 Welcome to the 1.15 p.m. Public portion of the closed session of the April 14th 2020 meeting of the city council In this part of the meeting the council will receive public testimony thereafter the public will be closed and inaccessible All council members beside myself are participating in this meeting remotely. I want to thank the public For staying home to view today's city council meeting Please note if you wish to comment on a closed session item call in one of the following numbers one six six nine nine zero zero nine one two eight One three four six two four eight seven seven nine nine One three zero one seven one five eight five nine two One three one two six two six six seven nine nine One six four six five five eight eight six five six or one two five three two one five eight seven eight two Please enter the meeting ID number two four six zero two seven one nine one and when prompted for participant ID Please press pound When it is time for public comment press star nine on your phone to raise your hand When it is your time to speak you'll hear an announcement that you have been unmuted Time will be set to two minutes. You may hang up once you have commented on your item of interest And I would like to ask the clerk to please call the roll Thank you mayor, and I would also like to ask city council members When it's time for your turn to call roll Council member is Watkins Matthews Boulder, can you unmute yourself? Golder. Oh, I'm sorry. It's super hard to hear Golder here present. I think I don't talk very much fires Okay with that Justin. Oh Place mayor Myers She raised her hand. Yeah, you can hear me now. We gotcha And mayor come okay here. It looks like there are members of the public Who might actually there's any member of the public now is the opportunity to call in For public comment on the items for closed session and we'll give you a few Little bit of time to call in it's seen that there's no one calling in we are going to move to closed session And we will close the meeting to any other public participants at this time Welcome to our 220 session of the April 14th 2020 meeting of the city council I have a few announcements and then we'll move on to our regular meeting Today's meeting is being broadcast on community television channel 25 On the city's website the mayor of Santa Cruz comm so all council members beside myself are participating in this meeting remotely I want to thank the public for staying home to views today's city council meeting Please note that if you wish to comment on items 4 through 12 call one of the following numbers one Six six nine nine zero zero nine one two eight One three four six two four eight seven seven nine nine One three zero one seven one five eight five nine two One three one two six two six six seven nine nine One six four six five eight eight six five six Or one two five three two one five eight seven eight two After calling in you'll want to enter the meeting number ID, which is two four six Zero two seven one nine one and when prompted for a participant ID, please press pound When it's time for public comment press star nine on your phone to raise your hand And when it's your time to speak you will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted The timer will then be set to two minutes, and you may hang up once you have commented on your item of interest If you wish to speak on another item two things may occur One if the number of callers waiting exceeds capacity You will be disconnected and you will need to call back closer to when the item you wish to comment on will be heard And second you will be placed back in the queue and should you press star nine to raise your hand when you wish to comment on a new item You may also send an email to city clerk at city of Santa Cruz calm New comments will be shared with the council members as they are received and will be entered into the public record And with that I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll Thank You mayor council members Watkins Here Matthews here Brown Boulder here Vice mayor Myers and mayor Cummings here I would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the awasua speaking upi tribe The almond sin tribal ban comprised of the descendants of indigenous people Taken to Mission Santa Cruz and San Juan Batista during Spanish colonization of the central coast Is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historic trauma and the clerk could please Lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance On our agenda is a climate action progress report Presented by Tiffany wise west sustainability and climate action manager Just want to check to see if Tiffany is on Members I'm going to share my screen with you now. And are you able to you Tiffany? Good to be with you today, and I hope you all are well To show you our annual climate action progress. Don't mind you Let's Mind you the climate action program Currently through our sustainability team through our climate action task force, which is comprised of external members of the community and various other groups to implement the climate action plan the climate adaptation plan as well as the health and all policies work plan and with our health and all policies Ordinance and pop and policies We are setting public health sustainability and equity as key facets in decision-making and crafting policy and so forth For those who are new on the council The climate action program consists of one three-quarter time FTE that's me My other 25% time is spent doing flood control work and that at any one time we may have an Analyst right now we have a half-time analyst that is funded by one of our sea level rise projects and Anywhere from a couple on up to 10 in terms at one time we currently have to And then of course we work with many other Key divisions within the city which I'll mention throughout the presentation And I should say I have made this abbreviated Typically, I go in much more depth, but under the circumstances. I've made this presentation somewhat abbreviated So to orient you to the climate action plan that was adopted in 2012 and at sunset this year in 2020 We have 12 climate action milestones or gold That are tracked through 13 indicator metrics each of which has a specific numeric targets And there are 254 actions that are specified to get us to those targets 92% progress in order to be on track for all of our targets And so I will share with you what that looks like Three of our targets the first relates to our bike mode split Which has exceeded 10% This is largely due to our Transportation division in public works their work to get green lanes in place over the past five six years To get the jump bikes on board online and so forth This percentage does not yet reflect the impact that the bike jumps might have on bike mode split We also have exceeded the number of sustainability projects that We Had targeted at 25. We are currently at 30 sustainability projects that we are collaboratively Undertaking and carrying out with UC Santa Cruz most recently Our resilient post projects are sea level rise projects We are collaborating with the coastal science and policy graduate program on elements of that particularly around equity and We have a number of others that are that are ongoing Including some related to public works and our resource recovery folks and helping to improve waste diversion up on campus And then finally in terms of green businesses. We are Right at just about at 200 businesses and that is due to our green business program Out of public works and their efforts to continually keep green businesses certified keep promoting them and so forth in Terms of milestones that are on track to be achieved, but we're not quite there yet The first one is meeting 30% of our energy load with renewable energy. So that is 30% of municipal energy load Right now we are utilizing about 22% or about 21% methane that is captured and at our wastewater treatment facility and Converted into electricity right there on site and then about 8% is coming From solar PV and we do have three large solar installations that will be coming online later this year that are already in under agreement We also are on track to meet our hundred percent funding for design or construction of the rail trail is kind of a unique metric and again This is largely due to our public works efforts most recently Segment seven of the rail trail that is under construction currently as well as the The Brige which was a great accomplishment We are also on track to increase our urban tree canopy by about 10% Last year was the first year that we actually reported were able to report on this metric We had partnered with UC Santa Cruz to complete an urban tree canopy analysis project in GIS And this does not reflect the additional 500 trees that the parks department has planted as part of a Cal fire grant That parks and our program are co-managing. I should mention that The parks department is also working with the consultant to finalize a report on an urban Tree inventory project that was just completed where they went and counted all street trees and Parks trees and noted there What state they were in? Weather maintenance was required and all kinds of other metrics So really exciting project that I expect they will report out to you on soon On some milestone targets that are not on track to be achieved I think it's important at this point to remind folks that when these targets were set Back around 2012 there first of all there were not necessarily forecasting analytics that were Conducted in order to determine the targets, so they really were a best guess And they were set high to reflect the ambitious And or to be ambitious to reflect the environmental ethic of our community However, you will note We still are in really great shape with respect to these In terms of solar homes were at about 3,200 homes. We had a really nice uptick last year The federal tax credit for solar Was at 30% last year. It's now reduced to 26% this year and we'll go to 22% next year So I think we we saw a bump in solar homes Due to that generous tax credit Going down between last year and this year We have about 82 solar Installations on businesses again another one that is really difficult for us As a municipality to motivate progress on we have streamlined our solar permitting process And you know, so that's that makes it really easy And we had in the past conducted outreach to businesses and provided some grant funded technical assistance that did result in Three large-scale installations coming online something we'd like to replicate in the future In terms of weight waste diversion, so that really is our recycling We are at 65% we're trying to get to 75% waste diversion in terms of Reducing single occupancy vehicle commute commute by 10% We're currently at 4%. This is another one that you know, the city is Can really influence the built environment through our policy Choices that we make but it is really difficult to influence behavior choices such as driving alone and so This 4% does not reflect the recent transportation demand management program that came online Late last year giving bus passes to downtown employees and a number of other incentives So we could see an uptick in this when we do our final reconciliation on 2020 a year from now and then our the last one that is not on track to be achieved is Making sure that 20% of our cars are low-carbon and we define low-carbon as Electric vehicles or hybrids and we're currently at 8% of our vehicles in Santa Cruz zip codes Our low-carbon which I should say is actually quite high We are recognized as the number two city in the country in terms of new vehicle purchases that are electric and we are doing quite a bit to Bring more built environment that supports Low-carbon fuel choices You may recall that we wrote some proposals to access funding from electrify America, which is The the W settlement agreement funds of their emissions cheating scandal And we were able to get named as the sixth metro area for investment in California VW needs to invest 800 million in California for electric vehicle infrastructure So we have learned that there will be four DC fast chargers in the Santa Cruz metro area valued at a million dollars in total That will be installed in our community. We currently have one DC fast charger in the city. So this will be a considerable expansion We continue to partner with Monterey Bay community power to provide incentives as well as the air district for Low-carbon vehicles specifically EVs EV charging as well as supporting a number of our other initiatives And then finally there were a couple Unable to update because I was unable to access the platforms that we utilize to pull data And the first is reducing municipal energy use in buildings by 40 percent. We were at 7 percent in 2018 And we've made a lot of progress on this front 40 percent is incredibly ambitious Are largely due to our public works facilities division? We have retrofitted 97 percent of our lighting to LED in the city And we've taken advantage of all the low-fanging fruit in terms of retrofitting HVAC and other kind of Easy wins on the energy front right now that division is working on a next phase of on-bill financing projects to do the next round of things as well as We just had a kickoff meeting with an energy services company last week who is going to help us to identify What are the deeper next-tier stage of energy efficiency and other energy related projects? That can help us to reduce not only our energy use and emissions But our costs as well and so we're really excited about the opportunity that Partnering with that ESCO could present for us. They really bring to us Capacity which we're really limited in to Analyze all the various opportunities the data and so forth and then the other one that we're not on track to achieve But couldn't be updated is expanding energy efficiency programs to 30% of homes We're at 4.2 percent in 2018. So this is really What are the homes that go through our green building program? What homes are served by Central Coast energy services who provides low-income energy efficiency? programs and so forth and Again, not able to access The program that allows us to pull those data about emissions themselves greenhouse gas Inventory was conducted in 2015 Ambeg is Conducting or analyzing preparing the 2018 greenhouse gas emissions inventory, but 2015 is the latest we have and Do largely to Really solely because of Monterey Bay Community Power and their carbon-free electricity? 59% of that green stack that you see there Has been eliminated because those That electricity is carbon-free. So that enabled us to achieve our 2020 emissions goal a year and a half early and we are on track to meet the 2050 goal, which is to reduce emissions by 80% compared to 1990 levels Just a couple more slides We do have an annual carbon fund internal grant program. Our carbon fund is funded or or has has has a budget from a Couple different things number one we up until very recently received rebates for much of the energy efficiency work That we did in the past and those rebate checks went into our carbon fund We also tax ourselves five percent on all of our gasoline and diesel fuel purchases And that goes into this carbon fund and so annually depending on the total between those two funding sources We are able to grant between 50 and $70,000 a year In the three years that we have had this program We have awarded Over two hundred fifty thousand dollars to internal city projects that are carbon reducing So they need to be carbon reducing Projects and you can see what those projects are For this year you can see on the right hand side of the screen the water department has Installed their hydration station and bought their water bottles. They're looking to get away from Plastic water bottles as per a policy that was adopted by your council earlier in the year This carbon fund is really important because it often provides the last kind of marginal Increment of money that might be needed to make a project happen Case in point is a loud enough Nelson's boiler replacement They needed that last 15 K to get it done and we were able to do so and the sustainability team Evaluates all the proposals that come in and ranks them With the climate action plan sun setting in 2020 We will be embarking upon a state-of-the-art climate and energy action plan process That will have a sunset year of 2030. We will be starting that it's scheduled in July We have you will see on this year's budget a two hundred thousand dollar allocation to Fund consulting services for that plan We also have some money scrolled away from the carbon fund that is specifically allocated for outreach including an equity outreach advisor and facilitator Not only will we close out our Progress on the 2020 plan and determine, you know, where did we fall and where did the end on all of this? So what were the challenges and and be reflective? But we will also identify the year and a pathway to carbon neutrality currently we default to the year 2045 Consistent with the state and we will see is there a way for us to achieve that earlier and if so, how? As I mentioned aligned with our health and all policies Initiative this will be an equity focused plan Our climate action task force is acting as an advisory body and we have added Some youth members to that team and I will be engaging with them to prepare some of the equity pieces as we Look to hire an equity professional to help us with that to develop the scope of work As well as the outreach plan that we really want this to be a community driven robust plan We also got word this week that or last week rather that we were successful in Acquiring a civic spark fellow, which is a program of AmeriCorps and so they will be working at that person will be working in a halftime capacity Exclusively on the climate and energy action plan and then the other halftime will be spent in public works supporting those energy projects that I mentioned earlier and Finally, you know something that as I mentioned before we have a lot of control over the built environment But less ways to influence behavior change and one thing That has been recognized is that the cities really can't do it alone in terms of that outreach and engagement with the community and that there need to be good tools for us to point you for our residents and businesses to engage with to understand You know what our what our goals I can participate to help us to reach those goals what collective action looks like and to draw upon some of the best practices in the space things like gamification and incentives and Competition and so forth. So through this USD and grant we really are going to evaluate What is the potential to do a central closed climate outreach campaign and that's something I'm very excited about? We worked with ecology action here locally as well as some other jurisdictions and Other nonprofits in the central coast region to write that grant proposal and to hold that convening and the last thing I really want to say and acknowledge is that You know, and this is very much in the vein of health and all policies also is that coronavirus and and the climate crisis they often have similar solutions common solutions and common ways of thinking and approaching the problems and so You know to the extent possible I'm really eager to engage with you with our community particularly through this climate action planning process in how sustainability can stimulate recovery enhance and enhance quality of life as We shift into our new normal and with that I will take any questions that you might have. Thank you very much Thank you, Tiffany for that great presentation. I'd like to turn it over to the council members to see if anyone has a question for Tiffany at this time And I would like to ask that maybe you use the participants Icon and then the function that allows for folks to raise their hand. So I want to acknowledge the council member Myers Your work over the years Rock also for some some really important things to be done as well as being a number of items being achieved my question Had to do with it 10% That 10% is that analysis has shown on that and then similar I just very quickly had a question also on the expanding the energy efficiency We're now at 4.2% our goal was try to get it to 30% and I'm just wondering if that is Kind of relative to available funds or sort of what the what the role of funding is on some of these goals Sure. Thank you council member. I'm sorry vice mayor Myers for those questions. So on the 4% single occupancy vehicle commutes, I Think that, you know, we haven't seen the impact yet of the five of my 511 cruise org Which is the RTC platform that was launched in collaboration with public works that enables folks to very easily do carpool matching to Figure out what is their bus route if they want to take the bus and a number of other tools We have not seen the impact of that yet in our numbers However, I'm not sure that that's going to get us another 6% Necessarily I think a lot of this has to do with education Also, which is kind of brings me to the last point I said around behavior change and having the right kinds of tools to be able to proactively Engage our residents and and demonstrate the the importance of these goals and this in particular So, you know Claire Fleece were our transportation planner has a lot in the works and is constantly working on this as well as our new transportation coordinator And I'm not sure what is up next I think continuing to promote the the new platform and the downtown incentive package is High on their list of priorities right now in terms of energy efficiencies energy efficiency programs in homes That one is really providing funding for any energy efficiency in homes rather We are looking to Okay, when When someone comes in to get a permit and if that permit needs to go through our green building program We count it because our existing energy code is very efficient and So we count that so so that's one of the metrics that builds into this the other is central cost energy Services who do serve low-income folks? So that is dependent on the demand and What central cost energy services can do in terms of promotion their funding comes from LIHEAP? Which is a federal it's actually not a partisan it gets funded with bipartisan support of Congress annually and they actually just got huge new allocation of LIHEAP funding that can be diverted to COVID response acting to see this year more uptake of that with that additional funding It doesn't have to be exclusively on COVID Response, but this is a really tricky one There was also energy upgrade California, which was a program that provided home health assessment have a lot of uptake and There I think reflections that perhaps the state marketing was not done in a good way, you know, I'm not sure but That program does still exist, but it's not being promoted in our area We do promote it on our website, but it's not something that we actively, you know put funds towards promoting So I hope that as context maybe doesn't totally answer your question, but Councilmember Watkins you have any always for your incredible work and your presentation in the I am just sort of reflecting on that last slide I just want to really just acknowledge and think that You're thinking about how climate change how the public health crisis associated with the coronavirus Thinking about health and all policies that's been sort of top of mind for me And I know at this time we're sort of really getting down to the bare bones of what government does but Council to support and weigh in and Participate no or something like that. I just want to express that My appreciation for you bringing that forward and Interest in wanting to see us be intentional as we think about the next kind of phase of our of our society really So just kind of a few comments in that regard and thank you again. Yeah, thank you councilmember Watkins You know just as a follow-on to that the upcoming Mbeth virtual summit on April 29th We'll have a COVID and climate session many of you know and for the new council members one of the Implementation items in our health and all policies implementation work plan is to conduct convenings around public health and equity and I can see a COVID and you know, I have some ideas on that my colleagues around the state We've been compiling Resources and articles and doing a lot of brainstorming around this so yes I think there's a lot of opportunity there as well Are there any other council members who would like to have questions or comments at this time? Tiffany again, thank you for all the amazing work. You're doing. I think our community Definitely appreciates it and the fact that you know, I think all of us in this community really appreciate You know wanting to preserve our environment and and protect our environment as best possible And it's just so amazing that we have such a great group of folks working for our city who are committed to making sure that we're more sustainable and With that one of the things I wanted to do as well was you know This is this year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and in recognition of that and in recognition of all the work The city has done. I just wanted to we generated a proclamation And so I wanted to read some of the whereas is for that of that proclamation at this time So whereas in this unprecedented time of pandemic and economic upheaval as we keep close to our hearts and minds The deep pain and suffering of those who are ill or have lost loved ones the sacrifices of all health care service And other essential workers and the devotion of individuals and families taking care of each other We pause and honor the continued dedication and leadership that our community has shown in protecting our environment as we recognize the 50th anniversary of Earth Day And whereas 50 years ago on April 22nd 1970 20 million Americans 10% of the United States population at that time Took to the streets college campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet Launching the modern environmental movement entitled Earth Day, which is now recognized as the planet's largest civic event And whereas the city of Santa Cruz has a recommitted its climate action efforts through adoption of climate emergency in 2018 and a green new deal in 2019 Resolutions and is set to embark upon a new state of the art climate and energy action plan 2030 process to acknowledge past efforts and reflect on how to accelerate progress on decarbonization and resiliency Whereas important milestones in the city's environmental history include designating the Santa Cruz County Resource Conservation District in 1941 and the Monterey Bay Sanctuary in 1992 Founding the education for sustainable living program at the University of California Santa Cruz in 2003 forming the green business program in 2003 Adopting the green building ordinance and program in 2005 and the first climate action and adaptation plan in 2012 Re-initiating the Earth Day Festival in 2017 signing the Monterey Bay Regional Climate Action Compact in 2017 Hiring a sustainability coordinator in 2018 Opening the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Exploration Center in 2014 and the Arana Gulch Open Space and Trails in 2017 And establishing the Monterey Bay Community Power Community Choice in 2018 Whereas the city continues to receive awards and accolades for its work in protecting our environment that include the 2020 carbon disclosure projects a list award The 2019 Monterey Bay Air Resources District Clean Air Leaders Award from Municipal Energy Efficiency The 2019 Institute of Local Government Silver Full Beacon Award for Holistic Climate Action 2018 American Planning Association Northern California Section Award of Merit for Climate Adaptation Equity-Based Outreach Campaign The 2016 turning the red tape into red carpet Silicon Valley for Green Wharf Eco District 2015 League of American Bicyclists National Bike-Friendly Gold Award and The 2014 Governors Environmental and Economic Leadership Award for the Green Wharf Eco District Now therefore I just in Cummings Mayor of the City of Santa Cruz to hereby proclaim the month of April as 2020 of April 2020 as Climate Action Month in the City of Santa Cruz in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and in honor of the accomplishments that the city has Had in leading the effort to protect our environment I hope that as we move forward we can continue to Accelerating and being leaders in the environmental protection movement So thank you Tiffany for all the work you've done and thank you everyone in the community for supporting our environment Thank you Mayor Cummings, and I want to also just thank all of you for your support this really takes all of us to get all of this work done and Appreciate your continual support for this work Thank you. Are there any comments from council members at this time? Seeing none we'll move on to our next item I have a few announcements, and then we will move on to our regular meeting Today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 and streaming on the city's website cityofsantaCruise.com I'd like to ask the clerk if we can do a roll to see roll call to see if there's any statements of disqualification today No Matthews no fires and my earth Cummings, no I'd like to ask the city clerk if there's any additions or deletions today. No, there are Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the public to speak on items that are not on our agenda Oral communications will occur immediately following our last general business item I'd like to call the city attorney to provide a report on closed session for today Yes, thank you mayor Cummings members of the city council this afternoon the council convened Virtually at 1 15 p.m. To consider the following items first was a conference with labor negotiators involving the SEI you temporary employees Second was a an item of anticipated litigation involving a threat Of a legal challenge under the California Voting Rights Act Allegeing that the city voting system of at-large voting Disproportionately affects minority voters and demanding that the city transition to district elections Council receive reports on both of those items. There was no reportable action I'll call on the clerk to please provide any updates to the calendar There are none move on to our consent agenda These are items number four through nine on our agenda today All items will be acted upon in one motion unless an item is pulled by a council member for further discussion Are there any council members who wish to pull an item? Want me to do a roll call or if so, I would just like to ask you please raise your hand in the participants box Councilmember Brown Any other council members who would like to pull an item from consent today or have questions Seeing none, we'll go back to councilmember Brown so you could ask your question I'm just wondering if there There might be any that we find ourselves in I know that you know their site visits and you know a lot of other On-site work that's gonna have to be done and I'm just wondering if you've talked about that or I anticipate that there may be That would be if Rosemary's there, if not, it's okay. I can get my answer my question off line See Rosemary's video Rosemary we can't hear your audio Still can't hear you might need to try calling or see if you can connect to your computer audio Rosemary, we still can't hear you. Yeah, there we go Okay Projects that are being Item are the no creek pipeline, which is These are the pipeline that runs from the toe of the dam to Graham Hill does not related to the inlet outlet project which is a project that we signed the the order to Proceed the that proceed on earlier this week and we have designated the no creek inlet outlet project and the post-compensation 20-inch pipeline replacement as essential projects the delays of those projects would put us back as much as a year because of Constraints related to when you can work the specific environments And so the work that has to be done. So those two projects are proceeding. This is really for prep work related to the the Graham Hill water treatment plant and for a no creek pipeline Replacement project and that's work that is really just getting going. So at the moment, it's very much about kind of describing the projects and developing the Strategies for the sequel clients and the permitting processes. So there's not a reason that we're anticipating delays of that work clarifying I meant the Neal Creek pipeline, but I just have inlet outlets in my head off the time because you were focused on that previously. So, thank you And are there any further questions? On items that are on our consent agenda Seeing none. If there are any members of the public if you can hit us Councilmember Brown, did you have an additional question? No, no, I'm just raise my hand to make a motion when we're ready for members of the public There are numbers displayed That you can call into and if you would like to comment on any item on consent agenda Press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand and you will have two minutes. Okay? There's one member of the public who has a comment on consent. You will be allowed to speak. Okay, we have a few people so first caller is You're on the line back in at the wrong time. You're on the line I was also waiting for him and so I'm sorry about that. Okay, great. Well, we'll lower your hand. Thank you Hey, I'm seeing that there's no public comment on this item I'd like to bring it back for action deliberation and I saw councilmember Brown had her hand up Second and I wanted to make a very brief comment number seven and really command our staff in many departments for being Treatly responsive back on their feet as best they can item number seven has a passing resolution Directing the mayor to send the letter on behalf of the council to the California insurance Commission urging him to process this interruption claims related to the COVID virus pandemic It's one of many many things that we're trying to find how we can assist our local businesses Very I think all of us can agree to the extent we can support a small business is and all other sectors of our community that we're all committed to doing so Are there any further questions or comments by councilmembers? Seeing none, I'll turn it to the clerk to do a roll call vote on consent items Councilmember is Watkins Matthews Brown Older Councilmember Byers Okay, you're muted, but okay Hi, sorry vice mayor Myers And mayor Cummings. Hi, so that passes consent passes unanimously. I'm Justin really quick I'm getting a word that our audio is not very loud. We need to speak Next item on our agenda is the consent public hearing. This is item number 10 our agenda Are there any council members who would like to pull this item for discussion? It's saying none. I'm not You mean for us to talk about item 10? So there's a question Councilmember Golder, are there any other council members who have questions on this item? Hey councilmember Golder, you can go ahead with your question So I apologize. I know I'm just being kind of caught up. Can you guys hear me? Okay with this or should I take to hit those blocks with us? You sound fine I'm kind of being caught up to speed. I know this is the second reading, but I have a couple of questions Remodels or for commercial remodels Councilmember Golder, this is Tiffany Weisweth sustainability and climate action manager This is only for new construction PG&E and I feel like there might be further Blackouts as we see like fires and other things many people having Gas appliances for cooking or heating water or heating their house was really important And so I just how much of the power coming on to the grid is actually Sustainable or renewable at this point And so I want to have our city be as carbon neutral as possible as quickly as possible total ban Natural gas appliances during a public safety power shut off When electricity is not available It's not possible to exhaust the combustion by products of cooking appliances in the kitchen, which Is very dangerous for the human occupants of buildings something. I didn't address No, you did it. Yeah, you addressed it. Thank you And I that's not turning on the fans I think the other thing the other concern I have about PG&E is that I know that moving forward with solar And I saw in Tiffany's presentation like the city's goal was I think 5,000 houses would be for I know at a certain point PG&E doesn't offer it doesn't let you let people get solar on a grid if there's too many people I know a neighbor down the street that they're just saying no, there's too many people Maybe I just cannot vote on this and it's the second reading already If I might Councilmember Golder this this does not require this this resolution or this I'm sorry this ordinance So I just want to make that clear and secondly if it is found that it is that a particular load Exceeds the ability of PG&E to provide power in a location that would be eligible for in feasibility exemption Yeah, I understand that it doesn't require solar but my concern was that it's usually cheaper and so for some people happy to answer Whatever questions you have I'll turn over the city attorney to discuss Your ability to vote on this item No, but I think probably First of all under our rules, you are not allowed to just abstain from From voting on an item an Abstention is considered a vote against the ordinance. It sounds like that's the direction you might be leaning which is which is You know a policy matter for the council and for you But you can't you can't just You can't just abstain from voting on it Vice mayor Myers you're up next Understand and just clarify before I before I vote one is that It's not just residential They are doing Could they they would be a larger That we've got four kilowatts and this is Kurt Hurley the green building special wanted to acknowledge that we've had many Individuals in several of the second hearing comments were essentially a copy and paste of those those comments So those weren't unique comments from different members of our community, but those were You know those were essentially You know copied and pasted I just wanted to acknowledge that fact Yeah, and Vice mayor Myers I Just wanted to be clear that Kurt did prepare that were in that were common amongst these and we did Send them to you all Late this morning. So you probably maybe have a not even seen those yet, but I Just want to make that clear. Could you just could you make a person could understand? What the in the future that we have 15 to 20 percent electric vehicles on the road currently California's I believe a little over this is this is an article in a You know in a in a power index magazine and they're discussing this the the increase in energy demand is only on the order of 5 to 10 percent on the capacity so that means the Equipment that controls and regulates voltages the diameters of wires so In these the the annual increase in the number of EVs and this you know, this is a domain expert on on the power industry The increase in energy demand is not a power of 10 by by a long shot and actually it's annual change It's so slight even in California where the electric vehicle adoption will occur most quickly We have plenty of time to both Interconnect more carbon-free renewables and to make adjustments in the grid's voltage regulation equipment and retrofit those circuits that are Not adequate and and further I could share my my screen with you, but there are rates which give Signals to consumers so rather than charging our electric vehicles during a time when the grid is constrained by renewable generation we'll shift that charging to Late morning midday for charging electric vehicles at work places that is inherently self-balancing in terms of demand and supply of electricity on our grid, so I was trying to I was trying not to do too much of a deep dive But wanting to cover the the actual impact looking ten years in the future The fact that it's a greater impact on capacity versus total energy that there are Strategies around charging and pricing signals along with the fact that the annual change is incrementally of such a magnitude that there's There's adequate time to both retrofit those circuits And our state has a very detailed roadmap on the interconnection of renewables to meet our 2030 and 2045 Renewable portfolio standards and carbon neutrality goals now with Tiffany if you wanted to add anything to that The only thing I want to add is just to remind folks that the electricity for Monterey Bay Community power is carbon-free and So even electric vehicles that are charging are utilizing that electricity and I want to maybe put a point on the demand response the Evolution of our grid over the next decade to integrate smart Devices in order to allow us to shift demand the different times of the day and so forth is going to accelerate and you know In fact the energy services company that I mentioned we had the kickoff meeting with those are the kinds of things that we're looking for So this this technology is here. It just needs to be continue to be integrated and adopted and of course that will need to take place with with PG knee as well as they Continue to add homes in California start to generate more Reductions in emissions is as we increase the renewable energy content in the carbon-free offering Which that's how emissions will be reduced in it calls, which you know is our major source of emissions Here in our region council member Matthews and then council member Golder council. Matthews good Appreciate And then council member Golder you had your hand up They're not trying to be a troublemaker, but I've been communicating with my friend who owns sandbar solar And he was telling me like as we were trying ours for that a lot of people think that Monterey Bay What are they called Monterey Bay Community Power is all green But really most of the power is generated be a natural gas And then they offset it by purchasing electricity But and so I think like my concern is that okay To or changing appliances to an electric rather than gas appliances drill because it's purchasing using natural gas And so I just think if there's other ways in the community that we can make households carbon neutral like Quite well kind of where he's coming from on this but what we have art been participating in Since 2018 Monterey Bay Community Power They procure electricity for our region So they procure Hydro power and renewable energy, which are both carbon-free sources Now you can think about the grid as being like a pool about the electricity Where all the different sources of electricity are mixed together, right? And so you might get the electricity that's produced closest to you say at the power plant in Moss landing, but they are able to procure electricity the more and more of them that come online That's fewer and fewer Natural gas power plants that need to be utilized or to be brought online Starting to become retired because of the renewable energy in the hydro power that's being procured by CCA's how Monterey Bay Community Power works is important so that everyone's on the same page and You know that is something that we belong to so it is a codified you know policy that we support and it is a You know the driving mechanism as to why this natural gas prohibition Makes so much transformational emissions reduction strategy. There are no further questions at this time I'm going to turn it over to members of the public so there are a number of Telephone numbers that members of the public can call in on and What we would like to ask is that you call in on that number and Please press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand when it is your time to speak You will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted the time will be set for two minutes Yep, we can hear you the letter that some people copy to their in horror and part and I'm a bit offended that mr. Holy, I think his name is Sit somehow discounted that I don't even know most of those people I think I know one of the people who used my letter. It wasn't an organized thing someone had a Post on next door that I didn't start and I just put my letter out there. I think those comments are just as legitimate as mine And it's that people are concerned With this ordinance and I'd like I think the first reading through under the radar And I would like you guys to table this so that the community until after the shelter in place Ordinance is lifted So that the community can have a real chance to win because I think all your staff is Very much in favor of it. I don't believe that all of my questions at least what I heard your staff say I don't I didn't think they were adequate answers and as I said in my letter I am totally in support of reducing fossil fuels and I think this will have proposed effects It's not just because of the electric vehicle issue and as I said in my letter. I drive an electric vehicle So I'm supportive of the intentions however Also, this idea that somehow Monterey Bay community power is green 66% of the energy that they purchase is From large hydro that's like saying nuclear energy is green It might be emissions free at the point of generation think about all the emissions that went into all the concrete that or To make those dams. What about all the environment of their gradation and there's just so many reasons Which I laid out in my letter. I don't have the time to go through all those points that I think this is Not a good thing at this time We don't have a resilient grid you talked about making our grid more smart We can't even get the community to agree on smart meters We are so far away from having a resilient bid and I'd really like you guys just table this if it's on hold for a Couple months, it's not going to hurt anything if you decide you want to look forward in a couple months I've been able to weigh in You know just give the community a chance to really Talk about this because I think there's actually a lot of opposition and people, you know You want to do this with the community and I think there are smarter ways to go about it Thank you. So thank you for hearing me I hope you if anyone wants to contact me and talk in more detail about the point I made in my letter. I would welcome that as you know, I'm usually we have them Sorry, but you're over your two minutes. So I'm gonna have to stop you there, but thank you for your comments Hey next speaker is available Good afternoon to help make our community safe during this pandemic These and arms were burnt due to lighting a natural gas water heater that had a faulty gas line And then we all can remember Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 I was coming home from the valley after the earthquake and from the Ride down from the top of Madonna into Watsonville All they could smell was natural gas lines leaking Back into the house the natural gas leak It had been leaking from three to six pretty didn't know how much how long that happened But they probably thought that was from the 1989 earthquake also. So we were exposed for maybe as much as 25 years Natural gas and Bruno pipeline explosion on September 9th, 2010, which killed eight people PG&E has over 1,800 miles of gas pipelines We do not have to add that and increase our risk of another San Bruno so health issues and also our environment and a couple of the comments from people about using COVID-19 for Your help and I really recommend that you pass this ordinance. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Thank you Next speaker you're on the line. Yes Hi, hi, this is scambar You guys can hear me out there I'm wrestling through some technology, but I did want to speak a little bit to this with Some of my concerns with it with a complete ban of of natural gas as a as an energy source You know that the comment was made with with NBCP being a you know They buy all of their energy from renewable sources and that is true But like was stated, you know, you consume the electrons that are that are closest to you Generated closest to you which most of that is degenerated the fossil fuel plant in in Mos Landon And so if we follow that that path of wanting to just have renewable Energy or at least carbon neutrality in the way that we generate and consume our energy you know, maybe a more prudent path to to Natural gas elimination as opposed to just a complete ban right now might be looking at that Establishing that same principle of carbon neutrality to to to buildings and And energy consumers So that that way we still have the ability to to use natural gas But at the site that it's being used at they're also either generating Or or using renewable energy That's generated at that that that site to have either a you know carbon neutrality or renewable positive footprint I think You know just completely eliminating that as it as an energy source is is a slippery slope You know, we we currently we currently operate of an 11,000 private square foot building On the west side, we're right in town and we're not even connected to the PGD grid and Are it's one of I just want to interrupt for me. I have to use to let you know that To power our building about three percent of the year the rest of the year. We're using solar and storage It's got I need to interrupt you for a second because your time is up But I wanted to thank you for providing your comments or I'm sorry. I'm sorry No, sorry your time is up. Unfortunately. Thank you though Okay, no problem. Thank you next speaker. You're on the line Excuse me, whoever the person speaking we can't hear you It also sounds like you may need to turn your TV down because there's gonna be feedback I think we're gonna move on to the next speaker. All right, you are on the line. Are you ready for me? Yes This is Carol Paul Hamas. Hello Thank you for persevering through this awkward way of having a meeting I already wrote a letter So I'm not going to repeat the points that I wrote in my letter But I did have a question as I was listening to the presentation by city staff about hydroelectric power my understanding is someone who Did a lot of work with native fish restoration is that hydroelectric power relies on dams and Water storage which is detrimental To native fish and to the environment because it warms the water and other unintended consequences So I'm wondering if somebody could speak to that possibly and I also want to second the notion of allowing more time for public input During this time because I do think as I talk to people that a lot of people have opinions and there's a lot of confusion around this proposal So might be good to allow more time for discussion Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we'll try the person who was at one eight one zero again All right next speaker I represent 1600 plus members of Santa Cruz climate action network We have attended to information sessions that Tiffany presented as well as an earlier council meeting and We are strongly in favor of this. We would like to see it go ahead right now. Thank you for the opportunity to speak Thank you. All right next speaker My name is Kelsey Hill, and I'm a city resident renting in the Seabright area I'm just calling to express my support for the electric patient Building electric patients via a limited ban on natural gas. I want to thank Tiffany and Curt and Mayor Cummings for leading on this issue It makes me really proud to live in a city that values climate justice and has a progressive vision for both action where it counts I think that Santa Cruz is uniquely poised with our environmental history that Mayor Cummings listed to show that this momentum is possible And it's beneficial and it will drastically cut our carbon emissions As a renter, I think that the indoor air pollution work by cooking times lower utility bills all of these are benefits that our whole community can see And I also enthusiastically support any local action that will help mitigate the influence of the fossil fuel industry So it's easy to say that it's not the right time It's easy to remember members of this diet to question the model at face value without fully understanding the policies But the bottom line here is that the atmosphere isn't going to wait for us to catch up on climate action COVID-19 or not So please pass this ordinance. I thank you and have a good day Thank you very much Any other member of the public who would like to comment on this item? Please press star 9 on your phones right now Otherwise we'll move back to council for action and deliberation You're on the line Hello, can you hear me? Yes I'm calling as a resident from West Side Santa Cruz and I find that the ordinance that are implemented are Constantly infringing upon homeowners that are trying to do what's best for their families I've noticed with my electricity bill that things continually are going up due to the Monterey Clean electricity that's being produced. So not only am I paying PG&E, but now I'm paying them and sometimes they give me a rebate Very confusing and I just feel as though the public isn't being Informed as best as we can as to the implementations that the diet is making on our behalf I think we're seeing right now too many restrictions are being put on everybody and one more restrictions It's just one more way of taking freedoms away of letting people choose what they want instead of enforcing an overarching overreaching Ordinance to have everyone implemented under I don't support it and I hope those on the diet can understand that more than ever We need to fight for individual freedoms and allow people to make decisions for themselves Instead of having ordinances implement what we can do in our city It's too much overreaching and we need to have our say on allowing people to make decisions for themselves Thank you Thank you And I'm going to try one more time with the individual with the last four digits one eight one zero We're going to bring it back to council For action deliberation at this time. I Just wanted to fall before we go to Before we take action on this item I wanted to see if maybe one of the staff members could Follow up on the question that was related to hydro the production of energy through hydroelectric Happy to do that. This is Tiffany. Why is that the sustainability and climate action manager? What has been mentioned about hydropower in terms of disruption of the natural flow regime? That's definitely true That it took a lot of emissions to to build the the dam That's true but what also is true is that dams are being decommissioned and the more that we can buy renewable power the less Hydropower we need to rely on but the fact of the matter is is that it is our second least environmentally damaging Source of electricity next to renewables and I think it's important to remind you that Monterey Bay community powers renewable energy content will continue to increase as the Hydropower content decreases Monterey Bay clean power has two electric power offerings and one of them Reconfigure it's 100% renewable and doesn't use large hydro I think one and a half or two two and a half cents to kill more a kilowatt hour, so it's a It is an option and it's it's not a tremendous uptick from the 100 for the carbon-free option Monterey Bay community power and the cost I Also just want to make clear that Monterey Bay community powers Rates May have seen an increase in their electricity bill online to Monterey Bay community power That is not Monterey Bay community power raising rates. That's PG&E raising rates Monterey Bay that you get now monthly through Monterey Bay community power just to clarify on What's being paid and what's not a couple follow-up questions on this? I guess the first one for Tiffany do you can you just so the public is aware kind of state the different and maybe the dates of when some of the Public presentations were done and then also when this first came to council Yes, I'm working on this in the fall of last year although Curt and I had been Working on the California decarbonization Coalition to understand how the first wave of building electrification Ordinances How they happened and how they've been Being implemented many in the Bay area were put in place in the fall We did have since January two developers roundtables two public workshops five morning coffee talks One study session a lengthy study session with City Council one planning commission meeting Thanks, I appreciate that because I think it's it's important to the public that we've had You know there's been a lot of outreach and opportunity for the public to engage and come up to speed on this item And so and that we've done a lot of outreach to the community on this item before bringing it forward as an ordinance And so I just wanted to make sure that the public Was aware that you know, there's been a lot of outreach And so and then the the next question I had just for clarification I think that in some of the comments that we heard members of the public It sounds like they think this is a complete ban on natural gas But I think the intention of this ordinance is for new construction and that if you currently own a house Or you're in an older building that has natural gas. They'll still be able to use that. Is that a correct assumption to make? That is a hundred percent correct Great, so just wanted to be clear for members of the public that this is not banning natural gas throughout the entire city It's for new construction. So I saw a hand raised by Katherine Byers and also and raised by Martin Watkins, Cynthia Matthews and Sandy Brown. So I'll start with Katherine Byers Yeah, thank you mayor coming. I had an opportunity to talk to Tiffany this morning And important to me she outlined it's not just it's all new construction. That's actually a most commercial and Residential but I think going over those exceptions for me were very helpful because there's a letters came in I found myself answering many many of them And you almost now I have a question a lot of other counties or Communities or cities passing this in reference to some coalition you work with that. Yeah Thank you for the question councilmember Byers. Yes. So did a natural gas prohibition in California? primarily in the Bay Area and there are dozens and dozens that have Adopted some form of building electrification. So this is certainly a trend sweeping California it is supported by the California Energy Commission and by the state itself this transition Very supportive of this movement. I think it and I don't think it'll be as onerous as everyone thinks so We're ready for motion. I'm ready to support it. Okay Councilmember Watkins, did you still have any questions? I saw your hand up earlier Yeah, mayor coming my question was what you asked in terms of just an overview of the outreach That was conducted prior to it getting to this place and I appreciate you asking that question to the clarification for the community Thank you Councilmember Matthews Yes, definitely, you know that the exception for restaurants is obviously for restaurant cooking was something that we heard early on I'm going to let Kurt talk about how planning Commission and the The communications there influenced some of the Tweaking of the ordinance before it came to for the the first hearing her. Could you take that, please? for Hurley Green Building specialist so That is using industrial process heat where an electric Alternative isn't available. That's an that's an ex-restaurant We mentioned in feasibility to have an exemption for ad use where there is an existing Structure a primary dwelling on that parcel up to 750 square feet and We clarified that directly With our planning Commission that were comments when we presented to them so the it stands before you has evolved with the feedback of domain experts that are sitting on our planning Commission and the public and in consideration of what other jurisdictions have done and Some of the history and how their communities have accepted or had Raised, you know Concerned so I think that what we have is something that's quite mature and that acknowledges Reasonable challenges and provides exemptions for those types of structures and designs where The maturity of product offerings in the market is is not quite there or it just inherently It doesn't make sense. I think that There is another question that that gives a brief overview. Thank you Councilmember Brown. Oh councilmember Brown. You're still muted. Oh, okay. Thank you I think most of my kind of comments or all of questions to Dress some of those concerns that were have been raised have already been addressed Councilmember buyers raised some of them and councilmember mouthies as well related to exception to Help people understand that this is not an outright ban and the presentation that we receive for people who are interested Fascinating I shared many of the concerns that have been raised by members of the public and council members about the prohibition on natural gas in new construction and But the presentation that we received about the alternatives and kind of where the technology is going and the possibilities really helped me understand that this is Really positive move and that it is unlikely to have the kind of negative Limitations and obstacles for members of the community members then people might think so But then I also just wanted to make one additional comment and I and thank you to current and Tiffany for all the work that you've done this and you know and all the work that you have done kind of You know trying to move in this direction I mean I think I first talked about it with you when I first was on the capital So this is a long time in the making and it has been We've proceeded very thoughtfully and carefully and then I just wanted to add one point about the rate that Tiffany mentioned that are that Monterey Bay Community Power rates are tied to PG&E and I've been until recently the Policy board representatives to Monterey Bay Community Power and there I learned a lot about energy markets and all kinds of other things But what I wanted to add here is that the just to clarify the rate being tied to PG&E is not a choice for Monterey Bay Community Power. That is a requirement for CCA's That has been it up a state requirement I believe through the CTUC and that in large part is a reflection of the You know the lobbying power the political power that PG&E has in Sacramento So we don't choose to tie our rates to PG&E and that's part of the reason for the rebate Because we're trying to actually reduce rates for customers Thanks. Okay Councilmember Golder I Just wanted to say thank you to everybody that Worked really hard on this. I appreciate Kurt and Tiffany the work and the thought that you put behind bringing this forward and obviously I also Support moving the city in a direction towards carbon neutrality So thank you for answering all my questions and in being patient with me while I'm learning how to do all this Okay At this time if there are no further questions We can have a motion on the item and I know Councilmember Byers mentioned earlier supporting a motion on this And I don't know if you'd be willing to make the motion or another councilmember would oh you're muted Catherine you're muted now we can hear you Second that so we have a motion made by councilmember Byers seconded by Mayor Cummings to move the second reading and final adoption of ordinance ordinance number 2020-6 and So I'll turn it to the clerk to have a roll call vote on the item councilmember is Watkins Matthews Golder Byers vice mayor Myers And Mayor Cummings hi that item is approved unanimously and Again would like to thank all the staff for all the hard work and outreach that was done on that item and really trying to incorporate the community's feedback Okay, next item on our agenda. Oh councilmember Matthews And We will be happy to bring that back to you I So the next item on our agenda is a city manager report on COVID-19 and so I'd like to call on the city manager to report and provide updates on City events business items and anything else that relates to COVID-19 Okay, thank you I along with department heads will be providing an update on service delivery in the current pandemic environment We have a PowerPoint that's up on the screen Also a PDF version was emailed to council members if you want to reference that as well the outline of the presentation includes a Brief review of the chronology of events if you can go to the next slide Laura As well as a brief overview of our new world and every changing environment responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and Updates on essential services, which the department heads will will make so that's that's the outline and this will help provide Context for the next item on your agenda Which is an update on council directed items that we have had to delay as a result of the pandemic and what may come next? the events that led to our Current situation happened really remarkably quickly The it was in late December that the World Health Organization provided a notification of 41 patients with the mysterious pneumonia so it was late December and by early March both this county and the city had declared a local health emergency and then by mid-March Just a couple weeks later department heads met to develop new operational models and a few days later They were actually implemented the county health officer also issued a shelter in order play a shelter in order Shelter I'm sorry shelter in place order by mid-March and by late March the shelter in order Was strengthened and extended and Less than a week ago the shelter the health officer closed beaches and parks Although it's my understanding that we are now going to be reopening up beaches and parks As the order will be expired on Wednesday this Wednesday at 11 59 p.m It has been a Dynamic period in a short time frame with fast-paced to what we've called here action reaction and redefinition And I just want to give you a sense of that At the state county and city levels there have been multiple actions to respond to State executive orders 11 of them and counting Shelter in place orders that have come from the state and the county as well numerous Press releases and updates that we've had to do We've also had to develop our own responses including the eviction moratorium that council adopted various executive orders that we've done at the local level and an item that you'll be Visiting later today, which is the the small business microloan program and we've also assisted other agencies like the second harvest food bank to deploy their Pickup delivery service over in the beach flats area at the boardwalk parking lot And moreover there just been a litany of requirements regulations guidelines and other communications and protocols that we've had to follow and implement Coming from the CDC a FEMA OSHA and other regulatory agencies So just a lot of work a lot of effort needed to just respond to the pandemic And all of these things really require a considerable effort to to review to translate An implement into changes in service delivery and so with that Reduction, I'm going to pass it on to first to Rosemary who will give you an update on the Utilities side of the equation All right, so I just want to talk about what our essential services water has flowed an uninterrupted supply over all these days that the Program has been going the big focus has been on production of water Treats water what quality monitoring and control and customer service and our big focus has been on isolating and maintaining those areas so that they can Serve and that they have lower chances of person-to-person spread So that's involved things like personal protection equipment and OSHA guidelines and trying to really work on Separating the staff in a way that they're not overlapping as much so with that we've been able to provide ongoing service and We're feeling pretty comfortable that Although it's required a lot of changes in policies and procedures and structures of how people work It's working and people are getting what they need from the utilities All right next is Mark Dettle from public works Pretty much normal operation Cinease and separating our increase in sewer skills or blockages so far. I want to thank everybody for that With the shortage of toilet paper. We have had the head used increase use of social media to remind residents Not the flesh those fleshable whites. They definitely can cause blockages in a real problem As well as rep use collection also continues it is a normal and With the shelter place if you do have extra trash Please put the extra bag next to your container and do not contaminate your greenways through the recyclables We go to the next slide start the paid parking as we transition And the parking office is closed for paid online And then next to an asphalt and it repackages it and Open about 30% the last using any of the excess corn that's also in the natural bridges Ready to lay out that construction a multi-million dollar active transportation grant application Okay, thank you. Next is our planning director Lee Butler one being restricted affordable housing unit Healthcare operate applications like zoom or FaceTime to accomplish the larger plan sets We're finalizing the process for electronics submittals with our team and IT resources section on the right hand side to explain the That is available from that link and then next staff who continue to provide services to our community in this time I think Bonnie is up next. Yes. Thank you. Thanks. No, Bonnie. Let's come I reckon about development director Bonnie you're muted. So I don't think we caught any of your first slides To a hundred unit project. Well, hopefully you're back on how we're doing this on this in the next few weeks Next slide, please on the housing division We're also looking really closely at the CARES Act on the COVID-19 eligible activities and specifically on CDBG We'll be bringing forward to you on the April 28th meeting The second hearing for the consolidated action plan, which includes the CDBG recommendations As well as the additional funding under the CARES Act for CDBG specific That's approximately 282,000 that we have to distribute so we'll be bringing forward to you the additional guidelines related to that next slide, please On the business side, I just want to draw attention to our resources page And this is that that just on our main choose Santa Cruz website And if you go there, you can click on the COVID-19 response and we have a variety of things there in addition to the items that you Will be hearing about today. We also have information on all available resources Infosessions webinars County. We're specifically working with some of our see next slide, please Working with over 180 volunteers and the generous contributions of Hart's fabric fabric in Santa Cruz to create over 10,000 masks And the goal for the decision to our unsheltered population or our city and county staff providing essential community services And workers and key industries and essential businesses and other community members in need Hart's fabric has donated an incredible amount of Thread and has been able to source elastic and fabric for us And so we're just so appreciative of Hart's fabric and all the volunteers in the community who have signed up to sow these masks for us And with that, I'll turn it over to the next speaker And that's Tony Elliott. Hello, this is Susan Nimitz. Can you hear me? Okay, you can go ahead Susan and then we'll have Tony come back And while the physical libraries are closed, there's significant demand for our virtual programs and services If you go to our website, you'll be able to see we've done a major redo of our website Highlighting local information and resources specifically We've reallocated our budgets to put more of our investments into online Programs and services the friends just raised a significant amount of money to help us We're working closely with schools trying to make sure that they have resources the digital resources like online tutoring and We're just unveiling a program called Digital concierge where we're helping school teachers find digital resources. They need to teach the classes Lastly, we just got a grant that will allow us to offer a free High school degree for adults for looking forward to that to a grant from the state of California Lots of things going on. Thank you All right now it's next we'll have a Tony Elliott It was issued on April 8th The current closures will expire on Wednesday this week at 11 59 p.m And we'll open up Thursday morning Beach's parks multi-use trails including West Cliff and the Riverwalk wall reopened beach parking lot We open the parks direct department in advising community members to make sure to adhere to social distancing requirement by creation platform All right, next we have a good afternoon mayor and members of city council Ken Morgan IT department So over the past weeks the IT department has continued to work on essential projects while staffing our full-service help desk And like our other departments, we have been on-premise staff We've been our work transitioning more than 25 percent of our city employees from working in the office to working from home all day Prior to COVID-19, we typically see about two percent of our staff connecting remotely and that is generally for intermittent use So it's worth mentioning that 25 percent of our employees working all day from home really kind of translates to about 50 percent of our office Huge shout out to the IT team specifically the help desk Who over the last four weeks have received over 450 requests with that increase the team has continued to maintain the same time to closure for each of the work orders and They've also increased the volume of closed tickets by close to 40 percent Every day we're hearing from employees around the city how much they appreciate having this team to system Through navigating some pretty unfamiliar territory zoom has obviously become a go-to tool around the world For web compting and it's obviously a platform. We're becoming more familiar with here in the city in the last four weeks City staff has hosted 576 meetings totaling close to 100,000 minutes and With 4,000 participants, so all of us are logging a little more screen time than we're used to. Thank you Next we have Lisa Murphy Mayor, Council Member Lisa Murphy of Human Resources Director I'm here to talk to you a little bit about what HR is doing One of the first things we had to do was determine who we were going to Work from home and who was going to have to report to the work site with the closures We did that quickly within three days And with the assistance of finance when we had to determine how to Account for those who are working at home and those who are here at the work site next site, please a Few things that we are doing here and working from home They are continuing our offering our online training programs to all of our employees We're still continuing to administer all of our benefits particularly now more than ever They are busy trying to support our employees Working constantly with our employees to support them and some supporting them is helping them Navigate these troubles. We've been working hard to implement all of the new legislation that is fast and fiercely coming at us We're trying to protect our employees with new policies health screening policies personal protective equipment policies return to work policies emergency telecommuting policies How to protect yourself at work and utilizing facial coverings and so forth So trying to create this with the work of the risk management has been a huge undertaking and it's just a reminder We have also created the city employee child care program and finally just want to close out with we are still Coordining with the other local agencies to identify disaster service workers of which all of our employees are disaster service workers And it's going out for assistance volunteers and that's been very And I think we'll see more of those requests start to come in and our workers will become available To help where the community needs it and that concludes my presentation. Thank you council Next we have our finance director shall 5th That's that program budget And they as well as a next we have an update on communications from our raft America Thank you Ralph. Next. I'm just going to really briefly Go over Our existing a response and structure just as a reminder As you know the council declared a fiscal. I'm sorry a Health emergency and so we're on operating under emergency operations structure Responding to this crisis and what's Very unique about this particular Emergency is that it really is not just local or regionally it's it affects everyone throughout the entire country and so the level of coordination And work that has to occur with our neighboring jurisdictions in the county It's much more intense and so there's the work that happens literally on an hourly basis with with with each other I've never Talked to our counterparts so often And it's just not amongst the administrators But it's also amongst the parks directors the fire chiefs the police chiefs and our elected officials As they communicate regularly with their counterparts and also with the leadership over at the county and the health department to address issues and respond to questions and to get informed and to Really respond to the ever-emerging issues that we have so accordingly with that structure that we have in place We it does require so that some actions be taken Immediately and so there are a number of executive orders have been issues. There's six the most recent being the the cap on the Delivery the commissions on deliveries for third-party delivery Companies however, all of these have to be ratified by the city council and the emergency declaration has to be updated And renewed by the city council So those will be returning to you at your next meeting on April 28th Along with a an update on the city's budget Situation as that has had a major impact as well. And so you'll get updated on those fronts at your next meeting The other area that we've really been focusing our efforts on again, it's led by the county But really requires a regional response and that's addressing the needs of the the homeless or individuals that don't lack shelter So a lot of work has been done on that a task force has been established focused on really providing additional shelter capacity and a number of facilities that have opened up to address the need for individuals that May need to be quarantined or need or have vulnerabilities medical vulnerabilities and who need particular shelter assistance in that regard so the Hotels have been Acquired for that purpose in addition the capacity over at the armory and some additional facilities have been added at the Vets Hall to do that and in addition we've done a number of Additional hygiene facilities throughout the city to be able to Provide hygiene facilities for individuals I'm just gonna ask us to pause real quick. Is there any way we can maybe either get the volume turned up or there's Some council members were saying that they're having trouble hearing. Okay. Yeah, all right. Ken. Is this better? I don't know if council members can acknowledge whether or not the sounds better. You hear me better. No Thanks, we got a thumbs up. Okay All right So with respect to the in-house population just really briefly, I'll summarize that again again a lot of focus working with the Caline in particular who's the lead on Trying to respond to the needs of the homeless population during this pandemic the focus again has been largely on Providing a shelter capacity for individuals that might need quarantine or who may have vulnerabilities medical vulnerabilities and need Special attention these facilities need Support services that goes with them. So a lot of efforts been placed on Acquiring those facilities the other challenge of course has been implementing social distancing requirements In the existing shelters and so capacity has been increased at existing shelters for the regular Homeless population in order to implement those measures and to increase capacity as well. We continue to follow the CDC guidelines of not breaking up encampments, but but in instead trying to provide Adequate hygiene facilities and other services that that may be needed So we've deployed a number of hygiene stations throughout the the entire city to address that and also the county is Has deployed some outreach services and sites went over to MLINE and others that will be deployed to Have a place for individuals for homeless who want to go and access services So that there's a place for individuals to go and seek assistance and get assistance So with that, though, I'll not turn it over to our city attorney Tony Kandadi Yes, good afternoon your coming members of city council, I'll keep this real brief as you can imagine Given the flurry of executive orders court rules Directives from both from the federal state and local Authorities with respect to the COVID-19 crisis there have been a lot of questions that have come to our To my office in the past several weeks We've been busy monitoring all of the Communications that are coming out of the governor's office out of the judicial council which has promulgated emergency rules For conducting court proceedings out of our local courts, of course the county health officers executive orders and the shelter-in-place order and So we've been quite busy although working remotely in assisting in interpreting all those Directives also in preparing a lot of the information that you have seen Today and that has come from the city manager's office serving as director of emergency services in terms of executive orders emergency ordinances and the like we've been working very closely with the police department in ensuring that the Shelter-in-place ordinances are enforced in a in a legal way and in a lot of questions arise out in the field when An officer comes upon some situation or circumstance and a person Might feel that whatever they're doing is an essential function or an essential service so we get a lot of questions that come in on a daily basis and we're doing our best to keep up with all of that information and also listening to communications from members of the public and corresponding with our city attorney colleagues throughout the state in what creative ways they are Dealing with some of the issues that we've that we've encountered. So it's all been very interesting, but also Very busy work over the last several weeks in in addition to just maintaining our our existing caseload. So That concludes my report Thank you. Next we've got our police chief Andy Mills. So do an update on the police department And to be able to deal with some of the issue port to you that for the last one You know that other sections next we have our fire chief Jason Hiduk that we put in place And we also have people that are working on off days so that our office instituted a a pretty regimented program cleaning all surfaces Monitoring of people with term contamination across contamination is possible So as you can see Our world has really been radically changed just a matter of a few weeks You know we're responding to and working on things that we never would have imagined You know not that long ago And so this essentially provides you kind of a context for your next item Giving you a sense of How everything has changed for us and we're really working on some things that are completely new And I want to finally just also Thank our employees and the community and council members For all of your support You know people have really Gone above and beyond to respond to this crisis. The community is doing really well And we've been able to quickly respond and and and I think it's because we just have incredibly dedicated Employees and members of the community that really care about what we do And I'm very grateful for that So with that we'd be happy to answer questions on this or if you'd like to go on to the next item that's As up to the mayor the next item it will be an update on kind of what this has this has impacted in terms of Council-directed initiatives from months past Thank you Thank you for that presentation City manager all the department heads and I just want to thank Um All the essential workers in our community For all the work that they're doing and the fact that they're putting their lives on the line every day to ensure that We continue to function in a way that provides food and services and safety to the members of the community Additionally, I want to thank the council my colleagues as well because We've all been you know putting in more time and effort into trying to understand what the needs of the community are And then being able to communicate that Whether it's information on food resources or tenant protections or information about mortgages We've been able to take that information to communicate that to Not only folks in the city so that information is available on our websites We've also been able to reach out to many of our partners within the community To understand what resources they're able to provide the best ways to connect people to those resources And then understand what their needs are so we can communicate that to some of our state and federal representatives And ensure that we have all the protections necessary during these very difficult times I'd also like to thank members of the community who have really been Doing their part with the shelter in place order. We have Really seen the curve flatten as it relates to mortality hospitalizations We currently have plenty of space within our emergency facilities And this is something that although we're not able to test everyone in the community Is a really good sign that we've been doing a great job And so I'd like to thank all the members of our community and also remind folks that we are doing our best to try to educate People to please not come to Santa Cruz for vacations during this time And we also ask that people try to recreate near home and please don't travel to other communities We'd like to ensure that we're continuing to keep our curve flattened that we're not transmitting This disease to other communities and then we're not going to other communities contracting the virus and bringing it back To our own community. So thank you all and with that I'll turn it over to council members to see if you have Any question as it relates to some of the information that was presented just now And I see uh, sandy brown has her hand up. So I'll turn it over to sandy brown Excuse me council member brown you're muted So I would just add uh, my my thank you sincere. Thank you to everybody at the city on their staff who have been the department heads and city manager's office and then all of the uh, workers who have really stepped up in this extraordinary time and some of you I know are Taking on kind of non-traditional roles relatives to your regular work that you're doing And I just really appreciate everything that um that folks are doing and I also wanted to uh, say thank you to Mayor Cummings for um, really taking on strong leadership role in this period I mean, I keep hearing about Meetings that he's kind of convening and all of these different actors too and stakeholders who are really critical to how we respond as a community and how we begin to uh, you know formulate plans for Moving forward. So thank you for that and vice mayor Myers as well. I know you've been involved And all my colleagues I did have one question for um, director butler for the if you're still around Related to because I I received at least one Receive as a statement that for landlord to self Uh, in fact Given the shelter-in-place order, uh, is there some direction about how to proceed? Yes, the direction right now. Thank you for that question councilmember brown The direction right now is to hold off on the self inspection where we may do some of the related to that You know smell of gas for example Any other members of the city council who have any questions or comments at this time? Seeing none before we move on to our next item I just wanted to acknowledge that Every day while many members of our community are able to stay at home and shelter in place to prevent contracting or spreading COVID-19 There are members of our community who we rely on for our basic needs food public safety and health care Throughout the country numerous essential workers have died from COVID-19 As a result of trying to serve and help their community through these difficult times It is not only important that we acknowledge the sacrifice of our essential workers are making on a daily basis That we honor those people at home and abroad who have lost their lives while trying to provide essential services and safety during this global pandemic To honor those essential workers who have lost their lives during these times We'll be flying our flag at half staff from april 16th to april 18th And I ask that members of the community reflect on those those people around the world who are currently working to Prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect their communities during these times and with that We can move on to item number 11 on our agenda if I could just really quick In an attempt to fix some of the audio problems We're going to hang up And recall and hopefully that will and i'm going to turn off the mics and hopefully it'll reset something Because we're they're having trouble hearing us for some reason. Okay, so we're going to take about a five minute break To try to see if we can solve some of our audio issues Get our meeting started again The next item On our agenda item number 11, which is the status update on various items on hold to the corona virus COVID-19 pandemic and the presenter we will have is laura schmidt And i'm not sure if somebody from community tv is Oh, there we go. All right. All right, laura. Can you guys hear me? Yeah, we can hear you. Well, thank you, mayor So item number 11, essentially the background part of the agenda report was covered by the city manager's updates So martin and the rest of the department has gave you the context of the chronology related to the COVID-19 pandemic And kind of what happened to our world and the the new world in which we find ourselves operating and Although our essential services continued to be delivered Every day we have to rewrite parts of them and constantly be creative and react and take action and redo our Rejigger the way that we're delivering those services. So given this environment What happened with uh, the department and our operations is in order to stay vigilant and focus on COVID-19 We instituted in conjunction with you a laser focus on anything related to COVID-19 and those were our priorities And essentially The old days some of you may remember this screen that used to come up on old televisions The rest of the work went into standby The pandemic's course, um, it's unknowable We have a lot of predictive modeling that's out there But essentially we're making a lot of assumptions To come up with a best case of various items that have been put on hold due to our focus on the pandemic And these are our department's best case scenario as far as what when we might be able to Bring these back to council and restart them so the restart date essentially is Around the may time frame for non public safety led initiatives And more in the june to july time frame for public safety led initiatives That's kind of the bottom line And then i'll go through these in a little bit more detail and all of the department heads are on the line and can chime in We go through this and if you have any questions So the campaign ordinance which is being led by the city attorney's office The estimated restart date would be june and the first time that we would bring that back to council is in august Assuming that july remains dark as we normally do. We do not meet in the month of july Cannabis is broken out into two different sections for the new licensing piece of it This is a planning community development led project The new licensing piece of it they can restart it in may and would anticipate they could return back to council first time in june And the other section of it relating to special events and on science consumption They would pick that up in the june july august time frame and return first back around the august time frame Again for planning and community development the corridor zoning and general plan updates They are anticipating hoping to be able to pick those back up in mid to late april with a possible return to council in may Daily vega golf course and the discussions around the funding model and operational model there They will pick that up in early to mid may and with The parts and rec department would essentially come back to you with a conversation around daily vega as part of the fiscal year 21 budget conversations Inclusionary housing led by economic development. They would anticipate being able to bring that back in early to mid may and then Start conversations back up with you on council meetings in august with section eight housing being the first topic to be discussed project labor agreement which affects many city departments Water public works in the city manager's office. We would anticipate restarting that in june with a return back in august The quality of life ordinances Stirheaded by the police department those would restart in july with a possible return to council in september And preceding the quality of life ordinances would be the surveillance ordinance conversation to restart in june return to council in august And then the rental housing data also led by planning and community development and early to mid may start with Return to council in june or august So that's what the departments had come up as far as The best case scenario and then we'll open it up for questions After i'm just going to finish up with a beyond the pandemic so as of now the departments we very much would appreciate Continuing to focus on covet 19 so that we can continue to creatively Redefine and Rejigger our service delivery so that we continue to deliver the essential services to our community We will be coming back led by the finance department With a discussion with you on april the 28th and that will focus on our budget as it relates to closing out fiscal year 20 And the budget process for fiscal year 21 and what our outlook looks like for fiscal year 21 and beyond and then in addition to that the future planning of Pandemic and whether whenever the shelter in place orders See what the gradual return to life looks like is it? Is it a gradual return to life? It's not an open the gates and a flood happens. It's a measured and focused and well thought out return to life and how that looks for us as a community and how we support that operationally as departments We also need to set aside time and begin to put those plans together and have those conversations amongst ourselves with our regional partners with the community and With our nonprofit partners as well So that is something that we will have to take up very shortly and we've already started the conversations in regard to that Martin, did you have anything else that you would like to add? Uh, no, I think that covered it. I think the the that was just want to emphasize that even giving back to normal Which there's already an indication that That's going to start to happen is likely going to be gradual and That in itself is going to take some time to start thinking about how that's implemented. And so I anticipate that there'll be additional Requirements for social distancing or other protocols that will be in place as well, maybe we begin opening up certain facilities and are allowing for Small gatherings, for example, that sort of thing. So that planning as laura mentioned Has the preliminary has preliminary just started, but we'll need to have a lot more effort in that regard as we learn more about What that will entail we do have an indication that after the May 3rd Expiration that there may be some relaxation we heard from the health officer Particularly as it relates to perhaps construction Perhaps cough courses landscaping And then maybe small gatherings. And again, we'll have to then see how that impacts Our operations and some of the work that we have to do and also Some of the the projects that are on hold and some of the Permitting and land use issues as well and the timeline for those. So that's all stuff That still has to be evaluated and we'll have to bring that back to you And with that we're happy to answer any questions Well, thank you for that presentation and I just also like to let the public know that Although there's a lot of topics that we want to address Early on when we kind of knew that our The way that we function was going to be changing I met with many of the department heads and we all agreed that it would be good if you know council members Weren't bringing items forward and so I sent the letter out to the council members asking that we not bring new items forward at that time And just understanding that although we want to you know, do a lot of things in our community right now The most important thing that we can do is really stay focused on how we can minimize impacts of COVID-19 And so um, it's just great to see how How well we've been able to respond the city's been able to respond to COVID-19 and keep things running And so while I hope we can get back to some of these items quickly I think that we can all agree that the emphasis should be on focusing on COVID-19 at this point in time And so I'd like to open it up to uh other council members to see if anyone had any questions And I see that uh vice mayor mires has her hand up Yeah, I just have a question um on two two forward, uh the cash, uh the finalization of the cash's work community um advisory committee on homelessness and also the downtown library work and I just I'm assuming because it's not on the list that those two things would continue continue to be um worked on But I just want to confirm just for the public community advisory committee on homelessness Basically all the commission and committee work we halted Unless it was absolutely necessary like planning has certain regulatory deadlines that are have not been changed by executive order. So they're continuing So for the community advisory committee on homelessness that did not have that in place So we halted the conversation for that group So essentially it's a little bit of a deep breath when we come out of this and we restart they would have Hopefully I can't remember what the direction from council was I believe it was two to three um meetings to close out their work and report back to council I'll ask bonnie your second question Go ahead Uh bonnie's on the line. I'll ask her to respond to this is in the library project I'm sure if she can hear us I can do an update if she can't Bonnie if you're talking we can't hear you you might be muted This is bonnie. I wasn't sure if it would be me or uh susan, but I'm happy to talk Yes, we are continuing with the work on the library project. We have architect team right now working on an apples to apples comparison from the first scope which was looking at the Rehab of the existing library and we're now looking at the alternative site and Looking at the costs of a potential mixed use project that includes housing there And we're on track at this point to come back to council in june I also had a question or are there any Um council or mires. Do you have did you need any more follow-up on that? Was that good? Are there any other council members with questions at this time? I did have two questions. I was just wondering because I know Um a few months ago There was an item as it relates to women's health And then also the beach impact fund and I was wondering if those items are also On hold or those or what state those might be coming back to council the With respect to the impact fund that that is on on hold And with with respect to the uh the second item. This was the women's Yeah, it was like I think the menstrual actually the item was supposed to be incorporated into the fiscal year 21 conversations So that wouldn't come back as part of the budgeting and the 21 conversation when you guys see the budget hearing Okay, thank you. That's all the questions I had Oh, and then actually no, I had one more um around strategic planning When there might be when that might be coming back as well Yeah, I think that's another one that um, we Well, we'll have to uh, martin. I can I can answer that one. Okay, go ahead Laura So we met with nicole young who is our consultant spearheading the um strategic plan process and the month of april was supposed to be our community outreach process So she initially spearheaded an internal outreach process And she has all that information from all the departments and she's collating and making um some sense of all that feedback And then um, she'll we meet with her once a month So our next meeting with her will be at the end of this month in april To see where things stand and once we're able to pick up the community conversations again That will be the next step and then the cycle back to council will be a month to a month and a half after We do the community outreach sessions Okay, thanks for that update The other thing I just wanted to add to that is another uh, sort of consideration here too is that uh, Obviously the fiscal situation will also play a major role in many of these projects and how they're impacted to so Again, you'll get a sense of that on april 28th, but I can tell you now that it's uh, you know, it's uh, it's not very positive Situation and it's not something that we're going to recover from really quickly. So that'll be the other sort of Part of the analysis that we'll have to incorporate in terms of some of these projects As we move forward Thank you, uh council member matthews Appreciate your admonition to not be filing on new initiatives right now and also Being quite realistic of it. Oh, what we're facing in terms of budget issues Coming in and and just I guess the question to laura or the team working on the strategic planning Given the situation we're in and the timeline you've laid out By the time we actually get to strategic planning The current council will have just a few months left and it seems a little odd frankly Um Given all of that To make all this effort for this current council to develop a plan and and they go Different people, you know, there's there's going to be some This definitely falls into the the we don't know the course of the pandemic and what the timing is going to look like Nicole's been very Bucketable as far as the timing and our work with her So we can definitely make adjustments depending upon what the situation it's looking like so that Putting together a strategic plan makes sense timing wise as far as the council makeup and the election process The final comment just given what we already have. It's really big stuff We haven't talked about the work. We haven't talked about the specific station With metro, I mean there's some even other big things And we are going to have pretty restricted capacity to see In the future that seems to be the case. Absolutely Okay, um, if there are no further questions at this time, uh, what we can do is we can turn it over to public comment and so There's a series of numbers that are going to be projected onto the screen If you're interested in commenting on item number 11 Which is a status update on the various items on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic Please call in on one of those numbers And after you call in, please enter the meeting id and when prompted to For participate in id, please press pound You'd like to comment. Please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand And it was when it's your time to speak you will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted and the timer would be set for two minutes So if you'd like to speak on this item, please press star nine on your phone to acknowledge that you would like to speak To this item and we will unmute you to speak Okay, you'll have two minutes to speak and you're on the line Okay, can you hear me? Yes Department under my team but now and in shelter for homeless people The public input into this process of which items are good and which are not not being allowed It's a tiny sound Is any other member of the public who'd like to speak on this item? Please call one of the numbers that's shown on the screen and then press star nine on your phone All right, you are on the line. This is uh pat malo I am board member green trade. I grew up here lived here my whole life and hoping to stay First let me thank everyone who's been working on this I think that it's a trying time for everyone no matter where you're at and what you're doing So I want to thank the council and staff and the entire community Especially those who is the best the hardest. I just want to say one thing About the cannabis policy Stuff we're really You know happy to see some of the public events stuff and things pushed off a little bit into june You know we're blessed to still be in the conversation but I just want to acknowledge that We have major issues regarding the ownership transfer and just the high taxes and Just rough issues that the local cannabis industry Was facing before this. We've saw a lot of headlines unfortunately about Oh biggest, you know sales days and records and all this but really, you know Sales that retails things even though they're essential have been down 30 percent across the state and that's true locally as well And a lot of these local businesses were on thin ice to begin with I mean, I think Two years almost, you know year and a half ago. We had the majority of the last last council Vote unanimously to be able to like give some immediate relief on taxes Solve some of these ownership issues and really just acknowledge that this is an industry They used to employ a huge amount of people in the medical cannabis industry and now this legal cannabis regulated industry is On the verge of failure. So I really, you know, thank you guys for everything you're doing and I understand There's far bigger priorities out there, but I just had to say all that. Thanks Thank you See no further Members of the public who wish to speak on this item. I see council member Watkins has her hand raised presentation For the prior item as well as this item and bringing it forward Just extend the comments that were made by the mayor and others and expressing our gratitude to our all of our Essential workers for doing the best they can to navigate these really challenging times I guess my comment and then I'm prepared to move the recommendation is I think we have a lot of unknowns and as we Really look for we're going to need to do to think about resilience and recovery and I realize that some of these items were sort of in the immediate horizon But also recognize that as we start to dive into our budget and start to really look at priorities and rebuilding not only Some fixes for what was just brought up with the cannabis Industry but also for our entire economy and our small businesses. There's going to be a lot Of work to be done. So I just want to acknowledge and recognize that Absolutely, this this is appropriate to put on hold at this time And acknowledge and thank everybody who's an essential worker and beyond doing what they can to Navigate the city as we move forward with kovat 19 and its impact And then also with the recognition of the fact that the budget is going to be a little Challenging time and probably pretty decisive when we think about how we're going to need to prioritize and structure things moving forward So with those comments, I'm prepared to move the recommendation as presented to Receive this update from staff regarding the various council assigned items and have Septemberly put on hold due to kovat 19 the pandemic I'll second that Council member mires or vice mayor mires, sorry Are there any other comments by council members? Seeing none, we have a motion that was made by Council member Watkins seconded by mayor Cummings To accept the staff recommendations. And so I'll turn it back to the clerk for a roll call vote council members Watkins Matthews folder And council member Byers is absent. She signed off at five o'clock Vice mayor mires Hi, and mayor Cummings. Hi, so that passes unanimously. We'll move on. Thank you Yeah, thank you all for the for the presentation and for bringing that to us That takes us to our last item of the evening, which is Santa Cruz resiliency microloan program Budget adjustment and I'll turn that over to bonnie lip scum director of economic development Share my screen. Yes Okay, great Okay, so for your consideration today and I'm with a number of local banks and credit unions to really start the conversation About what is happening in our business community right now? How is it going with the? CARES Act funding with the paycheck protection program and the injury loans and How could we help so this really started the conversation? And from that conversation we had a series of follow-up conversations with Santa Cruz community credit union And they've agreed to partner with us on a program So this is really a joint effort And I'll just go into some of the details and then afterwards up to the brief presentation I'll be happy to answer any questions And before I kick off on that. I also want to acknowledge the hard work of staff This has been because this is an emergency program. We have been It's definitely happening in in real time and our e-rebecca unit our business liaison have been working really hard In fact right now. I know that rebecca is working on the online application Draft and I know that rebecca is also working and kathy is also working on the mo you So we want to make sure that if you approve this today that we can hit the ground running and Really get this out in the community soon As part of this program that we do have a considerable number of business resources That are available and they're on our landing page at just choose santa cruise dot com And you go to the site There is an a bar at the across the top a banner where you can click on the covet 19 resources And we have everything there That is Available as far as funding resources webinars. We even archive the webinars after they happen links to other partner agencies and resources in the community and then links to CARES act and other other state local and federal Programs as well as local efforts Like right out the way. So there's a lot of information there for the community COVID-19 response as far as our business community is we're looking at three stages of resiliency support Right now we're in the survival and sort of the rescue stage and we see that as sort of march through may And where we come in right now is looking at the immediate needs of the business community What's not being met by some of the federal programs? What are things we can do at the city and i'll go into that a little bit more Additionally the phase two would be stabilization and that starts sort of overlaps with the survival and that starts in may And goes through october and that's when more substantial assistance is available Some of that through the federal funding programs through the sba small business administration loans grants Through the CARES act and other assistants that we hope will be coming Will be coming our way for local and small businesses And then finally we see a sort of late 2020 and beyond we see that as the third phase Which is recovery and rebuilding and that's really similar to The loma predator earthquake in 1989 We see that as as some of the largest needs will have in the community for permanent working capital fixed assets Some major reinvestment to stimulate the economy and provide jobs So we'll go into that briefly as as we go forward on survival and rescue We've been through you've actually had presentations on a number of these earlier today So I won't go into these but these are the things that we've been doing at the city to really help our larger and broader business community Really move move forward including Other departments and like a parking division as our public works develop director mentioned earlier specifically on Parking and free parking available now and deferments on our parking deficiency fees And just anything we can do within the city's control to really support businesses So that they can survive this this crisis or the things that we're doing internally at the city And that's where this program comes in so This program what we're calling right now Is the Santa Cruz resilience microloan program? And this is our proposal is to fund this through the economic development trust fund and just briefly a little background on what that fund is That fund was created in addition of the redevelopment agency in 2012 So some of you may remember measure q which was a transient occupancy tax measure with to t measure that increased The tot by a percent and at that time part of the outreach and commitment to the community Was that we would with the loss of redevelopment that we would set aside and develop a specific fund Whose purpose and focus was to Continue some of the work that council had approved from the former rda of economic development projects and initiatives to create jobs And stimulate the economy. So that's what the fund was created for And it has been around since then we have funded a few projects over the last few years We do have a fund balance currently and that fund of about four million And we're proposing today and recognize that during this crisis. They're going to be other needs That may take precedence for some of that funding But we are hopeful like 500 000 for this program now to meet this emergent need in our community So as I mentioned earlier, this program program is proposed to be formed in partnership with the Santa Cruz community credit union and We're really focusing the program on This is in our city small businesses specifically and it's designed to provide a quick response loans to help as many Businesses as possible survive until early may when hopefully some of the federal aid through the cares act will be more More forthcoming it's to stabilize businesses right now due to the drop in the economic activity Our program really complements the paycheck protection program And that's some of the feedback that we've had some of our area banks is just the timing of that even though That's an expedited program It's still not soon enough to help some of our businesses particularly our brick and mortar businesses That really survive restaurant retail with storefront On working capital and not a grant Specifically again, we're trying to provide emergency capital to our struggling businesses While grants would have been an option or could be It really would work in order for a grant program to really work well We would have to more broadly distribute to businesses in the community We would need a much larger fund to make that possible And what we are really trying to do is to design and look at that emergency need of Those most vulnerable and provide these bridge loans until cares act funding comes forward and that funding is available I mean, we can't hear you anymore. I'm not sure if something happened to your audio Bonnie, we still aren't able to hear you. I'm something happened to your audio Okay, looks like we're having some technical difficulties. So we'll um, just hang on for a second see if we can get Bonnie looks come back on the line Yeah Okay, so I was probably here did I talk about the two types of applicants for the funding? This is where we lost you Okay, so I'll start from here Sounds good Okay, tell me when um, we're live. It looks like we are live Oh, okay, great Okay, so we're going to go ahead and talk about the two types of applicants for the funding So I apologize for the break in the audio and I think where we left off when my audio went out was I was just starting to talk about the two types of applicants for the funding Specifically where you're looking at those that don't need bridge funding or those that need bridge funding for working capital while they're waiting for their larger Paycheck protection program funding or their economic injury disaster loans through the Small Business Administration And we're finding many because those programs are so designed and particularly the PPP program the pay check protection program Which is forgivable funding Every small business that they can should be applying for those funds However, they just do to some of the delay and the federal government of processing them and clarifying guidelines Not everyone can get that money right away right away So we really see a need locally to be able to provide three month term no interest loans which are basically bridge funding for some of our small businesses in our community Our local banks that are providing these are are processing these as quickly as they can they are getting these out into the community But there's still a broader need that's unmet Our second category for applicants that we're looking at to fund are for those businesses that are May not be well served by some of the other lending programs either they don't have either they lack a established bankering rate relationship with a bank that is providing the SBA CARES Act loans Or there's just some other criteria for some reason that makes them not a good candidate for those loans So for those small businesses and again, we're really looking at those BRICS and mortar businesses with a storefront that have a lot to offer Or businesses with a storefront that have really high working capital needs and yet are either closed or Are operating, you know at very minimal capacity right now So these would be low interest loans one to three percent terms Ranging between 18 months and three years and no payment for the first six months page on our website and you can just go again to choose Santa Cruz comm and Micro micro loan and we are hoping if this is approved by council today That we could actually be in a position to open this to the public as soon as as Monday And we want to take the rest of this week to make sure we're getting all the program details right and that online application that Rebecca is working really hard on that We have that working and But anyone can go right now if they're interested in learning more about it and Getting an email alert when it is live on hopefully on Monday They can go into this site and actually sign up to receive an alert Beauty credit union. We're looking at the city do some of the front union would actually manage the funds and the reason why we Really look to have them as a partner is they have the experience executing loan documents dispersing funds And can receive the payments and issue borrow statements. And so that's one of the things that's really in their wheelhouse It's not in our wheelhouse and we also didn't want to put this time this burden on our city finance department As well to take on a whole loan program So what we'll do in our end is we'll manage the application process We'll review the applications for eligibility and we'll approve the applications and to balance the loan portfolio and what we're really looking for as far as balance is Looking at making sure that we're providing loans from both categories Both those that need that short term bridge financing and those that need some longer term Financing that may not be eligible to apply for some of the sba funding We're also looking at other considerations would be loans dispersed across the city in our various commercial areas Minority and women-owned businesses as well. So these are some of the categories that we'll be looking at and then we move into Stage two which is stabilization And specifically what we're looking at here is, you know, the first stage is through It's, you know, roughly through may and the next one is sort of May to October We're going to be looking at other opportunities To partner with across the county with spdc with our chamber business council Through the web through it with other cities and the county on applying for and there's a mechanism that we have With through the workforce investment board and the community economic development strategy to apply jointly together for economic development Administration grants or loans and so we're looking at opportunities where we may be able to partner with the community foundation and create a broader countywide Revolving loan program So this is something that we're looking at for a stage two or what other opportunities out there What are other things that we can apply for to be able to provide some stability as the economy as businesses come back online And we want to help stimulate that economy going further Additionally, there is additional money available through the cares act on the community development block grant side So the initial allocation That we received as a grant recipient an existing cdbg grant recipient Is roughly for us is 282,000, but that's about of the overall five billion dollar program That's only two billion of it the remaining three billion of that funding under the cares act is still out there To be applied for and so we're looking at the eligibility some of it by formula goes to state and what we could potentially apply through the state So we're looking at all of those eligibility criteria and try to see what we can bring back to santa cruz county to be able to distribute Locally, so we're doing that in stage two Again with economic development administration on their economic assistant grants their disaster recovery grants These are all grants that we've been successful receiving before We received some multimillion dollar grants right after the recession We received grants after the earthquake So we do have a history of being able to apply for these grants and put them and move them out into the community To help stimulate our local a local economy We're additionally looking at Our our current gross santa cruz loan program and looking at how we can Adapt that program for a recovery grants in our community and broaden that relationship that we have with the national development council Also looking at leveraging some of the grant funds with creative partnerships with foundations and tech companies and specifically I'm thinking about and we've been talking about some of the like the apple tech funds The google funds some of the other Local companies in the broader bay area who are reinvesting and housing and and other things that will really also help stimulate our local economy And then finally investment in capital projects to generate employment That wraps up my brief presentation and I am happy to answer any questions Thank you bonding for that presentation. Are there any members of the council who have Questions on the presentation Seeing none, I had two questions Bonnie the first was as it relates to Those businesses that are waiting on the sba loans Do businesses have to be approved for those loans in order to receive the funds to receive our funding? Yes, we would also likely be in conversation with some of the local banks on sort of the status of their application But no, it's not a requirement that they Have accepted that funding and that's an effect what the second applicant sort of Target area is for us. Are those that we think aren't going to be a good candidate for some of that sba funding? A lot of things and then the other question I had with the It's that's kind of related to what you were just talking about with the businesses that might not Might not be well served by these lending programs You mentioned the no payment for six months. Would that also be no interest? And no payments or just payments for those first six months Yeah, I know everything would be deferred for the six months for the first six months Those are all the questions I had Thank you Continue to work with Santa Cruz community credit union. And so as far as the recommendation I would also like to add to the motion that you provide the authorization for the city manager to execute an MOU with the Santa Cruz community credit union to help implement the microloan program with us by some air minors We then make a motion There might be some minor interest rates to that length of time that they might need the funding or can you talk a little bit of more about that Yeah, how we were looking at that is that those that just need that bridge month that bridge funding for You know three months that that would be zero zero interest no interest and if you were looking at a One year still a relatively short term that that would be you know One year 18 months would be 1% and however if you wanted to finance it over three years That potentially you could go up to 3% Thank you. Absolutely. Yeah, thank you. It's definitely been teamwork. We're all really excited and and have been All our partners have been really gracious and wanting to make this happen Before we take action we we still need to go back to public comment But um, so I just wanted to make sure it was clear we still have that one more that step But by some air matters. I'll come back to you after we open this up to for public comment But um, I'd just like to see if councilmember matthews and then councilmember brown Had questions on this so we'll start with councilmember matthews Extravagant praise Okay, doesn't seem like there's any further questions. So, um We can turn it to the public to see if there's any public comment on this item So there's a series of phone numbers that are presented on your screen And so if you if you would like to comment on this item Which is the santa cruise residency micro loan program Please call into one of the numbers You can then enter the meeting id And when prompted for participation, please press pound And if you're interested in commenting on this item press star nine on your phone to raise your hand When it's your time to speak you'll hear an announcement that you have been unmuted and the timer will be set for two minutes Okay, seeing that we have no individuals from the public wanting to comment on this item We'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation vice-mayor meyers We have access to to the economic stimulus and the stability in particular right now. So, um, I'll go ahead and move the item. Let me just Switch to my Agenda item here. Sorry the establishment of a Santa Cruz resilience microloan program and resolution to appropriate 500,000 from the economic development trust fund to fund the program And to provide authorization for the city manager and bonnie. Can you give me that language? Yes, thank you to provide authorization for the city manager to execute an mou with santa cruz community credit union to help implement the program Thank you. Let's move a motion made by vice-mayor meyers I'm happy to second that motion or Council member matthews Well, I'm hoping to second it. That's good for you Again, I can't thank you Justin and the department enough everyone involved in the really talk about a rapid response team Reaching out and finding out what was the need and I think all of us have helped the the real sense of desperation and creativity and desire to recover from our local businesses and I think it's so important that we're taking this step to try and Provide a quick response at bill staff. So just gratitude to everyone who makes this happen so quickly very much appreciated And I really hope that we can you know do the best we can working together moving forward to Provide the most help we can for our small businesses and other sectors of the community Are there any other council members who'd like to speak at this time? It's a none. We'll turn it to the clerk and we'll do a roll call vote on this item Council members Watkins Matthews Brown Boulder fires as absent vice-mayor meyers And mayor Cummings. I that passes unanimously So the last item on our agenda is oral communications Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the public to speak on items that are not listed on today's agenda If you are interested in addressing the council Please call one of the numbers that will be displayed on the screen Once you've called in, please enter the meeting id number and when it's prompted for participation id, please press pound If you are interested in addressing the council, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand And you will have two minutes to speak When it is your time to speak you'll hear an announcement that you have been unmuted We request that you clearly and slowly state your name before making your comments So that we can accurately capture in the meeting notes However, that is not required Please remember this is a time for council to hear from the public It is not a time to engage in dialogue And when we are able we will address the questions raised at the end of oral communications So at this time if you're interested in the public and you're watching Please Call one of the numbers that's listed and then enter the meeting id So we'll move on to our first Person here for public comment If you could please press star nine If you're interested in speaking during public comment Several days ago looking for specific information and reassurance some basic questions How many of those crammed into unhealthy shelters have been offered the option of motel rooms Rather than the dangerous conditions in the vets hall the armory the laurels free shelter Toad smith community house and appall Lee lost How many will any council member be demanding these figures from the city manager? How many of these have been tested for co vid 19? How many are sick? How many have recovered? Where's the fema and governor's funding specifically for those motel rooms where people can be safely lodged and not transmit the virus How much longer will city and county bosses withhold the money? How many motel rooms are currently being occupied? How many kept empty while the virus spreads? The most vulnerable people in our community are those with disabilities and medical conditions over the age of 65 outside Crowded shelters are unsafe In san francisco this produced outbreaks last week in shelters and finally residents began to be relocated Will we be too late here to themselves away in their homes? Send door groups The blatant brutal truth homeless people outside are simply discardable not worth providing access to decent bathrooms Regularly clean porta potties much less the minimum required safe shelter in place Stay but now told us at homeless or at least be left alone to shelter in place Why am I being told that a homeless man trying to enter his campsite in a park was blocked threatened with arrest Separated from the survival gear. It is an outrage a telling truth That there is nothing on this agenda to protect the entire community by immediate safe shelter for the homeless This may please those who engineer the silencing and removal of council members glover and crone They couldn't get this mayor to hold an emergency meeting to address this So now do we simply await the death toll as the virus spreads? Thank you We have one more member of the public who looks like they've called in for world communications. You are on the line You're on the line to speak. Yes, we can Yes, you may want to turn down your uh tv or um your computer Yes Yes, we can hear you Can you hear us? Yeah Yes, you can. There's quite a delay here between what I hear on the phone and and and what uh You know, you're saying online here, but uh, anyway, uh, yeah This is not going as well as it could Anyway, our best offense against the virus is a healthy immune system. That's a health directive that never changes I voice concern over the heavy-handed government response to the covid emergency This is in no way a negative comment on the need for social distancing I'm alarmed at the widespread jackboot measures and swift and increasingly apparent make expensive examples of overreaching punitive actions Taken by many levels of government There are fundamental differences between behaviors that cause actual harm and those that are statistically risky That are cases cause harm There is also an issue with assigning a single level of criminal punishments that can apply to any future Unlimited number of orders for any emergency for any act for any level of safety risk The fact that there was no bail set for violations of emergency orders was not an oversight It never came up because the public is normally very cooperative in emergencies Many of these social distancing orders fall into this category of statistically risky acts, which may or may not cause harm Actual harm difficult to prove or assigned to one individual and in this present case Concerning the few known cases of code 19 here any one low density violation is extremely unlikely to cause harm This is absolutely identical in nature to crimes such as speeding which contribute to our 54 annual county vehicle deaths But speeding is an infraction not a misdemeanor with 500 or 1,000 dollar fines and possible jail time My judgment is assigning misdemeanor status. This case is a panic mode power grab of the authority Unwarranted by the facts as we know them as facts such as mortality rate are still incomplete And prior panic drug projections are turning out to be false I am not comforted by the city attorney's claim warnings will be given first As anecdotal reported evidence suggested otherwise I have no problem with harsher penalties for those who after warning or infraction citation refuse to obey direct safety officer Directors or interfere and obstruct But this possible arrest and misdemeanor conviction for a single person or low density groups for example walking on a closed Meager park seems extraordinarily harsh as technical social distance violations are occurring in the thousands every day like speeding I would reconsideration Sorry, uh, your two minutes is up. So I'd like to thank you for calling in and for your comments And they will be noted in the record Hey with that, um that actually concludes our meeting for today So thank I would like to thank everyone for tuning in thank all the staff For their hard work and all the items they brought forward and all uh, my other colleagues who are able to join us today So with that, uh, we'll adjourn our meeting