 I'll now call to order the irregular meeting of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. It is May 24th, 9 a.m. Clerk, will you please call the roll? Supervisor Friend? Here. Coonerty? Coonerty? Caput? Caput here. McPherson? Here. And Koenig? Here. Thank you, Chair. You have a quorum. Thank you. We'll now have a moment of silence and a pledge of allegiance as any board member wish to dedicate this moment to anyone or anything. Seeing none, a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, and the good, and the good. And the good, and the good, and just be careful. Mayor Palacios, do we have any additions or deletions to the agenda today? Yes, we have a number of corrections on the regular agenda, item number 12. On attachment A, pages 313, 315, 325, 326, 331, and 332 have all been replaced with new charts. On the consent agenda, item number 52, page 1023, subjects should read adopt resolution, authorizing sale, and issuance of bonds, page 1024, title of paragraph should read green bonds, page 1026, end of first paragraph should stop with, quote, expected in early July, unquote. On item 52, also a staff request that this item be moved from the consent agenda to the regular agenda. And that concludes the revision sheet. Thank you. We'll then hear item 52 as item 13.1 on the regular agenda. Does any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda to the regular agenda? No, I have nothing to remove, but I'll make a comment when it comes time to vote. All right, thank you, Supervisor Caput. Proceed now to item five, public comment. Any person may address the board during its public comment period. Speakers must not exceed two minutes in length and may speak once during public comment. All public comments must be directed to an item listed on today's consent agenda, closed session agenda, yet to be heard on the regular agenda or a topic not on the agenda that is within the jurisdiction of the board. Board members will not take actions or respond immediately to any public communication presented regarding topics not on the agenda, but may choose to follow up later, either individually or on a subsequent board, Supervisor's agenda. And we also have an announcement from the clerk on how to participate. Now is the time for public comment. If you wish to comment and are joining us in chambers, please form a line down the center of the room and approach the podium to speak. If you are joining us through Zoom, please locate and click the hand icon on the bottom of your screen to raise your hand. You will be called by name when it is your turn to speak. Please state your name at the beginning of your comment. Once you begin, the countdown timer will display on screen and turn red when your time is up. If you were calling in by phone, please dial star nine now to raise your hand and join the virtual queue. I will identify you by the last four digits of your phone number. When called on, please dial star six to unmute yourself and then begin to speak. At the end of your time, your microphone will be muted automatically. This is the moment of the public to make its comments to the Board of Supervisors. If you wish to make comments and join us in person, please form a line down the center of the room in the direction of the podium. If you would like to give your comment in Spanish, we have translators available to assist you. If you are joining us through Zoom and wish to give your comment, look for the hand icon on the bottom of the screen and click to raise your hand. This will be placed on the waiting list and when it is your turn to speak, it will be called by your name. It will open a window on your screen in which you will be asked if you wish to activate your microphone. Press on to accept and begin to speak. Present yourself saying your name at the beginning of your comment. You will have two minutes to be able to express yourself. Once the chronometer begins, you will be able to see how the screen will change color when ending your time. If you have joined through the phone, please mark Asterisco 9 to raise your hand and place your name on the waiting list to be able to speak. When it is your turn to speak, we will announce it by the four digits of your phone number. At that moment, please mark Asterisco 6 to activate your microphone and begin to speak. Present yourself and say your name at the beginning of your comment. You will have two minutes to be able to express yourself. Once the chronometer begins, you will be able to see how the screen will change color when ending your time. At the end of your time, your microphone will be deactivated automatically. Thank you. We'll begin with folks in the chamber. Thank you. Good morning. My name is James Ewing Whitman. What is it? May 22nd or 24th? 24th, maybe this will be my shortest feces sandwich. I'd really like to thank Greg Capet for a real consistency that I really admire. Is a quote, I appeal to the chemist to discover humane gas that will kill instantly and painlessly, deadly by all means, but humane, not cruel, George Bernard Shaw. Also, quote, I am a communist, but not a member of the communist party. Stalin is a first rate Fabian and I am one of the founders of Fabianism and as such, very friendly to Russia. This was a quote, February 3rd, 1948. You know, what is the Lundian Fabian School of Economics? We have a current supervisor that's not running for reelection that went to that school. We have several people that are, I'm just gonna skip that. City mayors working diligently with the UN and US. Our city managers and our mayors and our county managers, they're not adhering to the state of California, except the pirate state, which is a gold fringe flag. They're not adhering to any real federal regulations. They're doing the deeds of the philanthropic, tax exempt foundations and international entities like the UN. There needs to be some accountability. There's stuff going on right now affecting all nation sovereignty and you guys just seem to be rubber stamping all this stuff, you know? The people that elected you, I think had entirely different expectations than what you guys are actually doing. So I would like to really thank the law enforcement that in this room today that took the time to talk to me and actually just thanked me for being me. I think that law enforcement has a very important job and they're often not thanked enough. And next to children, they're being the ones that are being thrown under the bus by the people that control them. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Whitman. Good morning, my name is Carol Bjorn. And thank you for being here in person, Manu. And thank you, Greg and Bruce, for having your camera on. We appreciate that. So at the beginning of the state of emergency on March 4th, 2020, we heard a lot of comparisons to the Spanish flu pandemic. But I'm just curious how many people actually went back and looked at the facts of the Spanish flu pandemic to see what was really true, what was really propaganda at that time because the propaganda has continued since then. So I wanna encourage everyone for your summer reading list to put this book. And I'm hoping this is on the camera for Facebook. It's called The Truth About Contagion. It's by Dr. Thomas Cowan. And I wanna read just a short passage from this book. This is actually the portion that I'm gonna read is from an article that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, August 2nd, 1919, pages 311 through 313. It's an article entitled Experiments to Determine Mode of Spread of Influenza. The author is MJ Rosino. And there's a very extensive bibliography to this book. Okay, during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, the deadliest example of a contagion in recent history, doctors struggled to explain the worldwide reach of the illness. It sickened and estimated 500 million people, about one third of the planet's population and killed between 20 to 50 million people. It seemed to appear spontaneously in different parts of the world, striking the young and healthy, including many American servicemen. Some communities shut down schools, businesses and theaters. People were ordered to wear masks and refrain from shaking hands to stop the contagion. But was it contagious? Health officials in those days believed that the cause of the Spanish flu was a micro-organism called bifers bacillus. And they were interested in the question of how the organism could spread so quickly. To answer that question, doctors from the US Public Health Service tried to infect 100 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 25 by collecting mucus secretions from the noses. Thank you, Ms. Pruin. Okay, no one got sick from that experiment. And it's all documented in the article I quoted. And it's in the book. Thank you. Good morning, supervisors, Mr. Koenig. My name's Damon Bruder. I'm a concerned citizen. I am also the chairperson of the Syringe Services Program Advisory Commission to the Board of Supervisors. I'm here as just a citizen, not representing that commission in actuality. But I'm here to ask that the commissioners please have their staff reach out to try and find more commissioners. This is supposed to be a seven member commission. We are down to four. And we're having a very hard time meeting quorum for our monthly meetings. We're tasked with helping achieve the best balanced harm reduction program for everyone in our county. And we can't do it if we can't have meetings, if we can't have quorum, if we can't vote, if we can't suggest changes, please dig around, put the word out on your websites or at your meetings. We would really like to have some more commissioners to help serve our public better. Thank you for allowing me. Thank you, Mr. Bruder. Gary Richard Arnold, Chairman. I have a little vending product that comes out of a vending machine. It's a little barrel with five little monkeys in it. They all hang together. It kind of reminds me of this Board of Supervisors where you play musical chairs, not only with being here at all, but with such offices as the sheriff and the Gail Perlin apparently, everybody gets a raise and then they abandon their particular office. You will point somebody, they run as an incumbent. This is outrageous. You're totally at the mercy of the organizations which that lady talked about earlier. Margaret Lopez was appointed by you. She was paid by secret donors. She's a friend of Carlos Palacios and a co-member of the county so-called Community Foundation. What they didn't tell you about Margaret Lopez is that she was paid by Ann McNulty who was the Managing Director of Goldman Sachs. She received an award, this thing that allowed her to organize Latin college students for political activities. She was an advisor to Google and Netflix which is overwhelming with their censorship. Margaret Lopez had fascist control over which businesses were essential and which weren't. Some of these people that include these donations to Margaret Lopez happened to be Madeleine Albright, the Ford Foundation, a congressional committee that they said their purpose is to so alter the U.S. that it could comfortably merge with that of the Soviet Union. We have people on the board which was mentioned earlier, that Fabian socialists who believes there are better communists than anybody else. We have Zach Friends who worked for two previous communist lobbyists. He also worked for two different people from secret societies from Yale that included John Kerry whose son worked with Hunter Biden in his getting gigs from China and the Ukraine. Thank you. Hello distinguished board members. I'm speaking on the consent item as it relates to the rededication of the Willowbrook Park in honor of Sergeant Damon Goodswiller. My name is Stephen Ryan and I'm a Sergeant for the Sheriff's Office here in Santa Cruz. I'd like to thank Supervisor Friend for pushing this matter forward. This gestural serve as a tangible reminder to the community of Santa Cruz County of the sacrifice and legacy of Sergeant Damon Goodswiller. Damon's dedication and love for this county was clear to anyone who worked with him. Barbara Forrest tragic death forever cemented his selfless commitment. It is my hope that those who visit the spark will see his name and be reminded that the commitment and sacrifice Damon made while thinking fondly of my friend and my brother. Thank you. Thank you, Sergeant Ryan. Good morning, Becky Steinbrenner from rural Aptos. I also support renaming the park to honor Sergeant Goodswiller and his family and I think it's a great project and I look forward to seeing him move forward. I really want to speak about item 15, the wireless ordinance. I have a submitted written comment but at the very least this county needs to require all telecommunications operators to submit annually the actual RF operational results. They can say one thing when they've submit the application but what happens is that often it is not the same as what is actually in operation and there is no consideration of accumulative impacts within a neighborhood. So I would really like to see that added to this ordinance before it is signed into its approval. This is the second reading. There's nothing that's ever been required for follow-up on these installations. People are RF sensitive, some of us are and we need to know where these installations are so we can avoid those areas and please make those locations public. On item 51, taking affordable housing stock out of measure J. This sets a very bad precedence for people who have measure J units simply to not maintain them and that appears to be what this case is on the East Zionty Road. The house was built in 1983. It's not that old and that because the owner has who bought it in 1990 was not given the proper wording in their contract by the county to make them financially responsible for maintaining the property is now coming to fruition and the house is run down and the county simply wants to take it out of stock and let them sell it at market rate. Zillow list market rate for that area is 649,000. We have one additional minute please. There's a lot on the consent agenda. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, please do not take this out of affordable housing stock. I'm sure the county has money somewhere. Thank you. That you could at least make it habitable and safe for another low income family. Thank you. It sets a very bad precedent. I think that's everyone here in chambers. Is there anyone on Zoom? Yeah, thank you, Chair. Yes, Supervisor. The next person. Yeah, I just like, it's not only the agenda, but I'd like to recognize Santa Cruz County if you're being recognized by the National Association of Counties for examining its cross-jurisitional policing practices throughout the county. This is a nationwide agency representing counties throughout the United States. We have been at the front of the line before in our community policing efforts years ago. And this year, under the leadership of Zach Friend on the Criminal Justice Council, NACO recognized Santa Cruz County in this groundbreaking transparent review of cross-jurisitional policing in our county. It's comprised of the District Attorney, the Chief Probation Officer, the Public Defender, County Superintendent of Schools, the President of Cabrera College and the Superior Court, as well as the County Behavioral Health Director. I just want to applaud those who are involved in this. And I think it shows that the county is out in front and doing what we can to have transparent policing activities in Santa Cruz County. I especially want to say thank you to our representative on the County Board, Zach Friend, for his efforts in this. It's really a big plus for Santa Cruz County. Thank you, Supervisor McPherson. I will now continue with public comment from folks who are on Zoom. Thank you, Chair. We do have speakers. Jim Hart, your microphone is now available. Thank you. Good morning, Board. Jim Hart, Sheriff Corner. And I just want to comment on item 28, which is the dedication of the Willowbrook County Park in the name of Sergeant Damon Gutsweiler. And we're approaching the second anniversary of his murder that occurred on June 6th. And this is a very timely item. I want to thank Supervisor Zach Friend for his efforts on getting this park renamed and also the efforts of the Parks Director, Jeff Gaffney, as well as the fundraising efforts of the county parks friends. The Deputy Sheriff's Association through donations from Sheriff's Office employees have committed $100,000 to this project. And we continue to fundraise to make this happen. And I think it's an important project. It's something that the community is behind and appreciates and it's something that my staff appreciates as well. So I just want to thank all those involved in this project. Thank you. Thank you, Sheriff Hart. Rob Darrow, your microphone is now available. Good morning, Board of Supervisors. My name is Rob Darrow. I am the Chair of Santa Cruz Pride. The first Santa Cruz Pride event in Santa Cruz County was in 1975, the third Pride event in the state of California behind San Francisco and Los Angeles. That year, the Santa Cruz Pride Committee reached out to the Board of Supervisors to proclaim June 16th to 23, 1975 is Gay Pride Week. The resolution that year narrowly passed by a vote of three to two. If I had time to request a similar proclamation from the current Board, I'm sure that we would have a unanimous vote in favor. I'm here today to invite you to be part of the Santa Cruz Pride Parade and Festival on Sunday, June 5th in downtown Santa Cruz. In particular, if you'd like to be part of the parade, just let me know and I can create a space for you to be part of that. It will be a family event along Pacific Avenue and you and your families are invited as well as the public. I also wanted to share that 2025 will be the 50th anniversary of Santa Cruz Pride. We look forward to working with the future board in making our 50th anniversary a big celebration across the county. Thank you for your ongoing work that you do to make Santa Cruz County the inclusive county that it is for LGBTQ plus people and for our diverse community. Thank you. Thank you. Call in user one, your microphone is now available. Mayor Linkiver. The main purpose of elected officials is to protect the well-being of the general public by your changing the wireless ordinance, allowing the telecom industry to take over everything and radiate everything is doing the opposite. It's harming the general public. I refer you to a document by Renette Senem who is running for governor now. She is a former mayor of Nevada city twice. She did a PowerPoint presentation. Why the rush to 5G? This was a couple of years ago. And she shates millions and this is what's happening in this county everywhere. Millions of the so-called small-field transmitters will be installed both indoors and outdoors by 2025 to support the 4G, 5G and up network. But here's the catch. There's no assurance that these transmitters are safe for public health, wildlife, insects and plant life, 800,000. That's the number of new wireless transmitters required to build the new 5G network. Your vote should be rescinded. This should be stopped. She also states that 4G, 5G and the public right of way is a corporate and hostile takeover of our public right of way with no concern for public health and the environment. Vote no on item 17. And thank you, great captain for voting no on these changes to the wireless ordinance on the May 10th agenda. You're the only one. Thank you Ms. Karen. Michael Lewis, your microphone is now available. Oh, this is Jane Brocklebank using my husband Michael Lewis's computer. This is regarding regular agenda item number nine, I'm greatly disappointed in the choice of a nine foot tetrapod to represent live oak history in the community for the live oak library annex project. Yes, the Harbor Jetty tetrapods were built on the property decades ago, but the artist's goal is to serve as an homage to the Santa Cruz Harbor and those who built it, not to serve as an homage to the live oak community where the live oak annex will be built. Yesterday, I finally saw the other public art project submittals of several artists and was shocked that it appears the ugliest and most inappropriate piece for the live oak annex was chosen, library annex was chosen. There was one submittal that beautifully represented a sense of place for the live oak community. It was a carved wooden panel that even managed to incorporate oak trees. Instead, the nine foot tall, nine foot wide tetrapod chosen represents the destruction of a coastal lagoon and it's the antithesis of the county's climate action plan. Since concrete is one of the greatest greenhouse gas producers of the 21st century. Please understand, I do not impugn the current Harbor facility or its excellent administration. In fact, I was a Harbor employee for 10 years and have the greatest respect for the Harbor and all employees. That said, I asked that the board seriously consider not to approve the contract, nor approve the $95,000 of library, library measure S funds. I asked that the choice of public art for the live oak annex be reconsidered and another art project chosen, one that represents the live oak community, not the Harbor community. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Brocklebank. We have no further speakers for public comment chair. I thank you then. I'll return to the board for action on the consent agenda. And Mr. Chair, I'll make some comments. So that's now as appropriate. Please supervisor friend. Thank you. Just briefly on item 18, I'll be recording a no vote. And on item 28, I greatly appreciate the comments by the sheriff's office on this. One of those situations where even in great tragedy, we've been given an opportunity to provide the community and the family and the coworkers and friends of Sergeant Gutswiler, a place to reflect, a place to honor, but also a place of recreation and a place that he and his family use as recreation in a way that's reimagined and really would live up to the honor that he deserves. The work that we've done, not just on the fundraising side, but on the already on the work that's been done there with the courts is really an absolutely stunning reimagining of the park. And we anticipate within the next year that, you know, all these other elements will be completed. This is a pretty significant step and a very strong statement by this board that a location that meant so much to his family and in fact, a place where he and Favi had some of their first dates would be an area that would be honored moving forward. And so I greatly appreciate the board's consideration of this park being renamed in his honor and appreciate all of your consideration on that item. On item 29, Supervisor or Chair Koenig, I just wanna appreciate your work on this for the, not just on behalf of the mobile home commission, but for on behalf of all the mobile home residents in our community, this is an important step and I appreciate your leadership in bringing that item forward. On item 49, on the coastal access item or their coastal encroachment, you know, a lot of appreciation for the parks and open space and cultural services department. And I saw that we received a letter from the Coastal Commission in support of this item and I couldn't agree more that this is an important element for ensuring equity and access to the coast. Coastal California and the Coastal Act ensures that there be access to people of all backgrounds, all means and all opportunities. And as things have moved on over the course of the last few decades, it's become even more difficult for the coast to be an affordable location for people to be able to recreate an access. And so policies like this just ensure that the coast isn't just a coast for the select few, but the access was provided to everybody. And so I'm very appreciative of this policy. And I'm glad to see the board have an opportunity to support it today. On item 53, in regards to the Papua River, just continued appreciation for the work of the entire region on behalf of trying to get that levee rebuilt. This is a small thing that the county can do to help ensure that it happens. We are working very hard and appreciation also to Supervisor Caput for his work and outreach in the South County to make sure that people have that life safety and economic safety project built. We've pulled some miracles out to get to where we are, both at the state and federal level, securing over $400 million in funding. So now this is our part to do the last little bit to pull us over the finish line. So I appreciate the board's support on item 53. And lastly, on 58 and 61 for road repairs, these are still from the 2017 storm sets that caused over $120 million in damage. And as each of us know that suffered this damage within our districts and the constituents know even more than we do, it's great to see public works continue into fight to get that funding from the state and federal government associated with it. And even more importantly, to get these projects built. These two are very, very important for my district. And I appreciate the support of the board on those items and public works for the work on this. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Friend. Supervisor Kennedy. Sure, thank you, Mr. Chair. Couple items just to comment on, first one item number 20, I just want to take a moment of appreciation to the community of Supervisor Friend to share a part. The Deputy Sheriff's Association and everyone who pulled together to make this project happen and support living memorial for Sergeant Gutzweiler. And I think it's a powerful, beautiful thing. Item number 25, I just want to thank General Services for looking at how do we modernize our fleet, reduce our carbon footprint as an institution. I think it's a good step forward and I appreciate them taking the initiative. Item number 32, which is a Children's and Youth Bill of Rights, I want to take a second to recognize in the city of Santa Cruz, Martin Watkins and Chevrolet Calentari Johnson who worked hard on this initiative and then Human Services staff who has also collaborated and it's good to have a consistent countywide policy when we're making sure that we're protecting and prioritizing children and youth in our community. Item number 33, I brought this item forward with the leaked opinion of a potential overturning of Roe v. Wade. I think it's important that our county make its voice heard both from ensuring reproductive rights and women's rights and potential impacts, especially on low income communities across the country, but also for the rule of law and not overturning established law that's been in existence for 50 years. And so hopefully our federal legislators and state legislators will take action in order to ensure those rights through statute and not just leave it up to precedent. And then finally on item number 46, I just wanna recognize that the county is making a significant investment in workforce development and workforce opportunity and these kinds of programs in a dynamic economy are incredibly important to get people working, providing for themselves and for their families as well as having the dignity of work as they engage in both nonprofit and for-profit institutions and this investment's incredibly important. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Coonerty. Supervisor Caput. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, item number 28, I think it's a wonderful project to a renaming Brook Park, County Park in the name of Damon Gutsweiler. And then I wanna thank on item 53, I wanna thank Supervisor Friend. We've been working hard on the Parkville River votes that will be coming up. We decided I think around June 8th, the ballots will be counted one day I believe after the regular election for the people that are in the flood zone in the benefit area. And then on item 33, do I have to, I just wanna clarify it. If I have to remove an item to vote no on an item or can I just vote when we have the consent agenda and voice voting no on item 33? I'm pro-life, that's no surprise to the people that I know. So anyway, can I have a clarification on that? Supervisor Caput, you can choose to vote no on a single item on the consent agenda without removing it. Okay, so I'll be voting yes on the whole consent agenda except no on item 33. Understood. Go ahead, Supervisor McPherson. Thank you. Yeah, a couple items on number 21, the wildlife resiliency advocacy. I appreciate the continued sense of urgency and advocacy from our CEO to find funding for wildlife resiliency collectively. Cal Fire and our fire chiefs have scoped fuel reduction in projects. It could really make a difference if the governor were to make the funding available and the legislature. The recent Cal Fire grant award to the resource conservation district of almost a million dollars to do a fuel break protecting Felton and Scotts Valley is a great example of that. And I really want to thank the resource conservation district for its efforts in that. I also want to recognize item number 25, the fleet management lease agreement is an example of really another example of the county finding creative ways to work smarter more economically and much more efficiently. And it'll put it in a better direction with our fleet management and for positioning the county to eventually convert our fleet to electric vehicles. I too, I really want to thank Supervisor Friend and everybody who contributed to the Willowbrook Park dedication and in honor of Sergeant Damon Gutsweiler what a tremendous person he was. The people in that department just loves him. And thank you for everything you did that for that. And also Senator Laird who worked recently to for those who lost loved ones in the way of duty to have an eligibility gap in their survivor's benefits. That was important. Number 55, the measure D resurfacing project continues to go on. I want to thank the public works for this report and a great job of managing our measure D resurfacing programs for several years now and for adding streets in Ben Lohman in particular in my district in the latest round of work. As we complete more of this work throughout the county I think it deepens our trust and confidence that our readers have that when we ask for support of measures like 2016's measure D we'll follow through with it and we're getting there. It takes a long time to come back from a multi a hundred million dollar plus effort that we need to address. And number 65, the Boulder Creek Library lease. I want to make sure the board and community know that what a wonderful reopening we had on May 7th for the Boulder Creek Library the renovations were made in possible by 2016's passage of measure S as well as community contributions. And even if you don't live in Santa Rosa Valley I encourage everyone to visit Boulder Creek, the branch to see the high quality of renovations that were done. My hats go off to everybody and thank you the voters who supported measure S in 2016. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor McPherson. I'll add just a few comments and some additional proposal, additional direction on item 29 reinstating rental adjustment procedures for mobile home parks. This item was brought to my attention by the liaison for the mobile and manufactured home commission because mobile home park residents want their right to petition against rent increases restored. And I think that in light of the fact that tens of thousands of signatures have been collected for ballot initiatives courts are resuming in-person hearings that it's definitely time for mobile home park residents to have their rights to petition against rent increases restored on item 41 authorizing the sheriff corner to sign the standard agreement with California department of corrections and rehabilitation for the fire camp program and the amount of $20,000 is recommended by the sheriff corner. I just want to take a moment because the fire camp program is I think an extremely valuable program and one that's really a bit underutilized at the moment. On the one hand, we've heard about the challenges facing Cal Fire and our other fire departments because of the shortage of line crews who are available to help combat wildfires. And I've also heard from inmates who went through the program that it was extremely meaningful in helping them to turn around their lives because they went literally from an inmate from being considered a menace to society to being considered a savior, someone who had helped save small towns from destruction by fire. And so I think we should look at opportunities really to leverage this program better. The current contract is for up to 10 inmates but the budget really allows for, is only budgeting for three folks to actually utilize the program. I would suggest that or provide additional direction that in order to demonstrate our interest in expanding the use utilization of this program that we budget up to $35,000 per year. That would allow five inmates in total to utilize the program and direct the sheriff to return to our board if additional funds are needed to fill all ton spots. On item 49, the report on the coastal encroachment policy. I also wanna thank Parks for all their work on this. The proactive part of enforcing this policy as stated was a pilot project this year. And I think we saw some mixed results. One of the big challenges was just in all that has been built in the road apron which was being looked at for the encroachment as being potentially in violation of the encroachment policy. And a lot of what we're seeing is that some of those encroachments would not actually facilitate access. So it's things like mailboxes or it's in the space between two properties where there's actually not enough space to create parking. And I think that's represented in the numbers that says that of 43 properties reviewed, five parking spaces have been created. As you can imagine, I've heard a lot of pushback from residents in this area because of some of the costs of removing post office boxes, et cetera. And also it's not entirely clear that that's what the post office wants either. So I would just add additional direction here that we focus on, that we allocate staff time only to the policy stated goal of maximizing public access and recreational opportunities within the coastal zone and focus on encroachments that actually impede parking and or the public's ability to access the coast. That's all my comments. Mr. Chair, I will move the consent with the additional direction that you proposed and the understanding of the no vote that I have on item 18 and the no vote that supervisor Caput recorded on the item that I actually unfortunately just blanked on, but on the two requested no votes. 33, and I'll second that. Okay, on item 18, I just want to clarify that. That's on the setbacks. I'll be voting no on 18 also. Okay, we have a motion by Supervisor Friend and a second by Supervisor Coonerty with the understanding that Supervisor Caput will be voting on items 18 and 33 and Supervisor Friend will be voting on item 18. You for the discussion? Seeing none, clerk roll call vote please. Supervisor Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. McPherson. Aye. And Koenig. Aye. Get the consent agenda passes with a note that item 18 passed three to five, registering a no vote from Supervisor's Friend and Caput and item 33 passed four out of five, registering a no vote from Supervisor Caput. Thank you, and with additional direction. We'll now proceed to item seven on the regular agenda, presentation by Central Coast Community Energy on the annual member agency update that is outlined in the memorandum of the County Administrative Officer. And for a presentation on this, we have Gabe Ruiz from 3CE. And I think Gabe's joining us here in the chambers. So Ruiz, you can come up here when you're ready. You're welcome to take a seat. Oh, okay. I believe your microphone is returned on, so the small gray button at the base of the microphone. Thank you for having me this morning. My name is Gabe Ruiz. I am a Senior Commercial Accounts Manager with Central Coast Community Energy. I'll be providing the annual report this morning for the County of Santa Cruz. I'm happy to answer any questions. If anything is not clear during my presentation, please feel free to interrupt and ask and happy to clarify anything, but happy to take questions at the end. Next slide, please. So for the community, many of us here are aware, of course, of the Central Coast Community Energy and how we operate as a CCA. But a couple key points to note is that we are one of 23 CCAs in the state of California serving 11 million customers. We have, basically what we do is we come together as an agency in order to help serve our communities. We want to make sure that we are helping local governments reach their climate action goals. We provide residents and businesses with more energy options. It also is really to ensure transparency when it comes to where your energy is coming from, how the money is being spent, and being very deliberate in our energy program. So a big thing that the CCAs do is giving community choice and options about how the bill they're paying for their generation is being spent. Next slide, please. So the way that it works, very simply, I'm sorry if that the graph's not coming up right now, but what we do is we go out and we buy the power for our collective ratepayers. This is delivered through the existing transmission lines with your investor-owned utility. But what we're doing is we are really taking charge of where that energy comes from, how that energy is being procured. So it's really important for everyone to understand that we are going out, we are purchasing the electricity itself and getting sent to the grid. PG&E or I'm sorry Southern California Edison is in picking up that energy from there and delivering it to your homes and your businesses. Next slide. So the agency itself is made up of 33 member agencies. These are the cities and counties that have elected to join the Central Coast Community Energy. These are 33 cities and counties that have agreed to provide their communities with cleaner energy and to take action in order to do so. The CCE is the electricity provider for 400 customers, or 400,000 customers across the Central Coast. Geographically, we are the largest CCA in the state of California. We serve a very diverse community. We take part in all of our communities, community-based organizations, chamber events. So we really have, we have a team that is dedicated to doing outreach to these groups and organizations, making sure that they are aware of who Central Coast Community Energy is and we can work with them in order to make sure that their members are aware of the advantages that Central Coast Community Energy offers. I'm also pleased to announce that there's a 34th community that is elected to join Central Coast Community Energy. So this is the city of Atascadero recently voted to join as a member. So we look very much forward to their enrollment. Next slide, please. So the way that we are governed, we have a policy and operations board. This, these boards are made up of city managers, mayors, council members, other elected officials, supervisors of course. And what the goal is, is that, you know, they give us a direction. You know, we come to them with a plan and obviously they provide direction of what their communities need. One thing that, just to note is that the voting seats are determined by population and grouped by a region. Also, we have our community advisory council. So the community advisory council is made up of, you know, qualified, really qualified and committed individuals. They have important connections, again, to that really diverse community that we serve. One of the things that they offer as an advisory body to the policy and operations board is recommendations on programs and community engagement. Next slide, please. So some of the accomplishments that we have achieved, you know, really, you know, in the last 12 months, right now we do hold a 94% enrollment of all of our customers and our eligible customers in our service area. In the last 12 months, we have increased our signups to 3C prime. That is our 100% cleaning renewal option by 40%. We have increased enrollment by 25%. Again, making us the largest, geographically the largest CCA in the state of California. The agency right now has 38 full-time employees. We are between two offices in Monterey and San Luis Obispo, the main office being in Monterey. Also, you know, since 2018, we have been able to devote $27 million. We have budgeted to vote through this year, $27 million in energy programs, providing over $50 million in customer savings, which I'll talk a little bit more about here as well. And then also, you know, really what we've done is our power resource team has gone out and established contracts that have increased the total megawatts from renewables by 94% and increased battery storage contracts by 23%. And then one last note here as an accomplishment, we have also received an A credit rating from the S&P. We are the first CCA in the state of California to receive that A credit rating. So that just allows us, it's another two in our belt and allows us to do more for our communities. Next slide. So clearly stated, as I believe many of us know that our goal is to reach 100% clean and renewable for all of our service area by 2030. We are on track right now to do, to meet our 2025 goal. So with the contracts that we currently have in place, we are gonna reach that 60% goal by 2025 as we continue to add more contracts with other clean energy providers. That is obviously gonna work us closer and closer to that 100% goal by 2030. Next slide. And this is just a few of the PPAs. As you can see there from the graph, where we're at now in terms of executed PPAs, you can see the by getting us to that goal by 2025 to be 60%. Next slide. Next slide. So historically, just to talk about the rates here and the savings that we've provided historically to our customers in 2018, in March of 2018, we started with our commercial customers within the Tri-County, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito. We have always provided, we call it an IOU minus model. So the model was that, whatever the investor on utility rate is, that we are gonna take a discount of that rate and that's what our customers will pay. So we have followed that model in the year of 2020. We started with a 7% discount, but obviously due to COVID, we thought it was best wait for us to serve our customers was to provide a 50% bill reduction. So we cut the generation rates on the bills in half for the month of May and June. That saved just about $24 million to our customers just in those two months. I mean, at the time, of course, nobody knew where exactly COVID was taking us, but we felt our board felt and unanimously voted that in order for us to support our community now, we would cut that bill in half for those two months. Since then, we've provided a 2% discount because from the reserve fund that we use to offset the charges for our customers because the bill did need to be paid but it came from the rate reserve fund. We have provided a 2% discount and building up that rate reserve fund. Next slide. So in saying that, also what we have here is our new rate structure. So we are now getting away from the IOU minus rate structure. What we are doing is we have created a rate structure now that has started with our customers March 1st, but again, we wanna simply put that predictable, simplicity, fairness and still being competitive. So what we are doing is we're going out to see how our customers, you know, depending on the rate class they are, what does it cost us to actually serve our customer, right? And there's within the investor-owned utilities, there's a lot of cross-subsidization. Some customers are paying less than what it actually costs them to for their energy. Others pay quite a bit more. So what we've done with the new model is try to create fairness and predictability also by setting a goal to mold our rates for three years and then to reassess before that third year. So that is something that just to provide a little more stability when it comes to the generation portion of a customer's bill. Next slide please. So a couple of points here for the county. You can see here, we have just about where our enrollment is overall for the agency, but we have 94, nearly 95% enrollment within the unincorporated county of Santa Cruz. That is 53,000 plus enrolled customers. One of the things that we do with our customers is the energy programs fund. So the electrifier ride, that number I have is still TBD. The process that we currently have, it captures everybody within the city, or I'm sorry, the county of Santa Cruz. So even a city of Santa Cruz. So what we wanna do is separate that out and say what are the unincorporated customers, how much have they achieved from that electrifier ride? So that is something that I'll be able to share once we've kind of dove into that and made some changes within our internal system to identify that correct number. But another one is the ag electrification program. $90,000 has been devoted to that, to customers within the unincorporated county of Santa Cruz. So I myself as a senior commercial accounts manager, ag is a very important industry up and down the central coast. I work very closely with a lot of the large ag customers within our communities. And I think it's very important that this program, it drives a lot of thought and a lot of conversations with these companies that allows us to partner with them and gives us the ability to be more strategic. So very successful program. And I would say that the county and overall has done very well. Our customers have done very well and taking advantage of this money. Next slide. There's several other energy programs that we have out this year. So right now we have for 2021, we have dedicated over $14 million for our 21-22 budget. That's 4% of our operating revenue. You can see the increases that have come there from over time. Part of that has to do with us enrolling communities within San Luis Obispo County and Santa Barbara County as well. So that is increasing the funding that goes to our energy programs. But this is a lot where we work with our community advisory council. This is very important to the agency. We wanna make sure that the programs that we are designing fit and there is a need from the community. I think it's very important when we talk about new construction electrification. For example, that used to be providing funding per unit for all electric housing. The way that we've changed that this year is now we have a new criteria, all electric and affordable housing. So it has to fall under that as well because that's something that we change just by hearing from the need communications that we're hearing from various community-based organizations and other organizations that we work with. So we thought that was something that we could strategically do to improve and create more affordable housing within our communities. Next slide. So Electrifier Ride has really been kind of, it's kind of our premier program right now. There's $2.8 million dedicated to this program. It covers much more than an electric vehicle. So it's commercial charging stations. It's at home charging stations. It's e-bike program as well. So this provides and gives funding to make sure that people have access. We don't want the, you know, our goal is to lower GHGs. We want to improve the overall, you know, looking at our communities and giving them accessibility. We don't want people to feel that, you know, having an EV is not something that they can afford. We don't want the perception that, you know, having an electric vehicle is only for people with money. So what we do is also we provide additional for income qualified customers. We double the incentive for them when it comes to purchasing an EV. So this has been a really, this has been a really good program for a lot of uptake. You know, we were really having a lot of good conversations with certain organizations that are pushing this program, making sure that people are aware. Next slide. And here's another program. So we are doing some front of the meter battery storage projects right now. We are working with, I believe the number is, we had 15 of our member agencies originally submitted 90 sites for this program. So that is going to be our way of creating a more resilient, a more stable grid and really reducing the cost as well to our customers. That is a long-term goal. So working with our member agencies right now, going through the process of selecting these sites where these projects are gonna be. And yeah, we're really looking forward to this continuing and when there's more to share, I'm sure as you hear about it. Next slide. Another program that we are doing with our member agencies is the medium and heavy duty program. Just as an example, this is, so we have one member agency that is looking to purchase a electric fire truck. So we're covering the difference of the cost of what it would be for a diesel truck compared to what that difference is for an electric truck. And we're covering that difference for them. So that's something that this program does, street sweepers, we're in communications right now. We're having one-on-one meetings with all 33 member agencies. So we're very much looking forward to continuing these conversations and finding other ways this program fits everybody's needs. Next slide. And then part of our outreach in our engagement, we do with the farm worker outreach and underserved communities. So we have a team that has been dedicated to performing these outreach events. Whether it's going out with, I've been out with a labor crew in the Salinas Valley where we're actually getting closer and face-to-face to the people that need to trust us a little bit more. We need a little more. We have a lot of, we have our Spanish online Facebook. We have other opportunities that we work with different radio stations as well, but really targeting these communities and these customers to make sure that they are aware of the benefits that an agency provides and they're able to take advantage of those. Because this is an important group of customers that live within our area that need to know that they have access to these resources. Next slide. Just a couple more slides here. So another thing that we're doing is we are working on an energy portal. Really what this is gonna do is provide our customers with more access to their information, how they're using energy, how they're spending money. We're in the works right now of providing, we have a group of residential customers that have access to this right now. I think it's really important for people to understand that this is gonna grow and expand and it's gonna give our customers, they're gonna be able to understand how am I using my energy? Why is my bill what my bill is? Not only for residential, but also eventually what this will be for commercial customers as well. Next slide. Yeah, and another part of that, what they'll be able to do is look at the different services, but also when they apply for a program like our, let's say they apply for their electrifier ride and they applied for an electric bike rebate, they can go through the portal and see where they're standing in the program, if it's been processed or where they're at in that process. Next slide. And then lastly here, what we have is we've done also a vendor registry, this is local money, this is community money when customers are paying their bills and we wanna keep that money local. So what we're asking, working with some of our chambers and other business organizations is to get these local businesses registered in our vendor registry. So when we have a need for, whether it's website services or legal services or whatever that might be, we can actually go to this registry of local businesses and selects from there who that we can put out that RFP, RFQ to see who can bid on those needs of the agency. Next slide. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ruiz. Are there questions for members of the board? Mr. Chair, if I could just make a couple of comments. The complexities associate, thank you Mr. Ruiz for the presentation, really well done. I appreciate that and appreciate the success of Triple CE. The complexities associated with the business of running a government utility really are enormous. And in some respects are more complicated than the traditional business model of the investor-owned utilities or IOUs such as PG&E. Community choice energy agencies across California face constant pressure all the time from proposed legislation and regulatory policies that are pushed by the IOUs and others aimed at significantly compromising Triple CE's business model. Central Coast Community Energy is really wise, I think to focus on core goals and objectives that provide the greenest energy at the most affordable price while continually reinvesting in the region through complimentary energy programs which is continually growing. I just wanted to thank the staff of Triple CE headquartered in Monterey for its enormous successes that we've had since it became a reality. Much appreciated. It's really a really great asset to our community in the Central Coast communities throughout from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara County. So thank you very much for everything you've done. Thank you Supervisor McPherson, Supervisor Caput. Yeah, thank you. I want to thank you for the report also. I find it very interesting, the heavy duty vehicle electrification, renewable energy, everything. Anyway, we have to protect our environment and I'm not a scientist but just from looking at throughout my lifetime, it's obvious that something has changed very radically in our environment. The hot winters when we never really had sun in the morning in Watsonville area. And so something's very wrong with our environment and we need to do something. I hopefully this is going to help a lot. I'd like to see electrification of passenger rail from Watsonville to Santa Cruz. So maybe that's a possibility in the future also. Anyway, thank you. I think we have a great responsibility to the younger generation that we do everything we can to make our environment as wonderful and beautiful as it is right now. And then they're able to also enjoy living here in Santa Cruz County. And we have to protect what we have. Thank you very much. Thank you, Supervisor Caput, Supervisor Coonerty. Sure. I just want to note, I mean, I appreciate this outline and the proactive efforts to get this information and resources out to our community. I think we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that but for the vision and hard work of Supervisor McPherson and his staff, Jenny Johnson, who really brought this to fruition in our area through just determined effort, none of this would be happening right now. And we'd be having a far greater carbon footprint. We'd be making less investment in electrification. We'd be paying higher rates and seeing less for that money. And this is a, in a long career public service that Supervisor McPherson's had, this is a crowning achievement that I hope all 34 cities and counties are grateful that Santa Cruz was able to lead the way. It's moving. Here, here. Mr. Chair, just to add to that, as we've worked for other regionalization efforts and looks at public safety and a number of other issues, everybody looks back to this as the model and actually, realistically, everybody always says how to Supervisor McPherson find a way to bring all these communities together and staying with Jenny Johnson. So I just want to echo what Supervisor Coonerty said because these are very disparate communities throughout the central coast with a lot of different interests, a lot of different ideologies and they all came together around this idea for a model of how to do this moving forward. So I don't think there could have been another voice other than Supervisor McPherson to actually lead that effort, but I appreciate this presentation as well. It shows not just the successes, but what's possible as we move forward as a region on this issue. Thank you, Supervisor Friend. I have a couple of questions for you, Mr. Ruiz. The electrifier ride program is really fantastic. And I mean, as we all experience more pain at the pump and it costs $80 more to fill up your tank, I can think of no faster way to deal with that than using a small electric vehicle like an e-bike for more of your trips. And if anything, I'm looking at ways that we can actually get this more people to utilize this program. The first question is, have you considered adding more vehicle types like small electric scooters, Vespa type things, et cetera to the program so that people have an options? Yeah, and I'm sorry, I didn't neglect that. E-motorcycles are also part of that program. We haven't had a lot of applications in that area. E-bikes have been extremely popular, I would say, but I believe those types of vehicles, e-bike, scooter would relate, Vespa, e-motorcycle would relate. So I think leave those opportunities are open to the public currently. Okay, so an e-scooter like a bird or a lime scooter would qualify today? I don't know that definitely, but I would imagine so with, I would believe it falls under an e-bike. I would assume that that's fair to say. Yeah, okay, yeah. And we wanna be, if somebody wants and they wanna take advantage of it, but we want people to take advantage of this money, we want them to take advantage of this program. So I would imagine that's something that we could talk to that customer who applies for the program about if there were any hurdles they needed. Okay, well, I'll encourage applications. The other thing we're looking at is ways to, because it is a rebate program, so for working class or low income folks, it's still hard to pay that upfront amount of what can be $1,000, $2,000 or more for a bike. So we're looking at ways to try to get upfront capital available to help people purchase and then take advantage of the rebates. Yeah, I would say one of the things that was really nice about the website and what our marketing team has done is that they've actually, there's a lot of different programs out there. There's a lot of different agencies, organizations that offer rebates for purchasing electric vehicles and other e-bike programs are coming out as well. But we put those electric vehicle programs, put a link to all of those so you can go to a separate link outside of Central Coast Community Energy's website and you can actually see all the programs that are available to you within your region. Fantastic. My other question is about net energy metering as we transition from what's referred to as NEM for net energy metering two to NEM three. Do you anticipate that having a big impact on the rate of expansion of residential solar particularly and how do you plan to deal with that? Yeah, I mean, in all honesty, we don't have a restance on NEM three and it's something that is, obviously, not being decided at the CPUC level. We are not governed by the CPUC. We are governed by our boards. But I think where we see how we can help those customers and really the state at large is looking at these battery storage projects that we're doing right now. There's too much solar on the grid at certain times of the day. It goes to waste. I think the focus that we have, especially what we're doing with our member agencies and some of these front of the meter battery storage projects that we're looking at, that is where I believe that we can play our role. I can't comment on NEM three. It's just not, it's just, it's more for us. It's like, we just have to really kind of, we can write letters of support for certain areas and things like that though. Our agency does believe in and join with other agencies within the state, but it is something that is told to us eventually. Sorry, that doesn't quite answer your question, but I do believe the role and the way that we can support that is with these battery projects that we're doing. Got it, thank you. And with the requirement for new homes to be built with solar panels in the state, and to put this all significantly increase the supply of solar power or are there other policies we should be pursuing to enable that? I would say that you're gonna see with any increase in solar, I just think needs to be balanced. And I think that's where we get going kind of back to the battery storage, right? I think we were, there wasn't a balance to the amount of solar that was being put onto the grid, and especially at middle of the summer, middle of the day in the summer, but I believe that with our focus around battery storage, that's really where, again, we can play our role in that. With our new construction electrification program, it does not require solar, it just requires that you build all electric, gas lines within the units themselves. And again, of course, affordable is part of the program as well, it needs to be affordable housing. But yeah, in terms of that, that's in terms of new housing, new construction, that's where our focus is. All right, thank you. Chair Koenig, I could interrupt real quick just to on your question, the prior question with regard to the battery storage in terms of making solar energy more available, because we do overproduce in California during the day and then we have issues at night. So we're doing this project as part of 3CE to do distributed battery storage. And Santa Cruz County does have three sites that are finalists for consideration. Right now, one of them is on Freedom Campus, the other one is on the new Westridge Campus, and the other one is on Amaline. And the idea would be that they would be a site for battery storage that would enhance the reliability of the whole system. These are the front of the meter storage, battery storage projects. So we're, again, trying to lead the way and with other jurisdictions and providing sites for those storage projects. That's fantastic. Thank you. All right, if there are no further comments or questions from the board, we'll open it to public comment. Is anyone here in chambers that wishes to comment on this item, please approach the podium. Thank you. My name is Becky Steinbrenner. Thank you for this report. And thank you, CAO, Palacio, for that information about the county leading the way with battery storage. I would also like to ask that the Simkin swim center area be added to that potential campus of battery storage. I'm interested in where these 15 other sites that have been submitted to your agency are. I am aware that the Moss Landing site is one of the largest battery storage sites in the world. So I'm interested in seeing how this will grow. I'm glad that there is a surplus of solar energy that people are taking advantage of that. And I'm anxious to see it stored. I support and applaud Supervisor Caput for talking about electrification of public transportation, whether it be on the rail or on the highway. I would like to ask if 3CE can work with Metro to get more electric buses on our road, especially the Highway 17 bus and maybe even put an electric bus that can operate on the rail in the corridor to help provide ease on Highway 1 traffic. I wonder if 3CE can support PG&E and Edison by undergrounding transmission lines. You depend on them to deliver your product and yet they are a threat for wildfire. If they could be, if you could support the upgrade of them being either undergrounded or adding the ground fault interrupters to make them more safe so that we don't have power shutoffs wholesale throughout the state, that would be a terrific improvement for both the environment and your customers. I support that you are working toward microgrid, electrification projects. I'm curious about where this electric fire truck is gonna be. I wanna know where that is. And also note that I'm curious to see how the cost in three years will increase to rural power customers. You're looking at the cost for actually supplying them the product. Steinberg. And finally, I will just say that I had the great pleasure of seeing the wind turbines in the city of Soledad and found out that they are supplying 100% of the energy needed for their wastewater treatment plan. That's commendable. I'd like to see more of that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Is anyone on Zoom wishing to comment on this item? We do have speakers, one moment, please. David Brody, your microphone is now available. Hi, thank you. I'll be brief. I wasn't planning on speaking on this item today, but I just wanted to join in Supervisor Coonerty and Supervisors or friends. Recognition of Supervisor McPherson's leadership on this issue. It's truly amazing to me that this program has been delivered to our region and to our county. And frankly, when my older daughter asked me what we're doing to decarbonize our economy in the Central Coast is the first thing I point to. So I thank you Supervisor McPherson for this. And with my day job head on, what more could we be doing for our next generation and then really cleaning up our energy profile and decarbonizing our energy use in the Central Coast? Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Brody. We have no further public comment speakers. All right, then I'll return it to the board. This is an informational item only. So I don't think that any action is required. So with that, I'll thank you for coming and presenting the day, Mr. Rui. It's very informative. We'll now proceed to item eight. Consider authorizing the auditor controller, treasurer or tax collector to proceed with necessary actions to secure the U-2022, 23 tax and revenue anticipation notes in an amount not to exceed $48 million. Adopt a resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of 2022, 2023 tax and revenue anticipation notes, approving the execution and delivery of a continuing disclosure certificate, approving the form of the official statement and no purchase agreement, approving the distribution of a preliminary official statement and an official statement and take related actions as outlined in the memorandum of the auditor controller, treasurer or tax collector. Here for a part on this item, we have the auditor controller, treasurer or tax collector herself. It's Ms. Edith Triscoll. Thank you. Good morning, Chair Koenig and members of the board. Edith Triscoll, auditor controller, treasurer, tax collector. Also joining us this morning via Zoom is Suzanne Harrell, the county's municipal financial advisor on this note issuance. The item before your board today is a request to authorize the county auditor controller to proceed with necessary actions to secure its annual tax and revenue anticipation note in an amount not to exceed $48 million. This note is being issued because counties have inconsistencies between when property taxes are received and when expenditures need to be paid. Taxes are the county's largest funding source and they are received primarily in December and April. Yet the county begins paying its budgeted expenditures as early as July one. This note issuance also referred to as a TRAN is issued at the beginning of the fiscal year and paid off within 364 days with funds that are set aside during the year as tax revenues are received by the county. Regarding the method of sale for this year's TRAN, our municipal advisor is recommending the notes be sold using a competitive sale. However, the resolution presented to your board today does allow for the county to switch to a negotiated sale if market conditions deteriorate. As in prior years, the county's fiscal team will make presentations to Standard & Poor's and Moody's to obtain a rating for the note. The county's past short-term bond ratings from these agencies were at the highest level. No changes in these rates are anticipated. In addition to the current year tax flow concerns, this TRAN also provides funding to cover a portion of the prior year tax delinquencies that the county has already distributed to cities and agencies. The county is a part of the teeter plan and under the teeter plan, the county distributes property tax revenue to the cities and agencies based upon the total amount expected with no adjustment for unpaid or late tax payments. This provides the entities with consistent guaranteed cash flow and in exchange, the county receives a penalties and interest on these delinquent taxes when they are ultimately collected. In summary, I request that you approve the recommended actions necessary to secure the 22-23 tax and revenue anticipation notes in the amount not to exceed $48 million. This concludes my presentation. Both myself and Suzanne Harrell, our financial advisor, are available for any questions. Thank you. Are there questions for members of the board? Supervisor Caput. I'll just say thank you for the report and I trust your judgment, Edith, and keep up the good work. That's all I can say. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Caput. I'll approve the approval after the comments. All right, well, if there are no further comments or questions for members of the board, we'll open it for public comment. Please approach the podium. Thank you. This is Becky Steinbrunner. I have a question that I would like answered. What is, how does the $48 million compare with prior years that the county has had to borrow? And I understand this is an annual thing that the county needs to do, but how does this level compare with previous years? And also, how does the level of delinquent taxes compare this year with prior years? I would like an answer if I may please. Thank you. Other comments on Zoom? We have no speakers on this item for Zoom. Okay, thank you. That would be curious if you could... Sure, can you provide that information? We usually are right around 48, between 45 and 48 million. I believe last year we were at 48.5. We are hedging a little bit because of course our FEMA reimbursements are coming in slowly and FEMA reimbursements are cash flow to me. So I need to be able to know when to plan on that money. So for the last five years, we've been in the same range. And regarding delinquency rates, we again, also are not seeing a large change between the last few years. I don't have those numbers here, but we do provide that to the board whenever asked and I'd be happy to provide a report. Thank you. All right, we'll move to the board for action. We'll move the recommended actions. I'll second. We can allow Supervisor Caput to second. And also Mr. Chair, I believe item 13.1, which was pulled from the right consent agenda, the regular agenda, maybe we should hear it next given the fact that it would be similar staff for these items. Sure. All right, so we have a motion by Supervisor Kennedy, a second by Supervisor Caput. Any further discussion? Seeing none, clerk, we'll call the vote please. Supervisor Friend. Aye. Ms. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. And Koenig. Aye. That item passes unanimously. Thank you. All right, I think that Supervisor Friend's suggestion is a good one. If there's no legal issues with that, we will hear item, sorry, was it 13.1 will now be 8.1. And for presentation on this item are Director of Community Development and Infrastructure, Matt Machado. Thank you, Chair Koenig and board members. The item before you is a resolution authorizing the sale and issuance of bonds for our Santa Cruz County Sanitation District. And with us this morning is our bond advisor, Suzanne Harrell, she'll be giving us a PowerPoint presentation and she will also be available to answer any questions that the board may have. So I will turn the microphone over to Suzanne. So good morning, Chair and members of the board. Assuming you can hear me and see me just fine. So we'll start with, if we could advance to the first slide. Thank you. So the Santa Cruz County Capital Financing Authority was created to assist the county in relating enemies with financing needs. And the Santa Cruz County Sanitation District has requested assistance with financing approximately $20 million of capital projects. To accomplish this, the authority would enter into an installment purchase agreement with the district. The district would make installment payments from its net sewer revenues. And then the authority would use those installment payments to secure revenue bonds that would be issued to the investing public. Next slide. The projects that are expected to be funded with the proceeds of the bonds are about $20 million. 22.3 actually for five separate projects. Some of it will be funded with available funding of the Sanitation District. So the net proceeds to be raised for the projects are $20 million. You can see there's a little schedule here when the bids are gonna be open on the various projects, when the construction will start and when it'll be complete, it should be all complete within two years. Next slide. The terms of the bonds, we anticipate they'll be sold a competitive sale. We have started the process to get a green bond designation from a third party independent verifier for these bonds. We expect them to have a 30 year maturity. Hopefully the bonds will have a AA plus rating, which is consistent with the last bond issue. Unfortunately, rates keep going up. So about a month ago, the rate was expected to be 4.2% effective. Now it's, as of last week, it had gone up to 4.28%. We did present this to the Sanitation District Board last week, so they are also aware of what's happening with interest rates. Next slide. So for the bond approval, the authority resolution will approve a trust indenture and installment purchase agreement of a preliminary official statement, an official notice of sale and a designation of the bonds as green bonds. And also authorizes various officers to take actions in connection with the issuance of the bonds and issue the bonds in an amount not to exceed $25 million. Again, I mentioned the district adopted its own resolution on May 19th for the documents required on their end for completion of financing. So next slide. So the recommendation is to adopt the resolution authorizing the sale issuance and delivery of a series of revenue bonds, approving the execution delivery of a trust indenture, an installment purchase agreement, official notice of sale and a preliminary official statement and authorizing certain other matters related there too. And that concludes the presentation. So I'm available for questions if there are any. Thank you. Questions for members of the board? Seeing none, I'll just add that these three projects, they all fall to my district, but they're incredibly important and sanitation district board of directors agreed universally to advance this bond issuance. I think it's a good investment in infrastructure. They'll really literally lay that groundwork for more housing development within the middle of our county. I'll take it to the public. Any member of the public that wishes to comment on this item, please approach the podium or raise your hand if you're on Zoom. Go ahead. Thank you. This is Becky Steinburner, Resident of Rural Aptos. I am really glad this got taken off the consent agenda. This does not meet the standards of being on the consent agenda. So thank you to whichever supervisor it was that pulled it. $20 million bond financing is a lot of money, but this is a very necessary improvement, a large capital improvement for our county, especially looking at the sustainable Santa Cruz County plan and general plan update that will really add a lot of housing, dense housing in the Live Oak area, but also the C-Cliff area in Aptos. I am aware there is a current sewer connection moratorium in the Rodeo Gulch Basin, and that was brought up regarding the Kaiser project. So what I wanna know is what developer fees would be required of Kaiser because that will be a huge impact on that moratorium area. And I feel like they should be helping pay for this as well as the redo of the 41st Avenue Mall that may be including dense affordable housing or housing in general, is the city of Capitola going to assist with the cost of doing some of these major capital improvements. I'm amazed that this will all be done in two years. That is phenomenal. And I applaud the county for going in a direction to get the problem addressed. I am concerned as a taxpayer about taking on this kind of debt as we move in further to inflationary times and more taxes, but I would like to see some of these large developers also pay in and the city of Capitola. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Steinberger. Are there any comments on Zoom? We have no speakers on Zoom. All right. I wonder if you could, Director Machock, speak a little bit to the way this bond will be paid for versus development versus regular ratepayers. Sure, absolutely. So the bond is built into our financial models, built into our sanitation district rates and budget with regard to who pays for those impact fees as reference, it's actually a connection fee. And so Kaiser, if they move forward or when they move forward, they will be paying their fair share through a connection fee. And that's also true for any other development projects. Everybody pays based upon their capacity that they need for their project. It is true that these projects will lift that moratorium. And so that is exciting news for our entire region. And we do know it's an aggressive schedule, but we also know that we've been working on these projects for a few years, getting clearances and getting designs complete. And so we do think it's a realistic goal. So any other questions I can try to answer? That's it, thank you. All right, I'll return to the board for action. I'll move the recommended actions. Second. Motion by Supervisor Friend, second by Supervisor Coonerty. Any further discussion? Seeing none, clerk roll call vote please. Supervisor Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. And Koenig. Aye. That item passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. I'll proceed to item nine. Consider selection of Marilyn Kuchst as the public artist for the Live Oak Library Annex Project adopt resolution accepting unanticipated revenue in the amount of $95,000 from measure S funding approve agreement with Marilyn Kuchst for an amount not to exceed $85,000 and take related actions as outlined in the memorandum of the Director of Parks, Open Spaces and Cultural Services for presentation on this item. We have a few presenters. Kathy DeWild, our program coordinator for the arts program, Amy Akusu, Arts Commissioner and Marilyn Kuchst, the artist herself. Which one of you, I believe you're all joining on Zoom, which one of you is starting? Ms. DeWild, go ahead. Kathy, you have been promoted to a panelist that you should be able to accept the unmute and begin speaking. Oh, sorry, good morning. Good morning, Chair Koenig and members of the board. I am Kathy DeWild, arts program coordinator for Santa Cruz County Parks. Your board has previously approved the concept of placing a public art component at both the Live Oak Library Annex and the Aptos Library. In December of 2021, the Arts Commission formed an art selection panel for both of these projects and a call to artists was issued for the creation of original public artworks for each. It is now my pleasure to introduce Arts Commissioner Amy Akusu, who will tell you about the selection process for each of these two library projects after which the artists will speak about their proposals. Thank you, Amy. Good morning, members of the board. My name is Amy Akusu and I am an arts commissioner for Santa Cruz County. The Arts Commission is pleased to recommend for your approval today an artist proposal for the Live Oak Library Annex. A call for artists went out in December of 2021 and an art selection panel was convened. The art selection panel was composed of community members, professional artists, county arts commissioners, as well as the project manager. This panel met in February of this year to review the proposals submitted by the artists. Two different artists were chosen to continue in the selection process by meeting with the panel where they were asked a series of questions about their concept proposal. In addition, the artists were asked to present to deal drawings to further explain these proposals. After much deliberation, the panel chose Marilyn Cooks to continue in the selection process. And at the March 7th meeting, the Arts Commission reviewed the panel's decision and voted to recommend to your board to approve the selection of Ms. Cooks for the public artists for the Live Oak Library Annex. I would now, excuse me, now like to introduce Ms. Cooks for to give a brief presentation of her proposal and answer any questions that you might have. Good morning, board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. I'm very pleased to be working with the county on this project. It's truly a pleasure. I have selected as my project a sculpture that is a basic homage to the builders and people who work with the harbor through doing an abstract stylized take-off on the tetrapods at the harbor. They're very iconic. I love the shapes themselves and was happy to be able to buy that basic design into something of a more geometric shape. I feel that the beauty of the building is very soft and curvy and that a more angular design would compliment that very much. As you have in your package, you know that the sculpture is proposed to be approximately nine feet tall, which seems big if you're thinking of it in a room, but if you're thinking of it outdoors, it really, it gets smaller very fast. You've seen the photo. I very briefly brought a little mac kit to show that it is not as static as it might appear in one photograph. Some have suggested it's a little hard for some people to see how it's related to tetrapods at the harbor, but I think if you with a simple reorientation, you can see that it's close in design, but more stylized to be what I consider a more artistic design for this purpose. So with that, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to address them. Yeah, thank you. Just a couple of questions. Would the proposed structure be climbable, or if not, would measures be taken to discourage people from climbing on it? It is not a very climbable design. When you scale it, you'd have to be climbing at a very odd angle up over six feet. So it's very difficult to do that. We talked about different angles, actually like orienting it like so to actually make it more climbable, but the selection committee chose the other, as I call it, more flying orientation instead, but I don't anticipate any safety issues. Okay, and I see in the mock-up that you're presenting there, all of the sides of the tetrapod are the same length, whereas I think one version of it had, it was one of the legs was more extended, the one it was standing on, is that the final proposal that you have in front of you? It's more of an optical illusion depending on the orientation. They are all approximately the same length. The issue is the angle that the tips are cut at will change a little bit, and I may modify those a little bit more to add a little extra grace to the design as well, but they're all approximately a little over four feet in length. Does that answer your question? Yeah, and if the structure was lying in such a way that it was easier for people to climb on one of the legs and slide on it, would the materials wear in a way? Like, I mean, if it's made out of metal, would they be smooth and would that be, you know, or would that become an issue? I should have addressed the materials. It's proposed to be a quartet-like steel, which is a self-brusting steel, so the surface will be rust if you climbed on it and slid on it. You might get a little bit of rust on your clothing, but that's about it. It's, you know, structurally, it'll be extremely durable and will outlive me by many, many years. Okay, thank you. I did also just have a couple of questions for Ms. DeWild. I noticed in the call for artists that specifically outdoor pieces were called for, and that does significantly limit the type of art that was considered. You know, I was just thinking back to, I blew with our last meeting where we heard from many members of the public about the Felton Library and the old artwork there with some human faces that people really resonated with. So, you know, obviously any painting or anything else that would have to be outside would face issues of degradation. You know, how was it determined that this had to be only an outdoor work or is there anything that actually requires it to be outdoors only? Hello. I actually asked for direction from the project manager about what might work best for the public art project. So while there was in the call to artists a direction that outdoor public art pieces would be preferred, certainly artists were welcome to submit proposals that included an indoor piece if they so desired. So it was more of just a preferred direction. I see. And do we currently maintain an existing collection of county artwork? We do. There's a county collection of two-dimensional pieces, paintings, sculptures as well. And also the county collection includes all of the public art pieces. And are there natural places around at the Live Oak Library Annex to display art of any kind? I had trouble reading the map of where exactly this would be. I'm sorry. Are you asking if pieces from the county collection could be displayed inside the new Annex? Or outside if any are appropriate. I'm wondering what the ability is for any kind of rotating art collection outdoors or indoors? Certainly there's an opportunity for rotating exhibitions of artists work inside the Annex. So I would be happy to work with the library staff and park staff to determine what that might look like. And absolutely pieces from the county art collection could be exhibited inside the library Annex if that's the direction they wanted to go. In terms of outdoor pieces, it's possible but we need to look at very carefully where those might be placed. Because from what I understand, there's a lot of hard state, there may be some planting areas. The pieces in the collection that are three-dimensional are ceramic so those would not be appropriate. And most of the others are smaller pieces. Thank you. And would support for rotating art exhibition require, is that within your budget today or require additional funds? It would not be within today's budget. It would be part of what Parks does and what I do which is to facilitate exhibition of artwork in county facilities. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. I mean, I'll just say for the artist, Ms. Kuchst, I really like you. Personally, I like your proposed artwork. It reminds me of work of Richard Sera of large metal structures which I think are very interesting and I like the contrast with the building as you said from a pointy structure to a smooth one. I guess my only concern here is it feels like the reference to live oak history itself is a bit obtuse and because it's specifically to the harbor and I'm not sure how much it actually really celebrates live oak's culture itself. So if you'd like to respond to that, you can, although it's not necessary. I'd be happy to just make a quick comment. I should also have mentioned that I understand as you said, it's a little bit obtuse in certain aspects and that's why I did propose a signage to show images to go along with the sculpture so that there would show a tetrapod at the harbor and kind of how it evolved into this design. And one of the reasons I chose the harbor is in the call for art, there was extensive history provided on the harbor and the building of it and so forth and it seemed to me to be more closely aligned to live oak's history than maybe some people thought. We can address that in additional educational signage too. All right, thank you. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this item? Please approach the podium. Thank you, Becky Steinbruner. You've also heard earlier about this from Ms. Jean Brocklbank who opposes this for the very reason that you brought up Supervisor Koenig that this does not really mirror live oak. Tetrapods at the harbor is not really live oak. Live oak in the early 1900s was the second largest poultry producing egg producing location in the state of California, second only to Petaluma. That would reflect live oak. But doing something that would harken to the days of the ranchettes when there were many, many egg producing small farms there would harken to the history of live oak. Having some kind of a climbable, more kid-friendly piece of art would fit this site. I've raised kids and I know they're gonna wanna climb on this but it's not going to be kid-friendly. Their parents or guardians are gonna constantly have to admonish them not to touch it because it will be hot, it will be messy. This is not in my opinion, a kid-friendly or family-friendly piece of art. And it does not as Ms. Brocklbank and you yourself, Supervisor Koenig pointed out, does not really harken to or reflect the live oak history. So I, while I appreciate the effort of the artist and the commission, I feel it is inappropriate to put this in a very kid-friendly, family-friendly location. And that does not reflect the history of live oak itself. I remember a few years ago at Scott's Valley Library seeing rotating very large sculptures out north and they were amazing, made out of recycled materials. So I think we need to take a second look at this, not spend $95,000 on this sculpture because I really don't think it fits and I don't think it serves the public well. We only need to look at the whale, at the Museum of Natural History and know that people love that and it is approachable and it is something that is very public-friendly and that's what this piece of art needs to be. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any comments on Zoom? Yes, we do. Michael Lewis, your microphone is now available. Yes, this is the real Michael Lewis this time. I'm particularly disappointed with the selection of this project without casting any aspersions on the artist at all. I find this an ironic selection for reasons that Becky just elucidated and also because this celebrates a project that was environmentally destructive. It resulted in the destruction of a working lagoon and wet lens that no longer exists anymore and also required the use of cement, which is one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gas emissions which we're very much trying to control nowadays. So I find the selection of this inappropriate. It celebrates the wrong things in our culture. We're moving away from this sort of thing now. We're considering environmental effects, what we do more. And I think, and also it ignores the history of Live Oak as a rural area. And those of us who live here in Live Oak enjoy the rural character that still exists. And we decry the destruction of that character. So particularly since there were other proposals that did indeed celebrate the rural character of Live Oak. And I'm just disappointed that this selection was made and I hope you can send this back for a little more consideration. Thank you. Thank you. We have no further speakers on Zoom. Pearl is the key. Okay, I'll return it to the board for action. You know, again, with no slight meant for the artist who I think his work is artistically of high merit but just it falls a little short here of celebrating Live Oak's culture and history. What I'm interested in doing is accepting the funds but using them to provide for a rotating exhibition at the Live Oak Library Annex including an ongoing annual competition for as long as funds allow to acquire, display and preserve artwork to celebrate Live Oak's culture and history and advertise that program broadly in the community, including at local schools understanding that artwork must be created independent of an instructor. I'll make that as a motion and if there's issues with it that need to be considered happy to do so. Yes, Mr. Chair, let me just say that. I mean, this is your district and so I wanna respect this, what your recommendation is and I'll ask Ms. DeWild, can you just explain to us and then you briefly said that the project manager to Chair Koenig's question had recommended an outdoor piece. Can you just explain for the community what the process is? We had a call for artists who was selected by the Arts Commission who was selected specifically by a staff member and then that recommendation comes to us. What's the common place on modifications for this? What's the library's role within this versus just the county's role? Just so we can have a sense also for what supervisor or excuse me, Chair Koenig is recommending for context. Hello, I know that Damon Adlow is on this call as well or perhaps he's even there in person and he might be able to speak to his conversations with library staff about placement of the public art for this project. He might be better able to address that. Yeah, he's approaching now. Damon Adlow, Community Development and Infrastructure. Thank you for the opportunity. Yeah, as far as when the RFP went out, it was primarily, I think it was primarily open. So we're open to proposals that were in the exterior or interior. I think the primary focus was representations of the natural and built environment. So it was fairly open and then also a history component. So I think the panel was interested in outdoor, some of the outdoor proposals primarily in creating kind of a new place for the campus. So just kind of thinking a little bit beyond the annex itself but also integrating the Simkins, the Boys and Girls Club, the new rail trail, potential rail trail and creating a place in Live Oak. So I think the attraction of having something on the exterior was something to kind of focus on. But again, I think the proposal went out was pretty open-ended. And is there space within the building to play hung art or have display cases? There's definitely space for two-dimensional art, absolutely, not necessarily for three-dimensional. But just a comment on that, I think that it would have to be, we would have to involve the library. They also have a separate policy for art exhibition. So that would have to be something that'd be coordinated between our current policy and then the library's policy. Okay. Mr. Chair, if I can make a suggestion but feel free to disagree with it. It just strikes me that maybe this just needs to go back a little bit toward the, we need to kind of restart the process in regards to this. I mean, it may be that what you're recommending makes sense and may also be that we just go back and have another shot at a new set of proposals that maybe you're more actively involved. Because I mean, not that I'm saying that you weren't, I'm just saying that it just realistically, this kind of comes to us the Thursday before Tuesday meeting with proposed piece of art. So, you know, I think that what make more sense would be to just, and I can take Damon's suggestion on this, if accepting the funding, if that half makes sense, then just moving it back and remanding it in essence for another call to artists redoing that process, especially if it can be done in a relatively expedited fashion might make more sense, but I'll leave it what your thoughts are on that, Mr. Chair. I just, the reason I'd ask the concern or question about the library is that I don't want to limit what your vision is as you were talking about a rotating exhibition. And I know at least in the Aptos library, I mean, there's been a lot of limitations of what can or can't go up on the walls and the library has an active role in that too. And so I don't want to create another issue associated with just what your recommendation is. Okay, thank you. Then let me try to put this together here. Then I'll draw my previous motion and move that we accept the funds from measure S today, which would be in line with recommended action number two. And then to confer with the library to understand what would be possible in terms of allowing for a rotating exhibition at the Annex, Live Oak Library Annex, and ask the arts commission to, I guess restart the process with the consideration that taking into account what was learned from the library and considering whether or not the acquisition of art pieces can be acquired over even multiple art pieces can be considered or over multiple years. Yeah, that's clear to me. I mean, I would second that motion. I'll ask council confirm those within our flexibility to be able to do this today. Yes. Thank you for that succinct answer as always. And so Damon, I want to make sure that, sorry, Mr. Adlow, I want to make sure that this is direction is clear in a way. There's something that you can also work with. I understand you've been under a lot of requests that we expedite these processes from each of our offices. I understand this is denying something but just making sure that this is also clear for you. It's clear for me. Okay, and Chair Cohen, I would just encourage, I mean, I imagine you're going to, but I think just having an open role in these discussions would be very helpful. Also moving forward, I appreciate you working on that. So I will second that motion. All right, any further discussion? Seeing none, clerk roll call vote, please. Supervisor Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Cappit. Aye. McPherson. Aye. And Koenig. Aye. That item passes unanimously. Thank you. And now we'll proceed to item 10 to consider selection of Paul Cheney, DBA, Cheney Metals, Inc. as the public artist for the Aptos Library Project. Adopt resolution accepting unanticipated revenue in the amount of $120,000 from Measure S, $120,000 from Measure S funding. Improve agreement with Cheney Metals, Inc. for an amount of not to exceed $106,000 and to take related actions as outlined in the memorandum of the Director of Parks, Open Spaces and Cultural Services. And for a presentation on this item, we have Amy Miyakusu, Arts Commissioner and Paul Cheney, the artist. My apologies for forgetting the camera the first time there. Once again, my name is Amy Miyakusu. I am an Arts Commissioner for Santa Cruz County. And I would like to, excuse me, let me restart that. The Arts Commission is pleased to recommend for your approval, another amazing artist. This proposal is for the new Aptos Library. The call to artists went out in late 2021 and a selection panel was convened. The selection panel met in February to review the artist proposals received by the due date. Three artists were chosen to continue in the selection process by meeting with the panel and an artist was selected to continue in that process. The Arts Commission at their March 7th meeting asked the panel to reconvene and asked the artist to provide more detailed information about their concept proposals. The artist also created additional materials to further describe their proposals. After much deliberation, the panel chose Paul Cheney to continue in the selection process. And at their March 23rd meeting, the Arts Commission reviewed the panel's decision and voted to recommend that your board approve the selection of Mr. Cheney as the public artist for the Aptos Library. I'd like now to introduce Mr. Cheney of Cheney Metals who will give a brief presentation of his proposal and then also answer any questions that you might have. Mr. Cheney, you're on mute. Can you hear me now? We can. Oh, okay. Thanks very much for the opportunity to do this work. Kind of surprising after to be here now. So at any rate, do you have any questions about what I'm going to do and how it's going to be accomplished? Any questions from members of the board? No, I don't have any questions. Look, Mr. Cheney, these are two separate and distinct projects and needs and the Aptos Library falls within my district. It's an absolutely exciting project. We just had demo this week and so we've officially begun it. I think that your proposal is stunning. My son, I showed it to him. He's seven and he's excited to go into the new children's room and he saw, I explained to him the metal fabrication. He was very excited about it. So I support your proposal. I appreciate you helping create memorable public art pieces for the renewal of a project that it's long overdue and creating a new hub for Aptos to have for the next 30 years or so. So a great appreciation for you for submitting to this and I'm looking forward to supporting your proposal. Thank you. I'd have to know further questions or comments. Are there any comments from members of the public? Hello, my name is Becky Steinberg and I'm a resident of Aptos and this is the first I've heard about this. I guess I've been so preoccupied with worrying about salvage of the demolition that I didn't pay attention to the art that was coming down the pike. I see that it's going to be silicon bronze. What is the texture of that material? Is it kid-friendly? This is gonna be, one of them is gonna be in a kid's garden. The teen panel, I'm sorry, I didn't quite have time to read all of the materials. If you could please just talk about the materials and the size, the kid's garden is gonna be 84 feet long and the other one is over that. So this is gonna be substantial art. If you could please just talk about the material, the texture, if it will be kid-friendly and if it's how it will weather in the salt air that it will be exposed to. I like the designs that I see in your renderings. They're beautiful. And they do reflect the natural environment of the Aptos area. So I think they're very beautiful and I'm anxious to see them, but I would like to know a little bit more about what they will be like and where they will be. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Steinberger. Are there anyone on Zoom who wishes to comment? We have no speakers on Zoom at this time. All right, I'll turn to the board for action. Yeah, I'll move the recommended actions. The questions actually are within the artist's proposal here, the drawings and the dimensions and such in the material fabrication, but I'll move the recommended actions. Post-second. Motion by Supervisor Friend, second by Supervisor Caput. Any further discussion? Seeing non-clerk roll call vote please. Supervisor Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. And Koenig. Aye. Thank you. That item passes unanimously. All right, and we'll proceed. Thank you, Mr. Cheney. Proceed to item 11. We'll continue the public hearing to consider ratification of the vote results for County Service Areas, number 16, Roback Drive, number 21, Westdale Drive, number 26, Mirror Drive, number 36, sorry, 26, Mirror Drive, number 36, Forest Glen, Zone C and F, number 46, Pinecrest, number 55, Riverdale, Park Road, and CSA number 58, Ridge Drive. In particular, the actions is outlined in the memorandum of the Deputy CAO, Director of Community Development and Infrastructure. Officially open the public hearing. And for presentation on this item, our Deputy CAO, Madam Shado. Thank you, and good morning again, Chair Koenig and Supervisors. And so as you described, the item before you is a certification of votes for the County Service Areas as you described. Thank you for that. Just a quick background for just a report here. Back in February, on February 15th, your board did approve the engineers report. You also set the public hearing on April 12th. And on that day, you took testimony and accepted ballots for the proposed benefit assessments for these listed CSAs. You then continued the public hearing today. And today we do have the tabulation of the election results in the board letter. We have described each district and the results of those ballots. The recommended action today is to accept certification of the vote results for CSAs 16, 21, 26, 36, 46, 55 and 58. Secondly, to adopt resolutions authorizing and levy an assessment for road maintenance and operations within CSAs 16, 21, 26, 36, 46, 55 and 58 for fiscal year 22, 23 and each year following. And thirdly, to adopt the resolution confirming previously established benefit assessment for road median maintenance all within CSA number 36 for the 22, 23 fiscal year and each year following fiscal CSA 36, they oppose the proposed increase assessment. So that's why that last recommended action is slightly different. With that, I can answer any questions that you may have. Thank you. Questions for members of the board? Seeing none, I'll open it for public comment. Members of the public wishing to comment on this item? And here in the chambers, is there anyone on Zoom? We have no speakers on Zoom for this item. All right, then I'll return to the board for action. I'll move the recommended actions. Second. Motion by Supervisor Friend, second by Supervisor Coonerty, any further discussion? Seeing none, clerk roll call vote please. Supervisor Friend? Aye. Coonerty? Aye. Caput? Aye. McPherson? Aye. And Koenig? Aye. That item passes unanimously. Thank you. I will now proceed to, I will close the public hearing. I will now proceed to item 12, consider a report on Thrive by Three Initiative and Nurse Family Partnership and Direct Staff to report back on a before December 13th, 2022 with fiscal year 21-22 program evaluation is outlined in the memorandum of the Directors of Health and Human Services. And for a report on this item, we have our HSD director, Randy Morris. Yes, good morning, Chair Koenig and board members. I am one of four people presenting today and if the clerk or the board could help me, I have three colleagues who are gonna be co-presenting with me virtually. First is Health Service Agency Assistant Director, Jen Herrera. Second is Health Service Agency Public Health Manager, Susan Paradise. And finally, first five director, David Brody. And I see them being logged in. Thank you. So in front of you today is the first update since the pandemic on the Thrive by Three program. And before giving this presentation, I just wanna pause to recognize sort of a human element in this. This is a program that's been up and running in response to a board action five years ago. And as a newer member of this community in the last two years, and in fact, in preparing to give this presentation, it really strikes me how much heart and passion went into this presentation. And I think as staff in preparing this, we felt strongly we would be remiss if we did not take the moment to recognize Allison Ender from Supervisor Coonerty's office, who was a big part of the heart and passion. And having lost her a couple of years ago, I think we just wanted to pause for a minute and recognize her role in helping what you will hear about today has been a wonderful program. So with that said, today's agenda, if you can go to the next slide, thank you for helping. Today's agenda is gonna cover three quick topics. So even though there's four of us, we hope to be able to do this in about 10 minutes. First is a little bit of background because we haven't been here in the last couple of years, wanna just sort of explain to the public and to community sort of what this program is and what's happened in the last five years, leading to the second topic, which is highlighting some accomplishments. And I just wanna take a moment to highlight two. One is how much the work that preceded the pandemic helped some of our most vulnerable families who have children zero to three during the pandemic. And then second is how much this program has grown over the last five years, which we have a slide about. And then we will close out with what us first five health and human services are thinking of some of the next steps and opportunities as we look forward to invite some comment from the public and from your board and give us any feedback. So with that said, I'm gonna turn it over to Jen Herrera, who was the former public health director and now assistant director who's had a big role in this to start with the background. Good morning, is my sound coming in okay? Yes, we hear you. Thank you. Thank you, Director Morris. So first some background, Thrive by Three is a early childhood fund that was established by the board in January of 2017 with direction to invest those funds in the earliest years of childhood from prenatal stage to through three years old, which is the most rapid and critical period of brain development. It's an investment in evidence-based to generation approaches that achieve breakthrough outcomes for young children facing adversity. And it's an integrated comprehensive prenatal to three system of care, particularly among children and families facing the greater barriers to thriving. These investment strategies are intended to support the following community level outcomes. First, we wanna ensure that all babies in Santa Cruz County are born healthy. We are monitoring countywide indicators related to this community level impact, such as early prenatal care and babies born full term and at healthy birth weights to gauge how we're doing overall as a county. We also want to ensure that families have the resources they need to support children's optimal development. Countywide indicators for this goal include monitoring, access to high quality care and early learning opportunities and access to economic and self-sufficiency supports. We want to ensure all young children in our county live in safe, nurturing families. We still need ways to measure this at a countywide level using indicators such as parenting confidence and practices, parent-child relationships and parent and caregiver emotional wellbeing. And ultimately, we want to ensure that all children are happy, healthy and thriving by age three. Although there are several ways to measure health and wellbeing, we're paying particular attention to the rates of child maltreatment and entries into foster care to gauge our prevention efforts. 3x3's desired outcomes are built upon some basic building blocks. The system of care takes a whole child, whole family approach to identifying strengths and needs at the earliest point possible. It uses linkages to a coordinated system of care. And it's built on a strong, sustainable foundation of partnerships with mutual accountability, high quality programs and a results-based framework. And lastly, it leverages resources and creates equitable opportunities for young children and families to experience the eight interconnected core conditions for health and wellbeing. And in the next few slides, we're going to cover recent accomplishments of the 3x3 system of care. So as Director Morris mentioned, a major accomplishment has been the leverage investments over the past few years. Since the start of 3x3, the initial $350,000 investment and intentional focus on strengthening the prenatal to 3x3 system of care has allowed for increased investments with the funding projected to be about 1.4 million next year. Additional funding has come from a variety of areas including the CalWorks Home Visiting Program, which is received through the Human Services Department. The California Home Visiting Program Grant received through the Health Services Agency. The Home Visiting Coordination Grant received through First 5 and emergency funds received throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes funds from the city of Santa Cruz Children's Fund. And next, I'd like to introduce Susan Paradise, who directs our Children and Family Health Unit in HSA's Public Health Division. Good morning, can you hear me okay? We can. Great, thank you. So 3x3 has served as a catalyst for increasing our county's capacity to provide intensive care coordination through a network of home visiting programs. These programs are nurse family partnership, public health field nursing, families together and early head start. Collectively, we served 1,077 families in 2019 and 2020. Our home visiting programs, excuse me, provided parents with information, support and referrals to community resources and services in multiple core conditions and promote greater health and well-being of families. This was crucially, crucially important in 2020. Even through COVID-19 and the CZU Lightning Complex fires when all of our county public health nurses were deployed doing case investigation and then providing care in the fire shelters, we continued to work with our partners on strengthening coordination among the home visiting programs and other early childhood and family support services. With the support of our county children's behavioral health staff, we were able to virtually convene our home visiting learning collaborative for specific training on how home visiting staff could support our families around COVID-19 and mental health. As you can see here in this picture, this is a real picture, we reached out to our community partners including Central Coast Alliance for Health and Second Harvest Food Bank for grants to provide diapers, wipes, food and formula to all of our partners in the collaborative in order to assist our families struggling with the economic losses that accompanied the fires and the pandemic. Next slide, please. We also leveraged the CalWorks Home Visiting Funds to provide items to help our first-time moms continue to teach and have fun with their children safely at home and our NFP families kept our hearts happy by sending us their photos. We also coordinated with our County Human Services Department to obtain free laptops and computer training for our NFP families through the CalWorks Home Visiting Program Funds. And lastly, we found creative ways to celebrate the accomplishments of our families. As Supervisor Coonerty knows, we held two drive-through NFP graduations and graduated 54 new families since the last time we've come to the board. Now I'd like to introduce David Brody, Executive Director for First Five Santa Cruz County to tell you about enhanced system capacity and coordination. Good morning, everybody. Just a sound check, you can hear me? We can. Very good. Thank you, Susan. Again, David Brody, Executive Director for First Five Santa Cruz County. As this board knows, First Five manages a number of elements of the Thrive by Three Initiative, including the Early Learning Scholarships, or ELS. As a reminder, ELS are designed to provide enhanced funding to licensed, excuse me, infant and toddler care providers who provide state subsidized care to children of low income in our community. And this care takes place both in center-based and in family child care settings throughout the county. The basic goal of ELS is to help close the gap between the true cost of providing safe and high quality care and available state subsidies. Since the beginning of the program, when Thrive by Three started in 2017, we've distributed over $360,000 to local child care providers, including some $175,000 in the last two fiscal years. This funding goes directly to providers, the majority of whom provide care in in-home-based settings, and the significant majority of whom reside in South County. These are flexible funds. It can be used for things like program supplies, facility improvements, professional development, or strategies to attract and retain staff, particularly relevant during COVID. Whatever is necessary to support the provision of high quality care. During the pandemic, we at First Five also leveraged this program in our experience with it in distributing cash grants to child care community to quickly stand up an emergency response fund that provided additional cash grants to any licensed child care provider within the entire county who continue to serve children of essential workers during the pandemic. And we are very proud to say that on top of the ELS funding that's been distributed, we distributed over $732,000 from various sources in that emergency response funding. And again, really our capacity do that all built on the foundation of the Thrive by Three experience and the ELS program. So with that, I'd like to move over to another program, our Healthy Steps program. Next slide, please. So Thrive by Three has supported the adoption of Healthy Steps in our two safety net clinics, Santa Cruz Community Health Centers and Salud Parallelante. Healthy Steps is an evidence-based interdisciplinary primary care program that partners with pediatric care providers to support parents and improve the health and wellbeing of babies and toddlers in our community. The model centers around team-based well-child visits where physical, developmental, social, emotional and behavioral health screenings are conducted on a routine basis. And as Dr. Devin Francis from Salud Parallelante noted just last week at our advisory committee meeting, Healthy Steps is really a model that helps to operationalize and enhance the American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures recommendations for the care of young children, while also providing wraparound care including early learning resources, parenting support and even economic supports and housing. So really in line with the efforts of our Thrive by Three initiative. Launched in 2019 with a training provided by the Healthy Steps National Office, funded by Thrive by Three by this county, both clinics have continued to implement and grow that model even over the course of the pandemic. Next slide please. And finally, I want to briefly highlight our oversight and implementation infrastructure. Our Thrive by Three efforts been grounded or guided by an advisory committee, which also serves as the Nurse Family Partnership or NFP advisory board. The advisory committee typically meets on a quarterly basis and sometimes holds joint meetings with other bodies with shared interests and goals. We also convene a monthly leadership team meeting with key implementation partners, including CalWorks, health services agencies, public health of course, us at first five, encompass community services, the health improvement partnership as well as the safety net clinics we mentioned. With that infrastructure over the course of the pandemic, we've intentionally aligned and collaborated with other similar systems building initiatives, including the ACEs or adverse childhood experiences aware work led by your public health division, as well as the Child Abuse Prevention Work Group led by your family and Children's Services Division. Importantly, Thrive by Three has provided a framework for us at first five to obtain additional funding like the home visiting coordination grant that was mentioned earlier from first five, California. We've aligned that work with our Thrive by Three efforts and that grant has allowed us to continue to draw, sorry, we'll continue to draw on that grant as we flesh out changes and evolution of this initiative, including the potential expansion to a Thrive by Five framework. In short, even over the course of the pandemic, we have continued to work creatively to integrate and draw on new resources and to strengthen the foundation of the system of care for our county's youngest children and families. So with that, I'd like to turn it back over to Director Morris. And next slide please, and one more. All right, so this closes the presentation, which is just sharing with your board in the public three areas that we as staff are looking forward to as we look at the next chapter of our Thrive by Three work together. And I just make a quick comment on all of them and then turn it to the board for comment. First is community engagement. The landscape has changed significantly since Thrive by Three started the pandemic being just one piece of that. And I just wanna also mention there are some major funding and policy moments on the horizon, one at the state level, which is funding for low income families enrolled in the Medi-Cal program, the entire systems being reorganized under a program called CalAIM. And at the federal level, as Director Brody just mentioned, child abuse prevention is a piece of this and a major piece of federal reform is going to take place that will change the landscape of child abuse prevention that our department will be managing called the Families First Prevention Services Act. So with this changing landscape with all the different committees and forums that exist, it strikes us as a really good opportunity to look at where we are and look at what Thrive by Three can be to adapt to this landscape. And then the second part of community engagement is we really wanna take some time to figure out a way to meaningfully engage parents in this community engagement effort to get their feedback, to hear what is happening for them. The second on data, we do have a lot of data. There's a lot of programs, there's a lot of initiatives, there's a lot of funding streams, there's a lot of data and we do a good job pulling it together, but we think we can do more. Sometimes it's not always aligned and coordinated together and there's also work to be done around data sharing which often gets stuck with confidentiality and protection issues. So we want to focus on data alignment so we can have good data and tell a better story. And finally, as Director Brody just said at their commission meeting, they talked about the possibility of shifting from a Thrive by Three model to a Thrive by Five model which would broaden the population to up to five years old and that is because it aligns with a lot of federal and state policy activity and even when you look at the governor's may revise in the budget, there's a lot of focus on children up to five years old. So that would be part of our work forward, is do we want to shift even the name of the program? So with that, the last slide is just a question and answer and I turn it back to the board. Thank you. Thank you, Director Morrison team. The questions for members of the board. Yes, Mr. Chair, if I may just briefly, first, great deep appreciation to the staff that work on this issue and also to Supervisor Coonerty who has been relentless in making this a key priority for him during his tenure on the board. And I know that this board even after Supervisor Coonerty steps down to be game next year will continue to make this a priority because it's been created as a system that we believe in. And I just wanted to also acknowledge something that, so often it seems that we're rewarded as policymakers in responding to crisis situations, but there really isn't a reward for pre-investment in issues. It's very fitting that Mr. Brody on here whose entire life work is dealing with issues and investment before there are necessarily problems. And if you want anything, I don't know that there could be anything more proven than the scientific value of early investment in our children and not just the first three, but the first five and the outcomes throughout an entire life are just pay absolute dividends in health and socioeconomic outcomes as a result of it, but too often it feels as though government response. And in fact, we actually have an item following this that just really follows with issues that as we're dealing with a crisis as opposed to how do we prevent the crisis in the first place? Because policymakers really aren't rewarded for preventing things that the community isn't aware of first. And so I want to acknowledge the fact that Supervisor Coonerty had the leadership to do this, but also that our health and human services staff and our nonprofit-based partners are really taking the lead on this. So it's just a great amount of gratitude. There are children in our community that are gonna grow up with fundamentally different outcomes because the investments that the county is doing today, they may have never realized it, but that's really what we should be here to do as policymakers. And so this is a very timely and wonderful item. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Friend. Yeah, Mr. Chair. Go ahead, Supervisor McPherson. Okay, I'd like to repeat what Supervisor Friend said. So I'll look at Lee as usual, but to then thank the Supervisor Coonerty and the late Alison Nindert, who was phenomenal in pushing this and to make Thrive by Three a reality, get ahead of it. And I also want to thank our Executive Director, David Brody in first five for joining in. What a great cooperative effort this is in. We can't do enough to support our younger people in our community through investments that are designed to ensure them and their families have access to the resources and opportunity that they need to thrive. I hope we can expand this program in the future and thank you for everybody. What a great cooperative effort and thank you again, Supervisor Coonerty, for really pushing this and getting us ahead of the curve and serving the youngest in our community. Thank you, Supervisor McPherson. Oh, Mr. Chair. I'll just say thank you also to everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Caput, Supervisor Coonerty. Sure, thank you. I want to take a first of all, thank you, my colleagues for the kind words and appreciation to the staff who's done all the work to make this program successful. I want to thank Director Morris for recognizing the role of Alison Ender as a driver of the heart and soul and mind behind this program. And I'm really astonished at the level of work and the growth that you all have been able to do even during pandemics when staff is being pulled in a million different directions, just trying to meet basic needs. I had a couple of questions, which was, I think, well, let me just say, first of all, I think if we could mandate that every presentation have a picture of a baby for every chart and graph we see, it would make all of our presentations much, much better. But I think the second part is certainly expanded a thrive by five makes a ton of sense if nothing else for the alliteration, but mostly for the policy, as many of us know as parents, it doesn't necessarily get an easier after three. And so providing that extra support and resources to kids as they prepare to enter the school, I guess with the expansion, are the resources that you have adequate? You don't want to reduce the commitment that we made to the zero to three, if we expand by five, we want to continue to provide as much or more resources for zero to three and also four to five. So can you talk about what that resource allocation will look like if we go in that direction? I'm looking at the video screen to see if either my colleagues wanna start. I'm wondering if David, if we can call you out as our first five director, it seems appropriate to ask you to jump in as you focus on this. Yeah, sure. I don't have a super detailed answer to that, but I think probably no surprise to the board. Yeah, if you expand services or expand access to services, you want to have resources to support that. With that said, I think part of what we need to utilize resources for is to step back and really take this opportunity to take a comprehensive look at the full scope and scale of all of our services and supports to children zero through five in their families, inclusive of first five and many federal and state programs that flow resources to our community and ensure that we're making best utilization of those resources. That's just incumbent on us as responsible parties overseeing public funds. But basically, but with that said, certainly there is a market, so to speak for additional support for young children and families in this community. And it frankly is hard to imagine that ever being a poor choice in terms of increasing that level of investment. And I would like to piggyback in a conceptual way to say a touch more about the state and the federal reform efforts that may to be determined bring new resources to our community. So starting with the federal reform of the child welfare prevention wing, if it lands as expected, the state is still working with the federal government to get the state plan approved. So we will know that in the next year, it allows for foster care systems in California to reinvest money that would otherwise be at the back end of the system to increase investments in prevention entering the system. So that's a concept, but that's to me part of the engagement work we would do looking at what is happening going forward to make sure we're not just spreading the dollars from zero to three to zero to five, but we're adding new resources. And I think there's some promising policy budget issues on the horizon that might make that come a reality. And I think you covered part of my next question, but my sense of it is, is you have these federal and state changes that are coming down as well as pre-K implementation, which will be a major change that could have a lot of positive effects and some ripple effects across child care providers and other services. But I also get a sense that there's a lot of philanthropic interest in this area and that Santa Cruz, because we're a little bit ahead of the curve, can we leverage our leadership to get additional investment for some of these programs, if we have, especially if we have good data. And David, are you about to answer? Yeah, I mean, briefly, yes. And actually without any names, there's some large philanthropies that have disengaged somewhat from our county in recent years with respect to zero to five. And I think if we are strategic, we can re-engage those philanthropies as well as engage, as you suggest, Supervisor Coonerty, a number of interested parties that want to support this type of very smart preventative investment as Supervisor Friend alluded to. That's all my questions. I look forward to hearing from the community and then bringing it back for accepting and additional direction. Thank you, Supervisor Coonerty. We'll open it now for public comment. Any member of the public wishing to comment on this item? Seeing none here in the chambers, is there anyone on Zoom? We have no speakers on Zoom for this item, Chair. Okay. Then I'll return it to the board for action and we do have a recommended action as Supervisor Coonerty said. Sure, so I'll move the recommended action with additional direction that staff expand thrive by three to thrive by five, increase data collection and alignment, and identify what additional resources will be necessary in order to maximize leveraging funds and impact in the community. Second. I'll second. Motion by Supervisor Coonerty, second by Supervisor Friend. Any further discussion? Seeing none, clerk roll call vote please. Supervisor Friend. Aye. Coonerty? Aye. Caput? Aye. Person? And Koenig? Aye. That item passes unanimously as amended with the additional recommendation. Thank you. Thank you to the team from first three and now first five for presenting or thrive by three, now thrive by five as well as first five will now proceed to item 13 to consider report on planned collaboration with the city of Santa Cruz on its proposed use of $14 million of one-time state funding to help people experiencing homelessness in the city of Santa Cruz, Secure Stable Housing is outlined in the memorandum of the director of human services. And once again, we have our director of human services, Randy Morris, as well as Robert Ratner, our division director of housing for health on the line. Yes, so to a very different topic but lots of energy and interest in this topic as well. And just if the clerk of the board could elevate Dr. Robert Ratner who I see he has been. So he is available remote for question and answer but I'll give the presentation. And this is an action that is only to accept and file the report in the materials outlined some details of this transaction which as I will share in a little more detail, we were fortunate that our state senator John Laird and assembly member Mark Stone last state fiscal year were successful in having $14 million of state funds earmarked specific to the city of Santa Cruz and I wanna underline that the money was appropriated to the city of Santa Cruz but there was an expectation that how the city would use those funds would be done in collaboration with the county. So that's where we come in what this report is about is what our role was in working with the city as they looked to how to use up $14 million. I'm gonna spend a little bit of time talking about the process and I do wanna make sure your board is aware and the public is aware that this presentation is intentionally after the process played out and the city brought forward the recommendation to the city council on March 8th and the city council approved the recommended actions but I'm gonna walk through sort of how that played out. So, and we do, I'm sorry, yeah, we do have a PowerPoint. Don't know if that's up. Yeah, and I'll just pause for a moment so the PowerPoint can be seen because I'm gonna start on the first slide. Oh, thank you. And if you can go to the next slide, please. So this is just kind of a quick overview of what played out. So as I said, we're very fortunate to have our state senator and state assembly member who worked very hard. A little bit of context behind this if people are not aware, the way some of the state formulas are applied to how funding for homelessness services are distributed are not necessarily based on the actual volume of people experiencing homelessness in a community but the size of the population so that disproportionately send state money to a community like Santa Cruz County where the population might be small but the number of people experiencing homelessness is large and that was a recognition of our state leaders that they wanted to sort of calibrate some until and if there's changes in the state formula. So that was a piece of what led to their successful negotiations to get this $14 million to our community. The state senator Laird in particular who has a history of formally being the mayor of the city of Santa Cruz and a board member also was very aware from his own personal experience as an elected officials and now three jurisdictions that there needed to be better collaboration and alignment of work between the city and the county. So he included an expectation and made it very clear and convened a video meeting with all of us that this needed to be done in a collaborative effort. So what were the purpose of the funds? We were advised that there needed to be investments in the lasting infrastructure not just immediate interventions that the money went away and didn't have any lasting improvements. That those outcomes, there would be outcome focused in the collaboration and that everything that this $14 million would do would be completely aligned with the collaboration of our strategic plan that your board has passed and that everything the city was doing would sort of line up with the issues that we're working on together. So what was the planning for the use? I'm gonna walk through what the process was and then I'm gonna end with what the city recommended and the city council passed. So the process, first there was multiple staff meetings and I wanna highlight the staff from the county that were represented were not only myself as the human services director, Dr. Ratner as the housing for health director but also our CAO Carlos Palacios saw how important this was and he participated almost every one of the meetings. So the full county leadership was participating as staff. And then the other is I wanna make sure the public is aware of what something called the two by two is. Many people who are pay attention to this do know but for those who don't in January of 2018 your board and the city council at the time both passed the creation of a two by two committee which by definition was the mayor and the vice mayor of the city of Santa Cruz and two board members from the county. And at present that is district three, Ryan community and district five Bruce McPherson. So that structure exists. That's a monthly meeting and early on in the pandemic with all the COVID sheltering we actually moved it up to two times a month. So as soon as these funds were made available we immediately use that committee structure because that committee is focused on issues that overlap between the city and county for a place to have conversations and bounce ideas off our shared elected officials. The process then led to multiple meetings some conceptual agreements and then the city held items at their city council sharing publicly how their efforts were moving forward to look at how to invest the $14 million. And once we reached agreement between staff and with our shared elected officials at the two by two committee the city manager then contacted our two state officials to explain to them where we are to get their approval. And at that point the city manager brought forward the item at March 8th at the city council. So that was the process and we'll go to the next slide to describe at a very high level what the investments are but they can be seen in the March 8th materials at the city council where they're more detailed. So they basically break down into some short-term investments and some long-term investments. So this is the second to last slide some short-term investments. As many are aware who are tracking this issue city and county share in this issue but the city in particular has been trying to address issues that are often named encampments but we're gonna call it public space safety management and resource connection. We have the encampment right behind this building as one of the prime examples and largest examples in our community. So one of the short-term investments was it struck us as county staff in working with the city that they actually had a very humane and well-informed set of protocols for how to address encampments but they did not have the staff to actually execute the protocols. So we fully supported in the discussion they're building their capacity to be able to actually implement plans in a humane way that supports people who are homeless in encampments. So that was the first, the second. And this has been a topic of great debate and discussion at the city council meetings. The city has directed staff in the city to develop safe sleeping and parking areas. And so this was a revenue stream to invest in that. So that was the second item in the short-term. And then the last item is Coral Street. The Coral Street area, which has a combination of county services and investment city investments and then our nonprofit housing matters, all three groups. See this as the best location to really advance our navigation center services. So there was some agreement of that 14 million to invest in some short-term items like campus improvements, repairs to a hygiene bay that are there and then the purchasing, and this is a transition to some longer term of some pallet shelters to expand some shelter capacity at the area. So the next slide, which is the last slide is as we were instructed tied to the purpose of the funds is some long-term investments. So the first was there was a recognition that there is a lot of state and federal money being made available to develop properties to have for shelters and affordable housing. But there are some organizations that need some pre-development funds to the city's credit. They wanted to make these funds available to not just city projects, but county-wide. So there was a $500,000 pre-development fund set aside that is in the process of being put out to the community to help support project development. And then the last two are Coral Street. The second to last one is there's obviously a footprint there and some properties surrounding that that if acquired could expand the footprint. And that is money that the city has asked to purpose for property acquisition. And then the last is a master plan design process. There is money from the 14 million set aside to pull all three of our parties together, the county, the city and housing matters to do what's called the design charrette to look at how to organize that campus to maximize the way it is serving those that we wanna serve. And then this is also a necessary precursor we anticipate to hopefully a future project home key application because the state has in its budget more home key funds. So if we can get that work done and get a good design we think we will be very competitive to even bring in more money to make that location the best it can be. So if you go to the last slide that closes it out and we open it up to any questions. And again, Dr. Ratner is here depending on what questions you have he's been the one working most specifically with the city on all these details. So thank you. Thank you, Director Morris. Questions from members of the board? Mr. Chair, I just wanted to begin by thanking our CAO Carlos Blas shows us for his commitment to not only opening up the county's role and their responsibility in addressing the homelessness issue, but also ending the rancor that had existed for many years between the county and city on this issue. It's very difficult ever just reaches out to every part of our community. And as evidenced by this agreement as well as the overall housing for health blueprint that's been agreed upon by the city and county we're now collaborating in ways that I haven't seen in many years since we started this. And that's due to no small part to the work of the Human Services Director Randy Morris who made the presentation and our Housing for Health Director Robert Ratner. We've been working diligently with counterparts at the city to approach this challenging issue I think strategically and cooperatively. It's a very complex one. And I also want to acknowledge my office's strong partnership with supervisor Coonerty and his staff representing the board on the two by two community throughout the years. We've had a better place than we have been in the future or in the past. We have a really good working relationship now with the city. And I think it's going to set the tone for how we execute this. And I especially want to acknowledge the work of former Mayor Donna Myers who brought about this funding from the state and Senator John Laird for making the request to get this one-time funding. It's critical that we have this as a starting point. And the trick will be how we sustain the funding for our partnership going forward. That's going to be the key element of all this. We have a great plan, but not everything we need to fund it. So I'm hopeful our community will become more competitive for funding once we can demonstrate how much we can get accomplished and the resources that were allocated. But this is a tremendous start. It's unusual in the state. We're, we just have to see and show everyone else how well this can work. So thank you to everyone who was involved in this. It's been a long process and it's going to take some time to resolve it in the long term as well. So thank you to everybody who's been involved. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor McPherson. Supervisor Coonerty, do you want to add something? Yeah, sure. First of all, I want to thank staff, the coordinated effort is important. And I think the investments reflect a good sense of both the needs in our community as well as the desire to make long-term investments as well as short-term, more short-term responses to crisis on the ground. I think, I guess let me just offer a little bit of context having done this now for a lot of years. I think this kind of investment is great. It is a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed going forward. We could have 10 times this investment every year for 10 years. We'd be able to both help a lot of people and we probably wouldn't see much improvement on the ground in terms of encampments in our public parks and neighborhoods and open spaces. The systems are fundamentally broken in the state of California, especially around the areas of mental health and substance abuse. And so it is, I think this is an important step forward, but I also think we need to set appropriate expectations for everyone in the community. For those who are unhoused in seeking services, for those who are frustrated with the lack of progress they see, this is going to be a require a statewide or even national investment of billions and billions of dollars over the coming years, as well as fundamental changes in both our criminal justice system and our mental health and substance abuse systems. We're doing our part in Santa Cruz to try to piece together these fragmented resources and help people in need and reduce impacts in our community. This is a step in that direction, but we should understand just how big of a problem, not only Santa Cruz, but really the nation and especially the West Coast of the United States is facing in this crisis of homelessness. Thank you, Supervisor Coonerty. Supervisor Caput. Great work, Randy. You and your staff want to wish you the best here on this planned collaboration. And anyway, we're facing problems from all different directions and it's good to know you and your staff are working on it. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Caput. Some few questions. The first is I understand the city's goal and this plan is, they had a slide at their March 8th meeting that said, one of the differences the community is gonna see is that San Lorenzo Park will be a park again, which of course means removing the encampment that's there presently. I think I've heard estimates of about 300 or so tents in the San Lorenzo encampment at this time. In looking through some of the new shelter services that are gonna be set up, it seems, and my numbers might be off here, but about 100 spaces of new pallet shelters at Housing Matters Campus, 75 or so spaces at the Armory. I believe somewhere around 40 at the River Street Camp. And that only comes out to about 215. And so the question is, where is everyone gonna go? I've heard significant concerns from community members that clearing the camp in June, July timeframe, right before fire season really kicks in is gonna be a disaster because it's gonna push people into the riparian areas again, where fires are more likely to start. So the question is just on basic capacity, are we gonna have enough beds to actually effectively clear or to San Lorenzo camp safely? I'll queue up a high level answer and then ask Dr. Ratner to follow through. I'm gonna just key off of Supervisor Coonerty's pragmatism, this and Supervisor and Chair Koenig, perfect question, thanks for your candor. Cause I mean, now that we're administrators of the local Housing for Health office, we wanna not lose hope, but we also wanna be practical because this is a complex issue. My queue up for Dr. Ratner is what the city is doing is one piece of an ecosystem and it's trying to detail shifting from people being an encampment into other identified shelter spaces. What needs to be balanced into that, and this is the part where it's our optimism and hope. We have some modest progress that we've seen during the COVID sheltering system that we have been able to help some people get into affordable housing. So that's the complimentary piece and I'd like to queue up Dr. Ratner, the success we've had, both in partnership with Health and getting some grants in our other grant that we received, which has 65 slots to help people who are in the San Lorenzo River area to actually not move to another shelter, but into housing. So the ideal, and I'm underlining, this is the ideal, this is the optimism, is to be able to have a plan for everybody, but if somebody had a way to execute this, this problem would exist and we'd all be replicating it. So Dr. Ratner, if you wanna fill in the details with the encampment response grant and then anything else you'd like to add. Sure, I appreciate the question and I think the supervisor, Conan's math is accurate, but there's not gonna be a one-to-one ratio of dedicated temporary beds to the numbers of people that we have estimated sleeping in the park, but there are other resources that Randy alluded to, so the encampment response grant that we received from the state, which is also a byproduct of this collaboration. We're working with our community provider after the authorization from the board to execute a contract. So there'll be 70, 75 slots for participants in that program and the focus will be on people living in the encampment area and the board has also approved of the Healing the Streets effort with County Behavioral Health and Front Treat as a non-profit provider. So we're mobilizing those resources as well and Randy alluded to our partnership with the healthcare system. The state has invested a lot of resources into housing as a healthcare issue in partnership with our managed care plans throughout the state. So for us in Santa Cruz County, that's the Central California Alliance for Health and some of the organizations we're working with are connected in with the alliance and a lot of the individuals who are living in the camp are eligible for MediCal, health insurance are already on MediCal and that comes with housing navigation services, so many for housing deposits. So our hope is piecing all these things together, we'll have pathways to offer to everyone that's in the park currently. And we don't have great data on the needs of folks in the park. For example, we have some early indications that there's been an increase in the number of veterans who are unhoused in our community. So linking people up with the programs they're eligible for, particularly there's a significant number of resources for veterans. So I think as we do more outreach and get to know people in the camp, I'm hopeful that we can have pathways for everybody, not always a temporary shelter, but the options I alluded to and I think the last thing I'll mention is we created that centralized flexible housing fund for people who need help with deposits or maybe moving back with family and friends out of the area. So all those things we're planning to deploy to try to support the work that the city is doing in the park. Okay, thank you. I know another part or outcome of the March 8th discussion by the city council was directing the mayor to write a letter. I haven't seen this letter, but I believe it was asking the county for more assistance with safe parking spaces. Is that accurate? You can go ahead, Robert. Yeah, I think Supervisor Koenig there, I've definitely heard from staff that talk of this letter, but I have yet to see a letter come to us that formal request. And if I can just break down just maybe I'll ask to make sure we're understanding your question. Safe parking breakdown between RV and cars is an issue cities and unincorporated areas all throughout California are struggling with. And I just wanna break down and see if this is part of what your question is. Identifying a physical piece of property is one thing. Identifying services and community support for that area. Those are the package of all kinds of activities. So I would just say the conversation since I've been here in two years, all of those parts need to be broken out to determine who's doing what. The question has come up now and again about available physical locations, but what goes along with that is community support and then services if necessary. So that I just wanna confirm when that letter comes will certainly be engaged through the two by two committee if it's a city issue, but that's what we'll be tracking is what the ask is. Okay, I mean the question really is, is there more that we can do to provide safe parking spaces or other space for shelters? I mean, you mentioned that really the crux of the issue is not just having the physical property, the real estate, but having the funds to manage a program. The city's budget includes a million dollars for a safe parking program, $1 million, $49,000. Is there, do you know if the city's funds or if those funds are already allocated or is those funds that we could take advantage of in offering some kind of safe parking program through the county? So I'll ask Robert if he's been in that level of detail and I think you've confirmed what my question is because there's paying a provider to be able to help support people there. There's questions about county health and human services and some of the grants Robert mentioned are outreaching to people if they're in a particular area and then there's actually the physical property. That's the one that's pulled me in the most about identifying particular physical spaces that could be used during certain hours and none of those have led to a formal agreement but those are ongoing conversations. Robert, if you have any more specificity in terms of where we are with those discussions? I think there's operational and policy questions. Who are the target populations for the safe parking in terms of the city's proposing? I think to answer one of your questions, Supervisor Koneg I believe that city staff are still working on identifying locations either in the city or outside the city boundaries that would be appropriate. There's also been requests for options for people who are sleeping in their RVs but when you work with RVs, you need to have a location that can accommodate that kind of need as well and the additional expenses related to that. So I think from the accounting perspective there's still openness to looking at partnering with the city on finding locations outside their boundaries but we need to think about who they're planning to refer and operational details. And I think there's some policy questions there around whether county elected leaders such as yourself want to have safe parking for people who are parking in city boundaries coming to another part of the county when we also have people sleeping in their vehicles and not in appropriate areas of the county. So there's a policy issue around location of where these programs are and how they're funded over time that I think we may be bringing back to the board at a later point if we come up with specific locations. Okay, sounds like it to be continued as more specific proposals emerge but there are some resources available there so expect to see something in the future. My final question is about employment opportunities when I had an opportunity to visit the COVID shelter that we managed at the armory. What struck me most was, it was a fantastic shelter before being fed had a place to stay, stay, shower. They didn't have anything to do other than wait around for the shuttle back into town. Meanwhile, here at my office at 701 Ocean Street I'd look out the window at the folks camping in San Lorenzo camp and see people climbing trees taking ditches, cutting firewood, just being industrious and maybe in all the wrong ways. But it struck me that this is very much a part of human nature to want to be productively engaged in some activity. So we had an item early on today's agenda, $750,000 for Goodwill. For some kind of a displaced worker program I don't know if that would be relevant at all. I'm just curious, this board has allocated funds from the American Rescue Plan for job training programs. Are there opportunities to further do outreach for these sorts of employment programs at any of the shelter or housing facilities we're contemplating here? I'll make a couple high level comments and same as Robert to fill in on some detail. First is, this is something that struck me too, Supervisor Koenig early on and kind of had my own aha moment when people like you and others kind of ask questions about what's going on in the shelters, just going back to resources and the categorical nature of federal and state funding. The COVID shelter system out the gates was thought to be a couple of week thing and we'd trace ourself out of a pandemic. And so none of the funding included anything other than paying for the shelter. So by definition what you literally saw was what we were paid to do. So the issue is then stitching together and braiding together and weaving together other services to which there weren't funding. So that's kind of the context of the COVID shelter systems were never thought to be two years. They were thought to be the short term don't get COVID and spread anyhow, lesson learned. I would say one benefit. I don't know if this was part of my boss and Carlos's vision, but moving the Housing for Health Office to Human Services leads to an answer to your question which is having the Housing for Health Office embedded with where the Medi-Cal eligibility determinations are done, where our workforce development board is and where we have some other programs creates an opportunity to start answering that question better. And I'll end with one concrete example because I've been in conversation particularly with Supervisor McPherson's office. So I'll queue you up for this if you don't know your staff are calling me about this. But I think you're familiar with in North County downtown streets team and in South County Community Action Board CAB has a program Watsonville works and the funding behind some of those programs come from a federal allocation that runs through the human services department called the acronym is CFET CalFresh Employment and Training. So those dollars, if you can find local match dollars and both of those city programs, the downtown streets team and the Watsonville program have city match dollars and then our partners in health come in and match as well. And you put that together and by definition that is to CalFresh or CalFresh eligible clients to help them with employment and training. So we are in the process of trying to stitch together and braid together those programs with the Housing for Health division which if we do it right, we'll better get to I think what the answer to your question is making sure there's an intentionality between getting those programs connected with outreach to people in an encampment. So we hope we get, we move further along. But Robert, do you want to fill in any details as well? This is a big unmet me. There's a lot of people and there's not enough services. I think it's a great question. And I think I've real lined with the idea of bringing resources to people who are on house including opportunities for meaningful activity and employment. And I think one of the things that we articulated in our memo to the board is the need to move toward more kind of service enriched programming for folks who are on house and not just having shelter alone but bringing employment opportunities, access to healthcare coverage, health services to where people are and linking them with those opportunities. And Randy, I mentioned an example of that. I think the homeless garden project is an example of another long standing program where there's been links to education and training and work opportunities for folks. So I really appreciate you raising it Supervisor Koenig and I think it's an area where we can keep working toward it precinct those connections between the work we're doing with people who are on house and those employment opportunities that the board has supported through other action. All right, thank you. Any further questions or comments from members of the board? Seeing none, we'll open it for public comment. Please approach the podium. Hello, my name is Becky Steinbrenner. I'm a resident of rural Aptos. Thank you, Mr. Morris for your great reports. They are always the best. And I am really as a rural resident also concerned about if there are not enough places for the Benchlands residents to go that they will go into the wildland. Puginip has always been at risk of that happening and we've seen many fires there. So I'm heartened that you are all mindful of that as well. I really think that we need to accommodate people maybe in smaller clusters. I've talked with a number of homeless people. Many of them are not comfortable in going to a big place like this with 300 residents. There's gang activity, prostitution, drugs. They don't wanna be there. But if there were smaller clusters and these people have their own friends, their communities they could be accommodated in smaller clusters maybe more spread out around the city and not concentrated in the Coral Street area which is already a problematic area. I think we would have more people willing to go to those spots. I also think, and thank you, Supervisor Coenig, Chairman Coenig for bringing up the issue of idle hands. And I feel that we could encourage these people to become part of our wildland vegetation training crews. They could go out and do trail maintenance vegetation removal for fire defensible space and get real hands-on experience networking that could get them jobs. I'd like to see us partnering with local businesses and industrial complexes to maybe have them come in as apprentices and get their feet in the door with networking that could lead to other jobs. I'd like to see mobile mechanics come around to the broken down cars and RVs and work with the owners to get them working again. And I'd like to see portable toilets along Delaware where the people go and have them have a dignified place and that is more sanitary for the public. We do need to get buy-in from the tenants and they need to feel that they have worth. They need to gain necessary life skills so that they can get themselves out of this. We don't want to give just a simple handout. We want to hand up. And that's what I think you're working very hard at doing, Mr. Morrison. I applaud you. Are there any members of public on Zoom? We do have speakers on Zoom. Serge Cogno, your microphone's available. Good morning, Chair Coenig, Board of Supervisors. My name's Serge Cogno, Co-Chair of the Mental Health Advisory Board, though these comments are mine alone. Supervisor Caput on a side note, I spoke with your assistant on Friday attempting to schedule a meeting we spoke of. Look forward to hearing back from you for a date and a time. Great thanks for the presentation and the work from Randy and Robert. As you all know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I applaud this collaboration to increase trauma-informed services to provide the most respectful, empowering and outcome-driven services as possible. What is not trauma-informed is that these services the city is moving forward with are coupled with criminalization and homelessness with both the city's camping ban and the city's recreational vehicle plan. There's a logical disconnect. On the one hand, to claim services are trauma-informed, while on the other hand, to criminalize people all suffering from various forms of trauma or understandably resistant to services. Some participants with mental health challenges are consistently discriminated and exited and banned from programs. They're often exited from programs for not being able to function with staff who have limited training and they have limited recourse without an independent grievance process provided by the county. They then become subject to the city's anti-homeless ordinances. I encourage the Housing for Health Department and the Board of Supervisors to stand firm in their collaboration with the city that trauma-informed care be a requirement throughout the services and ordinances by both the city and county. I would also like to point out that the county has its own anti-homeless ordinance, 10.40.120, which is a county overnight recreational vehicle ban, which the Coastal Commission staff, notified county staff was against the Coastal Act. I bring this up so that the county can bring itself into compliance, but also to support multiple elements of the county's strategic plan by basing all services and ordinances as trauma-informed. Please ensure that we encourage our city partner and that we also use a trauma-informed philosophy in all of our efforts, accurately managing our homeless crisis and supporting those challenged with mental illness. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Kagnan. We have no further speakers for this item, Chair. All right, then I'll return it to the Board for Action. I'll move for approval. Second. Motion by Supervisor Caput, second by Supervisor Friend. Any further discussion? I'll just say, I mean, we're obviously an act of communication and collaboration with the city and any proposals that they wanna share with us for ways to create more beds or safe parking spaces. Looking forward to reviewing those. All right, if there's no further discussion, we'll call it, please. Supervisor Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Inconig. Aye. That item passes unanimously. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Director Morris. That brings us to the end of our regular agenda. Our next regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors will be June 7th, 2022, 9 a.m. Tuesday in these chambers and on Zoom. Meeting adjourned.