments or pandemic unemployment benefits And have experienced a hardship as a result of code 19 So what documents do folks need to apply for drape? You must provide information and documents to verify your identity home or mailing address And show that you've been impacted by COVID-19 So in terms of applying for the assistance It's were only allowed by the state to have application via phone And so the community action board we actually have been contracted to serve four counties Santa Cruz Monterey, San Benito and San Luis Obispo counties So there's one phone number for residents who think they may qualify for all of those counties and that's 1-877-282-7174 And those phone lines are open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. To 7 p.m So we'd really like to make sure that folks are aware that this is a temporary program That's only available through the end of the month or until assistance funds run out We're at about half of the a half of the available funding has been committed at this point So we do encourage folks to make a call if they believe they're eligible And so then that brings us now to thanking you for your partnership and your leadership We've appreciate a very long-standing partnership with the city of Santa Cruz And we're excited to be able to provide some additional support For rental assistance as well as other services, but in particular rental assistance right now when people are Are hurting so deeply with the COVID-19 crisis. And so we just ask that there's any question Okay, thank you very much for all that wonderful information and for this presentation And for taking the time to inform the council in the community about all the work that you're doing and the funding assistance that's available Um, I'll open up looks like we have a couple council members of questions and we'll turn over to the council member Watkins Um, I'll just echo the statements of the mayor really thanking you for your presentation But more importantly really thanking you for your work that you're doing as safety net services providers for our community at this time I just have a quick question in terms of the undocumented Folks seeking assistance are is your information linked up to the 211? Um, a directory or how are we able to help support getting the word out? Yes, it is. Yes, it definitely is it's on our website. It's on all of our social media We've worked with various partners It can certainly be linked to the city website again, you know the program is Scheduled to last through june 30th or until funds are committed. So we would just have to stay in touch You know close touch is if you link it to the website, but that's an option Thank you I thank you so much. It was really great to hear from you and get this kind of presentation. I you know, I'm just uh always amazed by What cab does I was I just have to say My first full-time job my first real job in Santa Cruz was The community action board many years ago and I have followed The work and the expansion of services and just I'm always amazed. There's I have so many stories running through my mind right now of all the wonderful things that We've been that you've been able to accomplish I'm going to say a week because I'm on the board now and I feel very, you know connected to the organization To thank and especially during these times. Thank you so much for everything you do I have two well actually two questions. One is a question about the Undocumented assistance line, you know, a lot of people are contacting me saying they can't get through I know that and we've talked about this But if you just could say a couple of things about that so people who are listening who are frustrated Understand what's going on and how you know how they can try to just continue to you know, just be persistent That's one and then the other is do you in terms of the increased demand and the additional resources you're getting for rental assistance to prevent evictions How do you are you feeling about the level of funding? These are be the need. I know there's always more need but just what does that kind of look like I guess At the moment Yeah, thank you for that sandy and thanks for your leadership. We love having you on the board So thank you. Um, you know, yes, it has been it's been frustrating. I know we've had so much interest in the drape program Unfortunately, the state of california set the parameters for this program and so phone line and No messages No email or online applications Were allowed and so You know, we had a narrow Sort of format for applications So I really want to appreciate That it has been difficult to get through. I think that We're definitely serving folks those folks are being patient and you know calling in and so I really just Tells the folks to continue to call Maybe call at different times if you've reached You've been very busy Please do keep calling and I know it's not necessarily the ideal situation But it's certainly the parameters that the state gave to us and so Thank you for the patience that the community is showing with that and like I said, I'm really happy to report that you know, we have Committed just about half of the assistance that we received and so we feel good about our progress In serving the communities that that were contracted to serve in terms of the rental assistance Enemies I think you know, as we said in the presentation, we've seen an over 50 percent increase in calls In need for rental assistance. The eviction moratoriums have been critical and important when we thank you Council members for your leadership around that and leadership and extension Of course, we know that the eviction moratoriums is not a rental forgiveness And so we are really definitely hearing from folks who are trying to stay Current and not face an eviction cliff once moratoriums are are over So, you know, we're I would definitely say there's more need than there is rental assistance right now We're particularly concerned about the next couple weeks right now We are just about out of most of our funding sources for the city of santa cruz. And so that is a concern We're in discussion with The county and other funders to see about possibility for any additional funding We are certainly working very closely in partnership with Tiffany and others at the the housing department at the city We're excited to have the cdb gcb and and home funding coming soon We believe that will be in july and so we're hopeful that we'll have some additional funds To meet what we know will continue to be an increased need As uh folks are um go through You know this transition process with coven in particular it sounds like um community action boards rental assistance funding generally is for Families and if Like say an individual who's single Or people who don't have children Where is there any type of funding that's available for them or? Where have you all been directing kind of those folks who may be falling short under the rent? Yeah, yeah, it's definitely a gap area mayor and and I think that um one thing I will say though is in some of the private fund losing that we've been doing Working with funders such as the community foundation and others That has been one of the lower barrier Um sources that we have thought It's true. Most of our funding is for families as well as those with disabilities and seniors And so the low barrier Private funding for folks who either don't have a lease or rental agreement or fall within the 18 to to 59 category Is where we are able to assist those folks and I think we'll continue to Seek out additional funding that will will help bridge. Um, I think for the city of Santa Cruz. There's other, you know, faith-based Funding sources like capitarities and others That we would do referrals to your presentation for all the wonderful information that you've been able to share with us today And all the work that you're doing for so many people within our community. We very much appreciate it Thank you. Thank you council members Appreciate it a regular meeting today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 And streaming on the city's website city of Santa Cruz comm If you wish to comment on an agenda item today instructions are provided on your screen We will provide these instructions throughout the meeting whenever we move into an agenda item that will be open for public comment Please note the public comment is heard only on items The council is taking action and not on regular updates or reports The items that will be open for public comment during today's meeting are the items number 5 through 20 on our agenda Council members if there's any statements of disqualification today I need to disqualify myself from number 13 That's the sewer replacement on walnut avenue as happy as I am to see it Was in front of my house. So I'm just going to check at that point. Should I just use Because if it's just a replacement that won't Result in a change in the level of service or anything of that nature then Even though it's within the proximity of your residents I do not believe that there's a conflict Disqualifying Okay, thank you. No, there are none announcement of oral communications All communications is an opportunity for members of the public to speak to us on item They're not on our agenda and oral communications will occur on or around 60 on receiving the city attorney to provide a report on closed session Yes, thank you. Mayor Cummings members of city council afternoon the council convenes in closed session at 11 a.m To consider the following matters item a was a conference with legal counsel concerning liability claims the claimant is Of the name any h bradfield that is also item nine on your consent agenda this afternoon item b was a conference with labor negotiators involving the poa firefighter iafs local 1716 fire management police management oh e3 mid manager and supervisor employees sdiu local 521 and unrepresented employees City received a report from its negotiators Uh, and there was no reportable action on that Item c was real property negotiations and two parcels were discussed in closed sessions this morning and this afternoon first is property That contains the river street homeless shelter at 115 c coral street city received a report from its negotiator bonnie lipscomb same with item c2 which is real property at 125 coral street owners james p. Gillespie and gene gillespie trustees and harley f and rye gillespie co-trustee City also received a report from its negotiator bonnie lipscomb. No reportable action Item d was a conference with legal counsel concerning anticipated litigation And in that item the counsel by a unanimous vote authorized the city to Join a coalition of public agencies seeking to challenge PG&E's practice of calculating utility user's tax payments met of greenhouse gas credits that are applied to pg&e customers utility bills semi-annually Which results in an underpayment of utility users tax to the city and other public agencies that have utility use tax More detail in the particulars of that action will be available upon request by members of the public Once the action is filed, which I anticipate will occur later this month Lastly was a conference with legal counsel concerning existing litigation. Now is the Case entitled city of san santa cruz versus Santy richard and others Council received a report and gave direction to the city attorney's office with respect to that matter But there's no report left Thank you very much for that report. I'd like to call on the city manager to report and provide updates on city business Co-19 response and other events Thank you mayor and city council Yes, it's going to do a brief update as well as have by rebecca's from nika knocker development doing update on the Shelter in place orders The health order and some of the changes there as the council knows much of the focus right now is on re-openings and The changes to the the order that allows for more activities and businesses to open you'll recall that in my last conversation. We were in the midst of trying to get to the The expanded ladder stages of stage two And the county was going to be getting at the station since then they actually did it They actually did it sooner than I had actually presented and that's been informed And that is already in place and approved by the state. So that essentially provided for Certain sectors to reopen Particularly destination retail in dining restaurants are the those are the bigger categories And since then we've been spiritually working to develop protocols and guidance for our outdoor expansion program which rebecca will Go over in a few minutes However, even since then there have been additional modifications and changes to the shelter in place order and Expect to have additional re-openings and of note. These will begin June 12. I'll just point out the ones that are most significant of note and that includes campgrounds rb parks and outdoor recreation card rooms family entertainment centers like bowling alleys arcades gyms and fitness centers hotels including travel and tourism museums galleries and aquariums So those are rest and then of course restaurant bars wineries and brew pubs So those are all expected to reopen as of June 12 The one thing that still continues to be the same is the beach hours that which will continue to be closed during the 11 to 5 time frame But those are the latest development. They happen very quickly And uh, I'll turn it over to rebecca to kind of give you an update on what we're doing to try to facilitate expedite the particularly the dining experience here Thank you so much martin and good afternoon council and mayor I'm very excited to be able to share with you our new Temporary outdoor expansion area program that we launched officially on friday I'm going to share my screen here for you so I can navigate to our website As you all are familiar all of our business resources Regarding our covet 19 response is found on to sanacris.com slash corona virus so We have been updating the stage to provide information as it's become available and with the latest actions that We took last week to allow for expanded outdoor dining areas and retail We've created a new page on our website that provides information about this program And so with the With the new program we're allowing for expanded retail and restaurant activity on sidewalks where there's eight feet of clearance on private parking lots and step back step back areas as well as on On street parking areas. So what you might see as parklets doing a little bit lower scale expansion into those on-street parking spaces As well as some alleyways in the downtown and we're also doing street closures In the downtown starting with the section of pacific avenue between linkedin and cathardt street So as part of this program, we've developed a series of guidelines that businesses can view on our website here That just talked about the different requirements that we are needing Based on the type of expansion area that you're proposing We have information for businesses related to the insurance requirements That we'll need to have as part of that application and all of the application materials are available here For businesses to view we are economic development department is leading the permitting of these expansion areas and we're doing this through a temporary youth permit And so businesses are able to apply it online very easily. We have a pretty quick application form And they'll have to provide a synopsis of what they're doing And then we've asked that they upload their insurance Proof of insurance as well as their site plan And if they're serving alcohol, it'll be approval from cvc, which is extended Temporary catering authorization And then we'll be reviewing we've already received Four applications so far. So it's very exciting to see the community embracing this And we'll be processing them as quickly as possible to help businesses Expand to this and then we've also been doing a lot of communication to the new business categories that are able to reopen Under the governor's much recent order Happy to answer any questions about this program or the process do those outdoor if they need an outdoor permit That's right, and we've actually created a friendly url for this that's to Santa Cruz comm slash outdoor expansion So they can just go straight there and I'll take them to the program information And also please direct anyone to me as well. I'm happy to answer questions and and be a point of contact to them I have one more question as well. I know that um There's been some discussion With the downtown association reaching out to businesses about shutting up street closures and people keep asking us to shut down Pacific have is there any kind of updates on maybe those kinds of conversations? Yeah, so in the executive order, we did authorize the closure for The 1100 block of pacific avenue. So that is the stretch of pacific between Lincoln street and cathart street So that's the initial closure that we had just looking at the businesses that are there That'll be able to take advantage of that space and also recognizing the emergency access needs Through pacific avenue And I know we are exploring a few other locations where businesses have expressed interest and Working internally to get those plans in place and I'll let Bonnie Add to that as well. She has been Yeah, we have been working with public works and other departments and I'll just take a second to say The entire city team cross departments have been pretty phenomenal and really quickly Approving guidelines and coming together so that we can safely reopen and expand into the public right away It really has been an all hands on deck So I just wanted to acknowledge the work of the other departments and they'll continue to work because we're trying to turn these applications around Really quickly and everyone's committed. So I just wanted to acknowledge that So yes, 1100 blocks towards the that that rebecca just mentioned towards the end of this week And then a good portion of cathart between pacific and cedar At some point next week. So we're working through those initially as a pilot And so main main pacific street downtown and a side street and then we'll assess Based on feedback and interest from other businesses downtown. Um, whether or not we expand that further Closure are those closures like time and is there a specific date when Are they is that there's we're trying to coordinate it for the That entire block and so we're coordinating with the downtown association and and for those businesses. So we're we're Ready to go here at the city And public works can set up the barricades and everything that we need in about a half a day But we don't want to close it too soon before we have all the businesses ready So we're just trying to coordinate with them But we anticipate that the closure of the 1100 block will be thursday or friday of this week And we'll and we'll post everything and we'll have signage up. You know, bonnie You're you're just getting started on this. Um, and I want to just thank Your whole staff and planning staff and martin's office for all the work to get this done so quickly I've gotten a lot of great response to that. Um, the city's just been so proactive on this. So thank you Um, this is probably an impossible thing to answer but um on average I mean, is this going to be a process that takes like an hour or just curious about sort of what the kind of The time frame is that a business owner might expect to be kind of be engaged in this in this permit. Thanks Yeah, I'll start and then rebecca you can kind of add on but um, we worked on the guidelines so that They would be really clear so the business is coming in if they meet the guidelines and use the recommended Vericase whether it's on a sidewalk or street with different specifications That those applications can be turned around and approved and a permit granted within 24 hours If they are going outside the guidelines, they want to do something a little different or it's on a tricky corner Where there's some traffic concerns Um, those may take a little longer where if it's outside the regular guidelines We're hoping we can turn those around in two to three days Um, but we may be able to turn them around sooner just depending on the flow and number of Applications that come in we have one right now that's outside the guidelines But I still think we're going to be able to turn it around in a day And I just had one other question. I'm sorry, um, rebecca you might have covered this Is there a fee is are we just charging a nominal fee or just no fee at all great No fee Yeah, just the cost of businesses to apply for the abc permit the abc expansion Authorization is a hundred dollars. Um, and that's a really quick process businesses have turned around quickly. But yeah, I know fee from the city Thank you. Thank you guys for all your hard work on this I think uh having a more pedestrian friendly specific garden mall is something that I've always wanted to see and so I'm excited to see this Even if it's temporary, um, how it how it works out and my question is Can reconnect and maybe after the question Yeah, I'll talk about this. I remember talking about it on budget day or something Early may so it's exciting. It's happening Have what about soquel avenue and um, have other faces approached us and want to do something And I think you have business community then there's probably a couple on mission street, too, but I I go right to thinking soquel which has really become that whole mid sound, you know commercial sweet little places Yeah, absolutely. So um, these are a lot of citywide within the guidelines I've been in active communication with the midtown businesses As well, and I know that we've gotten a lot of interest as well from the west side So where it fits within the guidelines and how their space is set up We're definitely happy to accommodate that. Um, and excited to see what they're up for to preach forward. Oh, that's great I didn't know about tanks. So we're all Nobody's on I had a quick question. Um while we wait for a counselor or a gollert to reconnect Does this also do sorry, let me rephrase that question Would this also be possible? So say for example, there's a business that has A parking lot and they can effectively Close the parking lot and allow for either outdoor dining And I know that some of the bars are going to be opening up on Friday, too They also qualify for this if they had that kind of space available Yeah, absolutely. Um, so we do have a number of businesses that are utilizing their private parking lots for that expanded use We're looking at using up a portion of the loss not to take away the whole parking area But being able to use some areas of it And being able to have that outdoor, um, dining expanded and then with the safe You know reopening of bars and wineries and tasting rooms I know that we've also received interest from those businesses. We'll be working with them, too Yeah, we'll just need to update our guidelines to include them because when we release them Bars weren't eligible to open. So we'll update those guidelines for them as well Okay, great. Thank you. Councilmember Watkins Thank you so much. This is exciting and I look forward to seeing our businesses out and open I just have a quick question today. For example, there's a business that is in a location that isn't really conducive to outdoor The outdoor experience Is there going to be an opportunity for them to go have like a pop-up potentially somewhere Where it is a more conducive location so that they're not excluded from this, um, opportunity Um, I'll I'll I'll start and then Rebecca can jump in we do have right now I'm not sure if we mentioned it, but three alleys in the downtown That as long as the business is located within 200 feet of the alley that they could Open up and and sort of do a pop-up in the alley. So frazier lewis lane Plaza lane and pearl alley And then elsewhere in the city we'll we'll look at it on a case-by-case basis Our our goal is to be able to accommodate if we can safely do so I'm so sorry guys. My connection is not fantastic. Um, so I don't know how much of my question you've heard or if I was frozen none of it None. Okay, so basically I said I'm super excited about this and I've always wanted more pedestrian friendly specific art mall And so I'm excited to see just even if it's temporary, but I was wondering if the businesses I'm envisioning mostly Restaurants, I don't think retail will be bringing their stuff in and out every day Maybe they will but I was thinking for the tables are going to be like permanent or semi-permanent Tables and stuff similar to hula's or the workers are going to be stuffing all their stuff in and out at the beginning and the end of the day So we are proposing That business to tell us how they want to secure their spaces if it'll sort of depend on how they're setting up The space if it's on the sidewalk Um, we'll likely ask that they bring the tables back inside. Um, it's sort of going to be like case by case basis there's also security concerns for the businesses, but You know, we're not intending it to be as permanent as the hula's Parklets and those types of things are really wanting this to be a really easy thing that businesses can implement And especially with their existing seating indoors that they're not able to utilize if they're able to bring that out to expand it Um, we'll be working with them to figure out what the best strategy is to secure their furniture and make it workable for them For questions. So thanks for your presentation for that update city manager Mayor and yeah, thank you to all the staff for all the hard work to put this together and again, there'll be a lot more work to Uh, assist the additional businesses that are reopening. So we'll get focused on for the fact I know the other area of interest that the council might have is with respect to The demonstrations and and police work there. So I would ask andy in case Available to maybe just do a brief update on how things are going with respect to The demonstrations and other public safety items. So thank you martin and Good afternoon, mr. Mayor and council members. It's been a long couple weeks for us, but I think we're coming out on the back side of this and uh, I wanted to update you on a few things We had dozens of protests all over the city for And varying in size and intensity and complexity And only one really had some difficulty with it from the standpoint of uh, Where there was a little bit of vandalism here at the police department, but by the next morning It was cleaned up and everything was ready to go There were a couple of others that were pretty intense and I really want to recognize and acknowledge the mayor and Uh and council member walkins as well as Several community members We were meeting here at the police department talking about what policies and laws can be changed in order to Improve policing and how we treat and interact with the black community and specifically people of color and in general And it was very powerful and important meeting As protesters arrived and then some of the people who were meeting went outside to address protesters and fascinating conversation And I think as a result of that is really you can see it helped tone down the the tenor of the crowd and uh, and so it was a I thought a very beautiful and powerful thing and which Which begs to the point That uh protests can happen change can happen Uh in a environment where the police are not marshaled up in riot gear and And uh and weapons to grief people who are protesting. We were uh, we purposely kept a very low profile Kept officers out of the way so that people could protest without fear and intimidation And uh, and there's much communication as possible. So Um, you know, I'd like to thank those who who helped out And just as a last note, we had a protest here at our building on Saturday right at the same time we had officers rushing up to ben loman with our rescue vehicle to Uh, just evacuate the officer who was down because they couldn't get to him And uh, so the office our officers our SWAT officers, uh went up there Got him into the rescue vehicles while some other people that were pinned down by gunfire and explosives And were able to get them out of there While people were protesting here at the department And when I told the protesters What took place? The reaction of the protesters was amazing They wanted us to hear them. They wanted us to make sure that That we understand that uh, that the way police nationwide have been interacting with the community Is not acceptable, but they also rose up to support us And understood clearly the pain that violence causes to including the police And so they prayed for our officers As well as uh sergeant, uh cuts filer. So, um, I just really want to thank and and And recognize the protesters in our community Because I think that santa cruz showed the nation how to do it correctly and uh, and some of those people are People like joy flinn and bella and tige and the list could go on But I just wanted to recognize a few of the many protesters who have just done an amazing job And I can guarantee you that we're going to work together To make sure that there's change. It's real. It's substantive And uh, and at the end something you can touch and feel and see For policing That's all I have And I just want to thank the the teeth and the All our police officers too that have been really uh Had to do a lot of work in recent days and weeks Okay, so it's been an amazing job Thank you mayor There any council members that thanks Andy for that update? Um, are there any council members who have any questions at this time? Okay, here none. Thanks chief council meeting calendar I'll now call the clerk to city clerk to provide any updates to the calendar We don't have any updates to our consensus agenda Uh, first up is the consensus agenda. These are items numbers 5 through 15 For members of the public who are streaming this meeting now is the time to call in if you want to comment on items 5 through 15 The instructions are now on your screen Please remember to mute your streaming device for the cue saying that you have been unmuted 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 would like to pull any items? If so, please raise your hand Council member matthews Yes, I'd like to pull item 7. I'm supportive of it. I want to just suggest a small additional language that is Pretty supportive. Yeah, and you're muted. The parlings on the wharf. I'd like to pull that I'll consent with the exception of items numbers 7 and 8 If you'd like to comment on any of the consent items with the exceptions of number 7 and 8 Now is the time to please call in Uh, when you're in the meeting, please press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand And we will recognize you and give you two minutes to speak Just in commenting on these items will bring it back to council for action and deliberation We're looking for a motion on The consensus agenda items with the exception of number 7 and 8 Council member matthews Yes, I'll go ahead and move consent just except for those two items 7 and 8 Oh, I don't second that Okay, so a motion by council member matthews Seconded by council member walk-ins To move all the items on consent with the exception of number 7 and 8 I'll call in court to do a roll call vote Council member Byers Matthews Vice mayor Meyers And mayor Cummings Passes unanimously Now we'll bring it back to council member walk-ins for item number 7 on consent Me Council member Matthews Oh, sorry Matthews, sorry Yeah, item 7 is a resolution supporting the league of california city Uh campaign to support local recovery vibrant city strong economies and it's a great program Um, I would just like to suggest the addition It calls for us to submit a letter to the governor legislative delegation congressional realm Representatives and I gave the some additional language to Bonnie which you can put up. It's very straightforward I'd like to add and local community partners Expressing support for the campaign objectives and further authorizing official communication on specific city priorities that are consistent with this campaign And my reason for suggesting that is as we know a lot of the state and federal funding is some in such a state of flocks and what is Potentially available for and we have our own needs related to that So I'd like to just give us a clear Green light for the city staff particularly since we're going to be off in july When they see things of our interests that are consistent with that league of california city campaign to just go ahead and Activate and also the the league Website for this campaign has some good fact sheets. Uh one directed labor one directed directed at business And the national materials and so I do think some of our Community partners across the spectrum will be very supportive of this as well So that's the suggestion for including that language Are there any council members who would like to comment on this item at this time? If there are members of the public who would like to comment on items seven on our agenda A resolution to support leave california cities support local recovery campaign Please call in now And when you are when you've gotten into the room, please press star nine On your phone to raise your hand and be acknowledged You will have two minutes to comment Seeing no members of the public that would like to comment on this item I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation Remember, yeah, I'll just go ahead and move the item as amended I'll second it However, sorry. Okay. No, go ahead marching. I forgot to raise my hand We had a motion by councilman Matthews Seconded by councilmember Watkins to move item number seven I'll turn it over to the clerk for the roll call vote councilmember buyers Hi, Matthews Hi brown Hi boulder Watkins Hi vice mayor mires Hi and mayor Cummings Hi That passes unanimously And we'll move on to the next item which is item number eight That was pulled by councilmember buyers applications for an economic adjustment Assistance grants for the Santa Cruz and municipal works from the u.s department of commerce and economic development administration Here, thank you Thank you, bonnie. I spoke to you the other day and you gave me quite a bit of time going over this And then I walked out there yesterday And it just raised a couple more questions. Uh, so here I am Probably asked you to kind of summarize again when I went out there with surprise house Enormous a piece of property that is And I think whenever you tear down a building it always looks twice as big as your memory Will have you think about that building, but uh, anyway, uh What what has come up and I think I asked you about If we don't get this grant are the partings still to be Fixed or I guess brand new you're going to replace them. I think right? Yeah, so we have House funding set aside for this project. It's just after we met with our eda representative and She's funded us Recommended for funding and we were awarded funding from economic development administration in the past for the war That she felt this was a really good fit for a grant And so any amount of funding we can replace with grant funding We're always up for for pursuing that because that would free up our Less restrictive funding for other city priorities. So we saw this as an opportunity to replace some of the city funding that That is set aside for this project Thank you, and I assume Are we advertising that that property is available for somebody to build a restaurant or I assume whatever they would do Yeah, so that property we have been in And some of the council members that have been on the council during this time, but we've come to council several times with an existing work tenant who is very interested in that property and Council had approved some preliminary Plans for the property and there's some outstanding negotiation items. So at this time Considering the financial situation We're our plan was To fix the substrate the infrastructure that we need to support new development and then come back to council with To sort of summarize where we are today and get direction Whether or not to pursue these existing negotiations for the site or to put out a request for proposal for new development on the site But right now given the financial investment and the cost of the infrastructure It's just not financially feasible for Someone to come in at this point And take on that in addition to a complete new building but to take on the substrate cost as well As I understand I think I read here too there'll be Part of the project will be improved improved the sidewalk or whatever you call the walkway In front of it So that would help. Yeah attract somebody too as well. Okay. Thanks a lot that I think Those were my questions I'd like to take this opportunity also The resolution in the packet Right is actually needs to be updated. So we intended to have two resolutions for two applications But in our haste and I take responsibility for it The wrong resolution is in the packet. So I was just about to read it. Yeah, so you will notice We we had two and only one made it in the packet. So So one the staff report talked about the work and the resolution your packet is actually to support the revolving loan program That we would like to bring forward to you at the next meeting on june 23rd So I apologize for that mistake. I can screen share The actual right Resolution may make sure I have the right one up because I have both pulled up on my desktop That's fine with me. If it's okay as the mayor to substitute the right resolution Yeah, can is this the right one? Is it say warp on the top? I can't see it. Okay. So this is the right resolution that should have been in your packet and I apologize for that error And our plan as as indicated in the staff report is to come back to you on the 23rd To also get your direction to apply for an additional application For a countywide revolving loan program and we've been in discussion With the other jurisdictions about this and we just anecdotally Just received news from our eda representative that they have accepted our community economic development strategy That was prepared countywide through the workforce investment board So we're really we're really happy that they support the plan and the revolving loan program fits right with that said Approved report. So we think they'll be a really good response to a countywide revolving loan program as well But this is the resolution for the work that should be in your packet So the recommendation on page one, which is Resolution authorizing is the correct Worrying there. So I will move that resolution recommendation 8.1. Yes. Oh, you want probably hearing first. Sorry. Yeah, I like to comment on Item number eight, which is an application for an economic adjustment assistance grant So the Santa Cruz municipal war from the us department of commerce and the economic development administration Please call in now And once you've entered the call, please and you'll be given two minutes to speak So the public would like to speak to this item. I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation Some of the buyers Okay, I'll move the 8 page 1 8.1 the recommendation resolution authorizing the city manager to apply An accepted grant from the us department of commerce economic development administration For funding the Santa Cruz municipal war from the economic adjustment assistance grant program We have a second from outrunner Matthews There's no further questions or comments I'll turn it over to the clerk for the vote Councilmember buyers Matthews Vice mayor Myers I And mayor Cummings That is unanimously Okay, we'll move on to our next item business, which is the consent public hearings These are items number 16 through 18 For members of the public who are streaming this meeting if this is an item you'd like to comment on Now it's the time to call in using the instructions on your screen Uh, are there any council members who would wish to pull items 16 through 18? Like who would wish to speak to these items, which is our consent public hearing Now it's the time to do so You'll need to call in with the number on your screen and then press star nine on your phone to raise your hand And once you've been recognized you'll be given two minutes to speak on this item public who'd like to speak this item I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation Vice mayor Myers go ahead and move the consent public hearing items item number 16 Second reading and final final adoption of ordinance number 2020-10 The item number 17 downtown association parking and business improvement area assessments And item number 18 cooperative retail management business real property improvement district assessments for fiscal year 2021 I'm most of my councilman Myers Vice mayor Myers Councilman Matthews Matthews there's no further discussion. We will turn over to the clerk that clerk to take the vote Councilmember Byers Hi, Matthews Hi Brown Hi Boulder Hi Watkins Vice mayor Myers I'm and mayor Cummings Hi, the passage unanimously Our agenda is item number 19 Which is a public hearing for a cannabis retail license to allow license transfers For members of the public who are streaming into this meeting If this is an item you want to comment on how the time call and Using the instructions on your screen The order will be a presentation of the item by staff for the council members who brought the item forward Followed by questions from the council We will then take public comment and then return to council for action deliberation With this I will turn it over to our presenters Catherine Donovan senior planner and Matthew Van Waugh Principal planner Good afternoon council and members of the public I'm having a little trouble with my zoom today. It's not allowing me To share my screen. So I'm going to ask bonnie bush to bring up the presentation We're here tonight this afternoon With a an ordinance amendment To allow The transfer of cannabis licenses Next slide In september of 2017 The city council directed staff to Write an ordinance to allow adult use Cannabis and to limit the number of retailers To no more than five But to also allow the addition of more retailers by resolution rather than ordinance Um, they also requested that we support local minority and women known businesses Along with some other community benefits And as a result of this direction staff created The cannabis retailer license And the licenses are awarded through a competitive process And it's they're based on a number of factors Including the support of local minority and women owned businesses There was also a limit on license transfers Not allowing the transfers because Since the licenses were awarded on a competitive basis We didn't want Someone to win an award because they had a lot of our community benefits And then promptly Sell that license to somebody else who might not meet those same factors Next slide As soon as the ordinance went into place The retailers made it very clear that they wanted to be able to Sell their businesses and transfer their licenses They because the sale of cannabis is still Illegal federally It's very hard to raise capital in the normal fashion And so the only way that Businesses are able to raise capital other than Getting it from friends and relatives is by investment and to do that We the city If there's an investment in a bill for 20 percent, we consider that a change in license Retailers also want to be able to regroup Recoup their investment If they're ready to retire or just want to get into some other type of business And um, we hear a lot that they want to be treated like any other Business And one other concern is what would happen if an owner died And the license couldn't be transferred to the owner's heirs These are all valid points and We we have considered those In the writing of this ordinance But from the city's perspective, there are some conflicts Because the licenses were awarded based on the community benefits that were being provided By the specific business Allowing transfers create a conflict there because We won't necessarily get the same benefits um and because They the process was set up that if one business closed There would be a new competitive process and we might actually get More community benefits than the original business was providing In addition, because there are only five licenses That creates sort of what we call the medallion the taxicab medallion um effect where The business The price of the business is is that not Necessarily on the value of the business itself, but on the value of being able to Open a business in Santa Cruz by getting one of those Five licenses Next slide so as we were looking at Ways that we could allow license transfers and we considered how we could resolve these conflicts And the easiest way Is to remove the limit on the number of licenses because If there is no limit then the license itself Does not create this artificial value Um and we can also Require that new and new owners Provide either the same or similar value community benefits As were brought by the original owners as we started talking about removing the limit on the number of licenses Um, we got a lot of pushback um We felt that it was A reasonable course because one of the reasons that we had had the limit in the first place was that um, this was a a new frontier and the city council at the time Wanted to have some control over potential impacts and sometimes to see how this whole business shook out and Whether this was going to be a problematic thing that we didn't actually want to allow or whether we could just open it up Um, but we have not had any problems with our existing businesses. There's been no increase in Crime in the areas where they are open. They're They don't have significant calls for service, which is generally a metric that we use to To find whether a business is a problem business or not um There are also limitations on where The businesses can go And so they're limited the zoning limits actually limit somewhat the number of businesses because they're only allowed in specific commercial locations And there are buffers around other kind of businesses and around sensitive uses such as school and we found with the first round of licenses That there's also a limited number of properties available and that's true for any business that wants to open, you know, most commercial properties try to have a business a lease in place and so There usually aren't that many open Properties that are available for lease at any one time um, and we found with the cannabis businesses even if a lease a business might a building might be available um Owners were either reluctant to lease to cannabis businesses because they are still federally illegal or If they were willing to lease They might also want to jack up the price and we we got lots of reports of that happening In addition to the zoning and the limit on the number of properties. There are also market limits there there's a certain amount of Cannabis sales that the market can support and beyond that businesses just won't be able to survive So there's a sort of a Darwinian effect there where You know, if we got too many businesses some of them would have naturally go out of business And we worked with the um council cannabis subcommittee on these issues and they Had asked us to look into other ways that we might be able to stop this what we're calling the medallion effect the the um increase in cost in the price of the business due to the limit on the licenses And we were not able to come up with any other um method of of stopping that other than increasing the number of licenses Next slide um So we met with the industry and listened to their concerns and um Since they've opened The businesses have um It has not been an easy road. There's a lot of restrictions by the state. There are Uh, a lot of taxes to be paid. The state also has some pretty intense fees on cannabis businesses and um There's a lot of competition with online purveyors who We are not able to stop from selling from delivering into the city um So the industry has had to deal with all of these issues and the idea of of having More businesses come in at this time Was very unwelcome to them And they also expressed a concern that there would be an over concentration In Santa Cruz if we allowed more businesses to open and an over concentration is when you have um A number of businesses per capita that is larger than um in the general area usually measured by the county um Although there are other other matrix matrices for Considering over concentration. Sometimes it's considered by census tract, but um, that is actually not a very accurate Way to to view over concentration But as a result of those industry concerns Um, the subcommittee Decided to recommend against lifting the limit at this time Right, and I should mention that although they recommended not to lift the limit That recommendation was not unanimous. So there was some disagreement among the subcommittee members themselves So looking at the actual changes for the license transfer We used the city of capitolas ordinance as a model This was one that was recommended by Some members of the industry and the council itself When we had addressed this back in september and as we worked on the actual transfer piece um, we had we had some issues of concern and we ended up Developing two different options Option one is very similar to capitolas. It requires a new license um, if over 50 of the ownership changes and if The change is under 50 percent Then um, the owners are required to inform the city of the changes in ownership and Would need to meet the original factors We're a little concerned with this one because Meeting the the original factors when we came up with those original factors We had not had experience in this field before and Going through the process we gained a lot of knowledge and we realized that those factors Need to be tightened up. There's some factors that really don't apply anymore There's other factors that for instance the local residency or woman or minority owned businesses There's no number attached to that. So um, if a business That was originally 100 percent woman owned Old 50 percent of the business To people who were not women May have that factor the fact that they were women owned may have helped them Get that original award And now they weren't no longer meeting the factor in terms of the competition But they would still qualify under the old factors next slide and the Council subcommittee are recommending option two Which is that a new license would be required required for any ownership change And then the new and improved factors Would apply to all changes and um, this provides more transparency and it also Means that we don't have to continue tracking the original factors for The original licenses and whatever changes they've gone through and the new factors for new licenses Now that applying for a new license is not extremely onerous The most onerous thing is that There's a background check and that would be required anyway Whether it was an ownership change or simply a new person owning A portion of the business So we did not feel this is a particularly onerous Request and and it provides the city with more transparency and also allows us to apply the new and improved factors next slide when we revised these factors we We made two new requirements One was a factor which was to pay the living wage and the second was something new that was suggested by the Council subcommittee and that was to have language in there that um, the business would not interfere with The employees forming a union or joining a union um, we also Had some revisions to the factors we um, put a number On the local residency minority or women owned business Factors so that it has to be at least 50 percent in order to qualify for those factors We had stronger definitions for employee benefits and some of the other factors and we also require that For the license transfers, which are not going through a competitive process That they must meet six out of the nine factors Next slide and we also had a couple of new factors one was a limit on how many businesses that the new business could own um limiting to no more than six businesses and that was a Considering small and local businesses. We wanted to um have something that Allowed businesses to grow a bit but still You know, there's there's some Very large businesses out there and we would prefer to have smaller businesses in the city and so that was Having this as a factor allows that to weigh into the decision and another factor was to um have an employee owned business A business that was at least 50 percent employee owned that would be another factor. So That would weigh in toward qualifying as a business And some of the original factors were removed Prior legal business experience We felt was important in the original application period when we didn't have any experience in this But it's not so important now We also required clean energy originally, but now that All of our energy comes from monorail bay clean energy consortium It's not a required factor because everybody qualifies um, we also had a factor that Was that you carry a majority of organic products, but There is no organic certification for cannabis products yet There there is language in the state regulations That someday there will be but it's been Two plus years and it still doesn't exist and so that didn't make sense at this time as a factor so There was some community outreach on this we had two initial meetings that were Virtual meetings one was We we reached out to the cannabis industry Both in the city and in the county And the second meeting was for the general public But the truth of the matter is both of those meetings were attended by the same industry group we had virtually no new people at the general public meeting And after After those two meetings We set up an additional meeting with the the industry group and the subcommittee So that the industry group could speak directly to the subcommittee about their concerns Next slide So at this time we have two recommendations The first recommendation both the subcommittee and staff recommend that the city adopt option two and staff also recommends that the council approve expanding the number of licenses and this Because it can be done by resolution if the council if the full council votes on that we could actually bring back a resolution with the second reading of this Ordinance and that could occur at the same time Have any questions? I'd be happy to answer them. Thank you for that presentation um Are there any council members of questions of the staff this time? I'm saying none. I do have a question. Um, I said an email earlier to um our planning director lee butler I was wondering if you could speak to tax revenue that was generated in 2019 and 2020 from cannabis I'm sure if you receive that email Please you want to address that? Yes, absolutely. Um Good afternoon mayor and council members lee butler. I'm the director of planning and community development and we did get a response from um the finance department and it based on actually generated and the question from the mayor was uh comparisons between march april and may of 2019 versus 2020 in march 2020 was actually about $25,000 higher in terms of the cannabis tax that was generated in 2020 versus 2019 It flip-locked in april where in april of 2019 it was about 16,000 and some change higher in 2019 than in 2020. So, um, just to um to let you know that that was uh variable between those two months and then the may figures are not yet available for 2020 So we don't have a comparison between those two yet So april down march was up 25,000 but april was down 16,000 Raise my hand quick enough when you ask for questions. Um I have a question about um I know that revenues are sort of one way we're measuring the community benefits. Um, but I'm just curious also Do we have any other ways to evaluate sort of the community benefits coming from? um From our this industry in our community. Um, since we have these factors, are those Are we using those factors to kind of look at that question? I don't know if this is for lee. Maybe I'm just not quite sure how we're measuring that or I don't know if the submitting members Talk to discuss that at all. Well, I think that's one of the reasons why We in the subcommittee landed on the revised factors. Um, it was Um It is one of the ways that we help to provide additional community benefits. Certainly we get revenue um from the Retail sales and there's a portion of that as the council is aware that goes towards, um, child care Um, or excuse me, uh, children's funds that are children's funds get hated to those sources and um identified on an annual basis by the council but what we What we concluded was essentially the improved factors allow for the integrity of the original competition to remain in place As Catherine was explaining the The original factors may have had, uh, you know an equipment set of businesses except that Um, one was 60 percent minority or women owned and two others or three others were say, you know, 40 45 and 50 percent So if everything else was equal, we would have awarded it to the um, the business with the 60 percent and if they then go and modify their ownership structure such that there is a uh lower Percentage of minority and women owned businesses if their original application came in in that fashion They wouldn't have been awarded the license in the first place. So the updated factors do allow us to um better reflect the values that the council originally specified and that we discussed as part of the um subcommittee as Still being important factors to support, um, you know with a variety of things Um included there, um Uh paying living wages um women minority owned businesses Um employee owned businesses and so forth So those are those are certainly community benefits that These businesses can bring as they meet those factors and that the um That the um community the cannabis um industry folks who participated in the community or in the in the meetings Did they bring any other factors for consideration to for the subcommittee and did you guys Analyze those or i'm just curious about anything else I see matt popping on i'll let him respond to that We did we did bring them up at the meeting but the majority of the discussion with industry Revolved around the increase in licenses and the license transfer piece So it it it was it was mentioned, but we didn't get any feedback at the time from the from the industry Okay, thank you. That's all Thank you. Uh, so in response donna to your uh vice mayor mires to your question, uh, um the We did not have industry input into The factors that we kind of final when we were finalizing this process, but um, I have now heard From the industry in response to what we have here one additional factor, which um, I'll just mention Which I think makes sense. We can talk about it when we get to deliberations related to having a relationship with, uh, You know transparent relationship with a financial institution So we can talk about that later, but so that was the input that I have seen Related to the factors. Otherwise, I've heard, you know, I've not heard anything negative about the rest of them So I have a question related to the percentage ownership transfer to trigger new license or, you know, the the factors being reviewed the new factor kind of Review process evaluation process and it made sense as we were talking about in the subcommittee to, uh, you know, try to address that issue that um, lee bottler just mentioned about, you know, Well, how will we know if you know close to a majority of, uh, you know, shift that dynamic and and then we don't have Those factors kind of covered and but then I have also Now since then have thought about and have heard from folks who are concerned about the the need for Going through that process that's laid out in option two Uh for any transfer For example in the so I'm wondering if my question would be how would that work like for example, if um, you know, uh an employer wanted to have An employee stock ownership program or some other kind of mechanism where, uh, there are kind of small Given to or purchased by um employees for example, like how how would that I mean that seems like it would be a pretty um ownerist process both for the city and Um for the business anytime a new person came into that structure that it would be considered a new Business, so I'm just wondering if you kind of any thoughts about that. I'd like to try to figure that out before we finalize this Yes, we actually discussed this and um If their business structure was that they would have say 20 percent of shares That would be um employee options Then that would just be considered that 20 percent would be just a chunk and People could come and go and it wouldn't make any difference. We wouldn't be looking at the individuals who were employees owning those certain percentages, but that would be part of their um business structure that they brought to us with a either their original license or With a license transfer at some point so that we We would know that there was this 20 percent that was divided up among his employees If I could just if I thank you if I could just follow up really quickly, um Maybe that maybe I didn't read this clearly, but that wasn't clear to me an option too that the 20 percent was still um Was it's intact there and I know we did have that discussion But I I guess maybe I need to you know, I did read it and I just wasn't entirely clear So maybe I missed something Yeah, no, there is no there's nothing in the in the option that speaks to the 20 percent, but if the um If the business came to us and they said okay We are going to have 20 percent or 15 or 15. I was trying to say that if If a business came to us and they told us they were 10 employee owned 15 50 whatever it may be Then that would be Considered their their business structure and that would be one owner first day Um, so they would only have to come back to us if there was a change in that percentage of employee ownership Or public ownership, you know, it could be someone that is traded on you know, a public publicly traded company that is You know 60 publicly traded and you know 40 percent if they establish up front that the 60 percent or 40 percent or 20 percent Whatever it is um is Traded or sold to the employees then um That structure would be remaining intact the ownership wouldn't be considered to change there The way the language is written um, it would seem that that would be a better argument for option number one because I think what we were trying to Prevent with the first option, which is why I mean we worked on the first option and then kind of Last minute, you know, there was some issues that came up Which is why we moved to option number two and while I Totally agree with you know the Desire behind creating option number two around kind of having some checks and balances and being able to know who's buying into the business um I don't like the point out that we currently don't have any Enforcement and follow-up that's my understanding and correct me if i'm wrong, but we Mine and I guess this is a question like how often have we been checking to ensure that the standards of these businesses It's got their license or still met. I've been regularly checking. That's one of the benefits of the uh improved Factors in fact the ordinance before you requires that the um annual that on an annual basis the companies provide an affidavit specifying their compliance with the factors that they identify um as Qualifying them for the license in the first place. So that is something that is a significant improvement in the ordinance that's before the council Finished the thought that I had before but I do have some concern some serious concern with um, the fact that there isn't any language in the option two around You know that would really support employee-owned businesses and where it's with option number one there's a lot of flexibility and Not having to come to the city to apply for a new license unless you Exceed that 50 percent threshold So I feel like that would actually allow businesses to create these employee-owned options Below that 50 percent where that people are coming and going and they're selling Different shares Yeah, they could do that freely without having to go to the city every single time for a new license In addition to that in option number one There's also provision that says that if there's a change in ownership that they will let the City know and I think within that they're going to say, you know There's been a change of ownership or we have a change of ownership form We can have those different criteria to determine whether or not Maybe the people who are buying in actually bring benefits to the city versus to track from those benefits I think the assumption that we've been having the assumption on the conversation is that For whatever reason we're going to lose benefit But I think there's an opportunity where we can actually gain more and if the city is informed of that we're keeping track that I think that you know, it could be you know easier for The for easier on the city and on the industry for not having to constantly Be doing paperwork to renew licenses and paying the fees associated with them to councilmember Watson Thank you mayor and Thank you colleagues and staff for your work on this I know it's been a long process um I guess my my original my original Handraises about the children's fine and the community benefits But as the conversation is taking a turn I will just say one of the things that made me more comfortable with option two is that we're really on an ongoing basis setting for The fact the factors to be considered and given that Excuse me Number eight of the factors in our agenda report shows that the majority of the business employee owned it seems to me that that would help Meet that concern And then I think also further Based on the input that staff provided Our subcommittee in regards to the concerns raised in option one Option two felt like a better fit to really adhere to our community benefit And I think that to me is what stands out the most is how are we seeing community benefit from Our policy as it relates to the cannabis policy And then I guess the other thing I would I guess ask Is one I just would say I support option I I'm supportive of option two as we as we continue our deliberations based on the input we received as a subcommittee Um, and I know that cathard mentioned in the presentation that there wasn't uh consensus by the subcommittee on the increase of retail cannabis licenses I think that um and I've mentioned this before that we've had we chose five sort of just randomly arbitrarily and that There is an opportunity for us to um increase it. So we don't have these artificial values in place And I don't know if staff um Could potentially if we were to move forward come back with zoning regulations so that if we were to increase It wouldn't be out of scale with stana crews and or if they've already done that analysis It's certainly up to the discretion of the council to identify the Number of additional retail licenses that the council sees fit You know It was I would say uh somewhat of an arbitrary Discussion, you know at the original council. I was like should it be seven should it be four should it be five And they kind of just landed on the middle But I think it wasn't arbitrary in that the council at the time was um wanting to make sure that it was a relatively low number to um Ensure that if there were impacts from these we didn't know what the impacts would be and If there were going to be impacts the council, I think rightfully wanted to limit those impacts To a small number of establishments and not have those impacts widespread across the community Since that time we haven't experienced those impacts And so it's it's the council's discretion to say they could be increased by one or they could be increased by You know an unlimited number The council could also say You know look at Different zoning allowances Whether that's Additional zoning districts where it's allowed or increased buffers so that there are fewer that are allowed you know, it's it's really up to the discretion of the council and We are happy to do whatever analysis the council would like us to surrounding that Or if the council wants to keep the current, you know buffers and allowed allowable zoning districts in place and just Increase the number that is something that's easy to do as well so We're happy to talk through that with the council that doesn't have to be tonight if it is tonight it would or today It would be helpful to get if that conversation happens today It would be helpful to get some direction so that we Have a more informed discussion when we come back to actually make some changes at a future meeting And then I just had one one last sort of point I wanted to raise that we did recognize the fact that we haven't necessarily engaged with Compliance and enforcement and as a subcommittee wanted to move in the direction of making sure that we're really You know, we're able to capture those that are legally Distributing cannabis in our community and and and that enforcement conversation was going to be forthcoming as a recommendation as well My name is I was not on the committee. So I do have a bunch of questions Maybe in reverse order Regarding the number I am comfortable saying the existing number. It's true It's a pretty low number, but it's a high number per capita for stances. So Honestly to me it needs to increase that And then I just have some questions so in no particular order I can't think of any other industry that we condition to this degree. So I guess it's been questioned for weeks Uh, and I think just because of the fact that it's a new industry when we did this three years ago As you say and a bit arbitrary Um, the I don't know the closest thing I can think of is maybe liquor stores that just um all of the required all the requirements um are Rather extraordinary compared to what how we normally get permit It's usually just for a use maybe just for Tony to It's for particular use Don't require who owns it and who Who lives locally and you know all those other things. So that's one question Just the intensity of conditioning Um, I would like to know more about the process of transfer whether it's one or two, but What's the cost of a transfer the timeline of a transfer and what would be the reason for Denial of a transfer second question um Where are the community best that's described because number nine of the nine Possible conditions to make That's other communities as described in detail improved by the planning department the other question and then In terms of annual compliance, it seems like a significant question Um, it could be things of one or two It could be as simple as a self assessment like we do for the remel section form I continue to need this. I continue to need this whatever so So these are just questions that occurred to me I'll lead each of them. Uh, friends, that's correct. Um, I I am not aware of certain certainly we regulate things like um else and so forth, but in terms of the number of requirements this is Substantially more limiting and that is directly tied to the fact that we only allow a few of those businesses And that was the intent of the council at the very beginning it was If we're only going to allow a few of these then we should Open then then we should only have those businesses that are providing the highest amount of community benefits as those Businesses that get to operate in place and then I think there's a very valid question about, you know, Should we be, you know, there's still the point of those being great factors? And maybe we would want to do that, you know from a policy perspective that still brings in a lot of really good benefits like living wage for example and Um, uh other benefits that are specified as part of the factors So there's no reason why it couldn't be but I think the the genesis of that was the fact that There are a very limited number of these and we should only be providing them to those that are providing the biggest the most community benefits Um, which you know again is why I think uh, the the updated factors are important if there's no competition in trading off the Consist to new ownership then those new factors the application of those new factors is that much more important um Second you asked about the cost of the transfer We did have an indication in the report that we could Come back to council with a reduced fee for a licensed transfer If that's the council's desire we had I can tell you what the the fee was for the original competition and that was around 1500 or 1600 dollars ballpark for that may have been a little bit less 12 or In the range of 12 to 1600 dollars is my recollection from uh, December of 2017 when we did that and Certainly without the competition You know, we may spend a little bit less time on that and we can if if the Council does go with this option. We can return and Establish a new fee for just the license transfer You asked about The timeline for that that could be done relatively quickly once we get the documentation that's required To to make that to make those determinations We would be coming up with a list of required documents that could establish the Um consistency with each of the factors so that it's easy so that the application form says here's what you can provide to show how you're meeting x y and z and Once those documents are provided it should be a pretty quick and easy review Um, and then the reasons for denial run if they're not meeting the required number of factors or two if they don't meet a background Uh, if they don't pass the uh, yes, I'm sorry. I'm having trouble unmuting We do have any ordinance that if you have been, um convicted of fraud or a number of other similar type crimes that you, um, are not eligible Thank you for reminding me of that one. Yeah, there is a um A provision about unfair business practices and it goes into certain types So that may not be caught by a background a police background check or may be caught as part of a police background check And then uh, if it's described, oh the uh, so there isn't an actual description of that Factor number nine Which was additional benefits. Um, you know, it could be a wide variety of things We didn't want to To say it has to be these but you know one that just pops to mind as you were Mentioning, what could those be? that could be something like The paid time to volunteer with a A nonprofit organization of their choice Something like that would certainly be a community benefit that we can say hey, that's great that's going to do something great for this community and So we didn't want to say It has to be these but if someone comes with something that is The community at large then we would take that into consideration was compliance and self-inspection similar to what we do with the The rental inspection service and yes, that is something that we built in to the The draft ordinance under 6.91 090 We require that all cannabis Retail businesses provide an annual affidavit confirming the business is meeting each of those requirements. So yes We we want to make sure that that is continually And that they are offering to those criteria Those are all the questions from councilman Matthews. I'm the one to council member brown Council member golder. I have a question and then council member Watkins the answer I'm just trying to figure this kind of zero versus 50 plus 1 Percent kind of difference and and how we sort through that What so remind me the state? trigger The requirement for any license. What is that 20 percent? It's 20 percent. Okay, okay You know, there's been the ban the box historically With buying cannabis and some of those people may want to get in the industry now But this was by You know having a background check and somebody who is disproportionately impacted by the system Mine is my sense is that that will prevent somebody like that from being able to be considered as an owner And so I'm just curious and also I'm just curious about what the threshold is So if someone had a DUI would that disqualify them or you know, if they had They got not fighting got an assault battery charge that's qualified and so it was kind of the levels Of disqualification as it relates to like background checks for ownership And that might be a statewide, you know policy, but I'm just kind of curious Um, I'm sure there is a statewide policy, but in terms of the city what we're looking for is either Fraud type crimes or violent crimes or Not cannabis-related crimes, but really hard drug crimes And you know one one charge 15 years ago is not going to disqualify you So it's not a you know a hard in the past if you have ever been convicted. You're out We're looking at exactly what you were convicted for and whether it really Has any relation to having a cannabis business if If we know that you have a history of cheating on your taxes And one of the things we get from cannabis businesses is tax revenue We're not likely to want to give you a license Um, but if you were convicted of smoking marijuana in your front yard 25 years ago That would not Have any impact at all that maybe we have sort of two questions I think one of the things that when we created this policy We really did talk about wanting to move in the direction of not only trying to incentivize more uh diversity and ownership of the those businesses but also to work towards an equity type program And I know that that's been sort of a conversation that hopefully it's going to be Figured out a bit in terms of trying to reconcile those past discrimination tactics that have left folks At a disadvantage So I do I mean at some point I I know that cap and had mentioned that she's looking at different examples around that But I did want to see uh, lee if you could speak to the information that we received in terms of the cannabis purchase agreement That are in place for two of our existing cannabis businesses and Kind of the the challenges and nuances that arose as as a result of that information That was a part of the discussion one of the cannabis businesses has an agreement to sell with the publicly traded company and so that information is publicly available and That spurred some conversations with staff in the subcommittee about Some of the the factors that we had already been discussing things like locally owned businesses women in minority owned businesses and Employee owned businesses And I think in some respects it reaffirmed the The values that that we had expressed and wanting to Aim to achieve those but also recognizing that you know, we We can't necessarily preclude You know larger publicly traded or You know multi-state Organizations, there's another conversation with another retailer about a multi-state Organization that's looking to purchase them and so just given that context We we talked about the importance of the factors and trying to keep those profits local and Recycle back into our community and to support small locally owned businesses. So that was that was part of the conversation that we had With staff and some of the conversation that we had with the subcommittee as well I just have a follow-up question to that so information really informed us moving in the direction of option two to really ensure that we can Maintain those community benefits and values that we seek to uphold but then also the The amount that that agreement was for which is I think Like two 225 million or something like that That informed the artificial inflation value of having the five You know licenses that are kind of coveted in your opinion sure so the agreement was 2.25 million something going for memory in that range so The in different manner Oftentimes it is based on your annual gross revenue And there are different factors for This is so you know a retail clothing store might have a different factor for their annual sales is certain than a liquor store for example And so You know there could be some analysis related to that. I I don't know what the the factor is for a A cannabis retailer, but I think the argument stands to reason that if there are only five licenses That there is a value to The license itself and not only to the business Because there is a limited number of them anytime there's a limited quantity of something just the simple laws of Supply and demand there's a value And that value's increased if there's a demand and there's a limited supply And then to your your initial point in response to my earlier comments about the sale You're correct that I think did influence where we landed in terms of the option two and looking at the The new fact have those things that Really maintain the integrity of the original competition like the 50 percent women or minority owned 50 or majority of the business is Owned by someone who's been a local resident for three years the original factors those original factors Um, you know you could arguably have a minority owned and you still meet that factor You still meet that factor because the original factors don't have a threshold They don't have a threshold because there was a competition And the competition allowed us to say well, you're at only at 40 percent And so we could we could sort those out through that competition But without a competition It it became it was more important to really include those thresholds at a level at which we feel it would have been likely competitive in the first place um That's where we land in where we did and not the the conversations about the The potential sales certainly informs that 22 options. I just wanted to point out that the review factors Between the two items the between two options are identical because the only real difference is the When the city had when they have to apply for any license so the main difference between these two is that With option one license can be sold or the a person can buy into a business And we won't trigger a license transfer so long as it doesn't exceed 50 percent And if they do have a change in ownership, they have to notify the city If there's any change in ownership, they have to apply for any license So I just wanted to make sure that was clear that that's the main difference between these two items before us So yeah, I just wanted to to mention that and then I know that you know, we're trying to provide these these You know factors so that businesses don't just get their licenses and sell them I feel like though it needs to be said too that I think what we really want is to ensure the community benefits locally owned But I mean there's a lot of companies and Santa Cruz that started here and have sold so Looker sold to google and we didn't stop them from doing that new leaves sold to some other You know grocery store company We didn't stop them from doing that and I'm not, you know Encouraging the sale of our businesses to larger corporations at all whatsoever But I but I want wanting to bring up that this is the only industry that we're like highly regulating on how Do you know if they can be bought or sold or expand? We do have just in more than six other cannabis establishments And one concern that was brought up by some members of the industry is that if our local business If a local business does so well to where they're able to expand just moving because the industry's really been Needing to increase their capital and business is the only way they can do that at this time But I think there's some other things you may want to consider moving forward questions or concierge. Yeah, please Say that You know if businesses are expanding not prevented from doing so, but they might need to meet another one of those criteria So you have to then you know pay a higher living wage for example. So so it could trigger them into Additional we're taking care of I think back to all of you who are there when this got passed It must have been an enormous Long meetings because it's complicated and I understand the committee did the yeoman person's work on it But thank you. So this has been enlightening for more. I really don't have a question I just want pass on though because I noticed under the recommendation or under the staff report Direction on the number I just will put out on I think since you did too that To me five is just the size of our town and then what I looked at the number of hours. They're open in this I would call a fairly mid-sized or a small town So I'm just comfortable with the five and I'm not interested in expanding Yeah, um, so I was confused by your statement that the only um, that the conditions applied to both options one and two as I Understood that option two was the only one that required uh, a couple of Absolute requirements and then six out of nine additional requirements that would not be required by option one I understand that incorrectly Not six point nine one zero nine zero License requirement and the view factors those in option one it's the following required a and b and and um And it has the business must meet the minimum six of the following factors And then in second one It's the same. It's the the issue is that In option two it looks like In the red line version b the number two that would have also been an option one is actually In line with item b and so so much that they just didn't hit return um, but all the factors are identical where they have under number two Section six point nine one point zero nine zero It goes through from a to i And then numbers to grant for so all those conditions are the same if I can correct you You want to go ahead matt? Sure. Yeah, I was just going to say uh, these these new license requirements and factors are for a new license process So the the existing license holders can keep that license But the the only issue that we're Questioning right now is is what will trip a new license to be required? Uh, and that's the percentage of ownership that we're discussing Option one the page on a trip. Yeah, so an option one they could essentially have a 50 percent um change in ownership without triggering a new license without a review of the new factors Whereas an option two any change in ownership Aside from the thing that we talked about earlier with you know an ownership structure of like stock sales That any change in ownership would trigger A review for consistency with the new factors. So that's really the differential here is Do you want to have um that those new factors applied? In all instances or nearly all instances, you know, aside from the the stocks uh changing hands or Would you like to have a business be able to um Exchange some portion You know in the ordinance it's listed as 50 percent, but it doesn't have to be 50 percent the council could say 20 percent over 20 percent um, then a new license is triggered. So it isn't it isn't like Has to be one or the other there could be uh a Middle ground sure the council choose to So if I could just continue so option one as currently proposed is any license transfer over 60 percent Any transfer that's correct and that's in uh fixing. Yes, that's the council's discretion And then um as i'm understanding the discussion environment for a new license would include paying living wage allowing unionization And to come from Sandy transparent relationship with a financial institution or something along that line and also going through a background check those would be automatically required and then There are additional requirements Four of which have to do with ownership and the others of which have to do with um Community benefit and so forth Seems like Me has an extraordinary amount of requirements uniquely on this. So i'll just wait for the rest of the discussion Comments at this time Being none. We'll open it up to the public. So if there's any member of the public who would like to just to comment on um item number 19 on our agenda amendments To chapter 6.9 on canvas retail licenses The transfers now is the time to call in Uh, so you should see some numbers on your screen When you have gotten into the meeting, please press star nine on your phone And you will be given uh two minutes to speak I had uh kaleel from kind people's reach out for extra time And so we'll start with kaleel and we'll have a quick four minutes. Thank you council I appreciate everything that you are putting into this today My name is kaleel mutawa keel. I'm the co-CEO and founder of kind people's dispensary And I want to deliver a message today from my heart about the in the cannabis business owner The residents and accrues my entire life All of our current retail licensees are good local people with families And we consider ourselves to be significant partners with the city But yet we don't receive the same treatment as other businesses Kind people's pays hundreds of thousands a year in taxes to the city's general fund We create living wage jobs with 401k and health insurance plans. We have training programs We do get back to our community. We brought back to life at the lap dated corner on ocean street We are green business certified and all the while We are reducing consumption and dependence of alcohol opioids and pharmaceutical drugs in this beautiful place that we all love to call home And yet still the city does little to support our fledgling local industry Just as we jump through hoop after hoop to be compliant operators I too believe that the city has an obligation to enforce the code Go after the illegal operators and allow for an even playing field At a recent subcommittee meeting the county's cannabis licensing official sam laforte stated That he knew of at least six illegal operators currently in the city of santa cruz More than the number of legal ones significantly decreasing the tax base The city needs an enforcement protocol similar to the counties where they turn bad actors over to the tax administrator Isabina tax documents Calculate back taxes owed and place liens on businesses that don't pay through the secretary of state So before we consider more legal operators, please take care of the illegal ones I am at a loss now that after seven years of being in business on the coattails of a global pandemic The staff's recommendations to add more retailers when our community already has the highest per capita density of dispensaries anywhere in the state What is the basis for this and may we please have the chance to stabilize first The staff utilizes the the analogy that cannabis businesses are artificially inflated Like new york taxicab medallions We need to look far to the county to understand this couldn't be further from the truth Allowed to modify their ownership structures up to 100 percent Since their inception not a single one of the 20 county licenses have transferred since 2016 The truth is the cannabis businesses are valued just like any other on their fundamentals and unfortunately over taxation and regulation Have made their values far less than their non cannabis counterparts all factors being equal We cannot raise capital from banks. Many of us have taken second mortgages and have risked at all We are simply asking to align with the state and have the same ownership rules as the dispensaries in the city of Capitola and the county of Santa Cruz Please do not force us to compete at a disadvantage We were in survival made before the cobalt COVID crisis plummeted our revenues And increased our costs for PPE cleaning supplies and labor Our small town is saturated with cannabis retailers We do not have an access issue for consumers and adding more dispensaries will not bring in more tax revenue It will only hurt the local operators who for years have paved the way to legalization We are simply entrepreneurs attempting to survive first and grow second. Please allow us the opportunity to do both So in addition to what I have sent you all via email my recommendations are To maintain the current cap on number of retailers Approve staff option number one Add one review factor for a bona fide transparent banking relationship And remove the requirement for an annual affidavit We cannot forever expect the business to comply with new review factors that are not ever green in nature Please take a stand today. This issue has stretched on for years without resolution And thank you. Thank you for your time Next speaker you are on the line Yes, hey that Khalid talking some stuff sounds like another he's talking about. Anyway, this is Garrett. I I want to um I want to make a comment again I made before the last time this came up regarding the so-called competitive process of assigning new licenses based on other factors Some of which are being minority and women owned Of course, this is the opposite of fairly competitive as the potential as being a de facto racial and gender quota And then is therefore discriminatory either as racist or sexist and is then pretty much straight up defective Leftist ideology a history of discrimination in cannabis licensed issuance would have to exist to justify such denying other Perhaps more qualified people are licensed solely based on such factors This is not reality and hey the only normal thought of racial or gender discrimination possible Is solely in your hands and doesn't need to be prevented exactly through a reverse discrimination Does it one supposes then you don't trust yourselves? I recall my astonishment the last time when councilmember Watkins justified this idea with the statement It would quote right past wrongs unquote But didn't really say what those were or why perhaps someone applying for a new license was guilty of a wrong Eliminating them by not being a minority or a woman seems to me with all normal business qualifications is met Candidates could be in a fair lottery if necessary instead of affirmative action if otherwise all considerations were equal Racial and gender quotas make mediocrity possible even likely since merit is not a factor in those There's no time to discuss the other factors But many of those are also left as dogma irrelevant government overreach of private enterprise That's it. Bye Pat mellow I grew up in Santa Cruz and I've been working on these cannabis issues that the county and the city For the last five to seven years, so I'm really appreciative for all of you for hanging in there with us Unfortunately, I think that this issue there was What I took as clear counsel direction to just iron out the unintended consequences of this ownership stuff I think we've conflated it into a lot of the question of how do we Attract the right type of businesses here and make sure that we have the community needs met Which I'm all for I think that we've just been going about it In kind of the opposite direction that we should be we should be looking at how do we Attract the right kind of businesses get the right kind of businesses here in our community instead of trying to stop the wrong kinds often after the fact so I think that it's Proper to iron out these ownership issues Today, I think it's also proper to look at the right way to go about expanding new licenses I think we need to do that in conjunction when we look at the other issues public consumption Or on site consumption and events I think we should do that from an equity lens And really figure out how to take down barriers of entry for Historically disadvantaged communities I might add that no one needs to explain right now, especially during these current events The history of racism involved with the drug law wars and drug laws I think that we are In some ways ahead in Santa Cruz on those issues particularly involving cannabis that like everywhere a long way to go So I appreciate everybody's time on this Let's get this done so that we can get on to Some of the bigger issues and you know in this day and age of budgets and empty businesses We need to look at every possibility. So thank you and I'm looking forward to continually work with you all I use cannabis And I'm in favor of it, but I am not in favor of having the town overrun with dispensaries I think that is ludicrous and I am shocked that the council is even considering it I you know We we apparently already have more dispensaries per capita than anywhere in the world I can't believe that anyone on the council would be advocating for more And and I just have to ask one question to the council members and that's why Why would you want more dispensaries when we already have so many there is not an access problem? So it makes absolutely no sense to add more I don't know a single person that thinks we don't have enough dispensaries Nor do I know of a single person that wants another one in this town If the council votes to add more dispensaries Those council members will fear the over ask of citizens of Santa Cruz come the next election mark my words And on another note, you know, I own a small business. I know how hard it is to survive as a small business I can't imagine having to deal with all the additional taxes You're placing on these retailers and you expect them to survive And then you want to prevent them from being able to sell their businesses I I think the council should keep its nose out of business and let these companies try to survive because it's not easy And I I I use cannabis and I want to make sure that I have access to cannabis in the future And if you open the floodgates here, that is not only going to ruin this town, but it's going to ruin this industry I would urge the council to reject this ludicrous proposal. Thank you Yeah, thank you. You're on the line Hi, my name is Bryce Berry. I said I was an applicant for a retail license in the city of Santa Cruz and We were unsuccessful and are not a retailer. I do own another retailer and establishment in the county I just wanted to echo a couple of the thoughts of the previous speakers and that Santa Cruz county has more dispensaries per capita than anywhere in california Anywhere really in the world. There's not a problem for access In the industry calls that happen between city staff and and the industry not a single person on that call Outside of staff advocated for opening up more dispensaries in the city Um, there's not been a public outcry. There's not members of the public that are asking for this There's currently not an issue. Um, the timing is Incredibly interesting Given the current economic status. Um, as you are all aware, we don't have access to capital We didn't get any federal funding releases cannabis businesses. We don't have the ability to get loans We're very much on our own so uh adding any more inconsistency and instability to an already very Tricky and very vulnerable industry right now locally is just a bad idea. Um, I I think that I fully support The motion before you in regards to ownership changes. We should be treated like other businesses And provided the ability and the flexibility to raise capital and to continue to grow our businesses in the ways that we are Which are very limited However, adding more dispensaries in the county and in the city does not have a benefit to anyone Except for maybe those applicants that want to come in and apply Most likely ones that are well capitalized From the public markets and aren't local that don't really have a lot of the local incentives or the local interest in the community that Staff and some of the council members mentioned was so important. You have a bunch of great local players now We have a stable industry. Uh, let's keep it that way. Thank you for your time Yeah, my name is robert singleton and i'm the executive director of the sanacris county business council Um, I like to speak on this item mainly echoing a lot of the the comments that have been shared by prior speakers from the public Um, you know, when we first started this this journey of regulating cannabis in sanacris I was one of the initial planning commissioners who helped vote on first ordinance Um, then seeing it go through multiple iterations Um, really what we've tried to do is strike a balance between creating a competitive marketplace that would be favorable towards local businesses and Obviously get some community benefits out of that while making sure that we were bringing a new industry You know up to speed kind of out of nowhere. Um, and I think we've done that for the most part But there are a couple things that are are really challenging. Um The ownership transfer piece is something that industry leaders and locally have been trying to get for For years now. Um, it's really hard for them to be able to raise capital They don't have access to normal finance institutions And their product is already one of the most taxed products. Um, that we have in the entire state I mean, it's it's taxed in every phase of development from sea to sail And so it creates a really difficult environment for a smaller company A smaller company with little to no access to capital to be able to exist in a really tight market window And so I think we want to pay deference to our local businesses who have been great actors thus far By making sure that they have a level playing field and one of the ways you can do that Is so making sure that they have a reasonable way to transfer ownership of their businesses in chunks So I think in that light option one is significantly better option as laid before you today on the other front On the idea of opening up more more retail licenses We already have a tremendous saturation in in Santa Cruz. Um, we don't have an access problem And the only people who would really benefit by coming in By having more licenses are probably those heavily heavily capitalized publicly traded actors We're going to be coming in and competing with the local businesses So I would urge you to keep the number of uh establishments out there right now, but also allow for our Thank you. Thank you Hi, my name is carolin barkowski. I'm the director of finance administration at kind peoples I've been employed here a little over three years. I previously worked in finance in silicon valley And i'm a resident of unincorporated santa cruz county. I've been here for 17 years kind peoples offers benefits and programs to our employees including subsidized medical insurance dental vision pet insurance We also paid time off to all employees who meet a 10-year threshold We have a matching 401k program for all employees Our training programs emphasize internal promotions mentorship succession planning and coaching We are able to create opportunities at the middle management level Almost all of our middle level managers are internally promoted Having this visible pathway is an attractive recruiting and retention tool for our employees who are looking for a career Not just a temporary job We've created a group of over a dozen exempt employees who receive salary enhanced benefits and holiday pay We are fortunate to have a bank in our community that allows us a legal and transparent method of banking We are able to pay our employees Vendors federal states local taxes via bank transfers or tax so no one is exposed to unnecessary risk In turn our bank intensely audits our sales and payments and provides a further degree of oversight to our already heavily regulated industry All of these benefits programs and controls come at a cost 2020 has also brought us new challenges such as covid and we are continuing to work through them in the spirit of employees and community As a head of hr i'm looking forward to continued opportunities to grow and reinvest in our people I support option one to keep the city dispensaries in line with our other local jurisdictions. Thank you Next speaker I think you should be on mute As much time as some other subjects, you know, I'm reminded of The great ideas that people who use cannabis stop So the great ideas that stoners have it's just usually there are two stones to do anything about it I don't know if it's if that's from soil and green 1984 animal farm one floor over the cuckoo's neck or bear could be So i'm looking forward to speaking later. Thank you very much jacob lagner i'm the owner operator of reef side dispensary on ocean street and You know at this point. I think that council has heard Quite a bit and i'm here to echo What collial so elegantly put together in a statement We are local operators We're just asking to be treated To be treated fairly We've poured our sweat Money cart and soul into this business into this community And We have very little access to capital. It's extremely difficult. Um You know, I've heard planning say they want profits Remaining in the in the city limits. Um, so far, you know, it's also been lost as remaining in the city limits And we do need your help Um, this has been an issue that has been discussed for Two and a half years plus Um, and you know echoing the last caller He has a good point. Uh, we have been discussing this issue over and over And instead of resolving something that could be very simple for council To vote on we have made it far more complex by discussing um adding new licenses and, um new Uh New points for new licenses to to meet. Um I absolutely support option one in this case Uh, but council should really ask themselves what they're looking for from from us as business operators and I think that um Putting an emphasis on on community support, uh, is exactly the right direction And, uh, that any other future license holder should be doing the same Um at the same time, I also want to you know remind council that we have had ownership transfers Um in other industries jump bike New lease recently to a large conglomerate in korea You know, we have restrictions on us that are That are quite onerous Thank you. Thank you. So first of all, thank you for this opportunity to meet prior to This meeting and also to listen to the woes of the This new industry the cannabis industry The high taxation that we're met with and the really profoundly, um rigorous, uh Regulations for compliance are uh in themselves They in themselves set us apart as a business No other business is really taxed in our community in the same manner as we are And on the heels of covet 19, I think we can all look at Observe in all of the businesses as I drive around town and see many shuttered doors That this could very well be the fate of cannabis businesses in our community much of the uh Of our sales are down. Um, and wham is really and that continues to be a A community service organization. It's actually where we thrive But that does not mean that we thrive was in the context of great revenue and I believe that our Comrades in this Movement of of entrepreneurship within the cannabis structure are experiencing the same thing So to put a cap is a sensible Do we do it with other businesses? No, not necessarily, but we also don't tax them to death Or tax amount of business The constraints that have been applied Have been applied from the sensibility and to abandon that presently seems, um Trari I just want to make an appeal to Try to hold some of what What Santa Cruz was nothing stays static Santa Cruz won't remain the same But hopefully we can contribute by supporting small businesses Thanks so much option one Much in compliance. Thank you Yeah, I think along the lines of what's going on in Amsterdam and has been going on there for decades now as well as that Most of the dispensaries are actually cafes Where people are allowed to smoke it on the premises And we could do something here along the same lines But make it so that it's not a business where you would go and buy You know your weekly stash you'd only just buy it enough for that day or whatever And you could sit there and smoke it with your friends Because marijuana is Something that is very sociable Kind of thing just like people that drink alcohol Tend to want to be with other people that drink alcohol is the same thing with People that smoke marijuana want to be around other people smoking marijuana and enjoy The camaraderie of that kind of experience So, um, it wouldn't necessarily be expanding the general licenses, but it would be a new kind of license where would be an on Premise consumption type license much like a bar where you're not selling somebody a six pack at a bar You're selling them one drink at a time And it'd be the same kind of thing That I'm talking about here would be this new kind of uh Thing for Santa Cruz. It's not new for someplace like Amsterdam. Um as far as uh you know The complaints that the um People that already have licenses have about being Overly taxed overly regulated. I tend to agree with them that um You're trying to milk this cow for every last drop of revenue possible And you want all these different things to happen that doesn't happen to other businesses So, uh, I think a whole new rethinking of this has to happen. Thank you An opportunity to speak and you'd like to speak on the cannabis item Please press star nine on your phone. I think it might have accidentally lowered someone's hand, but um, I think we'll just keep going Okay, next speaker you're on the line Hi, good afternoon. My name is Colin Disharoon. I'm the CEO of Santa Cruz naturals Which is a cannabis dispensary in south county I've been operating Santa Cruz naturals since 2011 um And as we've heard before Santa Cruz has one of the highest densities of cannabis businesses in the nation Um from my experience It's incredibly difficult for any business to operate in Santa Cruz Nonetheless, the cannabis business who's regulated almost like uranium is regulated And it's taxed on every level by almost every agency that we're involved with And we can't even take ordinary business deductions like any other business could under irs code 280 to allow Other dispensaries to come into Santa Cruz area before There's a change in federal regulation at this point It not only deflates the business's capacity and value But it significantly damages that existing business's potential to mitigate unresolved tax issues that stem from 280 Most of the dispensary Santa Cruz county and I would I would guess Santa Cruz city have been audited by the irs and have significant 280 li abilities um, and I also want to say that um Allowing new dispensaries to enter the market right now only serves to oversaturate an already saturated Market and it dilutes the existing uh investments that are made by local and long-term operators And they would only serve to siphon off their revenue For no apparent reason other than to bring in what I would assume is a negligible amount of revenue That would come in the form of fees and development permits So I would really recommend that view that the city of Santa Cruz pump the brakes on this Take your time and evaluate this further But right now I would I have to advocate for allowing new dispensaries to come into the trade. Thank you Jim coffers. I'm calling from ben loman And um, I'm a 73 year old long-time cannabis consumer I I am uh I have no interest in any cannabis business Uh, but I have uh associations with a lot of cannabis businesses uh from retailers to producers I've spent the last four five years immersed in the policy both at the federal state and local level and If my frustration is coming through it is because I feel like I should apologize every time I talked to policy makers that we're wasting your time on something Uh, once again on something that uh We shouldn't be more than two years ago. We uh spoke to the Council and staff about making a fix to the current ordinance regarding the ability of The retailers to change their ownership structure It was uh, you know, it was the only jurisdiction in the state that had Kind of had that in their ordinance. It wasn't uh, you know, it's as council member Matthew said this has all been new and so we expected that certain Mistakes would be made and that was one and everyone agreed and and said well, let's fix it Now here we are talking about Wholesale changes to the to the ordinance while still on the agenda are things like Uh on site consumption special events taxation Uh, those items we thought we're going to be addressed over time by the council and now Here we are I'm very disappointed Now it's time to call in. This is an item related to cannabis and business license transfers And if you're on the line and you would like to speak on this item and you have not already Uh, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and we will acknowledge you for two minutes I speak for you online I go back to 1992 in the Santa Cruz pot scene I helped collect signatures for the original Measure a Santa Cruz was a second city in the country to uh, have medical marijuana become a reality I had a pot club card the the original pot club on cedar and and Mabel And I kept it until it became obvious that you needed medical Approval to by pot and I surrendered my card I never thought I would live to see pot legal by the way I bought pot before Santa Cruz became legal in oregon and then colorado and you could do it with a credit card Pot costs at least 50 percent more that you could get Um off the street Okay, uh, I have found for me canna crews to be a very pleasant buying experience But I want to say that these people are under great pressure to, uh Unfold a brand new Enterprise That we ought to be very proud of and the fact that Santa Cruz has become a hot spot to buy pot You know one of the signs that used to be when you come over the hill from uh San Jose from silicon valley was about one of the pot clubs here in Santa Cruz. So I think you're You're you're going to tread some very difficult water But try to realize I think a couple of things I would throw out there and forgive me the local pot entrepreneurs But you know, is it right to stop 711 from moving in? These are of course going to be the vast multinationals and publicly traded companies with all kinds of uh, price Lost leaders. Okay. Very difficult thing to uh, to uh, I'll consider and I wish you're the best on it Um, I think we ought to be proud that Santa Cruz is a leader Um in an industry that should have been established 80 years ago I think we all know that thank you very much and all the best You'd like to speak to the council on the item before us related to Canada's license transfers now's the time to call in and once you've entered the meeting Please press star nine on the phone and you'll be able to speak for two minutes Next speaker you're on the line business owner and resident of the city of Santa Cruz and I was disturbed by uh, a couple of things that I heard in the earlier comments and discussion amongst the council members and staff The assumption that a limit on the number of licenses By the law of supply and demand Makes it more valuable Is just on its face not true, unfortunately The fact of the matter is that if there's not enough revenue to have a profitable business based on the various Expenses associated with that business as well as the zoning rules associated with where the business is located It does not matter if it's got a viable license legally if no one's going to come right so there is uh That assumption is is kind of uh It's not a good reason To say let's remove the cap on the number of licenses The community benefit and the quality of life in Santa Cruz and the quality of life that we offer to the tourist industry Which is what drives a significant portion of our local employment and the local ability to stay alive Is something for you guys to consider as you're thinking about this And uh, clearly if we have the highest number of dispensaries per capita And those dispensaries themselves are saying that they're struggling Then the economics are out of whack to remove the license. It just doesn't license cap. It just doesn't make sense. Um the over the long term Council and staff she considers the zoning rules and the specifics around the locations because that's really where the advantage comes from If they're looking for examples as to where they can understand geographic restrictions and how they affect values Can look to the check cashing industry as one example and you can also look to the casino industry It should be allowed particularly in a uh industry that has so many challenges around raising gaining and managing capital under the current federal rules that the council can Go with option one And be careful about trying to impose too many direct and prescribed rules. Uh, you get what you measure in this life You know You guys can follow your nose and know what's a good license to give or not But if you try and lay it all out in law, you might run into trouble Thank you Is there any other member of the public who would like to speak to us on this item? Which is cameras business license transfers If so, please press star nine on your phone and you will be given two minutes to speak Discussion I just want to To a lot of what was just mentioned by the public and And what I've been hearing from the industry and think many of us have been hearing from the industry Which is that a lot of the local businesses in our community some of which have been around since um medicinal cannabis became legal legal in california are really struggling under the new state laws Making cannabis legal recreationally and I think it's Important that you know these businesses have all You know jumped through all the groups that we put in front of them They've all met the requirements that we laid out before them and many of them are complaining that They're struggling to actually survive in our community. And so if some of these Historic businesses are unable to make it um What we're going to be seeing is these larger corporations coming in and so I think it's really imperative and Important that we are trying to do everything that we can to Support the local businesses who have met the criteria that we put out for them and that we Make sure that they're stable before we Start allowing for other businesses to enter the community And as many of the people said, uh, I think that we are saturated right now with The number of dispensaries we have in our community and as someone who's sports cannabis I personally don't Want to see more businesses open up until the current ones are able to stabilize And so with that I'll turn it over to council for action of deliberation And see councilmember walkins has her hand raised comments and then I think I I mean I'm happy to to put a motion on the floor to move the conversation um When I just uh in terms of in in light of everything that's going on right now I just want to kind of uh For the comment that was raised by a community member that you know, the war on drugs did have residual effects And I think we have to acknowledge that in terms of the disproportionate Impacts it's had a minority population. So I just I want to state that um The other thing that I uh, also want to share is that you know, I appreciate hearing from the industry I know majority of our speakers were from the industry and I know that they've been struggling with us And struggling with everything that's been confusing and it's all been sort of this iterative process So I appreciate their patience as well I just um, personally go back to community benefit And I know it was brought up that yes certain businesses often sometimes do sell out to larger Larger businesses, but you know that hasn't been the value of Santa Cruz as as I recollect and I know folks who don't actually patron those businesses anymore because of that So I think that again just sort of going back to our values and community benefit That's sort of been how the conversation has gone You know, I understand the concern around the increase I guess where I struggle is the fact that we just sort of came up with the five and now it's just been sort of stopped at five Without really doing any further analysis around oversaturation. I I've heard that but I don't know for sure Um as well as this potential unintended consequences associated with just having this coveted five and potentially monocly on that on the industry Most businesses actually don't have that privilege, right? There is market competition. They don't have just sort of coveted one of five licenses um So I guess coupled with all of that. I feel like we can move forward in a way to To modify our ordinance as our subcommittee originally designed with those values in place and with the community benefit Leading our discussion. Um, but so the motion I would propose was to is to move forward with option two but to um, maybe Also include what I think we brought up is option three, which is essentially allowing that 20 percent The 20 business ownership transfer as opposed to Having ever just to start that triggering process So that would be my motion, but I would also like to further direct staff to Help us understand more about What is how the market could be informed by Saturation not saturation or other options in terms of how we can use or look at our licensing in terms of Expanding businesses and or land use as a way to kind of make sure that we're not, you know, inundating our communities and neighborhoods So that would be my motion I'm wondering if Bonnie, were you able to capture that motion? Um, I was able to capture it but not in the language of emotion Okay, so I moved to introduce your publication and ordinance revising chapter 6.91 The cannabis retailer licenses of the city of sanik through his municipal code To allow for the transfer of a cannibal cannabis retailer license as identified in option two I'd like to also provide connections to staff to return with Uh, more information for the council to better understand How if or how we might increase licenses based on um compatibility with the community As well as as well as as our sub community discussed in terms of the um enforcement Potential for making sure that we're not having illegal businesses operating Variation from the staff recommendation would be to have the 20 percent trigger for The new license transfer I see councilmember brown's hand and second vice mayor mire, so Councilor brown, is your hand up for No, I was not going to second this. I just have some comments. I'll wait. Thank you For the sake of further conversation because uh, I I'm going to second the motion because um I'm just a little bit. I'm um Yeah, the subcommittee. I I believe my read of the staff report has changed its recommendation. So I'm just trying to track with this um It the staff report really expressed a fairly strong Opinion or recommendation that the um, it says the sub on page Can't remember what page it's on but it says very clearly subcommittee and staff recommend license transfer process option two um, so I'm just I'm going to second the motion and just so we can continue the conversation um Thank you number walk in seconded by Vice mayor mires, and I think if I can summarize it The conditions of the motion are to accept option number two with the modification for the um new license transfer process to kick in at 20 percent But an analysis to determine whether there should be an increase in the number of licenses in the community Before I make my comments I see that catherine has had her hand up off and down catherine donovan And I just you know, I'd like for her to be able to speak but I don't want to lose my place in the stack But it seems like she has had something to say for a while Okay, catherine if you want to make the comment Actually, I have not been raising my hand the computer has been raising it for me And I don't have anything to say right now. Sorry to put you on the spot there. I just saw it a bunch of times. I get it So, um, yeah, I just want to make a couple of comments, uh Before we, um Finish our deliberations. So first of all, I want to thank staff You have spent a lot of time on this and it is complicated I know there's a lot of frustration about the time it's taken and the level of complexity But I you know, I do just want to acknowledge that you've been involved in this in a way that it's really tried to address the concerns that We've heard about and that you know kind of within the context of you know Protection of particular industries and markets That you know the challenges that we could have down the road. So I just I really do appreciate All the work you've put in I also want to thank the industry folks who have been showing up and weighing in But also more so because um, you know, I think it's a real testament to The the folks who have Stuff forward and um are you know engaged in this uh in the retail side of the business in Santa Cruz have not You know have not said anything about this hot these high bar standards that we are setting In terms of living wage jobs, you know, uh union new top trolley and other Uh, you know other factors. So I think that's a real testament I mean those are the kinds of things that many many businesses would not be willing to support And so I just want to to put that out there. Um, I as a uh researcher of agricultural supply chains Markets and policy. I am have been fascinated by the whole process. I learned so much about how Um, you know, all the the industry operates and how the supply chains work and having learned all this I I really am convinced now that um, it is not in the community's interest to Uh increase the number of licenses at this time Um, I I do believe that given the kind of saturation that has been expressed and all of the other factors Um that that make it more difficult to run these businesses the high taxation rate and other Restrictions that um, the state has and then that we're placing. I don't think that um The uh kind of theoretical concern Uh about the kind of heightened value, you know, the the inflated value of the licenses Is going to play out in reality here and you know, if that happens we can change our rules You know, but but I'm pretty convinced that right now that's not gonna that's not the problem So I just wanted to say all of that. Um, my my preference would be that we um kind of stick with the the cap the current cap and With respect to the question of 20 percent, uh versus, uh, you know, 50 plus one Which I think is the the change that I'm hearing from councilmember Watkins You know, my preference would be that you know, we go back to the 50 percent plus one But I definitely uh can't support Zero percent it's it really made sense in the subcommittee as we were talking about it because of some of the challenges But I think in retrospect, um, you know, some kind of I mean at least what the state is The state requirement is Is a reasonable thing. So I'll leave it there for now and um, see where we go Thank you We go with this. I've sent a couple of you just a summary of the issues as I understand them Regarding the motion that's on the floor. I see three components One is to allow for transfers as spelled out in option d, but the threshold changing 20 instead of 50 percent The item is checking staff to conduct analysis on issues related to additional licenses I'll just say personally, I don't support that at all I don't see the need for additional licenses right now and look what we've got our staff working on So many hours a day on covid recovery and housing homelessness. So, you know, I would just assume not have that part of the motion and uh looking into, uh, enforcement issues to pick up what I perceive to be The legal operators that that would have talked about I'd like more explanation of that So those are some questions. Um, and then The other thing I'm just trying to get clear on what we require under this new Let's just say we went with option two new new ownership Change of 20 percent require a new license in a non competitive process And it was their half therefore have to meet A certain number of a certain other number of new requirements for new license And it's not clear to me as as the discussions gone on what those are And also as I see in the text the quality of the business would be an additional factor And the new requirements for new licenses based on the threshold of ownership change There would be some mandatory Requirements living wage allow unionization transparent relationship with the financial institution and thorough background check And I guess another question is an annual audit does that apply only to the new ones or to all? And then there have to be some A certain number a selection of other conditions Some are related to the percentage of ownership and some are related to non ownership issues like providing medical cannabis green business certification And providing other community benefits to be determined That's how I understood all of this I was not on the committee It's really confusing to me. So I would just like to know in the motion Have I understood it and how many of those things are required of all license cannabis licensees How many of these requirements would be for new licenses by force because of change of ownership and how many are Um a selection something above I see do you want to address the trust? May or if I may in through the motion and then yes, please Lee. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that um, I'm happy. I mean, I'm not trying to you know advocate that we over uh overload our staff to um To do more work, but I will say that I don't feel like I've ever had the right information to understand You know one just sort of the having the background of the process to get to five, which was like maybe three maybe seven Okay, let's do five Um absent more information. I've never felt most very comfortable with just leaving it at five So at some point I'd like more information to better understand What that could look like and or maybe it is the right number But I just don't have the data to really back that up at this point. So I just don't feel super comfortable with that Um in terms of the criteria, it's it's not a requirement It's the criteria of factors that are weighed essentially. So um, I think we can really speak to that but uh I'm happy to modify the motion to have it that At some point we have more information for staff to come back to us with uh more information about Uh the light the number of licenses that are appropriate for our city That doesn't have to be in the immediate by next meeting. No given everything that's going on the extent to that thing too chances to me What's required for all licensees? what's required of New licenses required because they're getting some threshold Of those things that are required Which are mandatory and which are optional So you're muted here and let me make sure I've got the right one Open here. Okay Easiest way to walk through that with you actors and It may be easier to actually do the clean version, but I'll I think we can work with this um So under number one These items would actually be required Living wage or related collective bargaining License holders even though that currently have licenses and are not coming in for anything new or would this only apply to new new ones? This would only apply to new ones So this this is for obtaining a cannabis retailer license So if you passed over a threshold that said you need to Yeah, so now what like the motion at hand is if you change ownership of more than 20 percent of your business Which that's that's what's allowed to change your hands right now incidentally under our current ordinance So For a new ordinance first. Sorry for a new license. They would Have to meet these two and then the one thing I wanted to remember Matthews I think you had a good grasp of most of the things the one thing That's different with this The quality of the operations plan this would only happen through a competitive process for the future So that if additional licenses came forward um, or if one of the licenses that is currently out there was um, you know Say they they went out of business and didn't sell and a license becomes available We would have a competitive process And then we would have we would consider all these factors And yet we would take if one of the uh businesses has a 60 percent Employee ownership and another one has a 90 percent employee ownership Then that would be better meeting this factor need to provide an annual existing businesses that are out there They need to just Give us a letter once a year, which isn't a big requirement. We're still thinking about the living wage that We said we were going to provide when we submitted our application and so we do not currently have a An audit asking for a self certification here for the existing businesses and for new ones So that would be that's the whole set of requirements there. Does that help the heavily taxation? What is the talk rate? for these businesses in the county versus the city at this time, it's the same, you know, they the Same and then the county changed theirs and then we changed ours and it was going to go up annually But I don't remember exactly when the counties is going up As opposed to when ours is going up. I think we're either the same or we are one percent lower And what is the percent it's now five percent? But it may have gone up to six or it may be going up to six And are they subject to sales tax in addition to that? It's subject to sales tax and there's also Some pretty high state taxes Well, I mean Like the t.o.p. Tax is 11 and we were thinking about raising it to what 13 so it's not like Exorbitant amount of taxes I would say but I think that the question I have is like is the Council's motivation here to protect like the local businesses these people who were kind of industry leaders and getting these businesses going and really collaborating with the city and and starting out This industry when we didn't really know how it was going to be or is it to protect the community from being like overrun with You know Multiple different Big pot business. Sorry. I don't really know how to talk about it. I'm not a donor of these businesses But on the other hand, we already have so many so I don't know if we need them But that being said one of the callers brought something up that I thought I hadn't ever considered was that changing Industry Being like the onsite Consumption places like similar to a bar or a tasting room or something like that and so in that aspect you'd be adding licenses uh increasing the tax phase or you know sourced but not driving the local When they've just gotten started in the country So that's kind of licenses I guess it's like um, it's not an identical license and we had actually um gone to the council last september with a Number of different items to get direction on them And one of them was this onsite consumption that has only recently been allowed by the state And there are a lot of the state regulations are pretty intense and it would not be anything like What is in amsterdam? And we were actually going to be coming back to discuss it further with the council, but um with the restrictions of Of the covet 19 pandemic It didn't seem like a timely thing to bring up um And and the subcommittee agreed so It is in our back pocket and we are intending to come forward with it at some time But right now it's it's not um, we don't feel it's urgent So to that end I would say like for martin's motion with one of the three components um I think it's something that the city could start to explore I think like we've always kind of been a leader in this industry and I think I also would like to see the enforcement of The illegal cultivators and distributors because I think driving things underground just creates like, you know, obviously a black market economy and Problems potential problems. So um, if you were going to explore Um, additional licenses. I think it'd be interesting to see how they could be Changed into like a bar type place. I guess they bring you up to speed that in the uh, canvasset committee. So Um, so yeah, we're we're going to be working on that and thank you. You're not for the community Uh, councilmember brown wanted to give an opportunity to comment You know, yeah, I just wanted to clarify the the tax rate. So our tax rate is the retail tax rate As I said what we were asking about far as a seven percent The county has a rate that graduates. Uh, and I think right now it's at Six percent through the end of through december of uh 2021 and then it'll go to Seven percent in january of 2022. So they eventually will get to the same rate Thank you. Thank you. I um, I just wanted to put back into the mix As we kind of move forward on finalizing what this motion is that we'll be voting on Although again, my preference is really for the the 50 percent threshold The additional factor. I don't know. Can we get agreement that? putting including that additional factor about having a relationship with A transparent uh relationship with a financial institution be a factor as well Um, I feel like that's that seems like a kind of a no-brainer and I hadn't thought of it. Um, until it was raised to me But it I don't know how people I'd like to hear how people feel about that And then with respect to the change to majority owners Um, you know, we discussed that and that totally made sense. Um, and you know, I really want to appreciate staff for that Uh, but there was uh, you know, we we got a some information about uh from the industry about having, uh Including language that it's operator or manager Um, you know for the the businesses and so I'd also like to just put that out there for discussion See where people how people feel um And I think I will Stop there. Thanks request for the additional factor as a friendly amendment I don't know if that's the intention of councilor brown Myers is doing is the seconder to do that At this point, okay Um in regards to the uh other bits, I just I think, you know I guess I'll just say a couple of things that um, what I think This is definitely just been a involving discussion and topic And I think it will only continue to be that and as we continue as um a council and a community And hear input from industry and interested Community members that will keep kind of nuancing it to fit our our communities values I guess, um, I I am just a little bit You know confused because as a subcommittee we landed on one thing and then now It's a whole different thing and I feel the 20% now at this point given that Switch is a good compromise to keep us moving. Um, and also just sort of recognizing where we are in terms of time I don't know mayor. I know we have two more additional items and then an evening item that starts at 6 30 I guess my preference would be just to move forward with the motion as amended to accommodate A council member brown's suggestion and additional criteria at this time And then um, just recognizing that this is going to be an ongoing conversation moving forward I have one question We'll play us two kind of requests. Um, thank you for those comments. The one additional One I was wondering if we might be able to given the amount of work that we've done Settle on possibly 30% so if a third of the business switches then That would kick in the License transfer process. So that was one, you know question for consideration or or friendly amendment The other one was in letter g that was on the in our red line version It was pointed out that there's a lot of restriction at the county level around growers and there really isn't There aren't a lot of locally grown products in the county and so I was wondering if we could Increase that to say that carries the minimum of 15% in total shelf space at any given time Products produced or grown within a hundred miles of Santa Cruz county Given that there's a lot of growers down in Monterey county that would fall under that and so it's kind of as localized It can't be but it wouldn't um really restrict us to Santa Cruz county since that industry doesn't currently exist And then the other request was just on the number four That is providing an annual effort david um Kind of given that we've heard through the conversation that we're not really enforcing at the moment I'm just wondering if we can switch that to be um That all the retail businesses will be subject to random audits That way and I think a random audit will really be able to capture You know at a point in time to to see you know how businesses are doing it doesn't put all this work on the staff or on the businesses And and I think that with you know the transparent banking and having random audits that it might actually help us to Check in on them. You know and and sure and I think it's also Courage businesses to continue to um abide by those good practices They don't know when the city is going to actually come in and check in on them There's within a hundred miles of Santa Cruz and then random audits Lee in regards to the 20 percent Was that from the state? Was that the state? percentage that's sort of where you throughout the 20 percent is sort of that was consistent Do you want to speak to that? I mentioned that because that's what our current Ordinance allows that's also consistent with what the state allows Um, you know the state requires a new license. That's what I was hearing from Catherine earlier Is that the 20 threshold is? um, the states trigger for a new license Um, and are currently we originally had 10 percent of the license could be or the ownership could change We upped that to 20 percent last year at one point and then That's what's currently in place now Um, and and mayor while I've got the floor if I could uh, I have a question regarding the motion a clarification when we're When the proposal was to add the factor regarding a transparent relationship with the final financial institution I wanted to confirm Two things one if that would go into the mandatory section or the uh, the list of Factors so under one 6.91 point zero nine zero one or under Two and if it goes under two It says the nine factors is the council desire is making that seven of the ten factors So I just wanted clarification on those two things actually going to make the recommendation land but um Yeah, I I guess it's open for discussion. That'll be um, mandatory factor or that'll be a Factor for consideration. So I'll maybe uh, ask councilmember brown away and on that since she made the Reconciliation long opinion about that, but I do think um that for now including it as one a factor seems like a reasonable thing to do um strong opinion about that either way I'd like to hear from others, but it seems like that makes the most sense right now kind of the motion want to kind of weigh in on the thoughts that this was Accepted I think I guess I would just say is that I feel like as a subcommittee we went through all the different factors and that was sort of the whole Beauty of having that space to be able to do that So, I mean I and I and just having those discussions about why those factors fit there I don't know if we want to do that now. Um, I but I guess I'd like a little bit more clarity. I'm trying to pull out the right the right I'd like more clarity on the the amendments that you're proposing at this time. Um I guess I'm just thinking about the kind of the consequences of You know not considering that as part of uh, you know as a factor that we would consider to make a business more Kind of socially responsible in our community. So, you know, uh, I think that The businesses that we have in the mix right now Do that and I would just hate to see us not capture that In the future if we are going to have Future but if we do decide to increase the cap or other businesses come in and whatever fashion It just seems like it should be, uh, You know considered. I I don't know I mean that's that's my thinking it just you know people are doing it Cost money there, you know, there is a cost to that. There's a benefit to the community and to the business In doing that. So, you know for security reasons for, you know, all kinds of reasons to not be preferring Uh operators who are, you know operating the cash economy without, you know, uh real accountability Will you will you restate the factors done just really clear about what you're proposing? Yeah, I um the exact language. I think I need to Take a look real quick. Um, I just put move change my screen. So it was just, um, the You know That it's 6.91 0.090. Um, that the license requirements and review factors um Would in addition would be uh maintains active and transparent an active and transparent banking relationship with a financial institution Oh, yeah, sorry. I thought I already accepted that one. I thought so too. Sorry. I don't I'm not sure Yeah, okay the question Yes, I sorry The question I have when you say it's 6.91 0.090 Um, there are there are multiple subheadings. Some are requirements and some are factors And so, you know, I just want to make sure Are you are you saying that's a requirement? Are you saying that's one of the factor the Six of nine factors or now would it be six of 10 factors or seven of 10 factors? A strong opinion about that either. I think I heard mayor coming say it could be six of 10 That's fine with me. Um, or we could add it and say seven of 10 Either way So if anybody else has a strong opinion, then please weigh in I would just say six of 10. I mean we are putting A lot of requirements on these businesses already. I mean given the conversation we've had We could even reduce the requirements, but I think that since we've kind of Fell on six of the number we can add that additional requirement. Uh, I'm sorry factor for consideration It would be good to get a response on the three Friendly amendments that I offered up as well If you all if the maker of the motion second of the motion could weigh in on those I'm comfortable with the six of 10 factor for accepting that friendly amendment Um for the 30 I don't I I mean if they I guess I had a question to follow up with me on this If we if they are required to do a new license application at 20 percent with the state Would the 20 percent just be consistent or I mean How how does that how do they inter interplay I guess or are they completely separate? They are separate. Um, they would they would have to do both If they you know if they changed over 21 percent They would need a new state license and then they would need a transfer license through the city as well If they were at 19 percent, then they wouldn't need either And what about if they were at 30? Well, uh, if they were at 30 under under the uh proposed regulations If you changed it if you said all right, let's up that from 20 to 30 locally and they came in at 25 percent They wouldn't be required to get a new license transfer with the city But they would still be required to get one through the state a new license through the state Okay Um, yeah, I I feel like I'm more comfortable with 20 since they have to get one over with the state anyways But um, if the majority of the council wants to move in the direction of 30 I I'm fine with that at this point. Um, and then I don't recall the other two additional Yeah, the other one was g which is um Where the products are produced? And I stated that Santa Cruz county really has a lot of restrictions on growing um to change that to um to Products produced or grown within a hundred miles of Santa Cruz county So that would to allow for products to be grown in Monterey Which there is a decent amount of grows down there But would and would still kind of be within the spirit of that Keeping those products produced locally Because if we're going to have it as a as a Factor for consideration But then the industry doesn't exist and it doesn't make sense to have it as a factor for consideration So to make it actually relevant for this county I just want to make sure i'm clear on what What ordinance i'm looking at which is g being a minimum of 15 percent of total shelf Since at any given time produced or grown within Santa Cruz county Yeah, yeah products produced or grown within Santa Cruz county I I don't feel comfortable making that change without more information. I've never I this is the first I've heard that's an issue Personally, so I'd like to learn more because 15 percent seems pretty low. Anyway, so I'd like more at this point before I accept that so not not at this time I think what i'm i'm just going to put it out there though that For consideration 15 percent of the shelf space of a store Is a fairly decent amount of products that they have to to have in their store and There's no there aren't no producers currently over the very few actual Growers within the county So if we're having a factor for consideration that 15 percent of their store space at any given time has to be products grown within in Santa Cruz county and we don't have Um any kind of like producer Then it doesn't make sense to have as a factor for consideration So that's why I was just saying, you know, there are more producers in Monterey county, for example, so that would make Have this requirement makes sense, but if if we You know are having it as a factor of consideration And that industry doesn't exist then it really doesn't make sense It's kind of like how we remove organic Cannabis when there's not really any kind of organic standard for cannabis out there Again, I don't feel like I've heard that as an issue. I just don't know enough information about that to make that change I don't necessarily feel comfortable given that Then the other one would be um Audit but it looks like uh, we butler had a camera I was just gonna say if it pleases the council, I can I've got a map up here from google earth that shows, um The distances, you know, I can show you what 100 miles is from santa cruz county if it pleases the council I'll just defer to you mayor if you want how long you want this to go or if you want that to be revisited at a future time Is given sort of where we are in timing of today's meeting This this is just so fresno is uh here. Let me show you this That's 99 miles. So fresno is 100 miles from santa cruz county um If you zoom in here, this would be passo Robles is 100 miles on the other end um You know if you're going 50 miles from the north end You are up near sander fell if you're going 100 miles You're up past santa rosa and even into sacramento. So just just for context Belive it would be better I think that You know given that santa cruz county doesn't have producers that it would make more sense either to remove that or to extend the distance so that we're actually so it's actually relevant And um my preference will be 30 but we're going to go in the direction 20 So i'm just going to state my kind of feelings for the record and If you know it's not going to be considered then we can just continue moving on Because we have a couple other items. Uh, we have oral communications And it looks like there's for the common. So i'll Rest my case at this time so to speak and i'll see if the council member matthews Yeah, I mean this really is soft. It's just satisfied 30 percent the thing, you know 20 percent may be the state Uh threshold for a new license But at 20 percent state level you don't have to have to satisfy a whole new package of requirements So they're not out but it's going to be number two that there is Coming out of town to the county to fill that 15 maybe not anybody heard that It's not for you to know to be there Random audit That's work for finance department. We do the random audit. We've done nothing to pass the coq It seems to me that Some more simple affidavit these are the requirements. I meet them If there's if there's demonstrations of a problem then this is doing audits, but I think um given Expectations on everybody's part. I think I think that's the Holds on the annual affidavit It's a simple statement Oh gosh, I think that's Those are the main things, you know I think it's really Detailed exit. I'd like to raise the threshold a little bit Or the simple affidavit And and more lenient, um Of course and Catherine Donald and both have their hands up so it's kind of like knowledge them So Bonnie did you have your hand up? I did but just so you know that um A reread of the motion is needed Yeah, okay. Yeah, we weren't able to tell what were friendly amendments and what were opinions. So It might be your computer or is your hand actually raised? No, it's actually up this time. I I had a question about the The audit and whether that was a financial audit or an audit of their Keeping up with their factors It was an audit of the factors. It wasn't a financial audit. It was just to see if they were still Meeting the requirements that they um that were considered for their license so Okay, maybe we should make sure that's specified in the In the motion I don't think that that was I'm going to try to be quick I'll be with councillor member Matthews about the um Certainly about and with mayor Cummings about the the distance. I mean, I just think given the limitations for kind of production and manufacturing processing in standard within the county Kind of because of our, you know land uses and our small size of the county and our land values It seems to me that if it's going to ever be used that 100 miles makes more sense That is a pretty common standard in bilocal kind of certifications for agriculture in general for produce But if the, you know, if there's not, you know, to not belabor this, I guess I would say Um, we can just leave it and nobody will use it and So, you know, they won't ever that won't be a factor. I think if it's not possible as as mayor Cummings said um With respect to the audit question, um, I I would be supportive of going that route But I do think since there's there's a broader set of issues around enforcement that we are gonna You know want to maybe take up that we could consider it at that time So an affidavit is you know for now fine with me And I also just want to weigh in and say it look it seems to me based on what I've been hearing But I'd like to I'd like to know um that there may be a majority of council members who were Would prefer the 50 percent plus one. So I'm just trying to Before we give that up. I mean, I know I've said it. I've heard a few other people a couple of other people say it Can we clarify that before the vote? Maybe because I would just like to say that I'm actually more in favor with the option number 150 percent and I know initially within the That's what we landed on and All the people from the industry reference as well And I know that having worked on the revenue subcommittee We really try to work with The business community to try to meet their needs and also meet our community's needs And so if the you know cannabis industry, which has been saying over and over how much they're struggling and we have this process that's pretty Labor intensive in terms of meeting certain requirements. They all met the requirements. So I think that you know, if we I'd be comfortable to with the 50 percent. I'm not opposed to that at all. So Uh, you know a non starter for me as well. I think that'd be comfortable voting in that direction May I if I may for clarity? I know vice mayor Myers has to got her hand up and had it up But my um, you know, I although I said, you know, I was comfortable with keeping it at the 20 I was okay with moving it to the 30 and I think vice mayor Myers is also okay with that I don't know if we actually took that Um as a friendly amendment, I thought that was accepted But maybe I'm just confused after all the different bits that have been coming in But I'm okay with the 30 at this point. I'm not comfortable with the 50 given the um input that we received from staff as we had our process Um, and I just I frankly just I I realized that this has been like sausage making it was not that was not the intention That was the intention of the subcommittee So I'm just a little thrown off in terms of some of the other specifics without more information So for me, it's just not at this time Um in the interest of trying to get a more informed process moving forward So that's sort of where I landed on the on the various bits. Um But if there's interest in changing some of the stuff at this point in time We can vote on the motion and revisit. I just also see as we're talking that 106 attendees are in our uh participant thing So I just I don't really know how much we want to get into this at this moment Personally, but that's your call mayor worth the 30 percent. Um, and at this point, um I'm not clear exactly how on it what the audit would be So I think I would support just sticking with the avid David avid David process. That's currently in the ordinance in the in the ordinance And I um in support of it this time to You know not not to cap what we have right now to five I think the industry will be um, we know this is something that we're all learning how to do together um So I I I'm supportive of the 30 and at this point, I think sticking with the avid david process and having the subcommittee maybe come back with an audit proposal That's a little more. I'm just not clear exactly what that means. I thought it was a financial audit as well It seemed which seemed extreme. So Um, those are my thoughts for now was made by councilmember Watkins and second by vice mayor mires Is to adopt option number two With amendment to increase that ownership is when a license transfer would kick in only amendment to add an addition to operation from nine to ten With the new factor being maintained active and transparent banking relationship with the financial institution and that were made was to Conduct a study to consider Conduct a study to assess Whether we should increase the number of licenses in the city of santa Cruz and the third part of the motion was to Um operations are currently operating the city of santa Cruz Is that capture? So one clarification I would have is that it's not necessarily to conduct a study You know, but if we're going to consider increasing licenses at some point we want to have More information in regards to what makes sense per capita in that fit for our community So I don't I don't want it to sound over kind of cumbersome, but we want to inform process So I don't know if that requires a study, but just So that is that more on the lines of directing staff to provide council members with information on I'm just So for example, we hear like there's an oversaturation, but I've never seen any data to substantiate that claim But so I just want more information before we consider whether or not it's appropriate to increase licenses Comes back with any kind of recommendation in regards to increasing licenses that they provide data as to whether it Fits with our neighborhoods in our community And if there is an oversaturation of existing And or if there's an oversaturation of assisting licenses or retail services Little Matthews. Yeah, again, let's talk about the language conducts a study Sounds like pure direction staff. I want you to come back to the study about increasing the number of licenses And I just really am concerned with what's our place in me Let's say this here And uh, that's me given all the discussion you've got now this came like a burning issue I think it's fair to say at some point in the future the open There you go consideration of in piece of life With data I'll be a lady general Then I would also like to just comment on Condition g which is the product from the county We have heard that there's very little product and to me a A condition that's not reachable is bogus. So, uh, I would like to see some change Well, why don't we go ahead and accept that then at this time? Okay, so the friendly amendment With item g is that uh carries a minimum of 15 percent in total shelf space Any given time product produced or grown in 100 miles I was going to say what council member Matthews said, um And so thank you for that. I would just remind us that The county and we heard this before and I think it's why we originally talked about the 50 percent You know the county doesn't require a license transfer until you get to 100 percent transfer of ownership So, you know, this is a pretty stringent standard that we're adopting here and um Again, I've heard three people say 50 percent would plus one would work And so I'm just you know, I'm just trying to see if others want to weigh in on that before we take the vote And if not then we'll just go ahead I think if we if my preference is we we could take the vote and if the if the So if the motion goes down then we could have a new motion at this point personally But if we want to spend more time extending that to the discretion of the mayor I'm just going to say this is the first reading and I think even with some of these conditions Another item for communications There's been a request to return to a closed session on the item and we have our evening item So with that I'll turn it over to clerk to take the vote number buyers is gone I believe by smear mires and mayor Cummings. Um, why don't we take It's council member buyers absolutely with council. Uh, sorry Oh, go ahead with council member buyers absent with then going to oral communications and then we can return to Times numbers 20 and then our evening item Patient and so and then we'll go into oral communications and given that Uh, we anticipate oral communications to start six in our meetings going a little late I'll uh, provide some additional time for oral communications, which is Normally a half hour, but we will spend it for some additional time transportation planner jimberg transportation and engineer And steve wolfman senior civil engineer For item number 20, which is senate bill 743 implementation from public law. I'm claire globally I'm the transportation planner for the city and as mera cumming said, I promise to keep this brief Before I go into senate bill 743. I'm gonna frame this for you that this is an implementation of state law This only relates to how we analyze transportation impacts as it relates to sequa Um, but this must be in place by july 1st I'm incredibly proud of how we partnered with the other jurisdictions in our county to implement this and get this going And how we do it technically is complicated, but how we set the policy is fairly straightforward So that's what i'm going to go through. Um, right now, so i'm going to turn my screen sharing on To be starting senate bill 743 implementation Again, I'm going to briefly talk about what senate bill 743 is talk about our change from how we analyze Transportation from level of service, which is lo s to vehicle miles traveled, which is vmt Talk about what we did and how we got there and then talk about our recommended new thresholds of significance 743 changes how we analyze transportation impacts under sequa Previously we considered the amount of delay that you face to intersections to be the environmental impact And we would mitigate that by widening roadways or intersections Now we're looking at vehicle miles traveled and what that says and i'll go into it more Is that the distance that we're having people travel is the environmental impact If we co-locate things close together like housing and jobs and your daily needs Then your environmental impact will be less because you'll be traveling less distance Both of us b743 are really in line with our general plan and climate action plan goals It's to promote infill reduce greenhouse gas emissions support all modes of transportation encourage mixed use And really move away from thinking about automobile inconvenience as the primary metric Is an important fact that this applies prospectively So we don't look back on what we've done before from july 1st moving forward We'll be using vehicle miles traveled as our metric of analysis and really what the Senate bill says is that sequa documents can no longer use level of service as a determination as a Significant impact under the california environmental quality act. We need to look now at vehicle miles traveled and other methods of analysis And what is vehicle miles traveled? So I mentioned this briefly before but really it's looking at the distance that you travel So the trips you take during the day you will probably go to your workplace and go shopping And in this case this example on the screen you're dropping kids off at school And so it looks at per capita distance that you travel per day and the example here with the family of three Um cumulatively they travel 50 miles per day But you divide that by three in the per capita of the mt for that household the 16.7 miles 43 does allow us to continue using level of service in everything that's not related to sequa So anything that we do right now that requires a traffic study that's not related to our environmental analysis We can continue doing so our fee based programs. Um, we're still allowed to continue on in that way the example on the screen is local governments require things that are outside sequa all the time such as landscaping plans and elevations are the project approval But that's not the sequel purposes. And so the key message here is this transportation analysis is only as it applies to sequa One of the things that we did previously with level of service was that the available mitigations were generally roadway widening or intersection widening to make it so that more cars could flow through that area of roadway quickly Because we considered delays to be the environmental impact Switching to vmt means that the available options we have to mitigate impacts of transportation under sequa are things that we've been trying to do for a long time So it's transit improvements bike and pedestrian improvements Carpooling improvements education encouragement programs many things that our TDM program is already doing But now it says that's how you can mitigate your transportation impact. What did we do it? We formed a countywide collaboration So because every jurisdiction in the state needs to adopt new thresholds of significance under sequa to comply with this We looked around and we said, hey, if the other cities in the region and the county All have to do this as well. We can partner together. We can save a lot of money We can save a lot of time and we can share expertise and get it going so All of the jurisdictions the five of us we got together. We shared costs. We shared resources We got a consultant on board who had the technical expertise to be able to run the type of analysis that we needed And we're able to come up with an sb743 implementation plan and some thresholds of significance that align with sb743's mandate for sb743 implementation the governor's office of planning and research Established guidelines that they published and their recommendations are on the screen This next slide here is the staff recommended thresholds. They are in line with those recommended by the governor's office of planning and research Residential the threshold of significance that we recommend is 15 percent below the countywide average For office and service. It's 15 percent below the countywide average per employee For retail, it's no net increase and for all other land uses. It's no net increase as well What this means is that if you have a example project where The vmt for a residential project for example is 100 If your project comes in with a vmt of 85 or less Then you're below that threshold of significance and it's assuming you have a less than significant impact If your vmt is 86 or above Then you have a menu of options that are transportation demand management strategies That you can use to reduce that vmt to an acceptable level less than significant level We also have screening thresholds that are in place The opr guidance did say that there are things that you can do to screen out certain projects That would say they would have a less significant impact. So some of those may be uh map-based screening thresholds where We've mapped our community and we show where areas of low vmt are that are within that 15 percent below And it's assumed that trips with or developments that have a similar characteristics What's already there would exhibit similar trip patterns so you can screen out Also small projects that would be expected to generate less than 110 trips per day Or local retail would screen out and for local retail the thing to consider here is If you have a grocery store that's across town and that same grocery store opens up closer to you You're not going to replace that grocery store trip. You're still going to take it but your trip will be shorter So local retail can screen out there Um affordable housing and infill locations is assumed to be less than significant Local essential services and many of these are daycare public school government offices and other things that are essential functions of the community And then anything that's within a half mile of a major transit stop and we do have those maps There's some red flags there of if it doesn't comply with our existing plan if it replaces affordable housing Or if it's low density or has excessive parking Again, as I said the mitigation strategies that we have in place our travel demand management strategies You can see these in one of the attachments But generally there's transit education encouragement commutory production programs bike and pedestrian programs neighborhood improvements such as traffic calming and various parking strategies Finally the key message is that adopting these new thresholds of significance Will comply with state law and they must be in place by july 1st 2020 What we propose is in line with the recommendations from the governor's office of planning and research What we will have available for project sponsors and for our internal teams are the published report Which is included in your staff report map based screening tools and excel based sketch planning tools and a published menu of available TDM options There's more information that's available at the links here on the screen And with that questions and I recognize I went through that very quickly But what I would remind you is that technically how we do it is very complicated Policy wise what we're asking you to do is to adopt the recommendations That are in line with the recommendations by the governor's office of planning and research And with that as fast as I've ever done it i'm available for questions Presentation are there any questions from council members? It looks like council member golder Council member brown Question, but I'm prepared to make the motion as written in the agenda report So we will come back to that after we But I'll go to the council member brown. I thank you for the brief presentation Um, I have kind of tried to study up on this and I'm glad you put those links up I've used some of those to help me understand what we're doing here and I you know, I just want to say Um that this is a pretty significant decision that we're making it It could lead to some significant changes in how we evaluate projects and And I understand that we have there's a state mandate to do that and I I've Supported moving towards vehicle miles traveled for a whole lot of reasons In this case, I'm what I'm trying to understand is What the kind of anticipated Uh difference will be in terms of how we approve projects and the mitigations we require So, you know, the example you gave is really helpful But I also am thinking about all the other examples of you know, given what we know about the housing jobs mismatch in our community that And our our transit system kind of being having some gaps in terms of how people are served um, I um, you know, I'm just trying to understand because it seems to me that we Could very well end up in situations where the projects that we approve um, will end up Creating more vehicle miles traveled because the people who can afford to either wrench or buy them Will have to work elsewhere in order to make the kind of income that you need to live in this town And that many of the jobs that might come from those mixed-use projects Will mean that people who are working at them because they're low wage live outside So to me that just signals the possibility of a significantly larger number of vehicle miles traveled And um, so i'm just you know, I guess the two questions that I have is one, you know, can you give us um some kind of idea of how The kind of current project that we we know are coming Might be affected in terms of what's required. And if not that at least Some like could you walk us through an example that is kind of closer to What you know, I think we can all anticipate is going to be the reality And then I also wanted to just check and see I know thank you for Approaching this regionally. I think that's like that made a lot of sense And I'm glad that happened and I'm just wondering so all jurisdictions now are committed to the 15 threshold The second question first, um, we should match what the county is recommending I believe Watsonville and capitol are recommending the same Scott's valleys are slightly different because their community characteristics are different and I have not yet heard from them What the recommended thresholds are? But we had the kind of the same recommendations They um, they flag doesn't outlier with higher VMT than the rest of the region and Knowing scut belly. There's a lot of land use reasons why that is there's not a lot in scut belly besides housing So trip distances are naturally longer. Um, so this will be harder for them to implement to your first question in terms of trip distances, so what the um thresholds are based off of and in the um Detachment it is but it's called draft sb743 implementation guidelines and unless there's comments from today that will become final guidelines Um, there's actual numbers of what that threshold those thresholds are And where those come from is that we have a countywide transportation model that was updated to 2019 Base year data and so that has updated land use assumptions across the entirety of our county of What is in which transportation analysis zone and then we have actual data on how far those trip distances are One of the complicated parts of this project was that we had to control for we had to do a Level of post-processing using big data That accounted for trips that go into and out of the county And so there's an analysis in the report that talks through that more but the trip distances that we're assuming right now and the um The vmt thresholds that we have been showing are based upon actual trip distances Right now so the same concerns that we've had for the last couple years about housing affordability Probably the you know most of my life's growing up in santa crows about housing affordability And trip distance are already reflected in the analysis that we've done We've also projected that forward to a 2040 out year assessment in the model in line with Where the county is looking at their general plan out here why we did that And so we've looked forward there and have some some anticipated changes What it shows us is that we do have a fairly low vmt per capita and vmt per employee Within the city of santa crows which is not to say that there aren't people traveling over the hill and traveling further distances to be able to afford to live here, but that the um At each analysis zone they're called transportation analysis zones the easy transportation models on their similar to census tract and census block groups It shows what that 15 percent below threshold is so it's maybe a long-winded way to get to answer your question is that the model doesn't play out that we have We we have many areas in the city that we would screen out because the trip distances are already short in those areas And with land uses going in that our general plan and our our future planning call for Those types of land use developments are projected to continue to have low vmt per capita Where we would see um projects that would need to have higher levels of analysis would be On the edges of the city where you have to travel further Um for employment it would be in areas that we don't already have employment So there's not not people already going there and it's not near jobs Um, but by and large what our map looks like is very similar to our general plan or our zoning map Are there any other questions from council members at this time? Okay, seeing none We're going to open it to public comment on this item So this is for item number 20 on our agenda, which is uh Senate bill 743 implementation If you'd like to comment on item number 20 now is the time to call in And after you've entered you don't want a star nine on your phone to raise your hand So you can comment on this item If your hand is currently raised and you are not intending to comment on item number 20, please Put it down and then by pressing star nine and then when we Um go into oil communications or other items. Uh, you can raise your hand at that time We'll open it up to uh public comment. I was trying to unmute my this is game healing whitman I wasn't going to comment on this. I would like to apologize for my coworker not knowing that this was a lie Recording so I guess I'm going to get off and I want to do public comment. So I'll be I apologize. Thank you Thank you online for item number 20 I was trying to lower my hand Because I was for oral communication and not know that you were going to this item So the instructions about star nine to lower your hand after you hit star nine to raise it are inaccurate Okay, thank you. I'll put you back on the top of the list for oral communication Thank you. If there's one other person Um, I'm trying to figure out that zoom is old. So I think I might have to promote them to a panelist and then control the video on this and you are on the line for Oral communications for item number 20 persons not going to be commenting on this item. So And we didn't have any other members of the community raising their hands on this item So I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation Councilmember Golder amending the 1990 city of Santa Cruz guidelines and rescind the resolution ns 19 309 adopting earlier guidelines into resolution adopting a transportation threshold of significance Of 15 below the regional average vehicle miles travel for purposes of complying with senate bill 743 So the motion made by councilmember golder Councilmember walking to see your hand is up Go ahead and second the motion So, uh, we've motioned by councilmember golder second by councilmember walken to move the staff recommendation on item number 20 councilmember brown Just wanted to make a comment here because you know, I'm I'm not going to be supporting the motion And I I just want to explain why I'm doing that. I Um, I appreciate that a whole lot of work has gone into this and a lot of people are thinking and have thought long and hard about it and um, so it's not that it's so much that I'm opposed to Making this change, but I still don't feel comfortable with um, you know, I just don't feel like I have enough information about kind of the the real world potential effects on what the difference will be between our current, uh, the way we currently do things with level of service and Moving in this direction. So I just don't feel comfortable with the information I have and I've really tried to learn as much as I could um about it Today, so I'm gonna be voting no and I just don't want to hold this up I know we have a long agenda to get through The motion by councilmember golder second by councilmember walkins. I guess we'll go ahead and ask clerk to call the vote Councilmember Byers is absent. Matthews Councilmember willing against and councilmembers Matthews golder Walkins by smear meyers and myself voting in favor They kind of see how all this plays out over time and within that we'll need to make adjustments But thanks for your work on this. Thank you on to uh oral communications Before we begin for members of the public who are streaming this meeting If you want to comment during oral communications now it's time to call in Instructions are on your screen Oral communication is an opportunity for members of the community Speak to us on items that are not currently on today's agenda If you're interested in addressing the council, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand after you called in You will have uh, we're gonna Switch up the timing so I'll get the timing in a sec But when it's your time to speak you'll hear an announcement that you have been unmuted We request that you clearly and slowly state your name before Your comments so that we can accurately capture in the meeting minutes However stating your name is not required Um, please remember as well. This is the time for council to hear from the public Um on items that are not on the agenda And we will not be communicating and doing back and forth to people who are asking questions because this is an opportunity for us to hear from the public If you go over your time, I'll try to remind you to please Wrap up your comments and if it goes on too long, I'll have to mute your microphone So if you would like to make any comment on any item that was not on the agenda Now's the time to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand start and We're gonna start given that uh, we're a little bit over time that we want to provide Additional time for people to speak. Uh, we're gonna have all communications be for one minute We've got about a hundred people who called in and so, um We're gonna start with one minute and We'll try to um, we'll have it go for 25 minutes for now and see how many people are still on and with that, um We'll go to the first caller. You'll have one minute for all communication How amazing and first my name is James Ewing Whitman. I have a minute So I'd like to comment on two service groups that I found one Was a group of about 25 citizens who showed up march, excuse me may 29th at the supervisors meeting And we spoke on the covet 19 subject I also want to direct the public to my public facebook There's a photograph on there that really describes electrical energy really well. My name is James Ewing Whitman so, um I opened my email today and I read Correspondents for mr. Andy mills and I was very touched. I was also at the celebration on sunday and I was absolutely touched by The love and respect that I saw everybody who was there. So that's enough for now. Thank you very much Thank you. Yeah, this is lee brokaw I wanted to call the council's attention to the fact that I turned in a petition to the mayor Wednesday of this week. I thought it would be in time to be on the agenda The essence of the petition Is that it's time for the public to be back in front of the council? Could be done at the civic auditorium I turned in 41 wet signatures. I thought it was important to do this in person in person and not by internet I have four former mayors Signatory and one former council member signatory Uh, we the people request and demand That the city council meet in front of the public and not by electronics Thank you, sir. Scott Graham. I was calling about the zoo meeting the de mayor and the chief of police had at the during that meeting When questions were taken from the public The chief of police answered everyone's questions except mine And I sent him an email cc the mayor and other council members about this The questions were Demilitarizing the police Racial profiling was being done about it use of force guidelines Who can fire a bad cop? Can the city manager fire a bad cop or is it only just the chief of police? Or can the city council go into a special session and fire a bad cop? More non-lethal options like in japan they have these net guns so they can shoot a net over somebody that'll trip them up and What are we going to do about the endless harassment of the poorest members of our society? and then We need to bring back a police review board and a police review board that has some teeth Not a cute toothless one like the one that was around before Now the other issue is these zoom meetings these zoom meetings are terrible half of the What is being said is unintelligible Cynthia matthews has the worst Connection of anybody I can barely understand anything she says on here And I don't you know, it's probably not her fault. It's some fault of whatever device she's using Or her internet connection. I don't know But we've got a like lee brokaw. Just so we got to bring this back 20 some years ago There was the beach south laurel hearings held in The civic center live on tv So there's no reason we can't do that now. Thank you. Thank you of the city clerk, we can't hear the uh The alarm for the end of one minute. So just to let you know Okay, I have the mic up to it, but I think you were muted so And I see the paperwork for a special nice permit for a mural This is black lives matter on front street. Please do for and so proud And I respectfully request the motion being made for meetings in college to approve the permits necessary not this one Fourth mural project to be approved as soon as possible I know that because the probe is difficult to approve special events permits, but this Isn't necessarily for gathering necessarily. It's more of a protest in support Of black lives matter by artists and with the approval and support of the government And I think it shows where the Santa Cruz community stands. Um As far as movement goes as well as Really a call to action racial equity practices the implements and places in our community where they're not Thank you for taking my call over the last hour and a half about I've gotten to hear a lot of the priorities of what this community and the city council value and it's Been frustrating to know that the public commentary Which was set to begin an hour and a half ago is pushed to now But I am grateful for the opportunity to hear that like myself and a number of my friends and colleagues The city council members care deeply about the people of this town um, I hope that they can consider that When developing a more detailed budget to commit to e-funding The police department of Santa Cruz A police department that is known for and history of violence against our black and brown people And a city that needs to re-invite public infrastructure In things like affordable housing My name is Chrissy Hansen Mayor Cummings and city council members Most of you know me My husband is a Santa Cruz police officer and i'm calling to implore you to please do not defund Or reallocate any money that is allocated for the police department It is of utmost importance for officer safety and community safety as you all know We just lost sergeant guttsweiler. My husband was there During that incident and it brings it home that these officers men and women All over our county put their hearts and souls into their jobs We all know there are bad apples in every single job out there But the men and women of the Santa Cruz police department put their hearts and souls Into their jobs and they try to do the best they possibly can for our community It really truly boils down to officer safety and community safety And I implore you to look into Doing research and other Police and states and the country to have defunded or reallocated money and see what the consequences have been We already have this catch and released and are And created a lot of haps Please do not defund the police department. Thank you so much for your time Thank you To further their own personal agendas of division chaos and violence should be condemned and stopped He sure was a victim of a deadly civil rights abuse by a law enforcement officer of that City government. Notice I say deadly civil rights abuse and not systemic racism The outrage should be the same regardless of race and concentrated on government civil rights abuses Of all its citizens and restoring accountability for all government actions needs focus instead of the inflammatory leftist knee jerk claim of systemic racism Which requires more than accusations and statistics the fluid response reminds me of the last credible protests of abuse at the hands of the powerful Namely Occupy Wall Street where their message of criminal banking fraud got de-legitimatized Forgotten and then crushed by the dilution of the hordes of leftist special agenda grievance longers inappropriately trying To hijack that financial abuse issue for their own agendas the result was no reform In the now dare I say we are seeing the blm the Anarchists the looters the vandals the domestic terrorists anti-fog the national dirty political Tactician press and political parties taking focus away from the central issue Of an unaccountable government abuse of power for their own purposes and are risking another failure or probably worse They might succeed in destroying society. Thanks. Bye again All right next speaker you on the line Hi, my name is Edith. I'm a Santa Cruz resident. I want to first acknowledge that we are on the unceded territory of Mama Luton. I acknowledge the voices in the community that are asking for abolishment of the police in solidarity with the black lives matter According to the city budget proposal fcpd is asking for over 400,000 more the next fiscal year Which is a grand total increase of over 3 million since 2019 as the city must cut costs due to COVID-19 We must focus our budget on care and resources not surveillance and state violence According to policescorecard.org fcpd uses more force the tons tasers and strangleholds Per arrest than 23 percent of police departments in california That is both a physical and mental cost of violence and to error Terror on our community as well as the monetary cost of those weapons If we really want to save money and the worth of our community stop sending local police to other communities such as Outglift if we want to build a better san Cruz post COVID disarm fcpd Instead of funding a pepper spray rubber bullets firearms tasers tear gas and riot gear to use on protesters who have been peaceful so far Direct that money to our houses community members our families and our students who needed a lot more than White home owners need a sense of safety divided by the legacy of the slave patrol. Thank you so much for your time Thank you I want to give props to you mayor Cummings and to chief mills for the way you guys handle the protests Really super commendable and also my condolences to the Sheriff's office and the losses On the deputy gut spiler I actually had tried to comment on item number 16 and for some reason my star nine didn't hit So just real briefly there's an issue there. I know it was already passed on second reading, but That's the mandatory Involuntary election composition limits and it's unclear whether that applies in recall candidate elections as we just had Because there was an issue with this last recall and I don't want to relive the past. It's over but the I think that you should make it clear whether they intend to that is to apply to Recall candidates as well Because there was a violation Thank you very much Life chair of the Seneca's arts commission Uh, first, thank you for your time I would like to bring to your attention Uh an application for a permit presented by adam moustafa for a special event held on front street that is uh a mural for black lives matter I believe this requires immediate attention From the council and once again, thank you for everything Other than Santa Cruz we've been a resident here since 2014 I want to begin by saying that we are in the unseated territory of up indians represented by the almond woodson tribal bands That black lives matter and although I will never understand the black experience of racism. I stand with black people in full of color I would like to share my experience and talk on the conduct and priorities I've worked as a security guard in Santa Cruz since 2015 beginning at the crow's nest in the blue lagoon until 2018 And from 2018 to present at brady's yacht club In the time I have had to handle stabbing, strive by shootings assault and talk to people And survive with minimal harm to myself and no harm to others On April 20th, 2018. I was attacked and assaulted for being gay A stranger assaulted me out of nowhere inside the assie referring to me as a faggot I am a gay man After leaving the assie my assailant and some others attacked myself and a friend I had to call them as cpb three times over two days to get someone to take a statement I was told they were very busy And put on to be impressed immediately that this was not a priority I understand that there are more important issues than the hate crimes, but I feel that it should be a priority After months, I finally had a follow-up There was video evidence of the assault But that was it other than a letter saying you were the victim of a crime I'm going to stop you. Thank you for providing us with that information And let us know if we can follow up with you on Adjusting that to the sound book of pretty serious concern. Thank you for calling in We've been the Santa Cruz to just address the allocation of our tax dollars and policing in our community With COVID-19 city staffers have been recommending that we like cut upwards to six million dollars in spending I think it's by by far time that the city looks at how much spending is going into the police department And how much we're actually getting out of it as a community I really want to urge the council to reevaluate the city's financial relationship with policing in ways that like are making officers In ways like making officers liable for misconduct settlements and not taxpayers From withholding pensions and we're not rehiring cops who are involved with excessive force and abuse Claims as well as the spending paid leaves for cops who are under investigation But I think it's really really important that we just stop sending our police to terrorize other communities I don't know why Santa Cruz is allowing their cops to go and trample on another community's right to pre-speech Like that's just some like wrong side of history stuff. I really think we need to end these mutual aid agreements You know our city doesn't mirror large urban areas that find themselves assaulted with militarized police forces Santa Cruz has in many ways already been a leading example of what a community Led resource could be but I think it's far from good enough And I hope that the council takes this to heart and will push for official time For the community to express in that their concern. Thank you Hi, my name's Al and I really appreciate everything you guys do. I know it's a hard job First of all, I wanted to say that the events that happened over the weekend With the murder of the deputy sheriff Damon Gertz while I was really shaking us all up here um and It happens 250 days after one of my best friends to shower atray was also kidnapped and murdered from his home in pleasure point and both were senseless acts of violence and I've I've been here in Santa Cruz for a few years and it's been a shock to us that the level of violence here is so high and We believe Andy mills and his chief and and and Mayor Justin Cummins. Thank you so much for your courageous and calming impact on during the blm Writing downtown It showed a level of sort of discipline and and and leadership that I hadn't seen before And of course, I was in the the marchers as well as the paddle outs for blm I support everything that they do but I really urge you do not cut the police In fact, if you feel like you need to increase it a big supporter of that Thank you for everything that you do and We hope we can get back to a community with respect love and and all the values that we really appreciate Thank you. I'm on Hi, um, my name is josh brahinsky. I live in Santa Cruz I want to say i'm really saddened by the violence against the police this weekend And I think that there's a way to create a community where the polarization became the police and The people um Is really different the recent events in minneapolis and covet crisis create an opportunity to think differently And I think a serious look at how we can rethink the kinds of power police haven't used We don't need a person with a gun to respond to the vast majority of mental health situations We don't need a person with a gun to deal with a forge $20 bill We don't need a person with a gun to give a speeding ticket We don't need a person with a gun to support homeless people and the list goes on We need people trained to deal with difficult and most small situations Not trained to catch criminals, which means that we don't need the police in many many many situations We need to defund the police and there's a whole bunch of things we can do. I mean look at what's happening in minneapolis So let's defund the santa cruz police and what we're figuring out how to make that work Continuing the hiring freeze on police right now for a police set of oakland And just notice that if we're spending 30 million dollars or the 100 million dollar budget on the cops That is way way too much Pete and hannah, um, I've been a resident of santa cruz for 14 years In response to the black lives matter movement and countrywide calls for defunding the police Expect the council to create a special session or an agenda item at the very least On the next meeting with regards to the defunding of the scpd and the underfunding of humanitarian and social services Over the year i've witnessed countless hours and dollars spent through the scpd on asking our unhoused population To move to move to move to not sit here to not lay down here I feel that that the scpd's labor efforts and funds are grossly misused and in need of major reallocation. Thank you Yeah, Andrew Carlson. I'm a local maker fabricator Prototyper and business consultant and I have a budget a bunch of budgetary questions. I hope I have the right data here But my understanding is that you're asking to cut six million dollars out of the budget And ironically you're asking to increase the police budget to 28.1 percent Which would be larger than the library public works economic development combined And also there's been an insufficient response to cova especially in terms of ppe My maker lab has actually been producing a ton of that And it's not been going well in terms of how the community is responded So I would like to ask why are we not suspending paid admin for cops who are under investigation for excessive violence, for example, and why do you have 23 percent higher excessive force when it comes to per arrest so 23 percent higher rate per arrest for violence compared to any other PD Anyway, I would like to defund the police. Thank you And the city of Santa Cruz immediately begin a process of defunding the police and begin supporting the needs of our communities In ways that will eventually make police police obsolete That means housing for all health care for all including mental health care and addiction treatment And other services for all who are in need. It means emergency responders who are not cops and who are trained in conflict mediation Who are mental health care providers and social workers the city needs to support and fund marginalized communities in Santa Cruz They deserve care not cops Doing so will be a baby step towards repairing the damage that has been done by over policing police brutality police complicity with ice gentrification and the general whitewashing of Santa Cruz history and culture We can't settle for reforms that have been tried and have failed in other cities Fight for the future. We want and deserve while you're at it and cash bail and end juvenile detention now Santa Cruz county. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak I'm asking for the council to not approve an increase in budget for the police force And instead allocate more funds to education housing and community-based programs in Santa Cruz I was shocked to learn that policing took 12 percent of the city's budget in 2018 While only 1.8 percent went to housing I feel strongly that the police force does not need more funding Especially since Santa Cruz police department uses more force per arrest than 23 percent of other police departments in california I will also be following how each council member votes to determine who I would like to elect in the future as well Thank you for your time I'm 33 year old sit here in Santa Cruz california. I'm seated on one of some territory I'm calling for the reallocation of police funds to humanitarian and social services We should not be sending cops to do jobs that should be done by by social workers. Thank you very much Thank you My name is Sabina and I live in Santa Cruz. I was born here and I raised my kids here I'm a boring middle-aged white mom that is asking you to defund the police The police are dangerous. They're dangerous to our kids and to our community They treat every situation as a hammer because that's the tool that they have Why are we giving money to a violent force and the money could go into the community for good? The police budget is 28.1 percent of the budget Look around at how many other areas of our community that could use those funds We could house everyone Instead our tax dollars and Santa Cruz are going to fbpd backing up police brutality in Oakland We also need to remove the police from our school. Why are we sending police with guns into our school? I don't want my tax dollars going to that. Do you? Black Lives Matter? Good evening I'm a resident of Santa Cruz county and a white resident that completely supports the black lives matter movement And defunding the police in order to put back the power in the hands of the community And put an end to the police brutality experience in not only in california But all across the united states policing our community takes up the largest chunk of our city's general operating budget This means more funding is going toward policing than economic development library funding and community development combined Thanks to the police score.org and your online sce city budget proposal I want to list out some important numbers Our county is expecting a budget deficit of 10 to 20 million due to covet 19 And the sheriff's office is asking for an eight million dollar increase in the next fiscal year Which is completely unacceptable Before my time is up I'd like to summarize some things that I think we should make a priority in the next meeting Deep on the police and allocate the money and resources to organizations that are specialized in various professions such as social workers and medical To spend use of paid admin leave for cops under investigation Withhold pensions from and don't rehire cops involved in excessive force Require cops to be liable for misconduct settlements, not pack players Withdraw participation of police militarization programs and military exercises Disarm the scpd no more pepper spray rubber bullets fire arms armored vehicles tasers tear gas or riot gear We are people and you are not at war with us. Thank you for listening Yep This is Rachel Martinez, and I'm a santa coups resident I would first like to agree with katlyn hannah's request that the council hold a special session for defunding the scpd I find it extremely concerning that there's over 400 000 dollars proposed for the scpd in the upcoming budget It's embarrassing to be living in a city that boasts progressiveness while sending combat ready officers to a historically black community Disciple the voices of the residents I'm ashamed to live in a city that values the violent and oppressive police department over the health and safety of their citizens Do you fund our police department invest in our community and let santa coups be the progressive haven you all pretend it is? Thank you Thank you. My name is rachel travez. I'm an rn who's lived in santa coups most of my life I'm asked i'm here today to ask you to defund the police Services like housing education and health care have been drained of funds that were siphoned off even increasingly militarized police force santa cruise you only have to walk around downtown for a minute or so to see the devastating effects of lack of housing in our community In 2018 funding for housing took up only 1.8 percent of the budget community programs 2 percent while policing took up 12 percent Placing is an inherently racist system in santa cruise in 2015 Black people made up 4.3 of all arrests and only 0.9 of the total population But annie mills will tell you that scpd is too enlightened to act in a racist manner This shows either total misunderstanding or an absolute refusal to the college how systemic racism is perpetuated in systems We can look to minneapolis to see that police reforms and implicit bias trading Unequivocally unequivocally do not you enough police still wound up murdering black people with impunity Madison i'm a longtime resident of santa cruise Just wanted to offer my thoughts to our council members as you set priorities for our budget in upcoming weeks I would like to see the city of santa cruise adopt a socially responsible budget that prioritizes health and welfare spending over policing Nearly a third of our city general funds are dedicated to policing It's my understanding that the police have requested a budget increase within 28 21 fiscal year This request should be rejected and police funding should be reallocated toward health and welfare programs The allocating resources would protect the most vulnerable in our community as the city reckons with the consequences of decreasing resources To meet the essential needs of its residents And I would just like to say if you fail to prioritize people over police in your budget considerations Not only will I not vote for you when the time comes, but I will do everything in my power to help replace you with more progressive challengers Thank you for your time President my name is mackenna and i'm calling to ask you to be from the police because they're Funded too heavily and they're trying to pass ordinances like the quality of life ordinance that actually asks That if you criminalize to have syringes on you without a prescription and other things like camping from 7 a.m. To 10 p.m. And then 10 p.m. To 7 a.m. Which doesn't make any sense Yeah, I just think the attacking of homeless people in this community has gone on for far too long I think it's a waste of our time santa cruise pd Does more misdemeanor arrest than 98 percent of police departments of california according to police scorecard.com And yeah, I would say just deep on the police. Um, we don't need them to have Happens that they have or the power that they have. Thanks Yeah, i'm a santa cruise county resident student at cabrillo college Um, I want everyone listening to question yourself whether you think the santa cruise county police department is an institution worthy of your taxes Instead of giving them more money to arm themselves with weapons to use against us and also the protesters of oakland Which we demand sees immediately We should be using that money to create a more robust system of care and support for homeless people and addicts And to create a team of crisis responders that resolve conflict without violence I understand that our mayor is working closely with the police to practice reform However, you cannot reform a system that is inherently violent the criminal justice system is inextricably bound to oppression We cannot solve homelessness or addiction by criminalizing it. Our community needs care not cops Minneapolis is already talking about defunding and expanding their police I truly believe santa cruise would be the perfect place to adopt this model and become an example for the rest of california We deserve the chance to dream of something better and we can be better santa cruise is amazing and I have faith in us Thank you very much Hello, thank you for having me. My name is caroline. I'm here. I'm a longtime resident here. I'm also student at cabrillo college Um, I agree with the idea of a special meeting to talk about black black lives matter and the whole movement But I also agree that with the um budget there should be so much more money poured into minority Education, um as the first generation high school graduate. I attend cabrillo college. I'm a daughter of a single mother I'm a minority and a woman. I was denied a long time ago in the public school system as an elementary school student The right to have a proper education I actually had to leave the system to be able to achieve the same goals that i'm achieving today So I really would want you guys to consider putting Investing so much more money into the education for minority students So that we can together grow as a community and grow an equal education because it's a human right I live in the city of santa cruz And I'm calling to ask you to agendize Reducing the funding for or even eliminating the santa cruz. Uh, city police department Um, we can give the important work that the police does the other city department Uh, we can maybe not give anyone the task of running around the city hassling the homeless We could maybe spend the extra money we save not doing that on housing the homeless Uh, and I just don't feel comfortable having the city employing people who are authorized to kill in my name Thank you And then you I got to talk there. So thank you. I'm a long time resident here in santa cruz I would like to call a meeting about the redistribution of the of the budget in santa cruz. Um, I feel that Having the police department taking up as much of the budget as libraries public works and economic development Combined I think that that needs to be looked closer at There's a uh, there's a memory that a lot of the students here santa cruz have um during the cola um demonstrations with police showing up And breaking a a young man's hand And smacking a young woman on the skull with a baton So viral photos of police kneeling with us, um Feels more like a stunt and we want to be involved in Their process. Thank you Hello, can you hear me? Yes Hi, I just wanted to call to say that I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the santa cruz police department is receiving 30 million dollars per year Um, which is 34 of the total budget I really think that we should be investing in issues such as homelessness housing and for sure climate change Um, and I know that the the budget for climate change projects, which would be investing in our future Which is super important to me as a young person to protect our future generations and the city of santa cruz um They get like $30,000 a year from the general fund And I think that is an insane contrast compared to 30 million dollars for the police department So please please please defund them or at least bring it down a substantial amount. Thank you I'm sorry about that. Um, I just want to say my name is devin rainwater I'm a resident and student santa cruz And I want to say to be a police officer is a personal and willful choice and it is a job that can be easily left Um officer officer safety is not discussed in the black lives matter movement because it is not at risk People who are at risk are by poc folks targeted by years of systemic racism Um officers are trained for a very small amount of time to be violent and all cops participate in a fundamentally racist system We must defund the scpd and instead fund public education housing support and mental health services that will reduce crime in the city Um, I hope to see my community safe and this means I want to see an abolition of the police My name is anna adanski Working county middle health for the last few years working with mostly the homeless population and substance abusers So being inside of that system, I think that I've seen what's been happening with the police recently I think that it makes a lot of sense for santa cruz county to funnel some of their funds instead to preventative care and um mental health care Uh housing and food justice I think that we could take away some of the funding that's going towards tasers batons and outdated Things that our police probably don't need. Um, I'd like to see strangle tools not be used by same police and overall I'd just like to see The finances be be funded and reinvested into the care of our communities rather than the policing of our communities Oh, yeah, I'd also like to see mental health training for our police. My brother's a police officer So I know these you know hardcore anti police, but I think I'd like to see the escalation anti racial Entity racist training for mental health training Thank you so much Rami and I'm here to discuss the president's piece um, a majority of the calls that the police receive are Um about the homeless population, which they are not trained to properly deal with Funds need to be reallocated to mental health and addiction services Education and housing the funding needs to be reallocated to support our most vulnerable communities Thank you Thank you I would like to bring to the council's attention the urgency of this proposal to create a mural on front street To show where we stand on black lives matter And I would also like to support everyone else in defunding the Santa Cruz police department and relocating funds to education climate change And housing for our homeless. Thank you in edwards. I'm the resident of Santa Cruz county I actually moved here a couple years ago from new orleans and one thing that I was extremely struck by Uh, similarly to many of my fellow community members is that our police are extremely overfunded Coming from new orleans, um a city that has a much more violent crime They actually have a lower percentage of their city's General funds that go to the police 88 percent of crime in Santa Cruz according to this city website is non violent property crime I think we all know why this crime has to happen people are not given the housing They are not given the resources and the care they need to live I believe that our city's funds would be much better and much more He mainly used to house the homeless and to provide this care over funding the police I strongly suggest like my community members that we hold a specific budget meaning about defunding the police and call that we do progressively slash Beginning with 50 percent defund the police and with the goal of disdaining the police. Thank you so much Wanted to speak during oral community patients. You must press Star 9 on your phone in order to raise your hand And I think the next person should be on one Hi, is that me? Yep Hi, so I have a few concerns first off last month 21 year old black man named tomario smith was found alone dead in his jail cell And the cause of death has still not been released When someone dies in the care of a public safety department, the cause of death needs to be public information to hold those departments accountable Second my friend 15 year old son was recently riding his bike home from pleasure point in his wetsuit with a boogie board When he was pulled over by sancu sheriff officers who tried to get him in trouble for being at the beach during the closure As I hope you know the waters remained open for his surfing and boogie boarding during this closure And my friend son was not breaking any rules In the middle of the stop the scso officer had to actually google The law that he was trying to enforce and as you know scso is enforcing the beach closures in south county beaches And this racial profiling is an embarrassing reflection of the carelessness that police in sancu exhibit on way too many of their law enforcement contacts So please define considered defunding scpd. Thank you. Oh, that was just me. I just spoke terribly. Thank you. Yeah I think this is melanie jones resident and homeowner here And I wanted to address the request by the scpd for an additional $467,000 for the next fiscal year I think that we can all agree that over the course of the past few weeks The world has really woken up to this issue of over policing and how so many of society's most pressing problems Which have the potential to be addressed and rectified are instead being policed and criminalized The police here in sancu's already account for the lion's share of our budget So rather than just approve another request for more funding Why not use this particular moment in time this collective global wake-up moment to stop and reflect on how that 460 grand might be better spent other communities that have taken the approach of investing more heavily in social services And scaling back on police have ultimately decreased crime save taxpayer dollars and elevated human potential Given the police has have already received more than two and a half million dollars in additional budget since 2019 Right now just seems like the ideal moment to pause on approving yet another increase And instead step back and address how we can better invest in our community Making sancu's an even better place to live for all. Thank you Please last 13 and then we're going to move on to our Evening item next speaker. I'm on Hello, this is elizabeth clifton-doulin. I'm a sancu's city resident a long-time community member of 40 years I support the sancu's city police department under the direction of andy mills. I think it is that they need to continue funding And they have done a beautiful job in deescalating their staff and Keeping us all protected. Thank you sancu's police department I have lived in the west side of sancu's special session discussed police funding in sancu's and like many people I was upset to learn that 28 percent of the operating budget goes to the police center city and that they're asking for even more money Especially given the intended deficit brought on by covet I'd like to urge the council to vote against the proposed budget increases the center of office and scpd And instead we allocate current funding to a service to the porter community such as housing education and parks and rec Other cities are adopting this model as they are confronted with this Disapportionment violence inflicted by the police and blast indigenous people of color and they should not be the last to follow I'm a white woman who's allowed to feel safe in sancu's but many of my bipod peers do not to the point that several have fled the city I'll be tracking how the council members vote on this issue to inform how I spend my votes in the next election I'd also like to add perhaps council person's shoulders for your frame to making passive record remarks like I don't know how to talk about this. I'm not a stoner and it's ready to educate themselves or not speak about things They don't know how to talk about thank you for your time the um sancu's police department social media As a social media manager by trade five days ago. There was a post called a tale of two protests um in which The sancu's police department um on their facebook twitter instagram and on the city website said that the A violent protest Was led by ucsc grad students, but that is not at all true A blatant act of defamation and trying to divide Our community and it's a clearly unfounded and blatant attack on our own citizen um, so i'm just calling for the police to do better and to Like find their sources social media for the good of the community especially um because that viral photo of the chief officer and you may are coming In your resident of jana cruz county, and I just wanted to say that I support creating a special session to discuss the police department funding and reallocation of funds to more community supportive associations and taking some of the responsibilities that are placed on police and creating alternative departments to address the issues that could be raised without force and I also would like to say that I support the initiative to um Do a mural for the black lives matter movement on front street. Thank you. My name is elizabeth I'm a resident of santa cruz. I want to first take a moment for all the lives that have been lost recently um from police brutality from the protest or from covet um, and then I just want to support all the calls that have been made to refund and reallocate the resources that are going towards the police um, I think that Santa Cruz deserves to be a safe and fair place for everybody not just those white, wealthy residents in making the meeting to make these budgetary changes that is concrete re-showing the residents of color that the santa cruz city council cares and is committed to eradicating the racism that does exist here and that affects the lives of everybody, especially those residents of color. Thank you for taking my call My name is mel. I'm a santa cruz resident and I want to address the proposed increase to the police budget It doesn't make any sense to me as well as many other community community members who have stated in this meeting Why we would increase the police department budget to a proposed 28 of our budget Which will be more than multiple sectors combined The police which historically started as slave patrol in the south is entrenched in systematic racism I know y'all know what that means I know you know what that means black and brown people are racially profiled in santa cruz all the time We also demand that you immediately stop sending the santa cruz police department to participate in egregious violence against protestors in oakland This is this is just wrong and I know y'all know that and you have the power to do something The answer is to fund the police and work towards abolishing the police so that we can truly invest in community based solutions We demand that you call a meeting to address reducing funding for the police Do y'all want to be on the side of justice? Be fund the police Do not doubt that we are all watching to see how you show up and fail to show up for justice. Thank you Speaking on the line cruise is a paradise beach city the ocean breeze and hugged by the redwood forest The city also has a long history of racism that spawns from the oppression of the native peoples To the daily harassment or worse of its current non-whites Listen to the voices of your people They have overwhelmingly spoken You fill the city with more police action You fill the city With the image of a town out of control and who wants to vacation or go to college or buy their house In a heavily policed municipality people like justin beaver vacation in the area Because of the giant dipper not the giant police department You have artists educators innovators and passionate population to whom you can direct funding to come up with the solutions needed To make santa cruz the amazing place. It's always meant to be The choice is yours You may not have long to make it Because the people will speak out and act out against you This is black. My name is nicolas church. I was born and raised in santa cruz county I'm calling for a defunding and of the police department taking up 28 percent of budget more than library public work And economic development I'm truly appalled that we would send our police department to oakland to enforce systemic racism We claim to be one of the most liberal places in california, let alone the country We need to act like it become the cornerstone for the redefining how a community could be protected If you do not act if you do not work towards We will see it You are under a microscope now I yield my time Hi, my name is avatar joshi and I'd like to thank the council members for taking my call I've lived in santa cruz for the past five years and i've been a homeowner for the past two years And i'm calling about the use of excessive force by the police department Across the nation and I know that in city of santa cruz That a significant portion of the city's operating budget goes to the police department The sbpd uses more force for arrest than 23 percent of other police departments in california And the excessive use of force has even been used against peaceful processors peaceful student protesters on the campus of uc santa cruz during the cola movement And this is absolutely unacceptable I would like to urge the council to vote against the proposed budget increases to the sheriff's office and the sbpd And instead reallocate their current funding towards services that support our community Such as housing and health department education parks and rec and public works Other cities are adopting this model as they're confronting the disproportionate violence inflected by the police on Black indigenous and people of color and we should not be the last to follow I'll be following how the council members vote and I intend to use this issue to inform how I vote in the next election. Thank you very much for taking my call I'm also calling to encourage you to put defunding the police on your next agenda or call a special meeting um, I agree with everyone that the way we're treating homeless people in this county Is atrocious and we really should be using Money that's currently going to mostly harass homeless people it feels like to Support them and to address the housing affordability crisis. Thanks y'all Hi, my name is ashley. I've lived in santa cruz for 23 years as the world grapples with tough and necessary decisions about systemic racism policing And funding communities. I believe it's far past time santa cruz does something in all part of this Stop sending our police to terrorize other communities. Why is santa cruz allowing their cops to go and trample other communities? Right to the free of speech. We must end these mutual aid agreements SCCD's budget is going to be more than the Economic development community development and public works combined with housing crisis climate change at our front door And a pandemic in our hands. We must thank progressively and spending money money for forward change I hope that the council takes this to heart and will push for official time for a community to express In fact, their concerns and their hopes for a future of the city and take a closer look at the proposed increased sbcd's budget and see that if the money would be spent better elsewhere. Thank you Thank you This is Veronica Barnard I'm frankly appalled by the proposal to allot 28.1 of the budget towards policing These budget increases are clearly not investing back into our community The one million dollar budget to alleviate homelessness one of the most pressing issues in santa cruz Especially during the time of COVID-19 tales and comparisons eyes. There's only an 800 thousand dollar budget for project room key in santa cruz There are 1 204 individuals experiencing homelessness With a whopping 78 un-sheltered in santa cruz with only 150 grams allotted by project room key With the city spending 17 million of city resources towards quote reacting to the impact of homelessness Is clear that more policing is not going to fix the issue You must reallocate funds towards affordable housing shelters rehabilitation programs related to drug through mental illness The city is currently burning through money an abusive cycle of arrest and release with its population experiencing homelessness And the criminalization of this population break the chain Reallocate this money and invest in bettering our community defund the police. My name is emory woodell I live in santa cruz, california, and i'm also calling to defund the police You guys have been drilled with uh all the statistics already. Um, we don't need police in in schools and uh We need to reinvest in our community services. Thank you Toria nobles and I have lived in santa cruz county for 20 years I co-own a preschool and live oak serving families of children age two to five years old We actively practice practice anti-bias and anti-racist education. We stand with and support black lives matter We do not shy away from difficult and uncomfortable conversations. We hold ourselves accountable when we mess it up I would like to see the issues that directly relate to inequity Experienced by black indigenous and people of color in our community be made a priority by our city government Have the difficult and uncomfortable conversations hold each other accountable when you get it wrong Hold yourselves accountable to the people who need you most. Thank you for your time and all your work that you're doing Yep, this is lisa how I was born and raised in santa cruz and the santa cruz resident now And I would like you to be fun the police. I think it would be in the community's best interest to reinvest in housing mental health services harm reduction drug treatment and And education so thank you very much. Uh, yes charles lee wood. I'm a resident of santa cruz I think uh The what the police department is doing is absolutely wonderful. I think it should be fully funded I I see From what I've seen is a police department that is well organized Knows how to control people and has very well trained Officers so please do not defund Any part of the police department at all. Thank you Thank you. Hi, this is piper de bella and echo what so many of the others have said and really urge you guys to consider defunding the police The money spent on the santa cruz police department could be so much more effectively On services for housing and education and mental health. Thank you for taking my call My name is rachel. I um A santa cruz resident born and raised here and I would like to echo the calls to Defund the police and invest in Community programs. I would also like to add that a variety of sociological and criminal criminal logical research on the causes of crime has shown that at least in part crime occurs Because pockets of concentrated disadvantage deny people opportunities to participate in community in their greater community and invest therefore investing in community works and programs that center community advocates from within these neighborhoods is a way to lower crime rates therefore Need for highly militarized police forces, which in fact incite violence as we have seen across the country this week Thank you for taking my call. My name is Santiago as a longtime resident of santa cruz I'm calling for an immediate community meeting or at least for you to add to your agenda the discussion of Our current and projected budgets with the intention specifically of reallocating percentages of scpd's budgets Into more community-based resources including but not limited to families education community-based support community engagement housing etc etc. Thank you very much Thank you CJ Fagundas and I was born and have spent most of my life living in santa cruz I would like to join the voices of many who have spoken before me to call for both a special city council meeting agenda item regarding the police budget And particularly defunding the police I would like to call for the defunding of the santa cruz police department and the reallocation of those funds to community-based programs That are in high demand such as housing mental health Education harm reduction addiction services and many more Pleasing these issues has proved been proven to be ineffective and only hurts our community further I would also ask that we step away from the practice of mutual aid Which uses taxpayer dollars to enact violence in cities like oakland against citizens who are using their right to peacefully protest I would like to also remind each of you that the members of this community will be watching and will hold Each of you accountable for the actions you take in the coming weeks and months. Thank you yep Okay, we have two speakers left Then we'll likely take a really short break and then I'm trying to get to our evening item Okay, see you on the line Hello, I'm Karen leewood and I do not want to defund the police department Uh, I moved here in 1970. I've been here for 50 years and I cannot believe I that I would have to try and protect myself. I do not own a gun And people have come in they've stolen the trust things like that We need to have the police be available If I need them, thank you very much Thank you Hi, my name is cameron bacher. Um, I'm a senator's resident and I'd like to echo the need to defund the police The police department is built on violence and racism and cannot be reformed Santa Cruz also has a history of white supremacy racism And colonialism and it's time that we make decisions that value anti-racism And the people of this community rather than the police, please defund scpd and remove santa cruz officers from oakland immediately Thank you Yeah, our evening item See you on the line My name is david doulan. I'm a senator's resident and I've written with the police a number of times The way that they interact with the public is compassionate caring And yet at the same time protecting of our people I feel like they should Continue with the level of funding that they need to protect the citizens and at the same time Act compassionately with with all of the people that they interact with thank you Thank you. We are going to take a break And reconvene 35 we'll say 33 and I'm sure people will be on at the 35 So we'll try to get our evening items started about 835 to give uh council members another quick break Since we haven't really had many this entire day So if this is an item you want to comment on now is the time to call and using the instructions on your screen The order will be a presentation of the item by staff for the council members who brought the item forward Follow my questions for the council then take public comment and return to the council for action deliberation And with that i'll turn it over to um maureen smith assistant senior manager Thank you, mayor vice mayor and council members. Are you able to see my screen? Okay with the power point? great, um, we are here to Discuss a shift on to an interim recovery plan But the quick topics will cover our the convergence of covet 19 and our existing strategic plan process A model for discussion and what possible next steps would be with the council So as we started emerge from the Beginning of the shelter in place in the middle of march toward the end of April going into may we began to realize that we were on a little bit of a Mental and emotional teeter totter where on the one hand We were dealing with all of the reactionary needs We had to do to the shelter in place and the shifting public health orders and having to be responsive as much as possible Maintaining nimbleness and decisively acting in order to maintain key services and deliver what we needed to to the community that was offset by this Definite need to also start looking toward the future and To be very thoughtful and start to do a balanced evaluation of how we would go about recovery So this is a situation that we found ourselves in and uh Mayor Cummings vice mayor Myers and councilmember Watkins separately went to city manager marquine Bernal Basically asking about the recovery part of the teeter totter So based upon that we had a brief Meeting to discuss the convergence of these two Aspects of our lives at this point. So we had COVID-19 on one point which is as you all know unpredictable We have to figure out what works now In relationship to the course of the pandemic and what's going on at the state and county national world levels And then it's always changing and we're constantly redefining our world in order to be able to adjust to the course of the pandemic This was offset by an existing process that we had already launched in the winter time for strategic planning But the strategic plan that we launched was broad-based. It had a one to three year horizon And it essentially was going to represent the stable foundation on which we made Decisions so it was going to be the policy direction from the council for one to three years and help guide staff operational decisions and priorities and Ultimately budget decisions as well So with these two forces in mind They collided and what we hopefully need to do now is Balance the teeter totter of COVID with strategic planning and focus on interim planning informed by the COVID-19 context So How could we explain this in in a model so This is a legend to a model I'm going to put up next that helps context of The win the who the what and the how So the winners are related to the phases that we're in related to the pandemic as well as with planning the who is who works on various aspects of the different phases and what output Would the council work on in the context of this and then underline all of this How does the council want to go about establishing guiding principles for us to be able to do the what the who and at what time This is the model when we think about the convergence of COVID-19 and strategic planning And it becoming interim planning Over the top we have the state and county orders and the other health disaster impacts that the pandemic represents Those are constant. We're not sure How They will develop what course they'll take but we know that they're out there. We're not sure when they'll taper We know that we're increasing Availability we're moving from stage three. It looks like a little bit into Stage two a little bit into stage three at this point with the opening of the movie theaters and that sort of thing And the timeline that that will occur in is uncertain so we just have that across the top as The disaster is going to impact us on an ongoing basis So phase rise the win We're in the reactionary and responsive phase. We've been taking steps To help residents and businesses and developing support programs and that's been ongoing since The march time frame of when we first started sheltering in place And then we're also at this point now in parallel Working in the recovery mode and in the recovery mode. We are developing new normals it's normal now to walk into the building and see a fellow community member in with a pace covering on it's normal for us to walk down a sidewalk and look ahead and want to Participate how we're going to maintain that maintain that six foot of social distance with the other person So during this recovery phase, we've developed to these new normals and the new normals will evolve and change as the disease changes course and then ultimately ultimately out in possibly, you know, 15 18 Plus months out We start to then to consider the bigger picture and the vision and the re-visioning of Santa Cruz And how we're going to move forward given the economic health social and other Impacts that this disease has had on us So those are the phases that we're in The model seems that we're in this reactionary and responsive phase as well as the recovery at this point So who works on items during these phases So one of the things that the conversation with the council members and some staff members spoke about is There are existing county-wide structures that are in place and your agenda reports Alludes to those there are economic councils that are being started by the county of Santa Cruz And we want to leverage those county-wide structures and participate in them for those that bigger picture county-wide work So those have been primarily focused on this recovery and new normal phase We've obviously been working in reactionary and responsive with joining with them or the operation centers But these structures are focused on the recovery and then eventually the re-visioning of our area Also working in these phases economic development and other Departments like public works and planning and community development, but primarily economic development has been taking a very strategic but But tactical as well role in developing these Resident and business support programs So they've been very nimble and they've had to be to be able to put together the business Reopening kits to be able to put together with public works planning and calm death And everybody else the ability to open up different sections of Pacific Avenue So economic development needs to remain nimble to be able to help Lead the reactionary and responsiveness phase as it relates to especially business support in this phase overlapping economic development are citywide teams and Here a possibility for a citywide team that currently is not in place would be an interim Planning an interim recovery plan team Consisting of council members. So that could be the mayor and the vice mayor and a council member to be named and they would develop into a interim recovery plan team And we already have the budget Committee that the council formed at the April 14th meeting and that consists of the mayor And the vice mayor and council member brown So the city team here focuses in this recovery mode helping establish new normals figuring out financially How we're going to respond to the pandemic and then hopefully focusing on The interim recovery plan as well So more specifically how does council What does council look like in this planning phase? so The possibilities that you could act upon this evening is you could do an immediate prioritization And the bubbles are kind of proportional to the amount of work So the the immediate prioritization you could look at the backlog of cal council initiated and assigned items That we re-looked at on april the 14th and took action on as far as a restart date And then a first return date to council You could look at those that immediate prioritization and you could look at the list and decide to take action on some of those Tonight to be able to say move this one up take this one Off move this one lower etc. And so on so that could be something that you could do and it really Impacts this reactionary responses and recovery work The other thing that is probably needed for those items that you aren't able to act on immediately tonight if you do item number a with item number b. You might wish to develop a council rubric for tactical response Because we need something as staff to be able to ping against that has let's say, you know Yz number of criteria that helps us remain nimble and helps us make decisions out there on a day-to-day basis So some of this is recovery But a lot of it still remains the reactionary and responsive work that we need to do to be able to Work day to day and take quick action That is still very much a need for staff and our organization to be able to function that way So b might be developing a council rubric for tactical response And you could articulate your priorities through criteria that we could then apply to the backlog of lists that is out there And then finally that council rubric could be part of a bigger effort that you do That is a council interim recovery plan. So that could be item c for you to take action on So rather than focus on the broader one to three year Stabilization strategic plan that we were previously going to do We would focus on a council interim recovery plan with a horizon of 12 to 18 months So that could be an example of what you would do for that area And then ultimately out here Hopefully in the 12 to 15 month time frame even as late as 18 months from now As we emerge and we understand what the economy is doing what the pandemic is doing How the health is going how or how the the situation is going with our community You could shift your attention to a council strategic revisioning process But this is something that I think is quite a few months out at this point And what we really need at this point is this interim recovery plan that shifts from bigger picture one to three year out to a 12 to 18 month horizon offset by the cove in 19 context And then ultimately the other thing that the the group had wanted to put forth are guiding principles of how The council planning and the work group is guided along its path to planning So responsiveness and nimbleness were critical Creative pursuit of all funding. Those are always continuing to emerge. We get new information at the federal state levels on a pretty consistent basis We need to be aware of risk and mitigate it where we need to We need to have community engagement and underlying all of this is our health and all policies and equity sustainability and public health obviously equity After everything that's been going on with the joy George Floyd and everything else Equity is a huge lens through which we need to influence the way that we go about our recovery and and an interim recovery plan So that's the model So the sweet spot for council should you decide to act on this this evening is possibly considering the list of items and there is a handout in your agenda packet of how you might wish to take any immediate prioritization on the list of items and then through a council recovery plan committee you may wish to um direct staff and or that committee to develop a rubric for tactical response and then also form The committee in order to produce an interim recovery plan with an approximate 18 month time horizon We talked about the underlying principles already and then This just summarizes in your agenda report the possible actions I know I went through that really quickly, but I also know that you guys are pretty tired at this point. So um Mayor Cummings vice mayor mires and councilmember Watkins if there's anything you'd like to add and elaborate on I would appreciate any feedback presentation. No, I think it's you know, just want to make sure the public is aware that um, we councilmember Watkins Vice mayor mires myself, and I'm sure the other council members as well We're all really concerned with you know, how the community is going to recover from COVID-19. And so I think we were you know, a few months ago really trying to be proactive um with regards to understanding what can a recovery process look like and rather than thinking about some of the one to three year out priorities given that we're in such a time of uncertainty that it was really important that we focus in On the impact of COVID-19 on our community and people's ability to Gather and then kind of come up with a plan that would really help our community recover from So thanks for putting that together and I'll turn to my colleagues to see if they have any Other comments or questions. So vice mayor mires. Thank you. You're muted. Donna All right Yeah, thank you to the staff and to um mayor Cummings and former mayor Watkins Yeah, I mean we all came kind of came out this from slightly different perspectives and I think City manager martin or don't burn all to kind of pull us together And you know, I think You know my my day-to-day experience And and just and and mayor Cummings has been much more intense than mine, but this is uh This is a very Evolving and changing situation almost on a daily basis and I've watched our staff literally Folks do the legal analysis as well as You know respond to the governor's orders orders from our health officer Um, and then you know be able to communicate back out to our community in a way that's meaningful And um, that's that's just been a constant for them Really for the last four and a half months and um Now on the other side, you know When I do see people or people contact me, you know, and there's just a lot of concern There's a lot of families that are struggling because schools are closed Um, there's a lot of teachers who have been put into situations where they're teaching kids online um, you know the level of uh, Unstability and just sort of The place where people are at is is um extreme And um, of course, we have all of our business owners who are also trying to forecast their future And take risk in terms of you know, what should they do with their businesses? So um, the magnitude of this is is quite large and um Uh, we as we all stuff This approach in a meeting in may and early may Um, I really thought that The former mayor and current mayor and myself made a good team in terms of really having that perspective of coming into this sort of from um You know last year where we worked on important policy, um as well as um learn more and more about Certain issues such as homelessness and the approaches to that that we could take over time Um, so um, I'm really happy that we were able to bring this together. I appreciate Laura's work She really was the one that put lots of ideas Into an actual document that we could all respond to so I really appreciate her work And I also just appreciate her work and really thinking having to think as a model for a model on how we would move through these stages Um, I think this is an important pivot away from our traditional strategic plan efforts And um, I look forward to um continuing to work um with the mayor and and hopefully with um You know, I'll put that council member and moving this important work forward and Just happy to have the conversation with my colleagues tonight. So thanks my council member. Welcome. I don't know if I have much more to add than what was previously said other than um, I just also thank martin for bringing us all together and Recognizing that we have assured interest in how we could collaborate in that way um kudos to laura for helping us with a big brain dump and putting that into a logical process for us to follow um And then obviously the work that's been happening with the mayor and vice mayor and and so many of our Colleagues and the city as well in terms of just supporting our community as it's really tough time um, the only thing I guess I could add which is um been highlighted is just how uh unique this opportunity is to really um think about how we want to recover and how to See the convergence between the policy direction we took last year with health and all policies They're early this year with health and all policies as we embed these principles into into our recovery effort and align the um the prior directions uh to meet sort of into uh to um synergize with what nothing can report as well. So um with that I uh look forward to the conversation and um And a hopeful uh, we can recover in a really a really um powerful way for our community Thank you Councilmember golder. Um, I just want to thank everybody that worked on this. Thank you very much I'm sure it was a lot of thought and just kind of unprecedented decision-making um to bring this to us and um, I think moving forward I don't know if there's a plan but obviously I trust the mayor and the vice mayor to choose A council person, but I think um having marking would be an asset seeing that she was the mayor um In the previous year and I just think the three of you worked really well on this and so um, thank you Ends your comments from council members. So hearing none. I'll turn it over to The public for public comment. So if you would like to comment on this item, uh, please Call in now and press star nine on your phone to raise your hand You'll have up to two minutes Once you've been called upon To comment on this item Who do you think can you hear me just change you and Whitman? I had written Several times asking for four minutes to comment on this on this we Have a we've been getting inundated with uh emails over the past few days And so it might have gotten buried in the hundreds of emails that we received. So I'll go ahead and give you Justin Thank you so much. So my name is James Ewing Whitman. I'm actually a prolific writer I grew up running around the stanford hospital and engaging with dozens of phd fellows So a friend from colorado that I drove there a couple weeks ago She sent me this picture and I would really like to have it validated But I want to read this as a response to This and some other issues in 2019 medical malpractice killed 400,000 Police killed 34 unarmed You are 12,000 times more likely to be killed by a doctor than a police officer stop the anti-police bias And you know, I'll talk to and emails personally about some other suggestions. Let me find what I'm going to read give me a moment This this morning and I sent it to the city And I did get one reply back and here it is. So let me put on my reading glasses Publish this this morning and what happened? I'm sorry. It's really it's just a video I believe I said this before the strategy here for myself as the same the strategy here For myself is the same as all four 104 nuclear reactors in the united states melting down at the same time Yes, this is my observation about contact tracing Hold on hooked it and the santa cruz county health officials provided about 10 of this information at a public hearing may 29 2020 I'm going to pause you real quick because this item is on recovery planning and so I'm just going to ask as a reminder to the police if we can stay on topic because I'm not sure if you're talking about COVID-19 the topic right now is our recovery plan Tracing is part of the COVID-19 is every other aspect of what I'm going to discuss Is part of the COVID-19? Hey, if you don't allow me to share what I want to share and I'll just be done Or I can continue reading what I sent to the city this morning It's related to the recovery plan, which is what is before us Then you can continue I speak about 17 languages that are scientific that most people Have not talked about today at all during the six hours. I was listening to this So I'm not quite sure what to say. I don't really want to rock the boat more than I actually already do And so I suppose at this point I'll I'll bring up my discussions directly with mr. Mills because we've talked before and we've had great conversations and It is part of the recovery plan. So I'll leave it at that justin. Okay. Thank you very much Thank you. Hi, this is Wendy Melrose and I'm a lifelong resident of Santa Cruz as well as a small business owner And haven't haven't had a house has been burglar life three times I'm in just such utter shock and belief that this is happening Officer mill and his team officer mills and his team have been nothing but genuinely concerned for all of our citizens I need to follow you for this the item that we're discussing is the recovery plan So, sorry, I don't know. I don't know how to do this. I must have got in the wrong thing I was just waiting for the last time. So you tell me what you want me to do Yeah, unfortunately, um oral communications ended and now we're on to public comment Honorary based central labor council ASL CIO As you all know, we have over 80 unions. We have over 38,000 working families It's very exciting is that the city is going to be shifting And on the planning process to a recovery plan It's also very exciting that there's been discussion already to include a community workforce agreement in the recovery plan. Now, I look forward to the possibility that there could be more opportunities for local employment As you all know, you can create local jobs, but it's best when we create local employment for folks who already live here It'll be great to have more opportunities to hire local apprentices And as you know, the Community workforce agreement or project labor agreement It has has often led to Cost savings and early completion of projects and of course the public safety center in live oak The watsonville ordinance that's been in existence for a while. These have been great models And I look forward to labor and the city working forward to make sure that the recovery plan includes Not only the community workforce agreement, but other opportunities to help Build our local economy and make sure that it's more equitable as we come out of this Thank you Thank you. Oh, yeah. Hi Justin and honorable mayor and council members of Santa Cruz city Manny Panero CEO of Monterey Santa Cruz county building construction traits plan Good evening. Let me have the opportunity to speak In your recovery plan. I'll just reiterate the glen sheller. It said This is important that we move forward and pass on the community workforce agreement Let's start talking. Let's bring jobs back here Not only for those who live here in Santa Cruz county But those who want to stay continue to live here and earn livable union wage with great benefits It would be Ideal for us to start talking and moving forward So we can create jobs for these young people to give them a hope and a future to stay in Santa Cruz county And I thank you for your time and can't wait for a phone call soon. Have a nice evening Yeah, thank you. You're on the line Okay, this is care. So hey you say quote can cause severe disease and death throughout age groups Unquote which is of course highly misleading because death is relatively rare among the healthy young population Which is about two-thirds of the people you say quote has literally changed our entire way of life for the foreseeable future Unquote but that is due more to the government's kill switch blinders on approach That it had understandably taken at the beginning But it's no longer justifiable as the facts have become known than the covid danger now Too bad the government's actions have and will continue to cause so many bankruptcies destroyed the social fabric Destroyed the monetary system made a mockery out of debt And will not save lives in the long run and can easily be much worse than even doing nothing Isn't it ironic? We are now told we need 18 months at least recovery from the government's covid response actions As if it was just another agenda item take notes hold meetings never mind individual rights lives delayed health care To clear some people essential not others Uh, what the public things doesn't matter as if we even have that long as the social fabric around us Dissolves into revolution those who take orders are equally to blame as those who give them they must be held accountable Okay, I don't really care I have to say All those clueless moron leftists who called in earlier and don't know who the bad guys are Who wanted to defund the police department better than they had better be packing because that is the alternative I had more of it by Now is the time please press star nine on your phone To raise your hand to comment on our evening agenda item Which is interim recovery planning and prioritization Within the context of the coronavirus other members of the public would like to comment on this item I'll bring it back to council for actions of liberation Councilmember brown I thank you So I first wanted to say That I really appreciate all of the thought and work that's gone into bringing us this proposal and I fully support a council member committee being established to To work on this with staff directly And deliberately so I really do appreciate all the work that's gone into it and I recognize that this is a very fluid situation and And I just appreciate the efforts of everybody to try to respond accordingly and ensure that we You know do what we can to get our community kind of back up and running and the economy and You know people who depend on Those jobs for their livelihoods. So with that I do want to say That I also support and I supported back in when we discussed this in april the kind of shifting of some of the priorities that had been established by the council Given that some of them are they're not super time sensitive. They are issues that we want to get around to I know I'd like to actually just take this opportunity to make a motion that we kind of I mean I won't repeat it all but that we I'd like to move the direction from the council council members and staff to Move ahead as discussed in the staff in the agenda report And then with respect to item number four So it would be you know all one through three as stated in the The staff report or the sorry the agenda report with the exception on number four in of Building back in a shorter turnaround time on the community workforce agreement item I I do not suspect that anybody wants to get into You know a discussion about how we play prioritize and place all of these items You know tonight and I think that the committee would be the best to best Equips to deal with that And come back to us, but I do think that This is really important and it's an important element to our You know our revitalization of our economy and our community The the work that we need to do These community workforce agreements have been demonstrated to have a really positive effect in the community and I won't reiterate what The mbclc the building trades and Monterey the labor council Representatives said just now, but we also I will just say we also heard from sheriff heart that The sheriff station built with a community workforce agreement in place came in On time and under budget and we heard from Council member and former mayor aurelio gonzalez from watsonville that it's been Really positive experience for the city of watsonville. I think there is data to show that These these can these agreements can be really important to you know, how we move forward with rebuilding So and we do have a lot of work that is coming our way in terms of new development projects Residential commercial mixed use, you know public and private. So I would like to move that Uh that item back up I think it was suggested that it would come back to us in october And I would like that to come back at the second meeting in august And I don't have that that date in front of me. Um, so I would make I would move the the agenda report Uh recommendations with that addition into this year, I know towards the end of Last year, this was something that came up and uh, there were a lot of items that were going to put on the agenda We were having really long meetings with this was something that Has been a priority of mine Ever since I sat down and talked with the building trade council last year I've talked with unions and other cities people who I know who work in trades who work with Project labor agreements and community workforce agreements and all them overwhelming. We were saying how good they are And I think it's important that as we're moving forward We have a lot of projects that are coming. We have our library. We have our war And so many other critical infrastructure projects where these types of agreements could be really important and useful for our community a lot of what These are intended for it is not to just increase jobs, but to increase local employment So really putting a lot of the youth in our community having a pipeline for youth into the trades So that they can have high paying good quality local jobs And as councilmember brown mentioned A project labor agreement was used for the construction Because it's put to work local skilled knowledgeable craftsmen and their apprentices The use of apprentices on a project of this scale is important because it cultivates and trains tomorrow's workers Which is a forethought I appreciate I would gladly consider using PLA's on future projects in the Santa Cruz county sheriff's office constructs And additionally recommend PLA to other awarding bodies with the Monterey Santa Cruz building and construction trades council Here's one of our you know local leaders who's also You know highlighting how good this PLA was in the construction of our Santa Cruz county sheriff's and Corners office, and I think that you know We have an example of how this can be effective and useful in our community And I think that we should make this a priority given that we want to Have good employment coming out of this and and also pipelines for young people to get into a high paying career path Yeah, I didn't know if councilmember brown was looking for a section second to that motion. I don't know if we want to if you want to But I appreciate the motion and Certainly, I think that the reprioritization is an important step in this process um To the extent that we can I'd like to also See that the some of the ordinance work might potentially be on the same timeline as well um, and so I'd like to see that Possibly see that those two things could go concurrent with one another Um, I agree that uh employment strategies moving ahead is going to be really important um, and I'm I'm supportive of of looking at the project labor agreement this summer Um, I think there's also a lot of other sectors that we will want to communicate with As well. So while this is an important piece Uh construction often uh times with uh with the length of time to get approvals and all the other things Um, I think it's important to build a strategy on around that that uh fits with the current Stream of projects that we're working on. I know the water department Has been has been doing a lot of very You know expensive projects well, uh well researched and well a design project So there is opportunity there. I think some of our existing contracts, um, you know support some of these principles as well Um, so I I'm happy to have that discussion. I think the more broadly though You know, we have a labor force that has been decimated by this by this COVID-19 because Um, much of our economy is based on tourists and they're not here anymore. And so I think Looking at the committee's work in that context of broader broader populations that we need to be rethinking and really almost Rethinking about who we are as a city and what are we doing to attract better-being jobs Beyond the immediate construction related things that we may be supporting So looking at health care looking at wellness looking at a lot of Innovative things that we as a community have an opportunity to explore through this process So, um, I'd like to see the ordinances scheduled together Looks like one is scheduled for june. The other is for july. Maybe we can combine those into june I'd like some feedback from the staff on that And I think moving ahead with the with the immediate needs around both jobs job creation consideration Is also really important. So, um We'll see, uh, I think those are my comments for now. And I'll look forward to hearing from my colleagues I'll remember Matthews You are muted. Um, sorry mayor Cummings. Were those friendly amendments or Not Right But I'm Council member vice mayor meyer is with talking about bringing they're just comments bringing ordinances back at the same time and That's not a friendly amendment. That's for now. Um, the motion has been seconded. So sorry I seconded the motion, but I will say that mentioned wanting to hear comments from staff on those timelines So maybe after council member Matthews we can hear from staff on the timing of these ordinances and Kind of what the potential for aligning them or maybe a little bit more background as to why we kind of staggered I'm sorry. I didn't like I didn't realize mayor that you would that you had seconded I would put my ordinance, um request as a friendly amendment or I'm not sure the process from how we want to go to the list So I'll let my colleagues talk to him I had expected there would be a little more discussion before jumping right into the motion. Um, so just a little bit disappointing um I One of the things I would like to see and uh, and I don't see listed here is um And maybe it's included in what you're talking about. This is economic recovery endeavor, but uh, a really consolidated um Focus on on downtown recovery because that has so much wrapped into it in terms of Getting our retails and the the economic hub Revitalized downtown and all the big construction projects that are I mean the the various housing projects these projects Lining up there So it seems to me that that takes some Special endeavor there was some of that going into effect with the he did endeavor, which um, but truly got Just knocked out of the park by the um the covid Shutdown would like to see opinion of others How they see that the focus on what has to happen downtown um In comparison, it's not listed as a line item here nor is which is the economic recovery committee listed as a line item So much right now on the plate of our economic development department I am concerned about capacity Um thoughts that occurred to me just looking over this list. Um I do see here the the la viega golf course. It's not clear to me that that's the work item still I know if there were some questions raised in the past it seemed to me that there were more or less answers So I'd be curious to know what other people feel on that. I don't know if I don't see Tony on here, so maybe our team you can say Um to my mind that appeared to be on the way to A good plan and and being carried out. I am reluctant to see the project labor agreement Landed to us on august in august We will be quiet in the month of july it seems from what I know, which you know, this is not my field admittedly, but Um Talking to both our staff and others it seems there are many variations of this some of them are a pla for a specific project some are a pla ordinance that Are mandatory for everything we do so I think In order to actually benefit our community. It's worth spending some time to investigate and see What are the variations? Where can we have to see? Most productive effects and so I would like to make sure that there's adequate time Now with everything else going on to engage a variety of opinions and stakeholders and it came to us before It was very sudden and I think suffered from the fact that there hadn't been a very full exploration of it so I am not comfortable with bumping that up to August date I much prefer we take the time august through october to really Do a good job on that and not rush it I would also personally like to see The quality of life ordinances come forward I'd like to see the sidewalk bending I know we have a executive order on that right now, but at some point the Covid restrictions will go away the current executive order is tied to the covid restrictions And so I'd like to see us working on something That will carry over once those those go away. So Those are really some of some of the issues that are For me personally priority So I don't know how to resolve this with the motion on the floor my understanding is that there's And also with my big college of china, but my understanding is that There are a number of items that you know, we're going to try to form this economic recovery committee, and I think that it's Kind of that committee's job to identify and maybe take any feedback from council members on kind of water some of the different Things that we should be considering as it relates to economic recovery. So You know the downtown recovery I could see that being a piece of it Economic recovery in different sectors. So which is and is there a need to focus? Is there an opportunity for us to Think about whether there are new sectors we need to really start emphasizing On emphasizing and trying to either attract the community or just support locally But my understanding as well is that the council has provided some direction on the list that is in front of us And that in order to because we've pushed those off due to covid-19 You know understanding Which of these items since there's already been Direction do we want to see Either timelines get extended or we make sure that we're prioritizing and that's why it seems like there's some that have adjusted timelines and others I also have to point out there are items on here that it seems like we've already for example today Cannabis the licensing the licenses that's pretty much taken care of Events and on site consumption. I mean We could continue moving forward with that But that could also get put off given that for example events We're not anticipating having large gatherings anytime soon on site consumption And although it's something that I'm interested in I think other folks have mentioned being interested in today The industry hasn't really been focusing on that So for example, that's another item where we can push that off to make room space for Other items that might be related to planning and community development And then it seems like there might be some items that we want to shift the timeline so that they overlap More accordingly. So that's where myers mentioned the quality of life Surveillance camping. Do we want to shift those timelines so that they all are coming back at the same time? so I don't think that there's I don't think that the um committee would be restricted from taking in input and putting other priority items Before the council and into that recovery plan, but I think it's a both And situation where we need to get that committee So there's the forms of their kind of thinking and bringing forward What would really help with recovery and then resolve the items that were already acted on in the past Well, my comment was really, uh, the concerns raised by, um, council Member Matthews, I I totally hear what you're saying about the You know concern about displacing, uh, you know Revitalization efforts and all of the other work that needs to be done in other sectors of our economy And so my intention here was not to suggest that those Would be, uh, delayed in favor of this. I think, um, as mayor Cummings suggested it For me, this is a both and and I would just remind my colleagues that, you know, back in january when we, um, moved to provide this direction that, uh, we Consider that this come back to us and we consider it, you know, there was a lot of discussion about, um, You know, how to how to actually have that conversation Uh, with the with state community stakeholders and, um, perhaps kind of cut through some of the complexity and challenges that we Kind of think we see before us on this, you know, I mean the there are, you know, model ordinances that we can look at There are data about the experiences of our, um, you know, other local jurisdictions in, you know, our neighbors And, um, and then beyond as well So, uh, to me it just seems like, you know, that we, you know, at least, uh, beginning to reach out to those stakeholders And have the conversation could happen. It hasn't happened. The direction was in january prior to the the covid crisis And I'm I say that with no judgment about it not having happened yet. I'm just saying this was clearly a priority And I don't I, you know, I think that we we ought to, um, You know, move forward with that if it ends up taking longer and ends up taking longer But if we just wait until october, um, it's really going to take a lot longer. So Um, that's, you know, what I would respond to the question about how to reconcile the in this motion. I mean, I'm open to Also indicating with support for prioritizing some of these other issues, but I I'm not willing to, um, You know, take that out of my motion because that was essentially Why I made the motion, right? So Amanda Golder And thank you mayor. Yeah, I guess I you know, I I guess I'll try to reserve some of my comments But I I do know, um, that it'd be helpful to hear from some of the staff as to where Their thoughts are on some of the feasibility of timeline and then just sort of a disclaimer that You know at the kind of the onset of the items within the attachment It says sort of look, you know, we recognize that this is a fluid situation and We're going to need to be flexible. So we'll do the best we can to meet some of these, um expected and ideal timelines, but Some of these things might take a shift in a different direction given sort of the current circumstances So just I think that we kind of can hold space for that scale 13 or somebody else wants to weigh in as the staff perspective or or Yes, thank you Yeah, a couple of the points to clarify so The the list that you that you see The one of the things that that staff did was to look at it and make some adjustments based on Just what is what has changed in the last few months? And so that is the red that you see on on the chart there um So again that reflects some changes that occurred since the last Council last looked at this and approved this um, and so those are the staff recommendations and there also been some other adjustments that I want to highlight and feedback so With respect to the golf course and the downturn recovery I think I would say that those really belong in the uh, particularly because of the golf course and how it's been impacted by the the pandemic and the budget Impacts that those belong probably in the group b that uh, Elora highlighted, which is that the covid The more midterm responses And certainly the golf course is also tied into the budget discussions So I think those were those would would go And then the other one that has become uh More urgent also relates to some some some aspects of the quality of life ordinances And that is revolving around the uh Homelessness covid response in that uh, that has really become a major initiative as there is a concern that will allow uh A spread of the of the virus in the homeless population Which we want to not have in the void And and we do have some major, uh, encampments In in the city that uh, we will need to be addressed in terms of health and health and safety and pandemic spread And so as a result of that obviously a big part of this has been the county Really doing a lot more to provide shelter capacity And also receiving additional funding for that purpose And so they're they're standing up a number of facilities to do that And uh plan to do more and in in in that respect We need tools to be able to Manage the situation and some of the quality of life ordinances will assist with that along with the additional shelter capacity In the contingency planning around Providing in the hotel space and all the work that's being done to provide services for the homeless individuals um, and so uh Those are the I think the main ones that I would highlight as far as uh, uh Some of the items that have shifted into clarification Can you guys hear me with these headphones on? I think I'm going to echo kind of what uh, martin Bernal and what Cynthia Matthews said and that given Uh, the circumstances around covet. I think it's really important to reach out and Uh, collaborate with the counties and our efforts to house the unsheltered population especially those that are up in um, like, you know along the Pogunate barrier is up for hiking today and one of the parks workers ran into me that I'd seen before He said the population is probably close to a thousand people between golf club drives to go more grove and the railroad tracks And so I think we really need to focus on our efforts on outreach and case management and I think um The impacts of homelessness are unfairly felt here in the city and I think we need to really focus on getting some substantial housing in other Areas of the county especially looking forward Towards the winter when the weather is going to get worse and all likelihood that we're going to have a Second outbreak it could be worse and I think just um the unsheltered population it could be Disproportionately affected if we're not, um Consciously looking forward and making plans for that and so um, I think just focusing on That would be huge for me and the other thing is as things are opening up, um the seems kind of goofy and irrelevant, but the the um, the uh sidewalk bending And yes, I am the person that will buy a hot dog off the street But like given the circumstances, I think it might be something we might need to Focus on right now. So those are You know, just because of the circumstances things I think are really important. Thank you Thank you um, I'm wondering if um, it seems like the prioritization list might be a slightly different not as different, but it's It's part of the process, but I'm wondering if if we could entertain If the motion maker could inter would entertain maybe Separate separating out items one two and three from the motion and we could take a vote on that I'm I mean, that's really procedural in terms of accepting the report Formalizing the shift to from the strategic plan And then establishing the committee I'm wondering if the motion maker would be willing to do that if we could break that into a separate motion and If the motion maker would consider the nomination of Councilmember Watkins to be part of the committee under number three for that and maybe we can vote Thanks, Andy Yeah, sure. Yeah, I kind of assume that uh, that would be the direction the mayor would go in and we usually have You know the mayor makes those appointments, but if you want to include it in the Motion here, but yeah, sure. I would I'm supporting Councilmember Watkins participating in this as well. Yeah Thank you One two three and four from one another or to separate one two and three from four One let's go ahead and kind of do the procedural process of one to three, you know one through three one two and three And sort of and then I think um, and then maybe we can revisit um Some some ideas on how to how to effect the prioritization piece and But if we could get one through three down, I think that might be helpful for Matthews and then Watkins I'd be happy to vote on one three three now I think that's routine and we could do that and that focus on Priorities and as we've talked there are things that I mean certainly very high on the list is the coordination with the county on homeless Services programs both during the coveted and both coveted periods So I mean that's not even on the list here and that's that's going to be huge. So It does seem like we need some further discussion on this list So I think maybe that would be the first I have some other comments on the priorities So maybe we should first dispatch number one through three Is there anyone opposed? I was one two and three. If so, please Let me know right now Councilmember Byers is absent councilmembers Matthews Can we just make sure that the motion captures the nomination of uh Of councilmember Watkins. Yes. Got it. Hi I do myself too If I may I just wanted to say thank you for the support of the council to serve on this committee And I really look forward to um working with both you and the vice mayor and Getting input from the community and our colleagues to really have it informed and thoughtful recovery plans. So Thank you for that add City manager martin Bernofi, do you have a Oh, I'm sorry. I want to comment after you take the vote on one two three. Sorry. I just wanted to find additional clarification But after you're done I think we're done with the vote so Oh, okay. All right. Uh, yeah, so just I just wanted to clarify with respect to the question of the um Of the homelessness uh response Again, just to clarify that the county is taking the lead on providing the sheltering They they've got the the uh dc center for that The infrastructure and the funding to do that and in their Plans in the works to do that and obviously to work closely with us and our staff And they're looking at facilities, uh, you know throughout the county to be able to do that. However, uh, what we need on our end and The chief here also to answer questions if you need that is we need to have tools available to us because The reality of the situation is that there will be individuals that will choose not to avail themselves of the shelter services And what we want is to have tools to not let allow Uh encampments to to reform and redevelop and so we want to have some tools to be able to manage that situation again to be able to uh to minimize impacts particularly health and safety impacts and so that is why the Some of the aspects of the quality of life ordinances Are important in order to really manage the the homelessness response During this time particularly as we're looking at As councilmember colder mentioned some fairly large encampments in the poking up in other areas of the city That we're going to have to deal with because if I are getting to other issues Then we need to just have the tools to be able to manage that situation appropriately and safely And reasonably And so that's that's the rationale for that I'm Matthews and then I have a comment for that later Thank you. Do you stand in vision? I see on the grid that we have been given It shows the quality of life ordinances Um We've done in july. I guess that's the staff work begins in july and comes up in september But the camping ordinance you have the Work beginning in june and coming to us in august yet. You've talked about those coming forward at the same time What what timeline do you? Envision going forward what we recommend is that you direct us to Look at the various aspects of the camping ordinance in the quality of life ordinances that will assist with addressing these Potentially difficult situations are going to be facing him in the next few months and bring those back Really as soon as possible. So if they could bring them back in I guess would be I'd have to be August at the earliest That would be helpful again We want we want to try to get ahead of that before the fire season starts Also, which we can work with but with the county on making preparations and intensive plans for dealing with those situations That would move. I could be um quality of life So that would start now and then uh come back in august Well, I guess the other one so um I just I kind of agree with your comments early I think we've kind of been a lot of time on cannabis Could we just like putt on the that other stuff till just some future time tbd? I mean, they all agree on that one and um Just looking down this list. It was it didn't have a date attached to it but the river coordinator I mean from what I've heard talking with various staff It's never been filled. It's kind of been hanging out there in space No one really knows what to do with it Keep that on the list. Is that a priority? Um My mind's probably not um And I said I would like to see the sidewalk bending um Tony, maybe I asked you um It had it's coming to us in june And I understand there's the executive order, but I would like to see something more long term So what what can you do? We have we have drafted an ordinance that's been circulated and uh, you know, just quite frankly the um the covid-19 crisis and and response there to has Sort of uh interrupted our our staff level discussions of that So there's a draft ordinance and in fact just an agenda report and an ordinance that could be placed on any an agenda at any time But given the complexity of the issue and by complexity I mean The constraints that were under uh, under the new state law fd946 and the very legitimate concerns that That the impact of the law has on our brick and mortar sales sex paying Uh local businesses and and the legitimate legislative intent behind the adduction of fd946 Has complicated that and so um, so it's a complicated discussion and and um I I don't think we completely exhaust the discussion at the staff level But from my perspective we could put an ordinance on your agenda through this in the 23rd But I don't know that that would be the best route to go The discussion that we intended to have but for covid-19 We really haven't we really haven't had it. Oh, maybe I need to talk to a fly and that's that was a that was a mistake I didn't mean on how it happened. Sorry. I was just gonna suggest that I think all of us have kind of Laid forth what we think are priorities And there's no more than about four of them that I think that we all are kind of on the same page with And so I was wondering if I could make a suggestion that we leave it to the committee to decide When they would fall in priority. I mean, I think there's I don't know 12 or 13 here and there's four They're bubbling to the top You guys can figure it out amongst yourselves The order in which those are presented. Yeah, I was just gonna I was just gonna Yeah, I I similarly was hearing Um Kind of some common some common ones that are bubbling to the top and I'm wondering if If I potentially just make a motion to At least capture some of the conversation, but I I'm happy to um, listen Happy to have council member browns Make her comments if needed if if I'm you know, it's but I'm happy to do a motion I think I think we're getting close and we could get it done and call it a night very soon I'll just remind council member. There's still a motion on the floor as it relates to um, I don't know for me Right with that last the previous motion make a moat. I'll go. Okay. Should we vote on the first motion then? Yes, yeah, we can and um Round your head your hand up and so does Councilman will walk in Well, yeah, I was just gonna say there's a motion on the floor and I'm not going to withdraw it So I appreciate uh, vice mayor mires your uh, your point and I agree. Um, but I do want to um, You know vote on the motion that's on the floor I agreed to split it and it's the number four is still there I was walking and then Matthews. Thank you Councilman brown My understanding is that I think it's and maybe you could restate the motion But it's essentially to move forward with number four Um as uh written but when thinking about how to um Look at the timeline that the plas would uh kind of be accelerated with the original timelines, but also was sort of a You know understanding that There could be something that could hinder that progress as with any of the other items. Is that accurate or no? Yeah, no my uh, well I mean, I guess it is but the motion is pretty clear the motion is to restore the original timeline agreed to in april for project labor agreements I think with all of this we I mean we everybody understands that This is a fluid situation another emergency may arise etc. Etc. So I mean, there's nothing that is You know locking us in to That timeline it's simply a matter of saying this is a priority. This was that the Timeline we agreed to in april everybody agreed to and I'd like to restore that So it's pretty simple just number four in terms of direction of priorities As recommended in the table by staff with the exception of returning the Uh and the date and not accepting the adjusted dates for project labor agreements is pretty simple Just crossing out those red adj in that part of the table. I just asked a question about that because I um The way the the issue came to my attention initially was in the form of a draft agreement called Not a project labor agreement but a community workforce agreement that would have been um an agreement that was entered into between the city and The monorail and tannicus county's building and construction trades council that would apply Generally to public works Contract entered into between the city and a third party contractor as distinguished from a project Labor agreement that is an agreement that's entered into between the contractor the city and a labor council specific one project And so the way that's done a lot of cities is that that the city has an adopted set of criteria by which It requires a project labor agreement and I think the stand you county water authority We've done some research on this in the stand you county water authority for instance Required a project labor agreement on any project that is in excess of a hundred million dollars um Obviously operating on a much grander scale than the city But I just think it's a very complicated topic And so when you suggest to bring it back at the second meeting in august I'm just not quite clear on what The council wants I would like for uh us to receive uh report. I would like us to receive a recommendation Uh, well, I maybe not a record. I'm sorry. I'm trying to sort through the language. I would like for us to uh receive staff report on The use of project labor agreements using I mean you you received the information from the building construction trades That is a model that was used with some variation in the city of watsonville and other jurisdiction neighboring jurisdiction so, uh Proposal that involves the the guidelines for the use of project labor agreements community workforce They're different names, but kind of the same intent um to the council for uh consideration So does that help but Tony, I'm sorry. I'm it's I'm kind of it's kind of late. I don't have the pl a um document in front of me right now to kind of Clarify exactly but Kind of as we as we recommended I can look up um the Direction that was given I wasn't anticipating this as being a topic on tonight's agenda because I didn't I didn't see it in the recommended recommendation. So I apologize. I was prepared Let's spend more time preparing our discussion. So I apologize for this And if I could just give a follow-up, I mean, I think that the idea is that we gave direction I think back in I've been changing for February and the intention is that We move forward with and I'm in a community workforce agreement. I've just been thrown around and now there's PLAs when I think initially the initial Report it was community workforce agreement. So I think the intent is that we That work to be done because I know having spoken with the building trades That 19 they haven't been able to have follow-up discussions with uh department heads and I and that those discussions need to happen in order for the city and for The labouring groups to understand what's going to work best for the city of sand crews because these agreements aren't going to Completely say that you can't, you know, well, I should rephrase that One of the things that these labor agreements do is they determine a threshold beyond which you will then Enter into these workforce agreements and that threshold is what We're really, you know, hoping that the city can work with the labor unions and contractors to determine what's going to work best for ensuring local employment The opportunity for apprenticeships and good paying jobs for workers in the community Sorry to just jump in but I I do want to try to actually better respond to tony's question that was posed to me So the motion that we made was to direct staff to work with the Monterey Bay Santa Cruz county's building and construction trade council To draft a community workforce slash project labor agreement and bring Back a draft for consideration by the first meeting in april Including broader community participation Any analysis the staff needs to do and draft updates as needed. Should it need more time? So the and so we said at that time community workforce project labor agreement, but I think it's the um the guidelines for Requiring those agreements in construction projects may hopefully that helps a little bit maybe Mayor Cummings Sorry, if I could just clarify for item four, is it still for the second meeting of august? Okay, thank you walk in lily of matthews brown and um, well Martin, do you want to weigh in for an all do you want to weigh in right now? I was just going to say with respect to the project labor agreements rosemary. I think she's on worked on developing the the work plan and the follow-up so She may be able to provide some information on that if she's on About the the timeline that what we came up with the revised platforms So just a quick Summary of the work that's been done up to now Which is that we have done a lot of research on how these have been used as tony mentioned We've collected examples everywhere. There's been some legal analysis of you know, uh, how they're how they are appropriately used and what kind of criteria that Entities need to use in order to avoid anti competition elements of For accusations of anti competition from these things There was a we've done some work with the local chamber and santa cruz county business council to organize a meeting to discuss the you know, what these are and and what concerns or questions the local businesses might have And that meeting was originally scheduled for the 16th of march or this you know, right in that week I forget maybe that the shutdown occurred. So Clearly that's all been put on hold since that time. So there was some work to organize that we've also done quite a bit of analysis and and sort of trying to understand how What our local workforce is with respect to construction trades And you know, what are really the opportunities for us to grow that workforce? As you might be aware, we don't have a huge our local construction workforce isn't big And we don't have a huge element of the construction workforce here locally that is unionized So to some degree project labor agreements that might require or give preference to unionized workers might actually result in having Folks coming in into the area doing the jobs getting the jobs coming from labor halls You know as far away as benesha and elsewhere who are then hired to do the work here because They're they're So I think we have our arms a little bit around the Around the the sort of general background of what these are and how they work What we haven't done as you know is we haven't engaged in conversations with labor unions about An existence of an agreement so Happy to take a question if you have one Calculator walk. I see you have your hand up Yeah, no, thank you very very and I I think, you know, we definitely want to get it right for our community And I appreciate the update and input on where you are with it and where we are with it And then also just sort of recognize that this is uh A component of just I think those conversations as the city and as a community We're going to have around workforce recovery in general So I know that there's a lot of work to be done It's moving forward as a committee. I think we're going to factor in all of these different things on the timeline So as appropriate, I'm happy to see this move forward in the best way for our community At the best informed timeline. I don't know what that means for where you are and for how to move forward at this moment Based on kind of the input we've received this time In terms of the timeline, I don't know if you have any yeah I mean, I I think we could bring a staff report back and give you an update of and You know, have had some conversations with the labor folks about what you would like us to do In the august timeframe, whether it would be ready for You know, if we could take action on say make it so I don't know for sure But we could certainly move in that direction if that's what you want to do I think there still is quite a bit of analysis to be done particularly about You know, what is really the mechanism by which we Leverage the opportunity if you will to really pretty good living wage jobs for people who live here Yeah, no, it's important. Thank you I want to make it really clear. I'm quite happy to have this discussion I did not support the motion as it was expressed way back when because the motion at that time was to go straight to Uh, draft ordinance I thought that was really rushing it. I'm so grateful that our staff has been doing the research What are the varieties? How would they play out for us? Talk to some other people Which is why I I support moving on that path And to give us the time. I think we should Stick with people that they have proposed. I I hope that others can go along with that I think we will get to a better product in what the staff has told us Looking at everything else that is out there to be done. It was not expected Or they can bring us a staff report in august. I would expect that would be Here are the varieties here are here's our local situation here's how I can play out Here's how we can move forward do that methodically get the information give it some careful discussion and end up with a better product I really would prefer to stick with the uh, staff suggested not to avoid it But to do a good job on if I if I may it sounds like it's a both and that if it's if it's ready It could come back to and or if it's not then an update would be sufficient as well I think I don't know if that meets the needs of the council at this moment But I think we're all on the same page in regards to sure we want to explore it Absolutely see it move forward and if it's ready in an informed way to come back If not then update from rosemary on sort of the status and the analysis would be helpful either way Understood. I appreciate what everyone's saying. I hear what everyone is saying and um, I am not Amending my motion. I'm not withdrawing my motion At some at some point we're gonna need to vote on it So, I mean we can continue to have this discussion or we can have it um in august depending on what we get but the direction I'm giving is to proceed Along the timeline the amended timeline that was given to us in april which Um, extent, you know extends by four months. I think the initial direction and recognizing that We have we are in an emergency situation I do believe that The possibilities can be discussed and kind of Worked through um, if the building trades is contacted um as was directed. So I'm just going to leave it there and um You know, I'd call the question, but I it seems to me that people want to keep talking about it, but I'm just I'm ready to Councilmember Watkins All right, I just I think I think we're all on the same page in that Regarding I just I don't know if we're in a different position I do from what I'm hearing is that yes, we'll move forward with uh, uh the original timeline and If it's not fully prepared then we'll get an update and that's I mean But with the idea of having them move forward in a way that's gonna Make it a priority I mean, so I don't know if I don't I guess I I feel like I'm hearing this I'm hearing the same thing maybe or I maybe I'm I'm often it's just way at this point Jump in I think that you know the similar to things that we've done in the past and emotions that we've made on items that sometimes on Unperceivable events occur Words and items come into play and we need to you know postpone to another meeting We almost did that tonight with one of our items because we've been going over so long so I feel personally that like when We're discussing many of these topics and many items. There's Generally flexibility built in but I think that the intention is that we stay on track because We've kind of pushed this and delayed and pushed the delay in that the work doesn't begin until August, you know, we don't know what can What might happen then that could potentially delay even further. I think that Kind of having it as a priority if we can get the work continuing now I think we all understand I mean based on the county health advisors models You know, we're predicted to have worst case model is predicted that we have a spike at the end of July and if that were to get the intention is that we Be working on this we continue moving forward as was directed earlier this year and You can have something come back at the end of August And if there's something that you know sums up that we'll Adjust if necessary, but I think the intention is that we want to keep this on track I just want to again ask what is the it that we're talking about is it a draft ordinance for action or is it a report on the The general territory the many forms of these might take and what would best fit our local Community city-sized projects and labor courts here I'm happy to have that first and then take it Maybe where we're going to end up but right now I'd like to very clear that this is a priority and Could happen, you know in the next month or so I think To kind of sort some of that stuff out. So my motion is for draft ordinance And If somebody else wants to make a different motion that I'll support that but I right now I'd like to vote on The ordinance motion. It's it's simply the direction we gave In January to Come back in April to us. So I and In April we received Recommendation that included this being moved to and that's with that post covid arriving a motion Suggestion that it be Considered in June and brought to us in august and I would just like to keep to that timeline So I I don't know if is that clear. Is everybody clear about what? She are from city manager mark even all policy can put up the the list Of items so that you have that as a reference Can do that Laura yep, this is um This is my interpretation of where you guys are at this point So you said for cannabis events and on-site consumption You're deferring that so taking the date away To it's a to be determined Anything these two roads these three roads were untouched. So they would go forward as They are on the list for the project labor agreement Um, I've highlighted june and august and I've written down do not adjust date And right now I think you're in the process of discussing draft ordinance as put forward by councilmember brown versus a staff report Furthering discussion that would come back in august For dela viega the recommendation was it should be part of the council budget commission work and then um, the other recommendation was combined quality of life and camping ordinance And that they would come back start working in june and come back at august at the earliest together and then uh surveillance ordinance would go as forward And sidewalk bending you didn't discuss. So I left that as is And then river coordinator there was a recommendation by councilmember mafios to defer that item And then beach plots was not discussed. So left as is and then um lee and planning and community development had a recommendation to discuss housing opportunities Um, and that was not discussed. So left as is I think um, that's my understanding of the discussion so far and obviously this is the Uh, major item that still needs to position is the community workforce agreement project labor agreement And what comes back in august for matthew's councilmember walkings. I mean, I had a comment on this, um, the prioritization list Um, I do I have another question too. I actually could not understand what that final one meant Housing opportunities through parking updates and other clean up and streamlining changes I think I know That's lee are you still on the call? Yeah We'll try to get lee and and I think I know it is all these little ordinance things that if we did them We could really create some more housing opportunities and they They just kind of got stuck with other things. It looks like Yeah, so we believe on it. It is that councilmember mafios. Yeah, I mean it's that Yeah, so I would want to proceed with that and it looks like you can bring that but actually make some progress Is that am I reading it right there? Yes, I was sorry. I was on mute and didn't Board parking requirements changes to accessory dwelling units accessory Building so we can hopefully move through the process more quickly if we're not spending time on some of these other things And on the other things So some of them are like Do you want to comment on some of the things that you've been working on with samantha and catherine at this point? You're muted matt I think I think you mentioned a number of the the main code amendments that we'd be working on Those those are the main ones and then some would just be like small text items that will help staff navigate the code better To counter and such And then that would also be taking the place of the cannabis work that's getting deferred on to councilmember Matthews it sounds like that's a high yield area For you if you can be liberated from cannabis events Then you can put some directions into these code amendments that will actually lead to some Housing creation. Is that is that what you're thinking here? It would certainly aid in in supporting housing development Especially the the parking changes and and some of the the ad new changes Okay, and then just other things that I would I They're not a priority for me. There was a suggestion Earlier in a year. It was really an idea for a beach flat parking district Um and That seems to me Really not thoroughly thought out. It's not at all a priority for me So I would be just as happy to strike that from the list Having said all that I would then like to make a substitute motion at this point That we approve this amended list maintaining the Schedule for the project labor agreement and that's the What we expect the form of that work to take is continued staff analysis coming back to us in august for Discussion and direction for further action the substitute motion made by councilmember Matthews That's the councilmember watching japan's raid. Is that to second the motion or is that for comment? So that was originally for comment I guess I just I think I just want to kind of maybe I know we're in the The nuances and the details. I think we're a little bit in in the weeds but um, and I I value the the opinion, but I also just want to highlight the Really the number four bullet which is really looking at how the establishment of this potential recovery committee Can develop a rubric to help us best inform our strategies? I know councilmember Matthews also brought up the downtown strategy That workforce labor agreements are part of this broader workforce recovery effort Like there's just so many bigger concepts and umbrellas that I feel We can't lose sight of as we get to the nuances of it. Um I I mean if there's an informed policy ready in terms of You know some of the some of the original work that was designed To move forward as part of Sandy's motion Councilor Brown's motion That's informed and ready to go. Then I think that that's fine. And if it's not then that's okay too But I think we do want to have this sort of bigger kind of context in place And I don't want to lose that as we get into the lease at this hour personally. So I guess And I don't have all of the details of some of these proposals in front of me You I have the sort of the summary but without kind of that In-depth look at it builds to me a little bit premature personally Those are my comments wanted to make one comment with regards to Uh lords you get school down to the Beach flats parking That if we you know Set a later timeline on that so that public works could focus on project labor agreements. I think that I would be fine with that given that by the time this actually with that timeline by the time that Um If anything were to come forward it would be right before winter Which means that that You know area wouldn't actually benefit from you know the The potential increased revenue from parking within that area. So That in my opinion, I think it gets deferred as well because even if If the council wants to revisit that which I can see why it's important to that community, you know, we could start work on that and October or You know November and if it comes back to council next April it would be in time for it to be implemented for the summer Which is when that revenue is actually going to come in. So I've personally, you know I think it's important and members from the community came and so I asked for that and so I can see why we made what we should revisit it But I think at this point in time if That can make space for the community workforce agreement through public works I think that'll be a really good use of time on that item and can help it, you know come forward much more quickly The other thing too is I know that we are off and we recess in july But I do also remember from last year that a lot of The surveys and community work that was done on health and all policies was done in july So I do understand that you know people are going to be taking some time off But if we start now that gives us almost three months to kind of do the outreach and the communication and like work with the unions and the construction um The construction businesses and it sounds like a lot of work has already been done So what comes back to us in august might I mean it might I think that there's a very good chance It'll give us enough time to have something that comes to us in august and if we need More time because there's a couple factors that you know We need to reconsider that we can send it back out But I I think that if we alleviate some of the pressure off public works through pushing back on the beach last parking That that you know could help us you know, we get to a good spot. Well, I'm happy isn't in brown And then vice-mayor mayors Tla if you even want to stick with that proposed schedule that Several analysis come to the calc for discussion Prior to I think we have to have things in that viewpoint So even if that came in, you know the first meeting in august, I think That analysis works to be able to come by the first meeting in august. I think that's time Which is exactly what Is the reason they wouldn't start working on it again until august And what we're proposing is that they start working on it now and then the friendly amendment and I'm happy to stick with Just don't want us to be kind of Never getting to an ordinance because we always have to delay or have more work to do So I'm just trying to move this along. So that that that works. Thank you Um, just that just want to also remind council that uh, you know, one of the things that uh, Also is going to be new Here is that we're doing furloughs too. So just to kind of remind council that With respect to staff capacity that it can be further reduced Obviously, uh, there's a lot of work now too. So again, I just want to just emphasize that I just wanted to yeah kind of add on that The recognition that we are going to go into furloughs and I just want to make sure that um, That there's a furlough staff support that can be provided with this. Um, I do have concerns I'm just going to be honest that um with this tool that we're looking at The some of the response that I got when it was first brought to us. Um, there was concern about losing losing local jobs. Um So I just want to make sure that we have we allow our staff enough time to do it. Um, I'm I'm definitely happy to to do the vote tonight, but um, just want to echo that I just want to make sure we get a really thorough staff report to accompany the ordinance So thank you And I would say as my Comment said to precede consideration of an ordinance I think I think we've got to have analysis and discussion And then I I just want to try to clarify here um that what Mayor Cummings said was uh He was suggesting that that analysis and uh Staff report for consideration could come At the first meeting in august so that we can consider an ordinance on the 23rd I or excuse me on the second meeting in august. I that is a very short turnaround I it's hard to imagine that we could move that quickly Um, so but I I'm just you know I'm really just trying to stick with this idea that I do not want to change the timeline To beginning to get around to hearing Some more some additional information in october. So I'm okay with the change as it was suggested by mayor Cummings If that's what you're talking about councilmember matthews If that's not then I I just like to I mean, I'll just leave the motion on the floor if a substitute motion is Has a majority vote and so be it So there's no further comments. We have a substitute motion that's on the floor I don't know if the maker of that motion wants to withdraw or if there's somebody who wants to withdraw it if it's very clear That we first have a thorough staff analysis and report on the subject Of CLA project labor agreement at that point We give direction ordinance. What shape of ordinance we'd like to build if we hear that in august We don't have to hear the ordinance the second week in august, but we can hear it soon We can make progress on this. Let's do a good job of it That's our understanding if that's acceptable to the to the mayor And I'm always online. We're not adjusted So the yellow dates would stand and the clarification is that august would represent a discussion and direction for further direction A discussion and That's not right discussion for further direction prior to a draft ordinance Oh You know, we've heard from rosemary. She's been working hard on this But it is not possible to have the kind of analysis and conversation with stakeholders that I think needs to have happen In order for us to have a good foundation for moving forward with it so She said I can do this in august She's already working on it, but I mean, I don't even know what the state's name now June august august is october She's working on it now, but to think that we would have something on board in in august Even the fact we take july off May not be realistic, but we can do it soon If I may I think that Is that, you know, there's a desire for us. I think the goals have an ordinance and No If that can come at the second meeting and in august that would be great There is another desire to have a conversation before that happens So we can make sure whatever the ordinance is that it's going to be something that's you know Good for our community And so And that needs to come before so I think that we can have that discussion at the first meeting in august um, and that but the with the goal of having the Ordinance at the second meeting in august I think we can move forward and knowing that if we have a discussion at the first meeting in august And it's clear that we're going to need some more time Then we can you know We can reschedule I mean that meeting in august will give us an opportunity to kind of have a conversation But I think that councilman brown's desire my desire um, and you know from the folks who we've spoken with in the community is that They don't want to see this just get punted on forever similar to how What we're hearing from folks in canvass where you know, they've been working for years to try to get something And they just feel like it just keeps getting delayed and delayed over and over again Mayor Cummings just to make note um The reports for the second meeting of august would we do Two days after the first meeting of august Something to consider too I'd be even willing to move to the the ordinance to the first meeting in september if that's the case just to give us more time um, but Let's ask the maker of the motion was considering Yeah, I have concerns about the potential to get an ordinance within two weeks of that kind of discussion So yeah, september is is okay to substitute there That's fine with me. So we'll have the discussion come back the first meeting in august and then the for now with the Draft ordinance come before us at the first meeting in september Item and invited mayor by consumption work For cannabis inclusionary housing work from july Just to restart in july and september Work on project labor agreements or community workforce agreements would um Would start in june there would be a Meeting to discuss analyses at the first meeting in august With draft ordinance to come at the first meeting in september If you can keep scrolling down, it would be part of the council budget commission Discussion commission work. Yeah, sorry quality of life ordinances and camping ordinance But it seems like because this is and there's three sets of dates So bottom highlighted dates are the ones that are valid for the combined So the combined quality of life and cabining ordinance the Restart date would be june and return first return to council would be august at earliest The surveillance ordinance and I just want to clarify and highlight This is that the predictive policing and live facial recognition Item is to come back to the next meeting. These are all the other remaining Items that were related to surveillance. So just as the community is aware because because the police chief and I've been talking about this And the policing and live facial recognition is what went to public safety and was supposed to come back So these are all the and so those would come back later position would be deferred and the beach flats parking would be deferred So that's the motion before us this evening councilmember buyers is absent Matthews vice mayor mires and mayor Cummings passes unanimously, uh, with or sorry unanimously with the exception of councilmen buyers Who is absent that concludes all of our uh items on our agenda with the exception that councilmember golder asked that we return to uh closed session to discuss An item that we voted on earlier in the day We'll adjourn our open session A general business evening item and we'll go back closed session To discuss one of the items from closed session from earlier in the day