 Order the February 24th meeting, 2023, the Santa Cruz Regional, excuse me, where am I? Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District's Board of Directors, and we have two new officers to swear in today. That's our first action. Thank you, Julie. There we go. Julie, are you muted? Can I point out before this starts, people always say that I will swear or affirm you're supposed to pick one of those, not say swear or affirm. Some people, some people don't like for, I think, religious reasons don't like to swear. So no, literally, that's why it's so that that's there. But everybody, I just watch people over and over and over again, repeat both of them and just pick one, don't do them both. All right, good point. OK, all right. Re-welcome to Dan and welcome to our new board member. I'm going to swear both of you in. And so please repeat after me. I say name. OK, I'm going to hear a scarter. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign and domestic against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California, but I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and then I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Thank you and welcome again. Thank you. There we are and welcome to the board. Good to have you here. Um, announcements. I'll note that today's meeting is being broadcast by community television. Very roll call. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you, Mike. Roll call Donna, please. Director Brown. Present. Director Downing. Present. Director Dutre. Here. Director Connery Johnson. Present. Director Conig. Here. Director Lynn. Donna, you're here. Here. You. Director McPherson. Not seeing him. Director Newsome. Present. Director Pagler. Here. Director Quarros Carter. Here. Director Rockin. Here. Exofficio Director Henderson. Here. Exofficio Director Northcut. Here. And we have Quorum. All right. Thank you, Donna. And I will announce that today's meeting is being broadcast by community television of Santa Cruz County. And that brings us to item five, which is consideration of approval of our new board officers and committee appointments. We have two slates that are in your board packet. And if I may, they've been slightly revised since we presented them a month ago. I will run through what those changes have been. Slate one. Oh, if I pull that up on the screen. It may be, Donna, if we can put it on one screen. Thank you. Okay. And I will note and someone, Mike or Donna, will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we do. We will vote on each of the two slates. Is that correct, Donna? Yes. Yeah, we're voting as a whole. So we'll vote for one slate, vote for another slate. Correct. Thank you. We'll keep that party going until we have elected officials. Yes. Let me clarify. If the first slate passes, then that's, I don't think you need to go to the second slate. All right. Right. Really, thank you for that clarification. All right. So let's see, Donna, I guess you'll scroll through this as I simply name these changes. You've noted that on slate one, I have reversed Shebra, Kalantari Johnson and Jimmy Dutra. So that Shebra would be appointed as the chair. And Jimmy would be vice chair. Slate two, that's okay. Slate two remained as Shebra and Kristen Brown. There we see the vice chair. On the Capital Project Standing Committee, I have nominated Scott Newsom in Bruce McPherson's position that allows the City of Santa Cruz to have an individual as we work on the Pacific Station Project. And so that committee would consist of Jimmy Dutra, Scott Newsom, and myself. I believe Donna's slate two is the same. On the Finance Budget and Audit Standing Committee, we have pretty much what we did last year, right? I don't know that there are many, any changes. It's Kalantari Johnson, Conig, Lind and Rothkin. Those are the same on both slates. The Personnel and Human Resources Standing Committee, the changes there reflect the positions of each of the individuals. So if let's see as I'm reading this. If slate one is approved, then Kalantari Johnson is there as chair of the committee. Commissioner Dutra is there as vice chair. I remain, actually I come on as the immediate past chair, taking Donna Lin's position. And Rebecca Downing and Kristen Brown stay there. And that's the same for the other list. I'm sorry, it's a little hard for me to read that on screen, but. Same people, but because of the shift of chair or vice chair, then it, you know, it shifts the other positions. All right. On the SCCIC, we have, there we go, nomination of Bruce McPherson as president, Shepherd Kalantari Johnson as vice president, Manu Conig as secretary. It was director previously. I am nominated for treasurer and Rebecca Downing bills as director on slates one and two. And for the Regional Transportation Commission, we have Kristen Brown, Mike Rothkin, and Vanessa Clarose Carter as the three primary representatives. And among the same on both slates. And among the alternates, the change here is that I would reverse with Chevrolet, so I would be the first alternate, Chevrolet Kalantari Johnson is the second and Donna Lin would be the third. And those are the, again, the same on both slates. So I believe that is it. Is there anything else to describe about this? I believe we go to the public for comment. Is that correct? That's correct. And I'm looking to my attendees list here. I see a hand up from Brian Peoples. Brian, good morning. Would you like to speak, please? Try now. Yeah, I'm here. Sorry. Hey, everybody. I put my hand up for the oral communications, but I'll comment here as well. Hey, first of all, my name's Brian Peoples. I'm with trail. Now we're a local advocacy group actively trying to build the coast Santa Cruz Coastal Trail from San Watsonville all the way to Watsonville to that important. We truly believe that that is a key resource for our community and a transportation corridor. And myself, personally, I've been involved. I'm an engineer and I've been involved in transportation with the Santa Cruz transportation organs at regional transportation for over 25 years. So that's a long time and actually have actively participated in the region and going to the meetings for over a decade. Some other things that I've done has been on the Silicon Valley leadership transportation committee back 30 years ago as an environmental engineer, I helped start shuttles to Caltrans. In 2006, I wrote a state bill advocating, which would be a tax credit, it was a tax credit for corporations to give funds to their money, commuter checks to their employees, you know, most of us all know about the commuter check program. That was so anyways, specifically for your selection of for the members of the who are going to be on the Santa Cruz transportation committee, we're strongly advocating that you go as a team, you advocate for Metrop. You know, one of the it's very important that you support funding Metrop and not other, you know, areas that may defer the funds for Metrop. One other thing that gives a little history of our organization, the 2016 measure D tax measure came out when it originally came out, it had 24% for a train and actually 14 million for a Monterey County train station and we came out as a path posed to that tax measure and Zach friend and Don Lane changed the language and reduced it to 8% and they actually diverted the money to Metrop. And so the lifeline, so that was great. We actually came back and we supported it. We were big supporters, our supporters actually provided the most funds for 2016 measure D. So again, we're just want to really advocate members Metro that are on the RTC board support Metro and not support other areas that may defer funding for Metrop. So thank you for your time. Thank you, Brian. Let's see. Lonnie Folkner has her hand up. Lonnie. Good morning. Are you there Lonnie? Thank you so much. Here you are. It's got the unmute capabilities. I just want to express my deep appreciation to Michael Tree, James Sandoval, who both participated in National Transit Equity Day and our Transit Equity Week panel and appreciated really saying some of the board members is there as well for our Monday panel and also just contributing to many other events in the community like National Transit, I'm sorry, the National Wildlife Wetlands Day and helping with evacuations. So I just want to express my appreciation and welcome. Larry, I think people think this is a wrong communication. Yes, I'm sorry. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Did we miss that? Our first item is to approve the officers for the board positions next year and our appointments to committee. So that's actually what we're on right now. I'm sorry. I should have made that clear again, but okay. Well, I won't speak again and just welcome to the new board members. Thank you so much, Larry. Thank you, Lonnie. All right. Directors, questions, comments on these slates? All the questions. Do we have a motion on two of us? I guess we're doing slate one first. I'll move slate one. We have a motion for broadcast. Second. Second for Monum. All right. May we have a roll call vote on that, please? Okay. Director Brown. No. Director Downey. No. Director Dutra. I'm sorry. What slate is this on? Slate one. Slate one. Yes. Director Colin Terry Johnson. Aye. Director Koenig. Aye. Aye. Director Lind. No. Director McPherson. Still not here. Director Newsome. Aye. Director Pagler. No. Director Quarros Carter. No. Director Rockin. Aye. And the motion, let's see, we have five yeses and five noes. Five and five. It does not pass. No. Okay. So do we do slate two now? Can I suggest procedurally that we postpone this in our agenda? Someone contact Bruce McPherson's office and who's the other missing person? We have, maybe that's Bruce the other one. Because it's only Bruce. And take this vote later because there's no point running through another vote. Okay. I mean. People might take their vote. They might. I'm not, you know, but I think if we wait a little longer, we might actually get, you know, decisive. I'm not saying put it off for another month. I'm just saying let's see if we can get Bruce to get or his alternate to come to the meeting. But it's possible that people who voted one way on the first slate might vote a different way on the second. Okay. I'll leave it to the chair. Manu, did you have a comment? Yeah, I would be for just calling the second slate. I'll move the second slate. I'll second. I have something to say. Go ahead. The second slate is the one where I'm not on it. Correct? That's right. You know, this, I think this is ridiculous. I mean, I think there's a lot of personal politics in this. And if that's the case, then I want to be removed off of the committees. I mean, you're asking my time. What, you know, I'm really disappointed. First of all, and Vanessa for voting against this coming on the board, she voted against the slate that I'm in. That's where I'm a big voice for our community. I show up every, I show up to the executive board meetings, you know, I represent our community very well. And I'm really, really surprised in this. And so if my voice isn't good enough for to represent Watsonville, then maybe Donna Lynn would like to represent Watsonville on the executive board, or maybe Vanessa can pick up that seat, that those positions to have the voice heard, because this is just becoming a little redundant. And, and I'm really kind of tired of this kind of politics. So I see Kristen's hand, Kristen. Thanks. I just wanted to make a brief comment at the last meeting when I was added to the second slate is the potential for vice. The comment was made that there might be support for me in being the vice chair next year, rather than this year. And I didn't feel it necessary to bring it up at the time. But now that we're kind of at a tie vote, I want to explain why I'm voting essentially for myself on the second slate. Not because I don't think Jimmy would be a good vice chair. But because if I were to become vice chair next year, I term out next year. So you would be putting me into a vice chair seat that could never become chair. So this would be my last opportunity to hold that position before I term out of my position on Capitol City Council, which is why I'm asking for that opportunity because I've never had it. So I just wanted to share that that this for me personally isn't about voting against Jimmy for this opportunity. It's about providing an opportunity for someone who's never had it before. And in this case, it happens to be me. So I just wanted to share that as my rationale for the vote that I made, and to share, you know, that I will be termed out in 24. So this would be my last opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, Kristen. Larry, can I ask the chair, Donna, to put the choice for chair up on the screen so we can look at it while we're discussing this? Sure. Thank you. I'm making a note of hands. I see Donna and then Vanessa. Thank you. And I'm having Wi-Fi connectivity. So if I leave my camera off, I have better connection. So sorry about that. I wanted to explain again, as Kristen said, this is not in my mind voting against someone. It's that Jimmy was able to have the honor of being chair in 2019. We have several members who've never had that opportunity and that have served honorably. And Shabra and Kirsten were the two I had nominated because they have not had an opportunity and both being, you know, on the board in different areas that haven't had the opportunity to be represented as chair. That was my thinking is for a while it seemed that we rotated amongst the same people. Several people had had had opportunity more than once. And I feel like it's an opportunity or it's a chance for us to let others that have served that opportunity to be in the executive position. And so since neither of them have and they've definitely served diligently and shown their willingness to work, that's my rationale. Thank you, Donna. Vanessa, you have your hand up and welcome to the board. Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to explain my vote. I misunderstood because Jimmy's name was crossed off. I thought that would be removing him. I was trying to frantically find my board packet and read through it and I'm not able to find it. So I just wanted to address the comments that it was not, I did not want to remove Jimmy and I made a mistake. I'm happy to have representation for Watsonville and I will always vote for representation for Watsonville. I was a little bit confused because I thought it was to remove Jimmy since it was crossed out. So I misunderstood the meaning and I have not yet voted by slate and this is my first meeting. So I really apologize about that. Thank you, Vanessa. Yes. The change again is to reverse who was chair and who was vice chair from the original. I think that we should, is there, Julie, how can we do a revote on this? Because, you know, I think that it's really important, you know, that there's representation throughout the county and I understand exactly what Kristen's saying. I understand that. But at the end of the dance about representation, about different areas, Watsonville is the second largest city that Metro represents and it deserves a voice on the executive board and we're about to build a new facility down there. So to remove a voice from Watsonville is it's, it's just, it's not fair. So, Jimmy, only someone who voted for a motion can call for a revision, a revisit to the vote procedurally. So someone who voted for the motion? Yeah, someone who voted for it changed their mind, but you can't revote it for, because somebody who lost it can make that motion. She voted no. So I voted. So then I make the motion. I voted yes to have a revote. No, no, no, not on the revote but on the motion. Julie, can you please explain? Yeah, so right now there is a motion and a second that have been made for Slate 2. So that you have, you need to hold that vote. Thank you. That doesn't pass and there could be further discussion and. Because, because Vanessa misunderstood, I think that's, I mean, that's pretty, that's unfortunate, right? Like why would we hold? I'm willing to withdraw my motion for Slate 2 if Director Kuros Carter wants to, is interested in moving Slate 1 again. Is that acceptable to your second? I think it was Rebecca. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, Julie, is that all right? We have a removal of the motion and second on the second slate. Yeah, so that takes care of needing to vote for Slate 2 right now. Okay, I see Donna Lynn's hand up. Donna? Just the only point is that the chair, just if the chair, being chair, gives more representation to a jurisdiction. I don't find that that's the case because if that were the case then you would have someone from Watsville continually being chair with that argument of saying, well, we need representation. The chair is representing the entire board, but the importance is having someone represent RTC and having capital improvements when the projects are new projects. So I'm just arguing that it doesn't mean that because you're chair, you have more representation for your community or your jurisdiction. But I think the important is what that, what Larry has said as far as looking at capital, having someone on capital that can have a voice on new projects and some of the things that are moving forward. So I just, I mean, I feel like as chair, you don't represent your jurisdiction anymore than you do as another board member. We all represent our jurisdictions in that position. And as chair, I'll just underscore that, Jimmy, that's partly why I wanted you on the capital projects committee as you are representing Watsonville as we begin discussions of redevelopment of our transit center there. So it's also you sit on the executive board. I think, Donnie, you're not painting the whole picture. We do show up when we go over the agendas, we work closely, we talk about the issues that are facing our areas. So you're involved in the conversation a lot deeper than you're playing it out to be. You know, I, you and Larry are both from very similar areas. So you both had two voices that came from very similar locations. So I just, I don't, I don't find that argument that you are going to be able to have a same voice for someone in Watsonville, which is the second largest city and a huge ridership than, than, than someone like me or Vanessa who is actually representing South County. Well, and actually Larry is in Santa Cruz jurisdiction. So yeah, not Sally, but I still say that the, the chair and the vice chair are not have no more opportunity to represent their community. Because again, you just then then there would never be anyone rotating from other jurisdictions. It would always remain someone from Watsonville or, you know, there's just, it's, it's when we are meeting in the executive committee, we're talking about the agenda and how to prepare and know any, anything that needs to be addressed to be able to, to present or, or deal with the various agenda items. So it's, it's still not talking about jurisdictions. It's, it's the important. You were talking about agenda items and about the agenda, Donda, that is important to have a Watsonville voice to put, to have influence on that. Do you not agree or South County? I don't, I, again, it's not, we are, we are not presenting the agenda. The, the staff is presenting the agenda and simply informing us. We're not having any input, any more input than any other board member on what's on the agenda. I'm not going to, I see that David with you anymore. Director McPherson has joined us. I am looking for a suggestion here. Is this up to the chair to determine how to go forward? It is actually, I, I, if I could just quickly suggest, we should get them shown because Bruce just got here, show the two slates for, because I think it's the only difference on this. It is the only difference on the chair and the vice chair positions. Just show you shows quickly now in sequence. And so at least people are clear what we're voting on this time. Yeah. Just to make clear on the slate one of the commentary Johnson and it has commentary Johnson, who's the vice chair on that? So on slate one, Bruce, the chair would be Calentary Johnson. The vice chair would be Dutra. On slate two, the chair would be Calentary Johnson. The vice chair would be Christon Brown. That's the only difference between the two slates. And before you came on, Bruce, we had a vote that was a five, five tie. And it does have an impact on whether Jimmy gets appointed to the capital committee. I think, but that's, I think of less critical. There's not division about that. Am I correct about that? I think so. Jimmy would be there regardless. Okay, sorry. Jimmy withdraws himself. No, no, no, I misunderstood that. Sorry. Anyway, back to the vice chair, vice chair. Scroll back up. Go ahead, Mike. Someone should now move. Well, I'll leave it to them. Somebody should move either one of these. Can I move slate one, please? Make a motion for slate one. Do we have a second? Oh, exactly. That was Vanessa. Well, again, Jimmy can't, I don't believe procedurally, Jimmy can vote for slate, make a motion for slate one, because he lost that vote. And he's not in a position to reconsider. So that motion is already on the floor. It was defeated because on a five, five vote. And only a person who voted for it can bring it up again. So anybody else except those who, anybody who voted yes on the first slate considered can make a motion for slate one. And anybody here can make a motion for slate two as monitor did before. Thank you, Mike. I did make a motion. I did vote yes. I did make a vote yes on slate one now. Oh, okay. Then you can, you're right. Then you can make a motion for Jimmy. Go ahead. So we have a motion from Jimmy, and I think we had a second from Vanessa. Is that correct? Correct. Yes. So we can revote on slate one. All right. Everyone understand what we're doing? All right. Yes. Yes. All right. Donna, we can do a roll call vote please. Okay. Director Brown. No. Director Downing. No. No. Director Dutra. Hi. Director Collin Terry Johnson. Hi. Director Koenig. Hi. Director Lynn. No. Director McPherson. You're muted, Bruce. Oh, excuse me. Excuse me. No, I don't show them you. No. Director Newsom. Hi. Director Pagler. No. Director Quarros Carter. Hi. Director Rockin. No. Okay. So we have one, two, three, four yeses. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six noes. I'll move slate two at this point. I have a comment. I'm going to be voting no on slate two, but I find it really ironic. Mike Rockin was really, Mike, you were really contested at your last election, at your last election for this board to be appointed. I did not get involved with that, even though I totally agreed that everything went against what the county said and when they're appointing their three appointments that they need to be evenly distributed throughout the county. No one is from South County, but I think it's really interesting that you would vote no against this knowing that you're taking a voice away from South County on this important board. So, and Larry Pagler, you voted against your own slate. I don't even understand that. Why don't you just remove it? I mean, this is the politics that people are tired of, and I'm really disappointed in some of you on this board. And at this point, I would be removing myself from the Capitol Projects and all the other committees. Bona, can I confirm what your account was on that vote? So I had, I think we have five eyes and six nose. That's what I thought too. Yeah. All right. And what will pass? What is approval? You need to have six eyes. All right. I see. So I'll move slate to Jimmy's comments. Now we're standing. Is there a second point of clarification? Jimmy's removing himself from the Capitol committee that we need them to appoint to suggest, I don't know, a slate three that or or just a replacement for that position. Why doesn't Mike do it? He seems to know Watsonville very well. Right, Mike? Jimmy, come on. I'm sorry. You know, Mike interrupts every single meeting all the time. No one ever reprimands them. Larry, you give them a free pass for everything. Sorry. Can anyone answer my question? All right. We have Mike. I'm not sure that there's anything, your rules of procedure that that address that. Since the nominations are still open, I will nominate Vanessa for that position on the Capitol committee that Jimmy is now abandoned. Second. All right. What's the process for that? Looking for some guidance from Julie or for making a modification to slate? And I would support that. I would support that change given the fact that Jimmy is withdrawing from the committees if he's not chair or vice chair. Yeah. So Julie, yes, you can change that out. All right. And then we would need to take a look at the personnel HR. Oh, no. Well, that that'll be automatically. That's right. That would change with whomever is the vice chair. Yeah. So the change. This is a change to slate to correct. That's correct. Thank you. So we have now replaced Jimmy Dutra with Vanessa Quarros Carter joining Scott Newsom and Larry Pegler as the three members of the Capitol project standing committee slate to questions, comments. Do we have a motion? Vanessa just says a point of order. As we're going through, would it be possible to put up the slates? Yes, I think so. The difficulty is it spans numerous pages. So it's hard to look at the whole slate at once. I see. But we can pull up whatever and Donna could scroll through to show you the page you're interested in. Okay. And and the slates were identical on the committees. Okay. Here's the Capitol one that we were talking about for Vanessa to sit on sit on. Yes. And then this is the finance budget. No changes there. No changes there. And personnel. We would be on the second slate. And we know there's that just happens automatically based on the who's elected their upper positions. John here, but Jimmy was appointed. Jimmy's on that slate. Is that correct? But that was because of his position as the vice chair. So it'll change automatically no matter how we vote. On slate to on slate to Donna. Do you want to put Vanessa in Jimmy's place? I mean, you guys are giving Vanessa all these committees. I mean, so Jimmy is herself county representation. Yeah, but you guys, I mean, seriously, I mean, now you're overloading her. You're doing that on purpose. I don't, you know, you guys seem to have some of you. I'm not saying all of you. Some of you seem to know exactly how South County should be run. So you should be Mike, you have a big voice. Why don't you put your voice, your name there? Where Shebra has her hand up. Shebra. Yeah, thank you. I wanted to clarify it looks like slate two. Jimmy's being added as the number five nominee wouldn't wouldn't change the fact that he didn't get in the plate one and vice chair. That wouldn't make a difference. I don't it seems like this number five would not need to be swapped out. Well, I think the personnel you don't need to be you can be added. I think they added me the last time because they asked me to be on the board. I wasn't the vice chair. It was the first year I came on. Right. So I will it's it has someone has to fill that position. Actually, I put you on that because it was the only time you were available. The only committee at the time because you're here scheduled. You asked me and I said yes. Yes. Yeah, there was no other committees at that time. I work around that schedule. And so I had said, could you do personnel and you agreed? And that was great. Yes. And so now I'm telling you, I'm not going to be sitting on it. So, so you're so again, you're withdrawing yourself. Yes, slate two for the personnel committee, all committees. And as far as bringing up loading up South County, it was only to continue that representation that I think we both were saying we felt like there needs to be there should be a representation on those committees. There was reasons to look at capital and the importance of that. So if Jimmy is removing himself from all committees, then Vanessa was the only off the option to be able to have that representation from Watsonville. So why don't you ask Vanessa if she's willing to take on all these committees and attend these meetings? I mean, you guys are assuming she's going to do it. Yep. Does she have that much time? Ask her. Vanessa, do you care to comment? Maybe she doesn't know these committees all meet on the second Friday of the month and they meet in the morning at different times. So there's no conflict between them. But it's one it's each committee has one meeting a month on the second. Actually, Mike, the personnel meets it one afternoon. I'll meet it in the afternoon. Thank you, Donna. So it's an all day commitment. If you have meetings on all those, I've been serving on them. And yes, it has been, but I have that Friday. So scheduled out. You're retired. Not everybody has that luxury. Well, let Vanessa speak for herself. I really am not quite sure what to say. I made a mistake and the meeting is kind of going off the rails. And this is my introduction. I don't really know. You didn't do anything wrong. What to say? Just relax. I did. I did make a mistake. I'm trying to find my board packet and I'm trying to keep up as best I can. And I'm just a little disappointed with the conduct here. I definitely would like to be asked. It was not my intention to be on so many boards. I'm really disappointed that Jimmy decided to recuse himself from all of these boards. I think Watsonville representation is really important. And that's why I'm here. And I know that we have similar goals in making sure that our voices are heard because South County is often an afterthought and that's not acceptable. As far as personal politics, that's not what I'm here to do. So I don't know what else to say other than that. Would you be willing and able? Do you know at this time whether you'd be unavailable for meeting second Friday of the month, actually several meetings in the morning in the early afternoon? Vanessa? I mean, I guess I have no choice at this point. That's the position that I've been put in. So you do have a choice. Don't let them put you in a corner. If you don't have the time, just say no. They seem to have the bandwidth to do it. Kristen's picking up the vice chair. Maybe she can pick up a couple of the spots. You know, personnel committee, that could be anybody. She's already on the personnel committee if she's elected as vice chair. Vanessa, one thing I would just point out is, I'm sorry, I lost my thought. I see Mike's hand up. Mike, go ahead. I just want to say it's, first of all, I don't want to get in a fight with Jimmy about this stuff, but it's, you know, it's, I voted for a slate. I voted for whatever people make their choices. Jimmy's decided doesn't want to be on these committees, and I don't think he should be dictating who does or doesn't serve. It's not a prison sentence. If Vanessa can't make a meeting, she'll miss a meeting or several meetings or whatever. At some point, the board could decide mid-year that she, and she could decide she just can't do it and will find someone else to replace the person. Ideally, it would be somebody, as pointed out by Donald Lind from Watsonville. It's, Jimmy doesn't want to do it. Then that's why I suggested Vanessa for the position, not because for any other reason, but she doesn't have to go to these meetings. She's not arrested if she doesn't make it to them. She doesn't get kicked off the board or like vilified by people. She'll do her best. If she can't do it, she'll let us know, and then the chair will suggest an alternative to the board to fill that position. And Mike, that was the comment, and Julie, correct me if I'm wrong, but if we have a vacancy, then the current chair would be the one to fill that vacancy on a committee. Um, you know, that's not what your bylaws say. Thank you. You can fill the seats on the standing committees. I'm sorry, on the advisory committees, but let me check it, and I'll, I'll. I'm just looking for the process for if, if we're unable to determine who would be a fifth member of the personnel committee. What's the process for ultimately filling that seat if Vanessa was unavailable? So the board, the entire board makes the appointments to your standing committees, and the chair makes the appointments to advisory committees. Great. Okay. So it would be a board action. Larry, I have a question about that in that case. Please go ahead. Are we required to fill every single seat at today's meeting? Is there not an opportunity to move forward with a couple vacancies on these committees, allowing those who might be interested in serving to determine if their schedule and, and capacity allows them to do so? Or, and then we can bring these slates back for the whole board to determine once, you know, others have had a chance to determine if this is the right fit for them, or are we absolutely required to decide right now and today who's going to fill these positions? It could be. I have to make a comment. I made a mistake just now. I'm sorry. I'm pouring through the viola as, as you all are talking. And the chair can appoint members to standing committees. If a vacancy occurs, the board chair shall appoint a director to fill the vacancy. All right. Thank you for checking that, Julie. So if Chris is right, we could leave it vacant or we could have. Yes. Or we could put Vanessa in there now, and if Vanessa could decide it's too much, he could resign from it. And then we then we make a decision that either way, I don't think there's much difference between those two positions. That's Vanessa, what she'd rather have done. Vanessa, your preference. Um, I appreciate, um, I appreciate Chris's suggestion of waiting and moving forward with a meeting. I think this is taking up way too much time and it's ridiculous. And I'd rather just move on with the meeting and deal with this at a different time. And I just another point of point of order for everybody just in terms of these standing committees, the times are not set in stone. The committees can determine the times that work for the committee members. I just want to make sure people are aware of that. Yeah. Thank you, Julie. Uh, entertain any direction from the directors? How should we proceed here? You have a motion on the floor for the slate to slate to have the motion by and I'll take Vanessa's suggestion and in the slate to that I'm nominating, I'm leaving vacant the position on the capital committee. All right. Thank you, Mike. So we have a slate to motion to approve from Konig and I think it was downing for the second and Mike has just clarified he would leave seat five vacant on the personnel committee. So that's the motion, the second and we have a roll to clarify that the seat five is vacant on personnel committee and also I believe it's seat three on the capital committee. Ah, is that right? Was it vacant? That's right. Okay. Thank you. So we have two vacancies. Yeah. Capital projects and personnel. All right. Yes. Yes. So roll call vote please on slate two. Okay. Um, did you clarify who made the motion in the second? The motion was by Konig. The second was downing. Is that correct? I believe it, uh, Rod Kimball. No, I think it, yeah, I think Rod Kimball and I was the second. And you're the second. Okay, great. Right. Because mine I think you had withdrawn his earlier motion. We send it. Thank you. My apologies. All right. Thank you for that clarification. Uh, Director Brown. Hi. Director Downing. Hi. Director Dutra. No. Director Colin Terry Johnson. Aye. Director Konig. Aye. Director Lind. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Director Newsome. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. Director Quarros Carter. No. Director Rockin. Aye. And the motion passes, uh, with nine votes. All right. Um, and gee, with that, I think I turn over my gavel. You do. But you're ready for that about now. I've been thinking retirement might be a good idea. Thank you. Thank you, Larry. Um, before we move in to the next agenda item, I just, I want to I'm sorry that this process ended up, um, getting contentious. And I want to thank all of the commissioners and, and Commissioner Lynn for putting my name forward and entrusting in me. I approach these processes and, and these efforts, um, with the lens of the whole community. And I recognize that the Metro does a lot more than moving people from one place to the next. It's, it's really about community well-being. Um, and community well-being can only happen when we look across our county from North County Davenport all the way to South County. So thank you for entrusting, um, this, this, um, responsibility to me. And I look forward to working with all of you. And I look forward to working with staff and the community. And I think with that, we will go to item six, which is board of director comment, director Downing. Yes, I wanted to, uh, give my appreciation to Danielle for the Instagram account that, uh, has now been presented and is being updated regularly. I was really encouraged to see that. And if any of you are on Instagram, it's a really, um, generally friendly way for people to communicate important information. And even just today, the post was about, uh, the survey for writers. So I'm, I'm really glad to see that. And it looks great. Thank you. Thank you, director Downing. Other directors? Okay. I also want to add, uh, I would be remiss to not thank you, Larry, for the last year's work and all the year's works that you've done here on the Metro board. So thank you. You're here. Your commitment. Thank you, everyone. It's been an honor and, and, uh, sometime I hope to see you all in person. I know. Okay. So we'll move on to, it looks like there are two hands up in the public. We have, uh, Eduardo Montesino and, and Brian Peoples has his hand up again. So that's what we're all communication. Yes. Yeah. So we'll, um, we'll go to Brian Peoples first. Hi, this is Brian Peoples with trail. Now, you know, first of all, Larry, I think you did a great job in the meetings that I've witnessed. So thank you for that. I want to point out inflation, you know, it's all over the main, all over the news right now inflation. We're all feeling this inflationary costs. And so we have to understand how is that inflation impacting our community? If, if we have delays in construction and infrastructure projects, those initial grant amounts likely won't be able to sustain of the scope of work that you originally had. The case in point there is the North Coast Rail Trail. That has been delayed for years. And it is because we are trying to build the tracks trail next to the tracks. Those tracks to Davenport will never be a commuter train. It's $20 million estimate to make them for a tourist train. We don't have that money. The original EIR actually showed that putting the trail on the railroad bed is the most environmentally impact. So why didn't we go that way? The reason why is because there was a misunderstanding or an acceptance of what rail banking is. The Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Executive Director and his staff came out and gave clarification on what rail banking is. And basically it's preserving the corridor. And it's done across the country. So why aren't we doing things smart? We as a community, as you as board members, need to listen to the experts. We need to understand that building the trail by rail banking is the standard across America. And if we don't do that, we're wasting time. And wasting time cost us money. And more importantly, it prevents us from using that transportation resource. We've built 1.2 miles over a decade. That's all. 1.2. And actually the cost per mile is more expensive than widening the highway. Building a 12 foot wide trail, which really is being more expensive than the highway, does that make sense? So let's start accepting that rail banking is the legal process. It is the way we preserve that. And we don't have to keep the old railroad tracks. Heck, if you're going to have a train in the future, you're going to pull those tracks up anyways. So rail banking is the process. And we need to start understanding that so that we can move forward. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I want to comment on 10-8 when the consent agenda comes up. Thank you. All right. You'll have the opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Peoples. Next we have Eduardo Montecino. Hi. Good morning. I just wanted to make a comment. You didn't provide an opportunity to comment before the state was voted on just as a reminder of the public. Then you get an opportunity. But the other thing is one of the things that you guys got to realize is that we went to all these committees because it was sold to the board by our previous CEO that it was going to save staff time. And we're going to go through a better process. I think a better process is like the RTC to have two Friday meetings that we used to have. And it was nothing on the agenda. On the next Friday, you dropped the meeting and everyone was involved. And everybody heard the same presentations. And like I said, those are my two cents. I said, we should go back to the two meetings. Instead of having all these standing committees that meet at different times, in different hours, they're sort of hidden from the rest of the public. So thank you. Thank you for your comments. I don't see other members of the public. Go back. I see Mike Rodkin. I'd like to make a brief comment. I think it's ironic that Brian Peoples would suggest the problem with inflation, with delays on projects, when it's his organization that is opposed to all these different projects and delayed a number of them because we have to respond to his concerns. He has a right to express those concerns. I don't deny that. And secondly, his argument about rail banking, even those of us, I thought rail banking was a great idea. But the only way to get there, because we have what would be a stranded rail line in roaring camp, would be adverse abandonment, which was actively opposed by three-quarters of the voters in this county and by an 11-1 vote on this board. So it's a little looking backwards and trying to redo something that's really been done and we're on a pathway right now and we should continue on it. Thank you. Thank you, Director Rodkin. Okay, we'll move on to item eight, labor organization communication. Is there anyone from labor who would like to speak at this point? I don't see any hands up. I'll give it another 10 seconds. I haven't seen anything. Yeah, okay. So with that, we'll move to item nine, additional documentation to support agenda items. I don't think we had any, right, Donna? And there are none. Thank you. Okay, so moving on to consent agenda. This is items 10.1 to 10.10. Looking to see if there are any directors who have questions, comments or want to pull any items. And if not, we'll go to the public. I see Julie, your hand is up. I just wanted to make a brief comment about 10.8. The governor is scheduled to lift the state of emergency on February 28th. And we're going to talk more about returning to in-person meetings during Michael's report. So this is just a placeholder in case the governor extends the state of emergency, which every indication is that he is not going to. But in case you're wondering why this is on your agenda, that is why. If this state of emergency is lifted, however, you will be meeting in person. Okay, thank you. Any other comments or questions or items to be pulled from consent? Okay, so I'll go to the public for comments on the consent agenda. And I see Brian Peoples, your hand is up. Please go ahead. Hi, this is Brian from Trail Mail. So item 10.8, we really find that this is illogical. We really need to maintain the ability to do remote. And so we support that. However, having said that, how does it feel? How does it feel to have this politicians not being logical in their decisions? You guys are kind of right getting the feel of what we feel with the opening the coastal corridor in a timely and cost-effective manner and using the legal rights to do that. You know, actually, I find it when Mr. Rockin was up for election, the union was protesting him. What I found interesting is the politics showed there. What was stated at the meeting by the supervisors when they voted for Mr. Rockin was he's a good guy. He's a friend. I like him. And actually what really set me back, and I'll always remember this, is a supervisor said, you know, I don't agree with his policies. I'm actually most all of his policies I don't agree with. We are on the other side of the boat. But that supervisor went ahead and said, but I like him. So I'm going to vote for him. So when we have that kind of representation that we vote for the good old boys, that we vote for our friends rather than policies of those commissioners, of those people representing our community, does that make sense? And that's what happens. Why you why we have this problem right now with this telecommunication. And finally, just to comment on Mr. Rockin's comment about us holding up projects. We haven't held up anything. We've actually, if you look at it, if he's going to make a public statement like that, he needs to, and being a public official, he should be careful making those statements because there's no at no time we've supported every every step of the way. So be careful on your communications Mr. Rockins. You are a representative. And this is being recorded. And you shouldn't be making statements that are false. So again, I think we just look at, you know, at the election of Mr. Rockin, where the union wasn't supporting them and look at, well, how are we making our decisions? Is it the good old boys? Or are we deciding on policy and what we all believe in? Thank you. Okay, next we have Lonnie Faulkner. Please go ahead, Lonnie. Thank you for the opportunity. And congratulations, Shabra, as chair. I just wanted to, I don't know if this is appropriate in regards to 10.8, but wanted to give thought to the fact that there are a number of people who may want to attend these meetings across the county, members of the public, and allowing for hybrid opportunity. Both meet issues of equity and the environment. Thank you so much. Thank you for raising that. And I'll look to Michael Tree to address that when he's making his comments about our future meetings. Okay, so I will look for, I don't see any other hands up. I will look for a motion for the consent agenda. Move approval of the consent agenda. Okay, Director Rockin, is there a second? I'll take a second. I think I heard Director Pagler first. All right, we'll call for a roll call vote. Director Brown. Aye. Director Downing. Aye. Director Dutra. Not here. Okay. Director Collin Terry Johnson. Aye. Director Koenig. Aye. Director Lind. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Director Newsome. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. Director Quarros Carter. Aye. Director Rockin. Aye. And the motion passes. Thank you, Donna. Moving to our regular agenda, our first item here is item 11, approve consideration of authorizing and funding a maintenance trainer position in the fleet department. And it looks like it's Margo Ross who will be leading us through that. Good morning, everyone. We're asking for funding of this training position because you guys are aware that our needs for the maintenance department has changed. We, the HR department assisted us in developing this position. They went out to Coffin Associates to do a classification and a comparison study. We are looking at this person to assist with training on our electrical vehicles, our fuel cell vehicles, just kind of to get our maintenance training department up and off the ground, kind of a train the trainer aspect. A lot of times we aren't able to send our mechanics out to training, but we can send one person out and they can come back and train all of our mechanics. The biggest part of this is the new vehicles that we'll be taking possession of in the next three to five years. So we are hoping that this is approved for those reasons. And I think it will give a big boost to our maintenance department as far as moving forward for our fuel charging systems, our electric systems, anything related to our new vehicle type sub buses. And with that, if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Thank you, Margo. Directors, any questions, comments? Okay. No. All right. I will look to see if there are any members of the public who have comments. I don't see any hands up. Move the staff recommendation. All right. Is there a second? I think that was Larry seconding. Yes. All right. We'll call vote please. All right. Director Brown. Hi. Director Downing. Hi. Director Dutra. Don't see. Returned. Director Colin Terry Johnson. Aye. Director Koenig. Aye. Director Lynn. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Director Newsom. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. Director Quarros Carter. Aye. Director Rockin. Aye. And the motion passes. Okay. Moving on to item 12, that is a CEO oral report from Michael Tree. Yeah. Good morning. And you know, just a big welcome to a board member, Vanessa Carlos Carter. Excited to see her on the board. We had breakfast the other day and she has a lot of vision and a lot of great experience on public transit. So I, you know, I left that breakfast thinking that that was a great appointment to our board. And I'm looking forward to working with her and also with board member Scott Newsom. And I know he was here at the last board meeting, but looking forward to introducing both of them to the executive team in the near future and just kind of walking through each of the projects that we have that are ongoing. There's a lot happening at Metro. I won't take a tremendous amount of time this morning, but did want to touch on some of the highlights that are taking place. Probably the biggest one is our big planning effort. It's a 15 month effort to reimagine Metro services. And so if there's anything that you're doing that would have an impact long-term on Metro, this is, this is the one. You know, you took a survey, we took a survey and then went into a workshop and talked about the survey results of how the public in general would like a more easy to use Metro system. And we talked about the characteristics of an easy to use system. So we have kicked off that 15 month planning effort to take a look at the routes and come back with some ideas on how to allow or how to have Metro be easier to use. Jared Walker and associates, as you'll recall, is the firm that we brought on board. They're currently doing the existing conditions report, which means that they're analyzing our current ridership. They're looking at demographics and various survey data. But there's also been some extensive outreach that has started. Recruitments underway for about a dozen focus groups, you know, an English focus group, a Spanish focus group, a focus group with elderly and customers with disabilities, a focus group with students, university students and youth, a focus group based on geographic locations. So there's a lot going on there in regard to assembling these focus groups. And as you may have noticed, we have begun advertising for an online community meeting on Tuesday, March 14th, that would be from five to six 30pm. And so that meeting basically will focus on how Metro services either work well for folks or doesn't work well, in addition to just generally outlining the process for our 15 month planning effort. And then there's a couple of other dates I think that would be important to put on the calendar on April 11th, 12th and 13th, there'll be a three day workshop that'll be focused on developing network design ideas. So this is kind of like the beginning of looking at potential ideas on an easier to use Metro. And I think a particular note at 4pm, each of those days, the board will be invited to a briefing. It'll be in person or via zoom for an update on the day's activities during that three day workshop. So more information is to come. But I just wanted to get a couple of dates out there on your calendar and more, as I mentioned, we'll be pumping out a lot more information on those meetings to both the public and the board. Getting a lot of attention in the media, almost on a weekly basis has been the board's one ride at a time, your partnership with RTC with a customer rewards program and also a component of that one rides at a time program is your what I call your sustainability policy that you approve that allows vendors to become active in helping certain organizations with environmental work. We have an official kickoff for that. It's kind of been a soft kickoff of as we've worked with partners and their needs. And we have a more of a formal kickoff coming in March. I thought I'd give Danielle just a couple of minutes to walk you through one more time one right at a time what it is and what's coming up in the near future. And then also if she could also talk just briefly about the youth cruise free, which is your free pilot program for youth through 12th grade allows them to get on the bus anytime anywhere user student ID as a flash pass to ride metro that officially kicks off in March on March 1. And so, Danielle, if you wouldn't mind just taking a couple of minutes briefing the board on how we're doing with those two projects and what they're about. Yeah, of course. Thanks, Michael. And good morning, directors. Donna, I do have a PowerPoint. Can I go ahead and share that? Why don't you try sharing yours? Yeah. Okay, great. Okay, how's that? Can you guys see? We can see it. Okay, let me go in to present our view. So in 2020, we began the process of updating our fleet with new vinyl wraps with Metro's updated circular logo to match Metro's current more modern brand guidelines for new budget purchases, but our existing fleet still needs to be updated. As Metro works to increase ridership and further establish the agency as a key community partner, it would be in the best interest of the agency to update our fleet to have some more consistent branding. This will allow our riders and our community to better identify Metro and connect with our brands. Therefore, Metro's One Ride at a Time campaign is the perfect opportunity to update Metro's look and feel with a more consistent brand messaging. One Ride at a Time will highlight Metro's mission of providing environmentally sustainable transportation in Santa Cruz County while providing the riders the opportunity support organizations making a difference in our local community. The program, in addition to the Zep master plan, will solidify Metro as a key community partner in protecting our local environment. One Ride at a Time is an opportunity to not only educate the public about the benefits of public transit and the unique natural resources of the Monterey Bay, but inspire people to take action while increasing ridership. For the One Ride at a Time campaign, Metro has partnered with two local environmental nonprofits, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Bay of Life Fund, who support conservation efforts throughout the Bay. The One Ride at a Time campaign includes two methods of support for environmental nonprofits, the first being Metro's social equity and community funding policy recently approved by the board that offers vendors the opportunity to discount their total contract amount by 5% that will then be donated to one of our local nonprofit partners. The other method is for our riders to donate $10 for every 25 log trips via RTC's Go Santa Cruz incentive program. For the riders, participation is easy and they can be done directly through the Go Santa Cruz website or by downloading the Commute Tracker app. Once 250 points or 25 rides are accumulated, riders then get to select one of our nonprofit partners to receive a $10 donation. As part of the campaign, Metro has teamed up with renowned National Geographic photographer Franz Lanting to wrap our buses with iconic images of the Monterey Bay from his recently published book Bay of Life. Our first two wraps of a whale tail and mountain lion were completed this past January coinciding with the Bay of Life gallery opening at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. We now have a total of four buses that also include images of sea otters and redwood trees and by the spring we'll have a total of nine buses complete with wraps. By winter 2024 our goal is to have a total of 30 wrap buses traveling throughout the county with all different images taken from the Monterey Bay. And then as Michael mentioned on March 29th we plan to host our formal campaign press event at the Sanctuary Exploration Center in Santa Cruz to officially launch the campaign to the public. And then additionally we will support this campaign by developing several marketing assets to target potential ridership and showcase the benefits of using public transit. And this includes like transit center displays, interior bus signage, we have our website up to date, we've been posting this on all of our social media channels. We'll be doing advertising in prints, social media paid ads, and then also taking the buses out to events. And so we're hoping that by doing this we'll be able to communicate the program to all community members and encourage them to join the Go Santa Cruz program. So that's it for what I have for one ride at a time and then Michael mentioned the youth cruise free program. That begins March 1st and is to increase access and encourage ridership for youth in grades K through 12. And it's going to be system-wide with the only exception being Highway 17, which will be excluded as it's a premium service. We've gone ahead and distributed this all of this information to our local schools and we've also posted it on the website. And then regarding student validation, we are asking that grades eighth and under if they have a valid ID, then they can show it to the driver, but it's not mandatory or a necessity for grades nine through 12. It's in the best interest to show an ID just because we don't know grade level wise and age wise how old they might be. And so if they don't have a proof of ID or proof of grade level, they can come to Pacific Station to get a youth cruise free ID from our customer service team. And the first ID will be free and then we will charge for subsequent IDs and if they need to be replaced. Can I ask a question here? Yes. Is it possible to have it available also in Watsonville? We can look into that right now. We're a little bit short staffed, but that is something we can definitely take a look at. Thank you. Then here are some assets that were distributed to the local schools. But all assets are available in English and Spanish. So we did go ahead and send a flyer and frequently ask questions in English and Spanish to all the school districts and then posted this on our website as well. And that's it for me unless you guys have any questions. Great. Well, thank you for your time. All right. So, you know, I'm pretty excited about the one right at a time campaign and I just wanted to make sure you knew what our participation was in that program. Basically, it was to bring together the partners and the potential for a rewards program for the riders to contribute to those partners that are making a big impact in the community. But I just wanted to be completely transparent and that our intentions were to over time redo the wraps on the buses, create a new, more modern identity for Metro. And so we had begun budgeting to rewrap each of the buses. And so when this program presented itself, we simply took the first 30 buses that we were going to rewrap with a new image and started the one right at a time program. So really a cost neutral environment for Metro based on the direction we were going. But that is our contribution in this project is the wraps on the buses. I had just a couple of other things I was going to cover with you. We did successfully, we've submitted a grant, the transit inner city and rail capital program grant that we've been talking about the last few board meetings. In sum, the grant is an ask for a hydrogen fueling station for 24 hydrogen buses and then also for funding for the Watsonville Transit Center redevelopment project, which would feature 60 affordable housing units being built into that Watsonville Transit Center as we redevelop it with mid pen and the city of Watsonville and others as really strong partners in that project. So we should hear back on that grant in April and we'll keep you posted we've got our fingers crossed that grant does get spread out geographically and Santa Cruz has never received a grant from this program so the chances are you're getting a really good look in this cycle with that request. With that we've begun meeting regularly with legislature representatives of the area up in Sacramento. I just wanted to make sure you're aware on February 21st. I sat down with Senator John Laird and Senator Dave Cortesi and also assembly members Gail Pelerin, Robert Rivas and Don Addis to chat about Metro our goals and also about that grant that was just submitted and they were strong supporters of that grant and so I wanted to let you know we'd be meeting with them on a quarterly basis just to really keep momentum in Sacramento in regard to Metro and what we're doing and what our needs are and then last but not least you know our biggest challenge is really getting new operators on board so that we can get the full service out on the road that we have having a schedule and just wanted to bring you up to speed we've got six new operators who have been licensed and trained who will be going into revenue service soon and to put that into context we're about 25 operators down so you could minus off six from that number and then we also have seven new operators that are beginning the class so that they can get their licensing. I think if there's anything that's changed between right now and the last time you met it's that we've started a special committee that meets multiple times a week. We've got our chief operating officer on that committee myself we've got our director of HR on the committee and we've also brought into the committee the union leadership that works with the supervisors and operations and also the operators and operations so that we can find flexibility in opening up the pipeline and moving more of our operators our new operators from application to training and onto the road in a quicker fashion and then finally the last thing I thought I'd bring up today is that there is a lot going on with Metro I think your staff is just working around the clock and to keep the public and policymakers and opinion leaders up to date on what's taking place at Metro we're going to introduce in March a newsletter that will come out from Metro that we've got mailing lists through our various partners with one right at a time and other partnerships where that'll be emailed out to about 7,000 residents and that one will send that newsletter out to policymakers and opinion leaders and of course the board but I really felt it was important moving forward that we keep the public just completely informed on all of the different programs and projects at Metro and ways that they can participate in that process so with that I'll uh I'll uh you know be happy to answer any questions that you might have thank you Michael would you mind also speaking to being in person in the hybrid option yeah boy you know what I should read my notes that is on the notes so so as we've been talking at you know in March we return to in-person meetings and we rotate those meetings to different locations each month so we have planned on doing that so your first board meeting for example in March that's in person will be in Scotts Valley and then it rotates from there on a schedule our staff's been working with RTC and others who are having ongoing hybrid meetings and we've got the technology in place to have these hybrid meetings so I'll I'll maybe give Julia a couple of minutes just to review the scenarios where the public and the board can participate you know virtually in those meetings thank you so yeah so while the public and staff can can use this new hybrid technology under the Brown Act the board members need to attend in person unless they are using one of the teleconference options now you might remember three years ago before COVID there were the traditional teleconference rules and you know those rules are are just outdated and onerous but that's what we've got and it means we have to have 72 hours notice if somebody needs to teleconference we have to put that on the agenda we have to put your location on the agenda and you have to allow the public to attend your location as scary as that sounds you know if you happen to be in Watsonville for example and you're working at City Hall that's a great place to teleconference from because the public can come there and then you don't have to worry about getting to Scotts Valley or whatever and you'll save yourself some time so I do think you know with with these three years under everyone's belt you know teleconferencing in it's going to be I mean I would encourage people to to use those traditional rules you know especially if you're not calling from you know your home um you know you can do it from your home if you're open to allowing members of the public to attend that location they probably will not show up however yes they do you never know you know so um but if you have the location where you're at that's just easier to work from and the public can attend you know let us teleconference you know let us get that on the agenda and then you can call in from there and you'll be able to use this hybrid technology the other thing is there is a new option for teleconferencing you've probably heard about it from your other jurisdictions and I have a nice memo that lays all this out and I'll share it with the whole board I'll need to get our new director's contact info and then I'll include her in that memo as well so AB 2449 what started going through the legislative process it was actually going to be a great bill it was everybody was in favor of it and then it got completely ruined by the legislature but it's what we have and and there are efforts to continue to reform the Brown Act so let's not give up there's a really big effort especially for like accessibility advisory committees to to carve out some exceptions a lot of folks on those committees have difficulty getting to an in-person location makes no sense that they have to do this but anyway I'm not going to editorialize AB 2449 is what we have as an alternative you don't actually have to give notice but you have to meet certain criteria for a just cause or emergency circumstance and my memo will explain all all of those definitions to you we don't have to put anything on the agenda we do not have to allow members of the public to attend your remote location however you have to fit into these circumstances you have to participate by audio and video and you can only use it two times a year again it doesn't make sense because emergencies are emergencies you can't really plan for them but you get two emergencies a year but that would be for every brown act committee you're on so you could use it for the board two times and you could use it for every committee two times so it's it's not horrible you know at least it's an alternative and we can walk you through the process and it does give you some flexibility to teleconference in and with that I'm happy to answer any questions and when I send this memo you know feel free to contact me and ask me any questions in my house thank you thank you Julie Michael was that all that was it okay so I'll see if directors have questions or comments director Downey yes um Michael the meeting that you mentioned on March 14th um that was a zoom meeting I think is that going to be recorded you know Danielle correct me if I'm wrong but I think the intention was that it would be in recorded yeah that's my understanding correct that's my understanding as well it would be helpful if we could get a link to that or something afterwards for those of us that can attend of course yes I'll send that out thank you guys thank you great other directors okay I I had a question just a couple comments um the this is a question for Julie the teleconference option where you have to post uh where you are located is that can can directors do that any number of time or is that limited to a certain number of times as well and I guess any number any number of times you just have to have 72 hours notice how many hours notice okay okay great and then just um wanted to comment thank you Danielle for that presentation I've been seeing a lot on um the one ride at a time and youth cruise free as well and and you guys have done an amazing job in social media and I just wanted to invite and encourage other directors who use social medias or who have their own newsletters to get the get the word out through your networks as well and then wanted to just announce that the Aptos youth group is doing a celebration and a thank you to the metro because they advocated for the free rides for students and they have invited board members who are interested to attend it's March 23rd from 7 to 7 30 um and I think it's at Aptos high but I can't remember but it's just to thank the board members for bringing up for approving this and um any uh metro staff who are involved are invited to that so if anyone's interested you can contact me or John Ergo also has the contact for that celebration okay if no board members have questions I have a process question does the oral report go out to for public comment I can't remember yeah it does okay all right so I will look and see if there's any members of the public who would like to comment on the CEO or report I don't see hands up right now I'll give it a few seconds and if I can clarify Chevrolet it actually is not required by law because they only get the comment on things that are going to be actions but we we better we have historically let people make comments if they have them great that's great all right I don't see hands up so we'll move on to our next agenda item and sorry I had my own notes up so let me see that is item 13 review of items to be discussed in closed session that's you Julie thanks we are going to be talking about the upcoming labor negotiations with all three of metro's bargaining units okay and so do we now adjourn this and go to our closed session we ask the public ask the public if they have comments okay about the closed session item okay thanks all right any members of the public who have comments on the closed session item I don't see any hands up okay so um looking to you Donna so we we got a link for closed session the directors did right there's some background noise Donna I think you there you go thank you um so we got a link to the closed session so I believe the directors go into closed session and then we come back into this meeting correct okay yes all right so you can log out go into closed session and then we'll be back after that I'm not going to be able to join you so I just needed I have another conflicting meeting okay so I just to let you know thank you so much and congratulations thanks to Larry and everyone that's the same for me okay so let me just pause here um Bruce and Donna cannot attend will we still have do we is there an action do we need to have quorum or can we still proceed I got we're gonna have an action we're just okay all right so see you all shortly all right see y'all shortly okay welcome back everyone let me just organize myself really quickly all right so we are coming back from closed session and um I'm going to hand it to Julie to do a report out thank you and there's no reportable action thank you um and I'll just comment that um we feel really confident in the team that's moving forward with with this process of labor negotiations this time around and I think we'll we'll reach something that everyone will feel good about so looking forward to the process and looking forward to working with everyone and if there are any other comments from directors on this okay and we come to the end of our meeting our next meeting is as mentioned earlier Friday March 24th starting at 9 a.m it'll be our first in-person meeting after many years so it'll be nice to see you all in the flesh and that'll be held at scott's valley city council chambers and we will see you all then meetings adjourned