 All right, good morning and welcome to the 1045 a.m. public portion of closed session of the February 25th, 2020 meeting of the city council In this part of the meeting the council will receive public testimony Thereafter the council members will move to the courtyard conference room for the closed session I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you mayor council members Watkins here Matthews here brown here Councilmember Glover will be absent crone Vice mayor Myers here and mayor Cummings Are there any members of the public who would like to speak to us on any items listed on the closed session agenda? Seeing none. I'll adjourn this meeting to the courtyard conference room where the council will go into its closed session Morning and welcome to our 1145 a.m. Session of the February 25th, 2020 meeting of the city council Before we begin I would like to take a moment to remember a day that we as the city will never forget On february 26 2013 at about 3 23 p.m Detective sergeant butch baker and detective elizabeth butler lost their lives in the line of duty while conducting a follow-up investigation We as a community are indebted to them for their service And this incident has impacted the entire santa cruz community in a very profound way Can we all have a moment of silence to remember their sacrifice and celebrate their service? Thank you, and I now would like to ask the clerk to please call the roll Thank you mayor council members Watkins here Matthews here brown here Councilmember Glover is absent crone Vice mayor Myers here Before we begin I would also like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the awaswa speaking upi tribe The amamut's in tribal band 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 if the clerk if the clerk could please lead us in the pledge of allegiance So the first item on our agenda is the introduction of new employees And I would like to start by welcoming up the acting finance director, sheryl fife to introduce maureen dunne Thank you mayor and council members I have the pleasure today of introducing maureen dunne maureen dunne Is our the city's new accounts payable accounting assistant She was born in canada kit, but her father worked for was a aerospace engineer for nasa And so she moved to different states during her her lifetime. They finally settled in california, though Maureen comes to us from sacramento where she worked for regional transit She has a sister eileen and eileen works for our water department She and her sister chose santa cruz because of their fond memories of vacationing and going to the boardwalk and beaches in her past maureen has worked for habitat for humanity and She helped build two homes in sacramento She enjoyed vacationing in the bahamas and in jamaica where she Spent time with her family and her her brother-in-law's family got to meet them and got to know them She has a cat named katrina And a rabbit named riley and she holds an orange belt in karate Thank you, welcome All right next we have our director of human resources lisa murphy to introduce debbie bailey Thank you mayor council members. I am very pleased to introduce to you our newest team member to hr This is debbie bailey. We are now composed of my department. One third of my department is named debbie That's really easy Debbie's mom and dad drove across country from new york to california in their classic plimith Valiant and arrived in santa cruz just in time for debbie to be born in santa cruz general hospital So we're talking like all the time santa cruzan And she grew up in felton where her back door opened right to the henry cowl park on fall creek Where she spent her days exploring the woods with her brother making dirt bike tracks and playing capture the flag And now in her adult life her front door opens two nicey marks where she enjoys running and hiking with her dog sherman When not in the mountain she can be found at the beach in the water or on the softball diamond And apparently that she was an incredible softball and baseball player If she was on when the first female young ladies on the all-star team in her younger days And debbie has never stopped playing And left feel that dale aviega park is her home away from home from march to november And debbie wanted to give a shout out. I'll let it slide this time She wanted to get a shout out and special thanks to the department of parks and red for taking such a good care of field And debbie i always ask for a fun fact besides the fact that she's one like i said three debbies in our department She also once ran a one-on-one 400 meter foot race against the one and only great jerry rice So welcome to debbie. Thank you All right, next we have our director of public works mark deddle to introduce christopher heimsof Good afternoon mark deddle director of public works. My pleasure to introduce christopher heimsof He's a new wastewater mechanical tech technologist one at the wastewater treatment facility He was born and raised in boulder creek and still now currently owns a house in boulder creek Has a wife a dog a six-year-old daughter a three-year-old son and an old cat named grace His past work experience 16 years in the construction field for hudson construction And he graduated from san lorenzo valley high When he's not working he likes to play golf and attend music concerts And he enjoys helping family and friends with home improvement projects. So please join me in welcoming christopher That moves us on to our next item, which are presentations Our first presentation is international jazz day by prince lasha So i'd like to invite prince lasha to the podium mr. Mayor council members It is a pleasure to come before you to speak about international jazz day and week You should all have some information regarding this program before you so i will not go through that What i would like to do this is our seventh year of presentation I would like to play for you a two minute Video of what we do each year in the schools and for the city International jazz week Presenting concerts and music seminars at the santa cruz county schools International jazz day at the warf. I think that's it. Yes. Thank you. We go to the schools elementary middle school and senior high Working with children to make sure that they understand art and culture I bring artists from europe the east coast san francisco and santa cruz to make this development happen The reason i'm here before you is that i would like to ask for some support From the city regarding this program My goal is to make sure that these young people Are on the phone less practicing an instrument Not doing any Well, you know what i'm saying Playing with some type of video game It's important that we capture the minds at an early stage If you have any questions regarding The program that we do International jazz day it should be answered in the information That has been provided to you Right now you very much. Yeah. Thank you very much. I appreciate everything you do for the city with this and for our children Our community music is extremely important in the arts and we should never forget that and april Is jazz month? So i work with the smithsonian institute on that as well Prince thank you for your presentation Would you mind sharing the date that you're going to be having international jazz day on the wharf? It will be April 26 from noon until five p.m The special guest is a tony lansy the singer who was with Santana And his guitarist All right a diverse Of music and we'll also have a dixieland band with tap dance I just want to say thank you as well for all the work you do and I know that those of us who Enjoy coming and listening to the music We really you know it's just a wonderful thing and but I also know that it takes a lot of work to make it happen and so And you're here and I know you put in a tremendous amount of time and energy And then so if you could just tell us like how many people get together how many volunteers does it take to put on something like this? On a annual basis. Oh it takes about 30 And uh, it's it's a continual Because it starts I begin with everyone in august And it begins the concert on the wharf on april So it takes about this almost like giving birth to a new program each time nine months But it's fun and I enjoy it and this year i'm bringing a virtuoso violinist from paris over here to work with As well as a 70-year-old girl on piano To do the same down from san francisco So it it it works out very well And it is an honor to be before all of you Thank you very much. Thank you so much Well, the city is at my understanding is the city of santa cruz has sponsored this event for many many years at this point So i'm hopeful that we'll likely get this on our agenda before We have international jazz days so we can continue our support and sponsorship of your work Thank you very much. Thank you All right for our next presentation I'd like to invite up alex clifford for the metro state of the union Good afternoon mayor council members Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present our annual actual state of metro presentation And uh, I always like to start off with a couple of stats and I know for council member mires and matthews This will be old stuff. They represent you well on our board But I'd like to share some good information with you that that they get to hear about on a regular basis Our operating budget this year is 52 million dollars. We employ 300 people We have 98 fixed route and meter buses that run on 26 different routes and we have 41 paratransit vehicles Our service area is the entire county. We estimate about 264 000 We provide about five million trips per year on the fixed route and commuter service and about another 72 000 per year On our paratransit service, which we brand as para crews And certainly you've seen our our cutaways and our bands throughout the community providing that service And I always like to update you on our statistic for UCSC students faculty in cabrillo college last year we were They composed a little more than 50 percent of our ridership This year they composed about 60 60 percent of our ridership. So that has been growing as a percentage of our ridership We also recently completed our customer survey. So I have some some new data for you relative to pacific station and the city of santa cruz Pacific station ridership Was surveyed and was composed of 55 percent santa cruz city residents and 45 non residents Pacific station average daily boardings are 1265 per day And then the city of santa cruz ridership overall city of santa cruz ridership is about 48 residents 52 non residents And the city of santa cruz average daily boardings was surveyed at 2822 average daily boardings You probably have an interest in the eco pass You certainly do because you have partnered with metro to provide that to your downtown district 570 cards have been issued and over the first real four full months of the project october through january 9583 trips were taken on those cards or roughly 76 average daily trips Of the 570 cards 260 of those cards were used We're also partnering with the city On two focused outreach events to promote the passes and to educate the downtown employees about using those passes And those events date to be term determined will be in april One will be at pacific station and the other at the civic auditorium So we'll make sure we get that information to you when when that occurs and is finalized And then early this year we're going to launch our first real-time Smartphone app for people to look on their phone and see if that bus is going to be on time or not Engage when they go to that stop more accurately We're excited about that. This has been a long project in the making over a year It was funded by state transportation improvement funds And we're getting we're installing it on our buses as we speak Additionally this year we will launch a highway seven ting smartphone app Which will be for fair payment and if you know the highway seven ting service when our commuters are boarding at pacific station or scott's valley People can really get queued up when they're putting in dollars and coins Into the fare box And so this is going to be a way and the result of that is that our buses end up departing late and arriving at the other end late So by using a smartphone app, we hope that will speed up boardings And help us get more on time in our service So i'll have more to report on that Probably next year because it's a one-year pilot The exciting thing about that is if this works we can talk to our board about possibly expanding it system-wide So stay tuned on that. That should be really exciting As I talked about last year We have a lot of buses to replace the numbers lower, but it's still about 50 percent of our fleet We have a lot of old buses. We're still running 1998 full diesel buses They should have been retired a long time ago a bus should live on for about 12 to maybe 14 years and then be retired But that's an expensive proposition. So depending on whether we replace those with compressed natural gas or what we call cng buses That's about a proposition of about 750 thousand dollars a bus Or we replace those with electric buses. That's a proposition of over a million dollars per bus So it's very challenging for us to deal on the capital side But you know this you deal with capital all the time It is always challenging to figure out how to fund the many things that you have to do to stay in a state of good repair I know that you'd be interested in pacific station I want to assure you that those conversations With the city and our staff continue. We're exchanging paper on draft mo you And hopefully getting that pretty much resolved pretty soon and working towards state AHSC grant sometime early next year and we hope that we could get that award And that will lead to a redevelopment of our station and I know you're aware of that We've talked about that before but frontage on pacific avenue would be some sort of mixed use Likely controlled by the city or the city and a developer jointly and our operations would become On the back side of that facing front street. We would have a large tarmac there Is what we envision so those conversations are continuing And then I mentioned buses and i'm excited to report that our latest update from pro terra the manufacturer Of the four electric buses that we have ordered has said that those buses should be here in june That has been a little bit of a moving target But i'm going to assume that that's going to be the delivery date for now We'd like that to occur because we would really like to put those buses in service fall of this year Why the big gap well, it takes time to accept those buses These are our first electric buses And so we'll have to run them through the gamut and make sure that they can do what they're supposed to do Before we pay for them and accept them and then we have to train all of our 153 bus operators on those buses before we can put them in service So it takes there's always a lag time between when a bus arrives and when we can put it on into service Unified corridor. I know you follow that closely. So the rtc and metro transit Alternatives analysis project team. They've been meeting With focus groups and holding public meetings to solicit solicit input on goals and performance metrics That will be used to evaluate the transit options for the rail corridor between Watsonville and santa cruz two weeks ago the team met with the planning and public works Departments and staffs from the various cities And they all of this will continue through january of 2021 at which time The rtc will likely have a decision to make about what is going to happen in that rail corridor But a really good process an exhaustive process seeking input from stakeholders And all kinds of community members throughout the the community from the north to the south and back So we're really excited about that in the way of partnerships with the rtc We're also working very closely on the bus on shoulder I know we've talked about that before rtc is still working on the environmental clearance and design That wraps that sort of bus on shoulder concept into the auxiliary lanes project Overall that should be real exciting for our customers A lot of which are trying to make the morning commute from places south to santa cruz And this should speed up their commute and hopefully get them here And how exciting that will be to have a bus passing up all of that traffic just standing still in gridlock I can't think of a better marketing tool. So we will hopefully attract more people to that service So mayor council members that concludes my annual report and i'm happy to answer any questions that you might have Thank you Are there any questions from council members? Not a question, but that was a good quick summary and if we could get just a copy of your stats there your notes Absolutely Any other questions from council members? Let's make a comment that um, thanks for the report, um, alex and um, yeah, we look forward to Both working with metro on the pacific station and also um on the on the Eco pass program as as things move forward and um, I'm personally just really excited that We're becoming more smart with our buses and I think that makes a big difference In terms of how people consider that for transportation. So thanks for all your work and uh We're excited to keep working with you guys. Thanks This is a side note on that our buses are getting More interesting and nicer and sleek if you see our new gilligs our five new gilligs that are out there on the road These are the first gilligs we've had on the property in a long time And gillig is a manufacturer right here in northern california So how exciting that is to have those and they have what we call a brt front on it It's a much sleeker more aerodynamic looking front. So you can't miss it when you see a gillig out there Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you We'll see you next year. All right Okay, moving on to our next item Um, I have a few announcements and then we will move on to our regular meeting Today we have overflow seating set up in the tony hill room adjacent to the civic center for our afternoon and evening sessions Today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 and streaming on the city's website city of sanacruz.com Our rules of decorum are on the window ledge to my left It is my job to keep the meeting running without disruption and we ask that you respect your fellow citizens when you're inside or outside of chambers Next is our statement of disqualification. I'd like to ask the council members if there are any statements of disqualification today hearing none I'd like to call the city clerk Administrator to announce any additions or deletions. We don't have any I'd like to make an announcement about oral communications. Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the public to speak to us On items that are not on the agenda oral communications will occur on or around 7 p.m. Today I'd like to ask the mayor to call on the city attorney to provide report on closed session Thank you. Mayor Cummings members of the city council following we're discussed by the closed by the city council in closed session this morning in the courtyard conference room at a meeting which convened at 10 45 a.m Item a was a liability claim the claim of debora brown That was also that is also listed on your consent agenda this afternoon as item eight item b conference with legal counsel the two pending litigation matters discussed by the council The case of ronald e chinets versus the city of santa cruz at all and sunset farms llc versus the city of santa cruz at all City council received a report from legal counsel. There was no reportable action on that item third was conference with labor negotiators involving fire local 1716 Council received a report from its chief negotiator lisa murphy md was a public employee performance evaluation Of the city manager and there was no reportable action I'd like to ask the city manager to report and provide updates on city events and business items I don't have a report today. We will give an update on the army as part of the the cash report Um before we move on to the meeting calendar I was wondering if the city attorney might be able to given that we have A council member who's missing today for the public to know how that might impact Our ability to make decisions should we get to a Split vote certainly Given that there are an even number of council members seated on the dais this afternoon There's a possibility that a decision would result in a three three tie The effect of that decision When a council member is absent as opposed to disqualified is that the item is automatically Continued so if it does end up this afternoon that a council that a council decision results in a deadlock then That item would be continued either to the following meeting or to A meeting as specified by the council Thank you city I'd like to call the city clerk to provide any updates to the calendar There are none Our next item is Updates on Memberships in city groups and outside agencies This is a time for council members to report on actions at external boards committees and joint power authority meetings For future meetings Please come prepared to provide an update on any meetings or actions that occurred since the last council meetings So the council and public can be informed So I'd like to ask if there are any updates from external meetings I don't really have much we do have a public safety meeting scheduled for this thursday And I'll I guess the only thing I would add is that the Just to stay Informed about the different activities that are happening with the farmers market and as they start to expand their Services as a summer season arises in other parts of our of our community There'll be more opportunities to be engaged and the city of santa cruises Active partner and supporting their presence here in downtown santa cruises as well The criminal justice council did meet it was mostly just sort of a summary of the standing work that's been happening in terms of some of the Gaying intervention the north county bosta program for identified at-risk youth Our partnership with the youth violence prevention network As well as the community corrections partnership and opportunities to have discussion around other grant Kind of partnership and opportunities moving forward And we discussed some of the work around some of the tobacco enforcement, but also communication with Some of the early child care and after school providers in terms of being noticed if there is an alert or if there is some sort of active Crime activity happening. How can they get informed for lockdown purposes? similar to the k-12 system A few quick summaries of revenue subcommittee, which is myself councilmember brown and mayor Have been meeting there. We held a good meeting a couple of oh, well look what's up here now. I'll jump ahead Okay, put that one on hold I'm a member of the library finance Financing authority, which is the group of the jurisdiction representatives who meet I think a couple of times of year to review the Revenue from the bonds and how it's dispersed and I did go on saturday to the opening of the felton library, which was Amazing. They're the first of the measure s projects to come online And they held their grand opening. These are just a few of the shots So beautiful brand new building and if you want to go back bonnie to that I think I just gave you three slides that first one you get a sense of the Beautiful light airy art filled flexible space. I cannot say enough What an asset to that community this will be and I encourage you all just to drive up And take a look at it and allow some time. It's beautiful and I will just point out Capitol is online probably to open at the end of the year We approved the plans with some added funds for our two branches in the city and Just to point out that even when measure s was being put together as a revenue measure It was anticipated that all of the branches would have to do some additional fundraising to To deliver the type of the quality of building that they wanted that was certainly true Felton is true in capitol. We took that step for our branches here But I think collectively the city is going to be so happy with time and other branches are all in the works now so Now it takes time to do stuff, but really wonderful wonderful wonderful branch Couldn't resist a little enthusiasm there. It's so nice to get a product Back to the revenue committee. This is the considering the possibility of a tot Revenue increase in the november election. We've done some I would say very productive discussion meetings with some hoteliers Understanding what their questions and concerns are These have been productive and they've been very appreciative of being part of the conversation and we will be in the near future meeting with Representatives other jurisdictions that may be considering this just so we're kind of all on the same page about what we know What our needs are and so forth code of conduct meeting That's council members chrome Glover and myself and we've been going over some models of Other jurisdictions ethics and code of conduct documents Picking out what we like and what needs to be fleshed out and it's complicated. So Council member crone may have more to add to that, but I think we're we're trying to make progress and and get something that we can bring forward I don't need to report on metro because you had a good report on that And I think that's That's that's fine. That's business Going along again. Oh, and I did another couple things I do sit on the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Committee. It's not a city appointment, but I Kind of represent the city on that And we had a really good meeting in Santa Cruz that that group meets everywhere from cambria up to Half Moon Bay It's a huge area. So the meetings rotate around every two months But this month they met in Santa Cruz at the USGS Facility out on the west side and the mayor was able to make the welcome to the city of Santa Cruz And I do have just a couple of reports that were passed out at that meeting So I'll pass them around you can take a look and I also did bring the Program for the opening of the Felton library one for each. So I think that'll do it Thank you very much So I um Some of the committees Have already been reported and Director Clifford gave Some of my RTC update. So I would just add for the regional transportation commission That at our last meeting we did approve Measure D strategic implement implementation plan for this year We also And that's it just for those who are listening That's intended to help expedite delivery of projects that are funded by measure D and also Give us opportunities to leverage state and and federal funding Competitive funding and other programs we also Approved a draft set of goals for our regional transportation county regional transportation plan for uh to 2045 And that really is a policy document that guides The work that we do throughout the year with respect to funding of projects and direction and then The yeah the corridor study alternatives analysis is underway. We have really committed to public engagement as director Clifford suggested and We yeah, and so and we also Approve contracts for some improvements to railroad road bridges and some of the kind of bike ped projects that Are we have challenges to fund so that was nice to to be able to Get some of those underway Library subcommittee or committee We have awarded a contract on which the mayor and vice mayor and I sit we've awarded awarded a contract for design of a potential mixed-use project including a library and So we will be working with the architect to move through that process and help guide our decision-making of regarding our a proposal to the council First Group I would like to report out on is the climate action task force. We had a meeting on February 21st And I'd say the three big topics that we focused on at that meeting. We had a presentation by a group of ucsc students around best practices for NGO and non-profit engagement in our climate energy action plan 2030 process and this presentation really focused on Like engaging with some of these NGO and non-profit groups and also a survey that's been Created by the group to hand out and gather more information from members of those types of organizations and groups in our community we began discussing and Talking about what are some of the other cities that we want to whose climate action plans We can look at as a model for what they've accomplished Where they're focusing their efforts and what can we include in our climate action planning process and some as it relates to some of our goals And additionally, we spent a good chunk of our conversation discussing how we can involve The youth in our community as we begin this 2030 climate action planning process Just knowing that there's a lot of interest in the youth and there's a lot of movements now of engaging youth in these kinds of environmental planning practice Processes so trying to determine how we can involve our local youth in our climate action planning process In addition to that I was able to attend The association of Monterey Bay Area governments meeting and just want to touch on two of the presentations that were given The first was on the ambag energy watch program Where they were able to highlight that 110 million annual kilowatts of energy savings occurred between 100 yeah 110 million between 2006 and 2019 $75 million was saved from being spent on energy It was able to be used in other ways throughout the communities within the region And they were able to provide technical assistance to acquire Upwards of 42 million dollars in grants or loans for the jurisdiction schools and special districts To highlight some of the projects that were completed they had seven energy efficient projects across 65 facility locations and parks And these products are estimated to deliver over three million kilowatt hours in annual energy savings And together these upgrades were reduced energy costs by 643 thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars per year and an estimated 608 127 in rebates will be provided to support these projects Um with regards to 2020 There are four energy efficient projects across 25 facility locations and parks These projects are estimated to deliver 511 thousand four hundred and 77 kilowatt hours in annual energy savings These products these projects are estimated to deliver 18,051 Therms and annual energy savings and together these upgrades will reduce costs by 120 roughly 120 thousand dollars a year And estimated roughly 84,000 in rebates will be provided to support these projects Just to um also highlight that uh one of the things that was pointed out was that the city of santa cruz Given how much we've invested in energy savings At the league of california cities meeting last year was awarded the silver beacon award And so it's something that we can all be proud of as we as a community try to become more sustainable as it relates to energy use And then the last um Report that I wanted to just highlight that came out of the ambag meeting was the 2020 preliminary draft of the regional growth forecast and um This really looked at for the tri county region How is how what is the forecast of growth? Housing and employment And one of the things that they were highlighting in this preliminary report is that It's appearing that growth across employment population and housing is slowing and one of the um But one of the sectors that they showed there was growth is that our region's becoming is aging more quickly And so part of what they've related to that growth to is a reduction in fertility And so less people having kids and just seeing a growing an aging population in the area and um So this is going to be important as it relates to planning moving forward And um the next steps is that they're going to begin meeting with local jurisdictions to discuss the draft forecast And think about um how it's going to relate to local planning And I think that's all I have I think I'll report out on the cows working group. We actually have a meeting next week scheduled. Um, but just Let you know a little bit about the International outcome of some of the work that we've been doing at cows for the cows working group The Save the Waves Non-profit did did present on our work here in Santa Cruz at the global waves conference in Australia last week and so we're going global as a community in terms of how we're trying to address some of the water quality issues off cow speech and the partnership we've created with a number of nonprofits and so That's been great to hear the reception about that And we'll be meeting next week. We are working towards Getting the data together for the the heel of the bay Report that they do every year and we'll be working with them directly on some of our data this year to work through some of their metrics and we're hoping that We also have a few infrastructure fixes in in the works as well But we're continuing to work on that water quality improvement in the in the cow speech area So, uh, I think most of my other committees were covered. So I'm good. Thank you Nothing to report at this time. Thank you mayor I'd also just like to mention um that the council policy committee met and the other day and that um We're going to be working towards uh reviewing some of the issues that came up as it related to the process of of agendizing reports and so we'll be Reporting back on that as it as it develops Yeah, I forgot to mention. I also sit on the Santa Cruz Santa Clara round table, which is the advisory group appointed at congressional direction to advise the FAA on issues of flights Affecting approaches to san francisco airport. I think you're all generally familiar with that issue It's been around for quite a few years. Um, there's an important meeting coming up tomorrow And we'll be launching into some budget and work program discussions We do anticipate some likely changes in the flight path over santa cruz county And so I will likely be bringing an item For the council to discuss and submit a letter on that At our next meeting probably Thank you very much for All the report outs Next item on our agenda is consent These are items number five through 13 are on our agenda All items will be acted upon in one motion unless an item is pulled by a council member for further discussion Are there any council members who would wish to pull an item? Council member brown I'd like to pull item 10 Any other items that wish to be pulled? Seeing none. Are there any council members who only wish to comment on any items? Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on any of the items on our consent agenda with the exception of item number 10 Which has been pulled Seeing none Maybe we can return to council member Vice mayor mires with her comment on item number seven um, I just wanted to point out and uh, thank our Sustainability and climate action manager tiffani weiswest. Um I don't know how you do all you do, but um, here We have yet another almost a million dollar grant being processed To the state and and again just keeping us out ahead as a leader in all the work that you do so Excited to see the grant. I really hope we get it excellent list of partners and Just really excited and thank you for your leadership on continuing to do this work I just wanted to echo those comments and um, thank tiffani weiswest for bringing this forward and always maintaining A commitment to seeking more resources and we look forward to hearing back And so with that i'm happy to move the consent agenda We have a motion on the oh, I think people have to oh, yeah, yeah I opened up for a public comment there were no no one wanted to So there's been a motion that's been made is there a second to the motion So seconded by council member crone and then council member brown Oh, I just wanted to add um my tremendous thank you to tiffani weiswest and at since we're talking about it Also mentioned that this was one of Three proposals that she's been working on. I mean, you know, they they all they come all at the same time and those are Those are huge efforts so If we didn't already know the heavy lifting that tiffani does that was That I wanted to make sure we Acknowledged Are there any further comments okay, so um all those in favor to move the Items on consent with the exception of item 10. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? So that passes unanimously with abs with council member glover being absent And now we'll come back to item number 10 On our agenda So I pulled this um actually it's it's really just because I wanted to Highlight it and ask that we take one other action related. So this is the an amendment to our budget In for the purchase and installation of a bike and pedestrian counter on segment seven of the rail line Which I think is is awesome that we're doing this For many reasons But I wanted to acknowledge that this is a case where the budget adjustment we're making is Two nonprofits Who are gifting the city money to make this happen to help make this happen? And you know, we spend a lot of time talking about Funding for nonprofits and grants and this is a case where They have wanted to make a contribution. So I I just thought that it would be nice to Um include in uh approval of this Direction that we send a letter of thanks to ecology action and friends of the rail and trail for their contribution We get a lot of thank you cards. We ought to send them out as well So, um, is there any member of the public who would like to speak to us on item number 10? Seeing none, I'll bring it back for action the liberation We'll move the record. Yeah, I'll go ahead and move the staff recommendation with the addition of Direction that we send That the city send the letter of thank you the mayor send the letter of thank you to Ecology action and friends of the rail and trail for their support. I'll second that I'll Motion was made by council member brown seconded by council member Watkins Is there any further discussion? Just a comment for those viewing or in the audience who don't know what we're talking about It's it's to count the use of Bike and pedestrian activity on the new segment of the rail trail. So we have an idea How well is it used? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed so that passes unanimously with council member glover absent Okay, so that concludes our consent agenda We will now move on to our consent public hearing This is item number 14 are on our agenda Are there any council members who have questions related to this item and this item is The second reading and final adoption of ordinance number 2020-05 amending the Santa Cruz municipal code section 15.38.010 and sections 15.38.030 regarding small cell wireless facilities I know there was a member of the public who requested additional time and so I'd like to invite That member of the public Satya Ryan to speak first on this item And you'll have four minutes Thank you I'm grateful to get another chance to thank you for the ordinance. I think it's um I feel really happy with it Particularly that you implemented so many of our ideas Feels really wonderful and thanks staff and all the work that was done on it Um, and I'm really hoping that it'll be a model for other cities and I've already sent it to the county and um Capitola, although I haven't heard anything back from them. So we'll see So looking back at my notes the other day. I was uh noticing that the 1126 meeting Direction was given to the city manager's office to write a press release About the ordinance and this seems like the perfect time to do that The direction given at that time was to speak about the difficulties Faced by the city You know wanting to do more doing as much as you could but being constrained by the FCC's limitations regulations So I think it would be great to um have that press release come out now also, um Well, should I want to say oh at that's at that same meeting? council member matthews you asked um On public works for a listing of how many cell towers had been Um approved how many had been um applied for and uh, joshua spain group at that time said it would take a while But they hoped it would be ready by the first of the year or sometime in the new year So I'm I've asked for that myself. I think it would be really great to have a listing of what we have already um So thanks for asking for that. Um So just as um for inspiration. I want to tell you that there's there's been uh The oral arguments were heard for the consolidated case in the 9th circuit appeals court on the 10th of february And I listened and watched that online and it was very encouraging what happened and the possible outcome of that will be that the you will have more Regulating power if we if that succeeds so we should hopefully know about that within the next few months And my hope is that the shot clocks will be dropped And also there are two two brand new lawsuits filed challenging the FCC's uh refusal Refusal to consider The decades of science showing uh other than thermal only effects of rf radiation Instead declaring that their exposure limits are fine and they have no need to look at it anymore So that's been those two lawsuits have been filed And we're hoping to get some good results from that too. So this is just For inspiration also just to remind you is this is a new we're like starting a new phase We haven't had these cell towers in neighborhoods. Some of them have been close But if we start to as they start to come in These are 4g cell towers, but all 5g will also include 4g There's been many experts recently saying that 5g is never going to be feasible in Anything other than the big cities So just to keep that in mind that this isn't really something that we need although you're going to be told that it is Um, I feel really optimistic that more and more people are learning what's really going on There's a lot of hype and industry spin going on that the truth about 5g is it's going to be mostly about gathering and selling information about all of us So, um, I don't know if that's something that any of us want so Just kind of like let all these things swirl around as you make whatever decisions and thank you because you're helping us Not have this doing the best we can. Thanks so much Are there any other members of the public that would like to speak to us on this item? Seeing none, I'll bring it back to the council for action deliberation Remember matthews. Yeah, I'll go ahead and really appreciate the high level of Public engagement on this issue and move the second reading and final adoption Including direction that the city issue of press release about the adoption of this ordinance There's a motion made by council member matthews seconded by council member Watkins to move the recommendations and include a press release Yeah, if I could Just ask for clarification on the press release. Can we Um, make sure that the language regarding the limited ability of local jurisdictions to To um, regulate Salt towers be included as part of that letter or is that of that press release? Sure. Yeah, okay, and then I also just want to ask about the Listing so I guess it's a question for mr. Spammer. You're here. I see Um, is that something that's in process might we be able to get it? Of mere Cummings member city council of Joshua Spanger senior civil engineer public works Uh, actually we are putting together a GIS page that'll be accessible through our um a web page to set up specifically for this so In essence. Yeah, we're we're doing that. We have a list of it. I can't give you a number right now because You know, we're working on the uh There's not that many yet, but there might be so we're working on having the whole thing as an interactive web page So when that is available and accessible, you'll let us know Absolutely. Yeah, great. Thank you Just comment I was apparently the one that asked for that But I also totally respect workload and the time you said it's going to be complicated take time So thank you for working on it and let us know when absolutely progress is made city manager Oh, just a quick clarification. We did send out a press release on december 9th Per the council's previous direction. However, we can send out another one if you like just to clarify that All right, so we have a motion oh Yeah, mr. Spangard when do you think that'll be ready or what can give us an idea about When we'll have a list and then I assume there's a a permitting list of people who are asking for permits as well Yeah, um So after the new legislation Was enacted what we saw is all the cell carriers basically just waited so We do have a list of pending applications right now We don't we have not seen the influx the glut that we were expecting yet. So um But like I said, we're working on this. It'll be you know Everybody will be able to see where all the cell towers are and where they are in the permitting process, etc Impending applications would be like 5 10 20 Right now There's probably less than 10. Thanks right now. You're welcome Any further comments from council members? We have a motion to adopt ordinance number 2020-05 amending section 15.38 010 and section 15.38 0.030 of the santa cruz municipal code for small cell wireless facilities in the public right of way with an additional direction to Send a press release and a friendly amendment to include language around The ability of small municipalities to regulate local jurisdictions regulations regulation To regulate cell towers cell towers All those in favor, please say aye. Hi. Any opposed? That passes unanimously with councilmember glover absent Next item On our agenda is general business item Number 15 the community advisory committee on homelessness catch second status report and midterm recommendations to the city council There'll be a presentation given by Candace elliott co-chair of the community of the catch Taj lehi who's the other co-chair of the catch And fred kealy community advisory committee on the homelessness facilitator You guys are moving faster than we expected You never know If you need a moment we can take a Why don't we take a five minute break so that the presenters can get set up? Yeah, I don't have chief haiduk here yet Um the item we have for us that we're going to return to is a Presentation by our community advisory committee on homelessness It's a second status update report and midterm recommendations to the council and before we begin. I just want to say Um, thank you for all the work that you all have done We very much appreciate how hard you all have been working on this item And um very much looking forward to hearing about your recommendations that are before us today And I'd also like to thank our staff and fred kealy for helping us to organize these Meetings and you know keep us on track so that we can really get a sense of You know what the community really wants us to do around trying to address our issues of homelessness Thank you mayor So we also want to start out with some thank yous To you mayor and vice mayor mires and the members of city council For giving us this opportunity to return to you this afternoon with our midterm recommendations and We want to thank the members of the catch some of whom are here today in the front row and You all selected a number of representatives to Represent the diversity of opinions of this community and I think that that's led to a very robust dialogue And and then a high level like high standards that we're holding ourselves to as we're going through our deliberations And we'd like to thank fred who has been our convener And city staff as you'll see in this presentation This issue touches on every single department of the city from public works to water to parks to Every department and and so we've been so impressed by Seeing the ways that the different departments work together and the way that we've all been able to collaborate on The items that we bring before you today And then lastly we want to thank the members of the community who are here today and those who have Come to our different public engagement sessions and It's through hearing their feedback that we have also Come forward with our recommendations So our Three main focus areas have been engagement public health and safe sleeping And our process Initially, we came back to you with urgent recommendations that were focused on The immediate winter shelter needs mainly now. We're coming to you with more mid-term recommendations that focus on critical areas of need And we'll be coming back to you again later on with our long-term recommendations in a couple of months Good afternoon. So just as a reminder what we presented to you in december was We had an engagement component To facilitate community engagement on health hygiene and new shelter programs public health installing new portables ada accessible Handwashing stations and to keep loud and else and accessible to patrons and we also asked that For the safe sleeping to fund 1220 river street increase winter shelter capacity and move shelter intake undercover, which has happened And Also alleviating alleviating the impacts of winter season conditions on those sleeping outside So now we're going to transition because we're going to have staff actually Share and speak up because some of these issues They're the boots on the ground and they're going to be able to give you a better representation of of what's going on So i'd like to introduce susie Susie ohara first, please Thank you co-chairs susie ohara assistant to the city manager And i'm going to be sharing the staff update with a few of my colleagues and Taj is going to introduce us as we go along here So what i'm going to be talking about is a status update for the urgent policy recommendations that were delivered to council in december Although there was some challenges around the motion language staff took those policy recommendations to heart And we move forward with implementing and planning and implementing many of those so i wanted to give an update on that We are in the process of installing four new porta potties. So that is twice the amount that council recommended Including two ADA accessible porta potties and really this is to alleviate challenges around lack of access to 24 7 Hygiene and restroom facilities in the community. We have worked Through an engagement process. This is our public health subcommittee to figure out the best locations for those And that will be moving forward in the next few weeks We are working closely with the water department on preliminary design for a new RV dump site at 12 20 river street As we mentioned, um at the last meeting That site is somewhat challenged in that there is a construction project that starts in the coming months So what we're really focused on now is Developing an interim site that's temporary which does not impede access to 12 20 for the construction And staging needs that the water department has and then through that process Developing a permanent site as well. We really do need to work with a contractor. They I think are just on the precipice of Contracting with somebody so as soon as that contractor is on board. We'll have a better understanding of the feasibility of our plans there As taj mentioned, we have a new intake site for the winter shelter program for through salvation army The county and the city really bolstered by city staff and county staff Moved mountains to make that site available. It includes Storage for folks that are using the intake site as well as porta potties and bathroom access There's an indoor trailer that's heated For folks that are waiting for to queue up for the intake and the shuttle So much improved from our previous site The winter Street, sorry the river street camp program moved to the armory and i'm going to give a little update on the armory As in terms of moving mountains We have worked really closely with the county really pushed from the perspective of the city's needs to Convince the national guards who allow us to stay up there We have received word as of last week that they are guaranteeing an extension of 60 days But working really diligently with the contractor that's supposed to be on board in the next couple months To see if we can co-locate moving forward even while they're doing construction So we'll have more information on that but that really creates additional bed capacity for us in the coming months This week this week and next we are doing a concerted effort with the salvation army to do more outreach To get more people filling a few of the empty beds that we have up there We normally have intake for instance on thursday and friday at the library The intake specialist for salvation army is now out in the field as of this week really trying to deliver Message that we have existing beds that we can fill so that's a huge benefit to our winter shelter program Mention the increase in capacity and the extension and then really the catch has been focused Very strongly on engaging with the public the safe sleeping subcommittee had several public meetings Met with the business council the downtown association and had a greater Public engagement session really trying to hear from the community as to how do these recommendations resonate Getting getting and collecting feedback and that feedback was included As these recommendations were distilled into this report Okay, thank you Thank you, and uh, we are now going to hear from bernie escalante, please Thank you Afternoon mayor commons council bernie escalante deputy chief police I wanted to briefly describe our newly formed hero team homeless engagement resource officers It includes two officers that are actively out Engaging with people that need resources to try to get to the root of their of their issues and try to Help their situation whatever way we can This includes collaborating closely with county resources Out in the field and engaging with people one-on-one and really trying to help the root of the root of the problem It's a model that we've been discussing for quite some time There's other agencies across the country that are using this model. It's an outreach first model Because we I think all realize that Enforcement with these issues are is very ineffective So we're trying to get in the field and provide the resources to the folks We obviously we Would I guess prefer To try to find locations for these people to go It's ineffective as far as us out, you know enforcing the laws that we do have Um, so that's what we're trying to do with these with these two officers is get people To particular locations Um Where they are safe and they can take care of themselves and we can also help with that I wanted to quickly read a An email from an individual from the veteran resource center that has been out in the field with our team recently On two different occasions I'm not going to mention any names here. Is there some confidentiality stuff, but it does say I would like to update you regarding the recent successes that your team has made locating veterans In the first two weeks of coordinating with your team. They identified eight individuals with armed forces experience Seven of them immediately eligible for housing case management If veterans choose to engage with the program As your team progresses with identifying veterans We can share outcomes with you if the veterans sign a release of information We genuinely appreciate your team's outreach support and pursuit to connect homeless individuals To public health and welfare services And that's just a uh a snippet of four weeks of work That these two officers have done and gone out and engaged with Resources that are available and it was just a matter of connecting the individuals with the resources. So A lot more work to be done But this is just four weeks so far and there's been some some great success stories already Thank you so much Now we'd like to hear from jason. Yes jason is here jason hedrick, please Uh Mayor council uh members of the catch um, so mind ball of in and this really uh goes back Over the last couple of years recognizing where some of our fires have started within our open uh open spaces And on february 9th, we had a really significant wind event here within the city Luckily, we didn't have any wildland starts But the next day on the 10th in sycamore grove. We had a fire that was started unintentionally, but it was still started And given the conversation that's going on with all the different groups I thought it was important that the policy decision makers Had a real life experience and exposure to what some of the challenges that staff have As well as just what we're experiencing and so we uh conducted a number of Tours or site visits for the members of the catch as well as city council members and brought along parks and rec commissioners And various um members from fire police water department parks and rec And talked about what the impact was because it's not just a single impact It really reaches across all the different departments and divisions And from my perspective within our wildland open spaces I'm concerned about the sources of ignition and within those open spaces nearly 100 percent have been human caused Whether they're intentional or unintentional And the impact to the community as a whole and to the open spaces And so we brought um all the different uh groups out there and did a site uh visit and walkthrough And I think it was uh powerful for you to see that uh up up close and in person My concern again is uh right now we're in february and we haven't had any rain And as we get through this year toward the the latter part that whether it's intentional or unintentional A fire start in that fuel source and that vegetation could have a really catastrophic impact on the community as a whole So how do we eliminate that and how do we uh have that outreach and have that location that we can send people to Which I really think is the solution so we can manage that risk and have those open spaces be preserved without having that catastrophic incident Thank you so much And now we'd like to have travis back come up please from parks Good afternoon mayor comings members of the council travis back superintendent of parks And as we were able to share with the uh catch members and and those of you from the council who were able to attend one of the site visits that chief hi duke just described The absence of a coordinated policy around camping and the lack of a long term Shelter shelter alternative is having a truly enormous impact on our open spaces on our parks operations And on our parks and recreation staff members The photos that are shown here on the slide are depicting the current conditions in the poganip open space And these are merely illustrative of larger impacts that we're seeing throughout portions of the poganip and other city-owned open spaces The the direct environmental impact is very large from the the littering and pollution That is occurring Including latrines for people who are essentially living outside Also, there's a direct cutting of vegetation Terracing as you can see of hillsides which causes erosion And all of these are really devastating to our sensitive habitats And also to endangered and threatened species in our open spaces, which we in parks and rec It's really take us part of our mission to to steward these natural resources We're using quite a significant amount of staff time and City dollars to finance and go after the cleanup issues that are involved in The unsanctioned camping and we're behind on all of this We are not able to keep up with the impacts that are occurring and the demand there is And just the fact that we have Really an unregulated Environment out in many of our open spaces where camping is occurring. We're not quite sure where we're not sure who's out there What conditions they might be experiencing makes it difficult for our maintenance staff to perform their work We really try not to send people off of the the trails Because of the unknown situations that they might encounter and even as recently as last friday on a trail in Pogon upon of our staff members was Threatened so severely that they feared for their lives So I really think it's important that as we enter these deliberations You all consider the impacts that our current situation is having on the environment and on our staff And I hope we can find a way to move forward towards a resolution of these issues. Thank you Thank you so much. And now again, we'd like to have Susie come back, please All right, thank you. So I'm going to round out staff's presentation with Kind of some delivering of context that I received in educating myself on councils historical deliberations on amendments to the camping ordinance So as I was Preparing for the catches deliberations on this I queried sire our online document portal camping ordinance in chapter 6.36 And I think I've had several hundred documents that came up The camping ordinance was originally or the camping muni code was originally Put into place in 1978 Since that time there's been several times that the council has considered amendments Those amendments, you know, are perennial in nature in that the council has over decades really tried to balance The perspective of enforcement with ensuring that our our spaces our public spaces and otherwise public right-of-ways are protected from the Externalities associated that can be associated with camping and quite frankly as I look through honestly Hundreds and hundreds of documents the message was basically always the same It didn't matter who was delivering it It didn't matter what how far on either side of the aisle You were and knowing that the aisle is pretty narrow here, but So one thing that particularly resonated with me was And I delivered this message to the catch as well Is a document that was created by a task force of of council members in 1999 Those observations as you can see I cut and paste them directly in here are really consistent with what the observations of the catch And the message that was delivered from that task force in terms of amendments Was quite frankly Don't use other municodes to enforce camping and the way that they talked about this which I will read out loud because I've realized these that's really small the lettering Concerns over the city concerns of the citizens. I gotta go here. Sorry Um, no, that's too small too concerns of the citizens citizens free. Sorry regarding camping sleeping are focused more on the behavioral problems of Some campers than on the physical act of sleeping Unacceptable behaviors include public urination and defecation littering trespassing substance abuse and disorderly disorderly nest Sorry While they are separate code provisions to deal with these behaviors Their enforcement requires actual police observation and other considerably greater involvement by the citizens So that is really what we've been focusing on from staff's perspective what I included in the catch staff report, which was was not included in the city council agenda report was For the last year since we move forward with vacating the ross encampment The city has put together an encampment assessment team Which really is focused on and this is cross departmental Focused on evaluating and assessing the risks associated associated with camping really understanding that we do not have the resources To move every single person out there nor do we have the shelter space to do that There are campsites that should and can stay in place There are campsites that pose significant risks And those risks are not associated with sleeping those risks are not associated with camping They're associated with the behaviors that are listed, you know in this task force report Which staff is focused on and those conditions and the behaviors that lead to Rests and challenges and impacts to our community and to quite frankly those that are residing in the encampment Over that year we used an assessment tool created in portland Which I asked staff to provide to me city staff to provide to me about two years ago We used that assessment tool and really molded it to the needs of the city But there are urgent criteria that from staff's perspective are really never amenable for folks to be camping at permanently Nor having all the externalities that are sometimes associated with camping Having a safe place for people to sleep is paramount It is paramount We do need to be able to direct people to other places to go Whether that's in the city whether that's regionally whether that's somewhere else in the county that remains to be seen That's really a higher policy level discussion Um, but each and every time we're out there making contacts with folks If we don't have the resources to provide on-demand supportive services and shelter It's really challenging to do this work Enforcement outreach any of those components. So I just wanted to let you guys kind of Ponder that, you know, we're really in a very similar Place to where we were 20 years ago. Unfortunately The challenges have increased The level of behavioral health issues has changed And the needs of our individuals who are unsheltered has have changed significantly too So I just kind of wanted to bring that full circle for your consideration Thank you, Susie So there's a lot of talk about enforcement, but I want to I want to Bring our focus to that we are going into streams here. There's an enforcement component and then there's also An outreach first model, which is what we're going toward The catch recommends immediate amendments to chapter 6.36 camping camping ordinance to minimize public health safety and Environmental risks associated with high density unsanctioned encampment encampments while prioritizing the development of new homeless outreach and safe sleeping programs So two things at the same time One we'd like to urgently increase bed capacity Open new restrooms Increase public engagement. All those are very important Protect sensitive at risk areas of the city from the impacts of unsanctioned encampments And prior prioritize development of new homeless hygiene outreach and safe sleeping programs As well as create long-term vision visions for the city's response to homelessness and that'll be coming up in our final report So now we have we're getting to what our midterm recommendations are I'm just going to give you a quick overview as to where we're going with this So models of shelter and designated safe sleeping sites increased access to health and hygiene facilities public engagement personal property management and then the camping ordinance as well Candice if you will yeah, sure Okay, so we're going to start off with models of shelter and designated safe sleeping sites And I want to echo what Susie said about You know having spaces for people is paramount and we need to have places for people to sleep and our recommendations here Are around having managed spaces I think in a minimum a managed space looks like Disposal of trash and toilets and showers and storage and places for people to sleep And then you can go all the way on the other end of that spectrum to providing on-demand supportive services And so there's a whole range of what a managed site can look like But we recommend that it be managed We prefer models that allow for participants to Be involved in the management and operations and governance of the shelter And then we also prefer models with a strong connection to neighborhood needs and Issues and ways to resolve those issues The next set of recommendations Um Is around criteria so citing criteria And these can be weighted differently depending on their importance Um, but it's really important. I think that we reach out to the community and you know have their input on these Different considerations. We've spoken with some people, but it seems like every meeting that we have There's a whole nother group of people that feels like they need to be engaged with That to you Yeah, uh, so personal property management. This is something that has been echoed often that people feel like they're Things for necessary survival are being taken from them And so we we thought that it was important for us to bring that up So we recommend that the city develop new comprehensive personal property management guidelines to provide clarity to city staff Minimize the negative discarding Minimize. Oh, yeah Sorry about that survival belongings and minimize the community impacts of unintended personal property. So Yeah, it's kind of an unwieldy sentence there But the point is is that we are trying to make it so that people don't have their stuff taken whether they're incarcerated or maybe Moved along or anything like that And the next one So increased access to health and hygiene facilities Our urgent recommendation is focused on increasing access to public restrooms and our midterm recommendation focuses on initiating and evaluating new shower and laundry programs And public engagement. So there's two streams here We mentioned to you before about the wisdom council and as we deliberated about this We want to make two recommendations One is that There be a mechanism to To engage the the city in some sort of Conversation around all these issues and then we're making a second Recommendation to use the wisdom council specifically. So those are two different things and it's up to you what you'd like to do with that But we want to make sure that there's enough capacity and funding to support public engagement Moving forward and we don't feel like staff or cash can do this alone. We need your help with that And that's it And now we come to the camping ordinance. So thank you for giving us this wonderful task of looking through the camping ordinance and coming up with recommendations and this first set of recommendations recommends Increasing RV parking density in lots In specific parking lots. So churches businesses, although there aren't any businesses who are doing this right now Um, and then additionally to allow for flexibility to define what sensitive areas are So environmentally sensitive areas and the like the next set of Three recommendations are kind of meant to consider They are meant to consider the unique needs of those sleeping outdoors within the context of martin v boysy And you know without having adequate shelter capacity You know, how do we address people who are sleeping outside? The next recommendation which has many parts Excuse me so these So just kind of before I get into this all of these recommendations relating to the camping ordinance were all passed by consensus by everyone on our and committee so these are the The ones where we didn't have to Disagree too much on them in order to be able to move forward with them And so these were kind of broadly acceptable to everyone There are other recommendations that we have considered that are more wild and would require more debate in order to come to consensus And so this set of recommendations is really focused on the preservation and protection of sensitive and at-risk areas And that includes areas that are adjacent to playgrounds and schools and this last Next recommendation Has to do with prohibiting high density on permitted encampments. So this is saying, you know, if you have maybe five People who are camping in one area or within a certain distance of each other To be able to to limit the density of the camps So in conclusion, um, we're asking you to accept the status report and move on council accepted policies And provide catch with guidance on next steps We appreciate the opportunity to present our recommendations to this body We encourage the council to accept our recommendations, please Yeah, and you know, thank you and we're going to turn it over to the mayor and council for deliberation and staff and The co-chairs are here to answer any of your questions. Thank you Thank you very much for that wonderful presentation. And thank you staff for coming and also speaking to Okay, I'll bring it back to council for questions Councilman Myers I just have a couple questions and then I'd love to hear from the public and um, I'm actually I would also be Ready to make a motion as well I just had a couple of questions on Your recommendation concerning the Sorry, I'm just trying to find it Basically the increasing the safe sleeping to five Vehicle Yeah, the vehicle see itself from three to five Yeah, and do we I don't believe we have an existing sort of Uh policy or sort of conditions of sort of service related Um to that. I just curious about How do we I know we have the association of faith based community safe spaces program and I'm just curious Susie is that Primarily run by the county. So in other words Where where do those? Churches and how does that program operate? I guess is my question Yeah, so with regard to increasing from three to five there is Somewhat of a blanket allowance to allow for faith based Organizations to have up to three currently and there is not a permitting process With that within the city within the city's purview the afc Program is Contracted through the county. It is a regional program that is situated Here as well as in the unincorporated area and other cities within the county Moving forward because the camping ordinance currently I believe Has that limitation there was interest in increasing that to allow flexibility For faith based and other organizations, whether it be commercial or even city governmental laws or county governmental laws To increase that to five The afc program is of high demand. There's not a huge weight list But there is of interest and as we move forward with some of the challenges We have on Delaware and on west cliff and in other areas Having an increase of capacity in across the city. I think for managed programs makes a lot of sense And can you just um just briefly is that I remember a count at one point? I think it was somewhere up close to 48 or 50 spaces is that Ring a bell. Do you know how many how many uh safes? I think it's about 40 regionally. I don't think it's within the city Okay, thank you Are there any other questions? Thank you. Well, thank you so much. I'll keep my Uh expression of gratitude brief, but I really want to say it is amazing how much work you all put in and Thought the thoughtful process is much appreciated um with respect to The increased access to health and hygiene facilities 10 and 11 I guess I'm I'm just wondering because it wasn't clear here um the afc's willingness and capacity to Do something like this a storage or a laundry towel service program if we were to move in that direction Yeah, they do have capacity and interest to do that. Great. Um, and then um, I have a more Complicated question. I think uh related to number 21 mostly number 21 um on the list and having been out and taken the Uh a little a tour around the pogo nip and sycamore grove And then kind of every day one day closer to a drought. I am really very very concerned about this piece of it and so I understand that um moving forward with the policy Is important. I did want to ask if A little bit from the maybe from I don't know um The folks in parks and rack and the police and fire About their um thinking about the you know the potential for implementation I mean, it's a it's going to be a big project to try to address what's going on And I know we kind of talked about it on the tour, but I'd love to just get a quick um response if possible Can I add one point of clarification before I move it to bernie and others? So one thing and this did come up on the site visits and it was a very astute comment and consideration We are highly resource challenged as it relates to enforcement um in terms of our assessment team Megan and my outreach um on a somewhat weekly base basis based on demand And then ultimately between park rangers Our city rangers Officers, etc It is an all-court press out there, but there still is not enough resources And so the way I wanted to kind of set up the context around this is This does not mean that we're clearing out all of these spaces tomorrow. Have you move forward with this? What this means is we don't have to wait for significant public health environmental and safety risks To arise before we can move forward with enforcement Before we can move forward with outreach right now. We have to wait until What you essentially see in the pictures on the previous slides before we can post do a 72 hour post Make sure that we've gone through all of the standard operating procedures and at that time It's pretty logarithmic and scale. We're at a crisis We're at a crisis in terms of how much it's going to cost to remove all that trash We're at a crisis from the level of Um other externalities that are associated with an encampment So um with regards to 21 It really just gives us the ability to make sure that encampments don't grow to the scale that we're seeing in the Pogonin Now and then we can move forward quicker and then I'll let the rest of staff talk about the resources needed Thank you. That was pretty much what I was trying to get at so unless if you have something more you want to say any of The folks representing departments are here, but that was that was what I was trying to get at Thanks I think well, I have one last question, but it's not one that I think I'm gonna put you on the spot to answer right now You know in terms of direction on you know from the council on how you move forward You know, I want to you know world deliberate about that But I really want to I'd like to know what members of the catch feel are the most important things prioritizing moving forward because I'd like to help at least in our the discussion we have help facilitate your process rather than Either you know putting up obstacles or changing course or things like that. So just that's a great question. Thank you I appreciate the question as well. Um, and it's something that uh in our meetings We all have you know, I have something that's important to me. She has something that's important to her And so what you're seeing in front of you is a distillation of all of our what we think is the most important So I personally can't answer that I would add that we worked with staff to compile this list also and so it's representative I think of all of those different perspectives. Um, and I mean I can speak personally that That creating managed shelter space Would alleviate would would enable us to Make movement in so many other areas I'll speak personally too if that's okay My own thoughts, uh, this whole idea about outreach to the community and and having a facilitated process I feel like is a little bit outlandish And also it's very bold and I think it's something that needs to happen to help Um, re-weave the fabric of our community given that word, you know, instigious if you will so sorry that joke A quick question for the city attorney So one of the recommendations I think it's recommendation 18 Says to ensure that daytime use of blankets tarps sunshades and sleeping bags are not restricted Um, and I know that one of the recommendations was that uh the daytime camping item coming back Would that mean that under that recommendation that the tents would be In violation or how would that be interpreted because I know that that's been an issue around um tents being up during the daytime Not I'm not sure how I'm not sure I understand your question Um, currently the code prohibits setting up an encampment um Anytime and so how this would be amended really depends on you know What the council wants to accomplish I think an earlier draft of the camping ordinance that was presented to the council back in November would have allowed people to use blankets and tarps in in city parks During normal daytime use So that's that's something that's um that was contemplated as part of that draft But it really depends on how the council wants to zero in on that issue Thank you Um, I had a question for some of the members of the catch as it relates to the camping ordinance I know that there were some amendments um that were not recommended at this time and that there's um further consideration I think one thing after looking at that list um as it relates to You know as it relates to this idea of taking tents down during the daytime is the aspect of weather and temperature And so I think that if there is going to be a movement on that and there's going to be further discussion Um that that be taken into consideration. So i'm just saying that was a recommendation because um Even when talking to the police chief, I think that you know, if it's pouring down rain for three days It would be inhumane to tell people to take down their tents during the daytime Especially if it's cold and wet because then you know hypothermia death all those things. Thank you I have something to that mayor. So um The catch hasn't had a lot of time to consider this and put this into their deliberations But most other cities so in addition I did not include this as a slide But in addition to my research on kind of what the city council has done through the decades on our camping code other cities that have amended their code to be in um To work within the context of martin versus boise that have daytime restrictions many of them have Um allowances for inclement weather. So I think if you are contemplating any daytime restrictions Make sure that you allow for those Those um considerations as well Thank you Then I guess the only other um Question I had and maybe you know given that you all didn't dive Super deep into this ordinance. It sounds like but we're really trying to address some of the concerns I think another thing that's that's come to my attention from members of the community is that currently there's a part of that ordinance that says that There's day There's a number of day limitations on if somebody has private property and is allowing someone to sleep in their vehicle And so I think that taking that into consideration as well because for example Someone has an rv on their property and if someone sleeps in that rv for more than three days They're actually in violation of this municipal code But some people feel you know if they have Even if it's somebody in from out of town who's visiting and might be sleeping in that rv for for example a month Or whether they're renting it out that this ordinance could inhibit them From being able to allow people to do that and it's their private property. So I think that might be another thing to consider Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, I feel like we did talk about that and that came down to maybe planning department rules I'm not sure if that would uh could be changed via the mechanism of the ordinance or not But we can definitely talk about that. Thank you Council member crown thank you mayor, um I really appreciate the work that you all have done. I mean, it's really comprehensive, you know, but it is funny how History repeats itself and we're kind of back to the future Um, I like the whole thing about bed capacity restrooms hygiene centers public engagement storage trash and neighborhood involvement just like I'm thinking the Way to big thing up here the corridors plan of course neighborhood should be involved in anything that you know happens That's going to affect their their neighborhoods as well and we should do outreach. You never can do enough outreach I agree with you. You don't know which groups you're you're leaving out. Um, I guess I have a few questions for mizzo her How many campsites were found in the pogonip and sycamore grove? Do we have like a ballpark estimate? Like how many people are asleep actually sleeping out there? So yesterday during our council visits, um, we had the opportunity to engage with ron parego's clean team Staff that were out there cleaning up adjacent to highway nine And those folks there were two Men I think it was brad and matt and that we just happenstance. Um, we're there at the same time who have invested hundreds if not thousands of hours into cleaning up the railroad corridor areas of the pogonip And they were asked that question Yesterday from council members and one of them said there's a thousand people up there I don't know if that's true. We have not seen a thousand people But there are likely hundreds of individual camps up up there. Wow. Um, another question that I mean You said there are campsites that should and can stay in place. What does that mean? So what city staff has done with this assessment tool and I can provide that to council members if they're interested is um, taken a pragmatic and objective approach to looking at individual campsites From the perspective of several criteria, um, public safety issues, violence environmental damage considerations proximity to Important infrastructure for instance other areas of concern that The rest of staff have talked about and we have on a scale to from zero to a hundred Levels four levels of action Anything under of 25 points, which means they're not in close proximity to a playground. There is no environmental degradation The camp density is less than three for instance That is not something that we have the resources to move nor really should it Given the fact that we do not have places to direct people. So we have been Working under those guidelines to ensure that we are being careful about how we prioritize a response around complaints Our police department our parks department gets Dozens of complaints a week most likely We do not have the resources nor is it really reasonable nor is it A compatible approach for those that are outside to be moving people along So that assessment tool really gives us this objective criteria. Thanks, and um, I totally Empathize with the highly resource challenge. That's why I like I'm happy to hear that we have a manager Encampment happens that you have folks peer to peer But as well as oversight that the city is going to be involved somewhat that we're going to you know work with folks The uh I'm really wondering about the scenarios like you find someone at 3 a.m In an rv or or camping and you say hey you can go over there You know you can go to the shelter How do they how would they get to the shelter and would the shelter Would the armory accept them in the same thing if we had an rv site would they accept an rv at 3 a.m Also, I think you're getting to the million dollar question is how do we create on-demand space for sheltering and for parking And we don't have capacity like that right now With a hero team with our outreach teams that we have out there with the hopes team, etc There is there are warm handoffs There are not handoffs where most of the time somebody is driven to the location that they need to be When megan and I do outreach we make sure that we have a shuttle with us And we are bringing people for instance from the post office directly to the armory when we have beds available Moving forward. I think what the catch is is recommending to the council is we need to have Some semblance of on-demand sheltering capacity and that's that's different That's a different conversation than what we've had in the past And it's going to require, you know deep conversations with the community around siting around program models This is the stuff that they've just kind of scratched the surface of but ultimately, you know, we need additional capacity Where when somebody is in a situation that potentially is unsafe for them or unsafe for the community We can move them into a space that is not only meeting their needs To exit homelessness, but during critical times in their lives when they're outside and unsheltered that We can provide those services when they need it. Thank you and I have a question for the cash Did you all we we've heard a lot from ucsc the whole slug movement and have you did you have you dealt with that the unhoused students at ucsc right now So our We These take into consideration on how students at ucsc But that's another group that would be ideal to to do outreach with specifically because they have unique needs. Thank you and last one The long-term like strategic plan has that come up and do you all Vision that we're going to have a strategic plan and go sort of goals and move as we move into the future Yeah, so if you see item number 23 Not recommended for consideration at this time that gets at the creation of a strategic plan on homelessness So operational and staffing needs and identifying sites Identify developing a tiny home an affordable housing emergency shelter program and various other items that we haven't had the time to deliberate on yet Okay, i'm really happy to hear about the bathrooms to the four new port of parties and council member you wouldn't mind if I added to that so One thing to consider with regard to strategic planning moving forward and the catch Is very invested in having a unified vision from the city's perspective moving forward Is that there are many different trains going down this track right now? The regionally the county is working with focused strategies to develop a systems approach to Looking at our gaps in our system and creating connections between those That is expected in june or july of this year and that will really be the driver for our regional response to homelessness in addition to that The governor is filtering a lot of funding to the cities and the counties To focus on very specific outcomes that generally speaking are from a state perspective Things that we need to focus on here in santa cruz But not everything that he is suggesting should be funded is stuff that we need right here right now So I do think that um, it is really um We're we're kind of on this threshold to have a much more Collective and coordinated response to homelessness and it would make a lot of sense for the catch to actually Focus a lot of their intention on what what's happening regionally Moving forward rather than just investing in the city's strategic direction Because we could potentially be missing out on funding sources And truly assistance in getting this work done So that you know, I wouldn't want to make sure that they're looking very much towards what's happening regionally I appreciate the honesty here in in this conversation and um And it feels overwhelming and it had no idea that there was hundreds of folks. Maybe maybe hundreds Camping in in pova nipa right now and especially it's been dry for a long time Yeah, if I could just back that up what we're seeing also is this is the tip of the iceberg and um It's a it's a statewide issue as we all know But also it's a national issue and then someone reminded me the other day It's actually a global issue. So just want to bring that up, you know that what we're seeing right now We're dealing with a triage situation. Okay. What can we do right now? But then with the long-term recommendations It's going to be okay. What what's really going to help in the long run? So we're definitely going to bring that to you I'm walking Well, I'll reserve my comments But just start with my expression of gratitude for every one of you and your time and volunteerism and commitment To really dive in really deep into this really complex challenge. So thank you. I'm my sincerest. Thanks to you I um wanted to just sort of and susie you actually spoke about it was really just thinking about the regional kind of conversation and approach as We are one jurisdiction within the county who You know through partnership needs to be addressing these these really complex challenges But as I also was reading through the agenda report in terms of implementation And I was wondering if maybe the city manager could update us on Sort of the status of the position that we allocated funding for and really trying to think about how We as a city are investing in the work that's associated with some of this Yes, I would say that in general As susie pointed out the the city's involvement in an advocacy and in regional Efforts and state efforts is really critical Because part of the solution is going to be Uh involving You know those entities, you know, we have a role to play in homelessness, but it's it's somewhat limited And so without having you know, everyone sort of focus on Really what the role should be and in terms of direct Services as well as other ways to address the issue You know, that's really the most effective thing that we can do is to really Put our work there Having the council as as you noted Approved a position homelessness response manager position that Will be focused on really helping us with a variety of roles. There's the the direct role. There's the coordination role And there's just a lot of work that needs to be done on a day-to-day basis We did go out and do the recruitment. Unfortunately, the initial recruitment was not successful However, we are going back and looking at trying to get that another recruitment going here And so we hope to get that position filled as soon as possible, but unfortunately the first recruitment was just not successful Are there any further comments from council members? We'd like to thank our co-chairs again for the wonderful presentation and our staff and at this time I'd like to invite up the public for public comment And so there are two people who requested extra time And we'll start with Brent Adams from the warming center if Brent Adams is here Okay, since he's not we'll move on to our second presentation From surge cagno with stepping up santa Cruz and surge you'll have four minutes And then for the rest of the public if you Would like to line up to the left We will have you We'll have the public the rest of public comment after this presentation Made a power point. I hope you enjoy it Last week I went to The national conference to end homelessness up in oakland 1,200 people from around the country It's one of the biggest things It caused like 800 dollars. I got a scholarship for it I think you guys should go if you are interested in this stuff And it was sold out so staff city staff didn't get signed up because it was sold out And I got to meet some great people one of the best things that I learned about is whenever somebody tries something in a different place The lessons learned in it. You know what worked. Oh, this is this is really great. This is what worked for us Oh, don't do that. We tried that that didn't work like that's super useful knowledge People who gave presentations from san francisco was the guy in charge of homelessness in san francisco Guy in charge of homelessness in oakland and the one in charge of homelessness in In philadelphia too gave large presentations on what worked and didn't work for them For them it was very clearly you have to have a strategic plan With the county has an all-in plan The the city is sort of reactive and we have all sorts of different stuff So the city needs its own because we don't have the all-in plan for ourselves Uh San francisco had some amazing tactical meetings where Everybody was in the room not just city staff the county staff the nonprofits Everybody was there every week and they talked about the assessments and they talked about for the encampments And they talked about what are we doing and who knows those people and stuff like that Opening those into a more collaborative kind of meeting San francisco, I asked the guy in charge of san francisco He said I could go up in a couple weeks and watch one of those meetings I invite city staff and anybody else who wants to go up there. I'll be going up in a couple weeks And oakland does some tours I asked them to if we could come up in a couple weeks again Some cao staff are going to be coming up with me anybody else wants to please come with Very clearly everybody was saying that social media must be used to educate and engage the community Last year our heap money was actually we allocated a hundred thousand for miller maxfield to actually do engagement in our county The city and the official staff social media should be in line with that Yeah Because we have a lot of discord and it's there's a lot of misinformation in a lot of the discord Very clearly san francisco all of the big cities They were saying engagement rates of those who are homeless are directly proportional to how welcoming you are to get them into the shelters And engagement rates immediately drop when they were forced to switch to an enforcement policy When a mayor changed in san francisco or something like that The percentage of people who chose to go to the shelter or something like dropped from like 85 to 58 and then when they just kept going down Shelter provides safety was something that people said at the conference It was just a tag line and they kept saying houses solve homelessness. So yeah, we need more houses. Totally true There's another idea of diversion Homeward bound that we do that's a cheap fix and that's great when that works homeless prevention is probably the best thing But i'm going to poke at that first phrase up there for a minute Um So low barrier shelter is what we want because we want people to get into the shelters right now We have space at the armory and no one some people We can't fill it because people don't want it Low barrier is not just allowing pets Partners and possessions which fit on your lap to go up there. There's lower low barrier is actually a philosophy Low barrier is the philosophy that unnecessary rules keep people out of shelters get people kicked out of shelter and make Shelter unwelcoming So turning that whole idea around of how do we get people into the shelters? Keep only the rules you need for safety anything else Not sure that you need it because You'll be stop your choice if you can finish your last sentence and if you're wrapping it up Um, I'll pop through it and I'll stop talking so much Whatever you want or I can do it the seven o'clock thing, but you guys are going to have your decisions Yeah, I can't let I can't give you the extra but You know, I think what will be great is if you could provide This slide deck to the city council and so we could have it available for the public so that we can see the rest sure I can't okay. I'm sorry the idea is outreach first with people that are dressed in uniforms even if they're well intentioned is not Trauma informed Collaborating with the county because the county wants to do these services. We just got to allow them into the room Thank you. That's it. Sorry. I took so long. I hope you like the slides Thank you I'll have our first speaker come up. You'll have two minutes. Hi. I'm here. Do I have two minutes? I'm here on behalf of the um mutual aid working group of the democratic socialists of america and I just want to reiterate what sir Ches said about emphasizing outreach and having a true low barrier shelter and I think what's important here is that you Honor the spirit of the martin versus boise decision rather than finding ways to find n runs around it We I have lived here in santa cruz for 25 years and I have seen you know Waxing and waning regimes of Cracking down quote-unquote increasing criminalization of homelessness And I have seen that that approach has been completely ineffective in addressing human needs And I think that's what you need to prioritize now is Really addressing human needs of homeless people you are dealing with Years and years of neoliberal policies that have decreased the rights of workers Have seen no increase in wages. We have 41 million americans living in poverty We have to get away from the thought that there's some Personal failing that have brought people into homelessness. It is The way we have structured society and the way we have prioritized Policing and incarceration over meeting human needs that has led us to this problem and you Have taken on public service. It's a difficult problem, but you need to Meet it head on and you need to not listen to the fear mongers and those who don't Understand the complexities All right next speaker Okay, first I just want to thank the members of the cash, especially the homeless members who attended and Participated I just think that you know I'm hearing Susie come around to a place that we were advocating A long long time ago and on one level you want to say well That's just saying I told you so but In in in a certain way there's been an incredible Resistance to helping homeless people in this city. That's why I'm here Because there are also more homeless activists who work for the homeless For homeless people's rights and needs in this city than almost any other city in the united states That's why i'm here So back in my career when I was taught by some people who are advocating for our clients We're in the mental health system They taught us about a kind of dichotomy that was us and them Us and them I'm still feeling homeless people being referred to in this presentation as them Them over there not me I'm housed. I'm privileged Does that mean the cash hasn't done excellent work here? I actually feel surprised at how much Excellent work they've done and the recommendations But I have to tell you as an activist for the since 2009 who's donated Thousands of hours for free I felt snubbed at the beginning of this formulation of this committee And in fact it was said that we they didn't want to hear from the same old people So I just want to say um Specifically attorney kandadi showed up to catch meetings I went for about two and two and a half months to catch meetings He's specifically showed up to advocate a position of undermining martin versus boise And the wisdom council is not grassroots. I've heard that it cost over 300 dollars to participate There is a fierce lobbying effort made. I don't think it's a grassroots model Please do not go with the wisdom council. It's offensive to me a true grassroots activist yep Thanks speaker Okay, hi carrot philip I find the guiding principles of the cash report lacking basic perspective Welfare is a responsibility the fed and the state it's in section eight of the constitution The city's taxes are regressive. They're not based on progressive new wealth creation And incompatible with anything other than a pay-for-service model the homeless provide no service So we're not buying it all services and public property use should be designed for all residents to be able to equally use And be what all the residents people want need and are willing to pay for free from violations of endable rights Permanent public space space squatters criminals litterers drug addicts and those who otherwise constitute a threat to the public safety or moral decay I reject the catches recommendations almost entirely It does not acknowledge that the extraordinary homeless population percentage here is due to forces that have attracted and maintained this population Just here. There was no attempt to identify the reason But I think it is lenient government policy itself and the militant activists nonprofits that seem not to mind turning this city into a Greater cesspool of dependence any restraints on police Contact or unacceptable Nothing prevents you from declaring large swaths of the city off limits to camping now You should do so You should seek federal state county money to exclusively fund new homeless services And put it just outside the city where the goal of reducing the extraordinary homeless density here to state averages Just satisfy martin versus boise until homeless ratios resemble state averages Then enact and enforce full no camping in the city The nonprofits can commute if they like there's no limit to private charity But yeah, there is if it harms and denies the individual rights of others to their use of public spaces or safety Logarian campments have no time limits or expectations of transition to anything and will be very difficult to disband They do not promote responsible moral improvement Do not give up an inch of city property or money to sanction homelessness beyond martin versus boise Thank you Our next speaker Good afternoon, mayor Cummings members of the council. I'm jm brown chair of your parks and recreation commission Let me begin by thanking you for reappointing me to that commission Last month. It's a wonderful way to serve our community My request is really simple today I sent an email to you as did one of my fellow commissioners jillian greensight We're simply requesting that any of the recommendations that you consider this afternoon or in any future meetings relative to Camping activity or safe sleeping, etc. Some more activities in our parks and our open spaces in terms of sanction permitted uses that you would respectfully Have the parks and recreation commission Just review those actions to provide some recommendations to you So thank you for your time Thank you Our next speaker Hi, my name is pat powers. I live in the west side of santa cruz. Um, just a few things Um, first I went to one of these cash meetings and uh, it was a mess There was so much in fighting in between all of the members there that nothing got accomplished It was the one at the vets. I'm not sure if they all were there. Um and then just second is is Before we like go and adopt all of these these resolutions and amendments to stuff is uh, have we ever really Had a real discussion on Why we're such a magnet for for for the homeless problem? I mean just in general and it's and it's been that way for 30 something years and and and what it is about Santa Cruz is that we're doing most of the burden sharing around here, right? And um So, you know, one of the things I think is is maybe we do too much, right? You know, maybe maybe we're we're doing too much and the other you know other cities counties aren't participating as well um and then um I went to a meeting and then the police department has a lot of recommendations on enforcement I do believe enforcement works. Um And then lastly, um We have an election coming up and I don't think you guys should be passing any resolutions right now until after the election So, thank you Next speaker Mr. Mayor council members. It's great to be here. It's great to see you again. Mr. Mayor met you at a Catch meeting which I really enjoyed I'm very passionate and excited people here and I think that's great Um, I have the honor of overseeing a team of about 17 18 people who reach out to our unhoused neighbors We're called dignity on wheels and we're part of we hope we hope is an organization That's been ministering to the poor about 15 20 years here in the bay area and over that time We've been able to touch the lives of 7 000 unduplicated people, but only two In this county and I'm hoping that we can we can change that I appreciate the approach that you're taking because you're not just talking about showers and laundry Which are helpful, but case management as well. That's what we do our goal that we hope is to Help our unhoused neighbors become healthy employed and housed We've got at this point five trucks six trailers and we want to serve in more counties in the bay area And I just want to just give you a picture of some of the things that we've been able to do But you can't do anything So with with with our partners We have a brand new case manager her name's jasmine her first day in oakland She realized that the best way to help this particular client was to get him into a detox center So she researched him found a center that day that that person was in a detox center because that was the best thing for this this person particular client another one of our Case managers was trying to help a client get how he has an interesting name I can't tell it to you, but we'll say he calls himself cab Callaway Mr. Callaway probably has a sense of humor, which is good because he's been through a lot In and out of homelessness for eight years But we found him at the the case manager found him a senior facility in his community in oakland He's on the list and should be housed within the next, you know, two or three Months we're excited about that and at our staff meeting We're going to go crazy when he gets housed because that's what we do when people get housed I certainly hope that you'll adopt the recommendations of the catch team And if we get a chance to be your partners, we would be thrilled. Thank you very much. Yeah Greenwood fallen. Thank you for serving um, I've sat through all the catch meetings and One of the comments the catch member made who's had his career in government agencies said You got to understand. It's like a herd of turtles in a bucket of peanut butter. That's how things move, right? So I remain a strong advocate for the citizen's civic wisdom council Drawn by random selection It's an extraordinary model for participatory democracy and it has a track record in municipalities for quantum leaping The whole community elected officials and the population Into a whole new Oh, we could do this So I'm that voice. Thank you I did attend the cash meeting meeting the other night and you guys I can tell I've done a lot of work I really appreciate that my family's been in Santa Cruz for five generations All of which who have fished the San Lorenzo river for steel hit My family tells me now there is filth and encampments along the banks of the river But I'm too afraid to walk there and see it myself So as I drive to harvey west park, I see all the garbage. I'm kind of getting the story. They're telling me Um, when I walk main beach seabed beaches, I always find needles now. I kind of understand why when I was a kid I got to run barefoot on these beaches and now I always wear shoes I was taught that beaches rivers forests and parks are places we all shared and never ever do we leave garbage behind Um, our neighbor isn't safe a neighborhood isn't safe either We walk out to our sidewalk in front of our house feces toilet paper and needles This is in our neighborhoods on the west side I'm trusting the city council to make a decision that would protect the city as a whole And keep Santa Cruz safe for all of us, especially our children and please don't let people park in our camp in our parks I just I like the managed part you guys got that I'm very happy because that was something that You guys talked about at cash and I really appreciate that so please listen to us the ones that do pay taxes I am not a privileged person Not all my family has houses here even though we've lived here for you know for a long time And I just want to feel safe in my hometown. Thank you Yeah next speaker Good afternoon first um, I just want to read I just want to emphasize and I think most of my Peers would agree with me. We don't have anything against people without permanent housing We have problems with the behaviors associated with People who don't have housing and choose to be or live outside I mean if the home if the this broad term homeless folks If they were like boy scouts pitched their tent cleaned up after themselves left it cleaner than they left then when they first arrived We wouldn't be here we would be opening our bathrooms and kitchens and you know facilities and to these folks because They just it's just about civil behavior So I just let's emphasize that we keep using this term homelessness, which means somebody without a house Therefore they're bad. Well, that's not true But has we have to address and recognize the behaviors the nuisance behaviors that typically go along with What I think is Somewhere close to the majority of homeless folks at least in this town and Going back to look at these recommendations. It looks like that's more about where not Where you can camp As opposed to where you can't camp and I'd rather see it flipped such that we have here are Certain areas. I mean, I'm all for the encampment model properly managed, of course, but let's identify those areas for managed camping As opposed to the towns And we haven't seen the maps. I don't believe we haven't seen the you know The overlay is where what you know designated areas and non designated areas But it seems like it's more about it's it's more towards You can this is where you you can't camp as opposed to this is the few areas you can um and the other and lastly again just Oh, well next time. Thank you My name is Lee Broca and I finally got my opening Uh during the last campaign campaign cycle at one of the forums, uh woman stood up And um is now one of my heroes and she said I don't want to hear any more about needles in parks Until I hear about needles in bedrooms If you are a IV drug user Are you going to put your used needle in your trash? With your discarded mail With your name and address on it I don't think so Blaming the needle trash on the homeless is an easy out And it's wrong Let's get real the people that have houses in this community have disposable income They are the people who are investing in drugs They are the people who bring the drugs into this city and distribute them It is not the homeless people They're homeless because they don't have money I mean Is this really hard to understand? Apparently so Thank you My name is Amy Chen Mills naeem. I'm a member of the catch I was on the community outreach subcommittee And I just wanted to say a couple things because I heard for the first time at this meeting That the homeless coordinator position I'm not sure if I have the title exactly correct has not been filled And we were counting on that position to be the position that had Time allocated to do more community engagement because community engagement is really an intensive Time intensive effort, especially the kind of engagement we need now On these issues that are arising in front of this body. So That's why we also included that budget of 10 000 for something to be able to hire someone In cases coordinator didn't have the time or in case they weren't hired at this point So I just want to share that also there is an exhibit on the wisdom councils Attached to your packet a lot of us did a lot of intensive Going to a dynamic facilitation process and going through df training. We're happy to answer questions I'm happy to answer questions or come into meetings and talk to you about this process One thing I would say is that the kind of conversation that needs to happen It can't be this it can't be I have two minutes and then my alarm goes off And I don't hear anything about what the reaction was from anybody. I have no idea if anything landed So we have to have community engagement that is Dynamic back and forth allows for emotions and allows for us to come to alignment as a community I'm having said that we are going to still be doing a community listening forum As part of the catch will be putting this on and we're going to be setting a date Next week and we'll be letting you know about that and that's a way for us to start to really try to Come together and have community dialogue That is not maybe so formal as this and even as the catch because even though the catch is a subcommittee it's still sort of Stilton in a way like like this forum is and um, thank you so much. Thank you Hi there. I'm Ralfa Sonnenfeld. I'm also on the catch I just wanted to remind the council and the public that The camping ordinance is not and should not be the entire City policy regarding People experiencing homelessness. It's it's simply a tool in the much broader Toolbox of of Methods that we we have to better manage the the our homelessness system in the city I just wanted to emphasize that and Let you know that I'm advocating for us to continue to move forward with really robust specific Strategic action plans where there the city is accountable. There are individual staffers who are accountable to Moving the conversation and and the plan forward to getting more indoor shelter getting more Designating the places that people are allowed to be and I think until we have all of that it's it's going to be really challenging to Do the enforcement that we want to do but we need to we need to recognize that in the short term enforcement is important and You have a difficult job in front of you to try to balance all of that, but we need to keep our eye on the prize which is Having a comprehensive Strategic plan for for dealing with our unchiltered homelessness. Thank you So I realize that oh, I'm sorry go ahead please Hi, I'm elizia soras or alley or alley cat or whichever those three work Um, I am a member of I am on the catch committee and I just want to say There was a lot of things that um in the report at least for me personally that say further discussion I'm all for oh snap. I really like that oh snap overall homeless strategic needs action plan. Um It needs it needs to be implemented along and within building these safe sleep sites right now where people are allowed to be While bigger and longer projects are are ongoing progressive development. I have notes Um And I'm a homeless woman by the way, and I've been homeless since um 2017 um I'm currently housed in transitional housing But that's due to run out in november with no place else to go But the time for change is now because there's no longer room for personal feelings and bias Towards the demonized population that I I live in With the legal language and decisions that have recently been enacted Now is the time there's never going to be another time like right now To make a huge dramatic change in the lives of homeless people There's a bunch of heterophics out there and I get it. They don't understand it. They've probably never been there But as you move forward in making decisions and thinking about things that you are going to enact or not If that was your son or your daughter in that tent, how would you want them to be treated? because The the trauma of being homeless is one thing Most of the time we're not living up to our own standards, let alone anybody else's So and I'm not for lawlessness for homelessness. I mean Just because we're homeless. We're not outside of the law But um, let's see what else that I wanted to say Um Not only the trauma of being a becoming homeless and I'll wrap this up um people need to realize I read some of those 256 emails that got sent and um It's very disheartening to me Because that that traumatizes homeless people further which will lead them to more mental health issues and drug and alcohol abuse Thank you. Thank you All right, um, I just noticed well I'd like to ask if is there any other member of the public who would like to address us on this issue with the exception of Brent Adams Okay, saying none Brent Adams requested additional time of four minutes as a representative of the warming center and you can please approach the podium My macbook pro 2013 will not support the uh Software that will allow me to watch this online and request that the city Have a much better appropriate manner for the community to view these online I had got a text and that informed me about to be to be here right now. I thank you for for that Many many years as a citizen Uh interacting with council in the community Trying to build up a concept called transitional encampments We actually in Santa Cruz are responsible for the successes in Seattle Eugene Olympia Because of the work we've done here even though we had so much resistance. We couldn't establish them here Uh for former uh earlier councils went all the way to navigation center day services. We still haven't seen these interim shelters Plan after plan after plan council people come by it's such a quickening rate that uh, there's There's complete political amnesia. We even forgotten that this time last year. We voted unanimously for a transitional encampment Uh for all the work that it's going to just get trashed in 20 recommendations in 2017 hygiene centers electronic charging storage programs Instead we work on the bureaucratic behind the scenes stuff Letting the needs of people outside go unmet by this council by this government by the county Storage program finally we built it up 300 people on our shelves tonight Laundry 60 people recently. We just we're serving almost 200 people now total with laundry Charging stations for anybody who comes in the door Uh and and finally showers Have members of the catch the hygiene committee even looked in on us. No, they've refused And we're not quite sure why this is but when we talk about the recommendations for safe sleeping now, this is Brilliant Finally, we're going all the way to the bottom Lowest competent nominators said people are sleeping outside. We need a plan for every single person If we are the community city city council or not Engage in raising that floor of experience up from people suffering in doorways to something more dignifying clean and safe Then we're not doing our work What we as a nonprofit warming center are trying to reflect to you the council the community at large is scalability We are forcing people to sleep outside because of lack of housing because of the few numbers of shelter beds You and we all are forcing people outside salvation armly only has 50 people for the for the Untold Hundreds of thousands of dollars in the armory only has 50 people regardless that you were told 80 people Where is the accountability? So we're actually forcing people outside It's the rest of those that you have to think about with some recommendations about some clearheadedness and we advocate For transitional encampments because this is the number one most successful sheltering concept in the entire country even better than navigation centers in terms of healing the inner person Because of the engagement that the person is involved in interpersonal support So I don't know where you're going to go with this. I know that there's a big backlash No other creative responses. So here's a community group after three years ago A coordinating committee with their recommendations that seemingly have gone away an all-in 10-year plan called all in Towards the home for every resident. We don't even talk about housing first anymore. The whole thing Is kind of a sham. So what we need to do is engage as a community As a city council as a two by two as a county on what are the basic unmet needs housing first be damned We know it's a bridge to nowhere But what are we going to do to minister to the needs of the people suffering outside now and that's your charge. Thank you Looks like there's a couple more people who'd like to Address us on this topic. So you'll have two minutes Good afternoon. I'm scott graham 20 years ago there was a I don't know what they called it back then some sort of committee about homelessness and One of the suggestions that they put forward was moving the homeless garden to pogunip That was 20 years ago. It still hasn't happened I don't think anything else on the list that that group put forward has happened And I doubt anything that the that this current group puts forward had this report when it's finished Will be put on a shelf somewhere gathering dust What's important here is to do something To help the least fortunate people in this town There's elderly people Living on the sidewalks in this town and it's not just this town its towns all over america And this is you know, we're supposedly this great country and we can't even Take care of our Most needy citizens. I mean, this is ridiculous. I mean there's children that are homeless I you don't see them a lot because Their families are smart enough to keep them out of the limelight most of the time because They might get snatched by cps and sold to some other family, which is a common practice here in santa Cruz county So it's really Up to you as a council to come up with a plan To to take some of the uh advice from this Committee and from other committees in the past and actually do something You know have have a transitional encampment somewhere, you know 20 years ago the The private campground up by Pogan up was for sale and a number of us advocated that the city by that campground as a homeless Camp encampment and it didn't happen. We'd be so much far far ahead if that had happened Yeah, hello, I'm Maggie Duncan merrill. I'm the third district representative for the county parks commission And I'm here to speak in um in defense of parks parks are places that people go to to get healthy and stay fit Parks are protected public lands. They improve water quality protect groundwater prevent flooding Improve the quality of the air we breathe provide vegetative buffers to development Produce habitat for wildlife and provide a place for children and families To connect with nature and recreate outdoors together According to studies by the center of disease control and prevention creating improving and promoting places to be physically active Can improve individual and community health parks provide gathering places for families and social groups as well as for individuals Of all ages and economic status regardless of their ability to pay for access Our public parks are not for private use. This is established clearly in california law division five parks and monuments According to the public resources code regarding the preservation of parks No city county city and county county public district or agency of the state including any division department or agency Of the state government or public utility shall acquire by purchase Exchange condemnation or otherwise any real property which property is in use as a public park at the time of such Acquisition for the purpose of utilizing any such property For any non park issue unless the acquiring entity pays or transfers the legislative body Of the entity operating the park to offer the use of our public parks Safe sleeping sites essentially makes the sleeping space provided a private space No longer usable by the public who funds these parks Sectioning off our public parks for private use is not legal and therefore not an option to remedy our homeless crisis Please stop offering our public parks for homeless camps. It's not what our community wants It's not legal and it's an abuse of power to try to force this upon our community. Thanks for your time Ask that members of the public Excuse me. I'm going to ask the members of the public. Please be respectful towards other members of our community We have to respect everyone's opinion as well as they should respect our so Bring it back to council if there's no further comments from the public on this item It seemed like maybe one of our co-chairs wanted to say something earlier or had a comment Yeah, please. I'm sorry. I just I realized that um, fred kealy who has been instrumental to our group wasn't Given a chance to speak and I was wondering if we could have just a minute or two for him to say some remarks Sure. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Mayor members of the city council city staff and uh members of the public My name is fred kealy you uh, your predecessor in interest asked me if I would uh Be the presiding officer without a vote of the catch and and I appreciate the opportunity to be of service to the community I wanted to simply do make two real quick points one The and we talked about this a little bit when the catch was in front of you on a previous occasion and that is Although cities is where Those experiencing homelessness often manifest itself in the most visible ways That doesn't mean in my judgment any way that cities bear the sole responsibility for dealing with the issue and in fact cities are uniquely Unprepared to do that and that's not what the government code expects you to do There there is a role for cities absolutely role for cities But this issue writ large is the responsibility largely of the state of california and counties Standing in the shoes of the state of california to deliver health human services and range of other services now I want to emphasize that point by pointing out that two days ago Governor Newsom made his second state of the state of dress and he did something i've not ever seen Ever in the history of the state of california And that is instead of the governor using the state of the state to address a wide range of high priority issues That are then connected to the budget that the governor has proposed Instead of that the governor took and dedicated the entire State of the state address to the issue of homelessness And took responsibility as the leader of the executive branch of the state government to say I want the state to be the leader in solving this problem So the governor is going to propose spending another billion dollars from the housing bond another $750 million of discretionary general fund money to be delivered at the county level So that Progress can be made on the issue the point. I Really want to emphasize here is that you have a potential Billion dollar partner in the governor and the legislature Who are in harness trying to get the budget through to be able to then move money to operationalize some of these Recommendation many of the recommendations being made to you to you by the catch in other words There's the catch is not saying Please stop doing everything else you do in state in city government and dedicate all your general fund revenues to this issue This the catch is saying something different and they've done this in every single one of the recommendations They've made to you and that is does the city have a role in this? Yes. No Whether they do or they don't what other levels of government are implicated in trying to put the solution on the table And what I want to suggest to you is that you've got a partner where it really belongs Which is at the state level being able to direct funds to the county level standing in the steps of the state of california To be your partner in making real progress rather than rating your general fund to zero to try to get something done on this Thank you very much. Thank you Councilman vice mayor mires Thank you mayor Cummings First of all, I just wanted to thank the members of the cash the community advisory committee on homelessness This was something that actually councilmember Matthews and mayor Walkins at the time wrote up this proposal And I'm thankful for my colleagues and the council that that we moved this forward We wanted to see full representation and Have the committee really engaged in Helping our community through a particularly difficult time following the closure and during the during the process of the The Ross camp. So I really thank everyone who's involved and who's been involved on the cash I know that you have done a huge amount of work and You've dealt with a lot of complicated topics and so I really congratulate you all on your work today um You've also seen continued progress during this time and I know you've been updated by the county on The work that they're doing with a national organization called focus strategies Which some maybe some folks in our community are not completely aware of that work that's being being done But that's a critical piece to basically what Speaker pro tem keely just mentioned which is that we are sort of entering a new dawn here in california and I think for many of us we are very thankful that we're starting to see actual acknowledgement of the scale and the severity um, and truly the crisis that our state is facing with people who are unhoused and So we're at a pivotal time right now And I don't know that any of us could have forecast that The the level of commitment that we're starting to hear from the governor May actually start hitting the ground Um to to mr. Keely's comments Um, I think that it is really important that we recognize that cities do have a role But we are clearly not expected to or able to really carry the full burden of solving homelessness Um, and that our city leadership should acknowledge that we cannot make meaningful progress in these areas without a strong partnership With the county and the state especially moving ahead right now But the cash you have moved so many important improvements forward um and brought those to the council and I think especially With regards to some of the immediate concerns around um hygiene and making sure people had um have the the resources and the availability to actually Um do the things that you know, everyone should be deserved to do every day Which is take a warm shower wash your clothes and with some of the community members that we've worked with Including the warming center. These are the things that make people feel Feel human again to be able to take a shower clean their clothes So I realize now that we're at a really pivotal time and given the complexity of the report that you've provided to us As well as sort of your mid-term and longer-term recommendations I'd like to kind of make my way through your recommendations with a number of with a number of motions so that we can kind of move Some of these things forward um, so I'd like to start first with your accepting your status second status report of the cash with appreciation I'm sorry to cut you off, but I just want to say as a reminder if we can When we're making the motions to focus on the motions that we're making this for all the council members So that we can make sure that the motion is clear. Oh great. I'm not here so So first I accept the status report Of the cash with appreciation for the hard work of the groups members Secondly, I'd like to direct the city manager to prepare an administrative budget adjustment if necessary In an amount not to exceed ten thousand two hundred and fifty dollars to support council adopted policy including increased access To health and hygiene facilities inclusive inclusive of the cash mid-term policy recommendations Specifically number 10 number 11 and number 12 So those are the shower and hygiene facility the laundry and Let me just grab my Make sure I've got donna. I added got it. You got it up there. Okay, great And um that also we collect uh information on the use of the hygiene services so we can can continue to refine those so uh, it's the first the second is to um Direct city manager to draft the new comprehensive personal property management guidelines with analysis of best practices resource considerations and implementation considerations To return for council discussion and possible action no later than may 2020 Increased to five the number of overnight vehicles permitted in city authorized safe parking programs located on faith-based commercial and approved governmental lots In accordance with conditions approved by council by council resolution Identify number of overnight safe parking vehicles and approved governmental lots may exceed five. So that's your recommendation number 15 Finally adopt the cash mid-term policy recommendation number six to ensure all forthcoming city cited shelter and safe sleeping models include organization staffing to supervise the site and take responsibility for addressing issues that arise And also include a meaningful management operational and governance roles for participants Additionally, we have received a lot of correspondence about camping proposals in the last few days And I have all had the opportunity to visit campsites in the sensitive areas of our of our of the city We have learned and seen stark evidence of illegal drug trafficking and fire danger occurring in our sensitive open spaces And severe risk associated with camps in the pogan up in sycamore grove to the water supply for a system serving over a hundred thousand people Based on the extreme risk level we witnessed this week regarding wildfire risk to our water supply environmental damages and public safety concerns I do not believe at this time we can move forward with many of the campany ordinances recommendations in the cash report I believe these recommendations need to be in alignment with the focus strategies report and outcomes currently being developed for Developed by the county and we must work with the county in any future consideration It is clear that the state is not moving the direction of encampments as a primary method of managing homelessness The strategic funding investments outlined by the governor show clear signs of where the state programs will be headed And where funding will be priorities Prioritized we cannot get out ahead of the developing strategy coming from the state We will however benefit locally by defining several items related to camping So I would move to direct this city attorney to return to the council No later than the second meeting in march with a first reading of an ordinance amending chapter 6.36 For camping to include prohibition of overnight daytime encampments and sensitive and at-risk areas of the city With direction that prior to moving and or sighting people sleeping in restricted locations Information should be provided about legal indoor shelter locations such as the armory salvation army Or a facility within the county At-risk areas should be included but not be limited to those where encampment is in a public right-of-way or blocking pedestrian traffic Blocking or impeding city staff access to city infrastructure Is on private property without the owner's permission? Is in an area or a configuration that constitution constitutes a danger to the occupants Or as an imminent fire risk that has been determined by the fire chief and a fire risk operational plan that was initiated by the fire department Also encampmented within the boundaries of the water directors safe drinking water watershed habitat map Or was it with the or is within the boundaries of the parks and recreation directors environmentally sensitive habitat map Or an encampment that has already been closed due to urgent criteria or scoring of high priority Priority tool with priority with the assessment tool I would also move that prohibition of high density and unpermitted encampments with the city Based on number of occupants and or square footage and then finally While I really recognize that the work of the catch Started without knowing where the state policy might be headed It is important now to recognize and acknowledge that both state and county policies Are quickly developing and that a regional approach is probably going to be the approach that the state Hopefully will Bennett will Will promote So as the county and state policies are occurring parallel in our process I believe it is best to ensure that policy development around safe sleeping siting and program models are A real focus of the cash moving afford So I would actually propose that we sort of We basically Focus your work And then I would make a motion to direct the cash to conduct two additional meetings and then prepare their final report In order to sunset The focus of the cash during these final meetings should continue to be focused on policy considerations around safe sleeping Sighting and program models that can be embedded in the santa cruz county focus strategies plan Are regionally focused and leverage all available county and state funding opportunities on the horizon A community listening forum should also be included further direct the members of the two by two city county working group To agendize safe sleeping siting and program models at their next meeting For a recommendation on the appropriate body to lead the siting oversight and programmatic analysis and public outreach regarding this so I'm narrowing your focus, but I think your work has been extraordinary and We really need to catch the wave of what's happening with the county and the state as It's coming down the pike and I'm I'm your work has been extraordinary. So this is not a reflection that you're not doing the work It's really a strategy request that we Acknowledge as a city that we have some help coming And we should be prepared to have those conversations and you're going to help us get there So I really really appreciate everything that you've done and I hope you you understand my motions are really around Really trying to ready ourselves as best as we can to To get those state dollars here and make a difference for our houseless community. So thank you I'll second the motion Okay, so we have a motion made by Vice mayor mires seconded by councilmember walkins One of the things that I would like to ask is that there's Any way we can either get this may be printed or Um, because it'd be good to kind of look at What we're moving right now that or we break this into separate motions because um, I think it's really important for us to clearly see where we're going certainly Just a comment and there were motions interspersed with commentary I think it might not be a bad idea to take just a couple minutes break Separate the motion from the commentary Right Yeah Do you want to propose we break so yeah, why don't we take a maybe a five minute break so that we can get printed copies? It's burning. Okay, great This is just I just want to make sure that they understood that I Okay, I think we're ready to get started again If members of the public could please take their seats we can get started All right, so we we're gonna continue with actions deliberation On item number 15 on our agenda community advisory committee on homelessness The second status report and midterm recommendations to the city council Vice mayor mires made a Motion that was pretty long and I think there was a There was interest in separating the motion and so I think we're going to separate the motion into three pieces to deal with Some of the early recommendations recommendations, I think from 10 to 10 through 14 And then we're going to deal with the motion as it relates to the camping ordinance and then additional direction So I'd like to bring it back for Council deliberation Council member lockens I just wanted to make a few comments before we maybe get get started here. Um, I want to thank Vice mayor mires for putting the work in because As those of you who reviewed our agenda packet the work of the cash. It's clear how much has gone into your work and Trying to distill that into policy action. I appreciate Vice mayor mires Proposing that I won't ask you to repeat the long motion But um, it really I think it's really telling just to the extent of which we need to really roll up our sleeves and get to work on this So I do want to just also Thank the cash members that are here today those that couldn't be here today just the amount of volunteer work and just the amount of Willingness to be vulnerable and to Get into these types of debates. It's it's really difficult as I know you've all experienced So I know you signed up for this. I just applaud you for your willingness to go there um, and I guess I'll just end by saying The complexities of the issues were definitely brought up when our members of our community spoke and we've been hearing it And have been seeing it for so long in terms of the various sub populations somebody brought up the youth who The faces we very rarely see who are homeless in our community I appreciated the example of the connections for the veterans and the services and and how do we as a community as a society Get to a place where we can meet people where they are to find success to be out of homelessness Is it is the ultimate goal or ultimate vision that I hold and I believe that We share that vision and in the interim of us having Social services or access to the social service funding that we need to truly truly get people to those places We as a city have to figure out what we can do But also really expand our role and partnership with those who have other ways to contribute to this This really complex challenging situation that we're in so with that. I just um, I wanted to express my appreciation Move forward with this Council members have any questions or comments council member brown Well, I I did want to make one comment because um, and I first I want to thank Vice mayor Myers for putting this together too as we were looking at it. I thought wow How are we going to proceed and you helped us? With that question So a couple of comments. I'd like to make Um one Is that we you know, we've received a lot of comments and a few members of the public spoke about this idea that we are Voting today to open up all of our public spaces and parks To sanction camping and that is not I just want to be clear That is not what we are doing. I if somebody could find that anywhere in the recommendations I don't believe I read it thoroughly. I did not see it And I don't think that's the intention. So I just and I I don't know how I mean, I don't know what else to say other than that. That's just not what's happening here. We are talking about in fact Creating some additional limits based upon the sensitive habitat and fire Concerns, so I appreciate that you've taken that into consideration as well Um And then I think I will I have another comment, but it's probably are we do it? We're doing this as three motions. Is that correct? So when we get to the third one, I'll I have one other comment Leave it there for now I had to See if there's a friendly amendment to be made in this first motion Um, the number one says direct the city managers to prepare The administrative budget adjustment if necessary the amount not to exceed 10,250 and I think that number is supposed to reflect The 10,000 and 2,500. So I'd just like to ask was a friendly amendment that that is changed to 12,500 Um, so that it supports recommendation numbers 10 and 11 Yeah, type of but just wanted to put it out there I can't add Um, so So that was a friendly amendment made by mayor Cummings accepted by the vice mayor and by the second over the motion council member walkins other Friendly amendment. I would like to ask is whether Number three in the first motion they increase the increase in the number of overnight vehicles Permitted for safe parking that that maybe is moved to the second motion around council the camping ordinance because Looking in looking at the recommendations that fits within chapter 6.36 Um, and so just wondering to be for consistency with purposes of consistency. Yeah To move number three to um The second motion on camping ordinance as it relates to the camping ordinance The five the change the five vehicles, correct. Yeah, I see. Yeah, that's consistent with the uh with the cash report. Yes, absolutely Put on the second motion. Yeah, correct Are they for the comments For purposes of clarity if we're breaking up We're then now voting on one through four essentially with the modifications one two and four Yeah, okay Then i'm gonna council member crown and then My math is on stack council member crown This uh, the sunsetting of the catch were they supposed to sunset in april anyway Yes, I believe so So you're not We're not we're gonna we're gonna go motion. That's that's a separate motion. That's a second. Oh, okay. That's a separate We're on this one right here number. Yes, just that big um When we direct the city manager number two and we direct city manager for new comprehensive Personal property management guidelines with analysis of best practices. Could we also include input from the cash on that? I these are then that this is a recommendation that came from the cash Correct. So I'm just I'm actually just incorporating their recommendation for If it's helpful Mayor if I may it was um Increased access to health and hygiene facilities items 10 11 and 12 in the cash recommendation But number two is the personal property management. Oh, and that was item. I'm sorry. That was number nine in the cash recommendation Thank you, and that's specific to um Provide clarity to city staff minimize the negative uh consequences So i'm happy to um add the amended language on page two of the cash Report which is provide clarity to city staff Minimize the negative consequences of discarding survival belongings And minimize community impacts of unintended personal property So it's matching up with the recommendation from them. So it would be Megan's giving it to you It's number nine On page two Yeah And And just to point out that that then draft will come back to us for discussion in action, right? So I have a different chance to look at it. Do you find it sander? Yeah, you can just if you want to I could make another point while they're talking there Actually, the motion should start with something that doesn't have a number or a letter on it Move second by mayor council. Mayor Watkins to accept the second status report. So I think that's On the agenda report. That's the first thing we're supposed to do is accept the report You see what i'm saying So the corrected language would be and then move to In addition to that. Yeah, so Move to direct city manager Okay accepted I had a question about um You said the state wasn't really headed toward the managed encampment model How do you interpret where the state is headed? Um just through review of the interim report from the governor's council of regional homeless advisors So that was published january 13th 2020 as well as some of the comments from the governor and his state of the state There isn't actual, you know a full loan But it's pretty clear in terms of And other investments That It doesn't say directly that encampments and I recognize that we you know, we we do not have enough shelter right now so having the ability to Utilize that and I think that the intent really is is to Continue to keep working on this Shelter and safe sleeping models It's an honest question I'm just trying to figure out how do we get people not sleeping in our parks because I agree with councilmember brown That was I did a word search on the documents here and no one ever proposed we're you know going to camp in the parks But how do we but people are camping in the park? So how do we what's the way of of Offering people alternatives to that In a in an expeditious way that that's my question It's our staff I think I mean I think that If what i'm hearing i'm going to try to interpret that yeah, we I don't know this is the Perennial question right that we never have an answer to But it is something that we as part of this motion are Or an upcoming motion where are asking the catch to spend some more time Deliberating upon that and and bringing back some recommendations to us and if I if I interpret your statement about that I smear Myers When you're talking about this is not the direction the governor is going in that means there's not going to be some Competitive grant process for transitional encampments that we're not we're not looking at The potential for a whole bunch of resources to move in that direction But that doesn't mean necessarily that it wouldn't happen on some interim Is that what i'm yeah, I mean I think I think we We're not seeing that That approach is sort of surfacing in any of the recommendations from the state so far I just wanted to add that with respect to the sort of the the big question about Capacity and space and sheltering in the system those are really issues that are being addressed through the focus strategies and the the county-wide process and um, and so that's where those Solutions, I mean because the money funds through there, you know to to uh, uh, fred keely's point that really is where The focus needs to be because that's where the money's going to come through to be able to actually implement some of these things and also it's uh The response is more than just sheltering. There's the the whole care system, which again is a function of of the county So that really is where the focus should be relative to you know, what the long-term solutions or even the immediate solutions are to the sheltering question Any further discussion on this first item that we're going to move The one the one thing that I think is a component of the Item number nine Which I think is the confusion around the permissible locations for sleeping Is under five of the recommendations guiding principles 5b I think the inference that if there's restricted in one area, then it's open to another Is where that confusion lies a bit So I don't know if that's something we As we move forward with incorporating The number nine language to have those principles added for our staff's consideration um consider eliminating or Discussing at least Sorry I will point out that the guiding principles are pretty dense and what we're talking about is the recommendations So just leave it being I think what Yeah, what councilmember mires tried to do is take a look at the recommendations and focus on that I would just say in addition that I think we heard from The fire and police departments and from the city manager's office Um Susie o'Hara say that this is based upon the prioritization that In terms of actual practice and operationalizing this that is where the resources they want to Have this tool. So I think it's pretty clear. That's the way we're going to move I think just for the public's sake for clarity around what is being kind of adopted as a principle for consideration versus actually policy All right, so any further discussion on this the first motion that we're considering today Seeing none all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed that passes unanimously with councilmember glover absent So we'll move on to the second motion that's currently on the floor which is um related to our The amending Ordinance chapters chapter 6.36 of our campaign ordinance So can I ask is was that Was the intention for vice mayor mires and councilmember wagkins when you said Move in second that to be moving and seconding all of these business. So we don't have to I'm sorry. Can I add something on this one just to provide some clarity? So um, the catch had many deliberations around these this urgent set of criteria and Many things that were considered were not included and that has included proxy proximity to playgrounds Proximity to schools other highly sensitive areas. And so if you scroll up a little bit bonnie the intention Around saying oh, I'm sorry down The intention around um the last bullet point is to provide Some flexibility when the city attorney's office is building these sensitive At-risk areas. It's not You know with the assessment tool There were areas that we are not included in this that from an objective perspective Could be based on what kind of campsite we're looking at So I think um, it really is incumbent upon The city council to provide some flexibility for staff to work with the city attorney's office to Bring the emphasis of the catch forward on on what this is And obviously for staff to work on the catch with that over the next week or so our members of the catch There are there are things that they discuss that are not included here that I think are of equal importance But just not so clear as fire risk and watershed risk It's okay mayor. I I'll I'll just clarify so it's clear So the portions of this motion relate to cash recommendation number 21, which is I numbered I Put as a number one which I shouldn't have also, um cash recommendation number 22 That's our that's my number two and cash recommendation number 15 Very helpful. Thank you. Yeah, sorry about that. I should thank you I just I have a question as it relates to Designating managed sleeping sites or Designated sensitive areas By resolution and I'm wondering is that just as a question is that being excluded? I'm wondering if by excluding that that Moving ahead in future years with that Um, kind of remove some of the ability of the water park the water department director Or the parks department or the fire department to have any kind of say over what is and what's not Sensitive areas Tony would you like to give me the context before you answer? Yeah, so, um, the the intention around this when we were developing the assessment tool was to prevent Us having to go through a whole nother ordinance process if these are explicitly Designated in the code these are your sensitive habitat areas and You know further federal regulations come up That we need to be able to move and protect We wouldn't have to necessarily go through a new public hearing process You could consider that at the council level make a resolution and that therefore That would be embedded back into the code section By virtue of not having to go through a public hearing process again. It just gives us more flexibility and it hastens the process And relative to that I think we saw on our tour the other day That at the department head and professional level their understanding professionally of the immediate risks whether it's for fire safety or water contamination or whatever that You don't want to take weeks and months to do hearings and second hearings So I mean at that level They need the authority and that's why I was concerned because that's currently removed from this motion And so I would like to see I I understood the mayor's question to be looking at something slightly different which I thought you referred to the the notion of a managed sleeping area There's two items in the In the recommendations item number 16 and item number 17 Item number 16 recommend city council amend chapter 6.36 to authorize the city council to designate managed sleeping Areas by resolution and then 17 which is recommend city council amend chapter 6.36 to provide authority for the city council Fire chief parks and rec and water department directors to designate sensitive areas completely close to camping by resolution And so for both of those I was interested in better understanding why those were left out Because it seems like if we have to come back and have a revision to the ordinance that this that would it would delay any kind of That's what I thought your question was directed to and the way I read this motion it does not include an amendment that would authorize the council to establish managed sleeping areas by resolution And it also but it also wouldn't allow for Any of the department heads to close any sites by resolution which I think that's what we're we also need to take into consideration But my point was in those extreme cases. We don't want to necessarily have to go through the bureaucracy of resolution if in the professional opinion of those who have regulatory authority They're saying this has to be in done now and and so it doesn't need doing it by resolution It here it says the encampment Is within an area found to be high risk? Etc. Etc Yeah, I'm not got your what you're talking about. You see what I'm saying. It's okay. Yeah, okay. Let's go on to make sure Okay Um to respectfully comment about that. I'm not sure it does by the intention of how that was written If that's how you're receiving it. This is really more boots on the ground. This is what we're observing um, whereas the intention of both the length both of the points that the mayor is talking about was to provide flexibility to the council to define managed safe sleep sites and or Um sensitive areas that might not might be outside of this first You know this current ordinance the way it's written I guess that more or less addresses my current concerns Are ending for the conference council member chrome number 19 Would you is that sort of incorporated in here? Recommend city council recognize the idea of quote go to shelter or face citation and arrest will achieve less compliance than the outreach first model and language associated with that practice should be omitted from 6.36 can That be included that we don't That we want to go toward this model. They're talking about outreach first I won't take that as a friendly amendment. Um, but I would um Again look at um The completion of the caches work But I won't take number 19 as a friendly amendment at this time Can you just say what what's not positive about that or not helpful? Um, well, I think that um based on what we the report we received We are so we're we're we're putting in the outreach first model Now and and the camping ordinance will come back to us at some point. Um So I think we are as far as I can tell susie. I'm going to look at you. Um Some of this work is under way right now. Do we feel like we have to put this outreach piece into them? I mean, is that I figured we'll just look at this as part of the ordinance revision. I guess Yeah, and I um from the perspective So if you bifurcate the intention around going through to an outreach first model That really is wrapped up in let's say the next two meetings of the catch as it relates to how do we most effectively work regionally Looking at the funding streams that are coming in looking at the focus strategies work Outreach first is part of the focus strategies work I don't want to get ahead of that because the money is going to be attached to that and they are highly focused on diversion Outreach, um, their early baseline analysis did focus on many of the things that we're talking about today Um, so that work is ongoing and so as the catch Um focuses their intention on really making sure that there is An overlap and layering of their work with the focus strategies work. I think we'll see that stuff rise up and manifest um furthermore You know amending the camping ordinance to Um reflect an intention. I would have to yield to the city attorney on that But I I do think it's it's a bit of a different consideration that doesn't necessarily need to be wrapped up in the camping ordinance amendments Okay, thanks. I just want to read my point from before about when people are sighted Um, or or when the shelter's open when you have to be there to catch the bus to the shelter I don't know what how as we proceed with all these millions of dollars that are hopefully coming in to Help us provide, you know more resources and places for people to be Um with including a day center, but I just think that functionally I don't know about three o'clock in the morning. How do you go and locate someone? Um offer them a shelter Bed because it's not probably not available at three o'clock in the morning from what I've understood talking to you Folks who are homeless The cash recommendation number 19 really is an expression of support for an idea and we're trying to give direction here And I think the concept is incorporated in the first action we took Um, no in the one under consideration or prohibition of overnight daytime encampments and sensitive risk areas Um Will be prohibited with direction that prior to moving or sighting people sleeping in restricted locations information should be provided about legal Um indoor shelter, etc. I mean, I think the idea is there that prior to sighting There's an effort to connect to some kind of services. So All right, is there any further discussion All right, um All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That passes unanimously with councilmember glover absent Now we have the last part of this motion So if we can Yeah, I um, I guess so I have two one is a question And then I have a comment or um, perhaps a friendly amendment if that's possible So with respect to the second bullet directing members of the two by two working group to agenda a safe sleep sighting and program models at their next meeting I I really like that and so I want to support that However, I have heard that the two by two is no it's not meeting and so I'm I'm concerned that there may be some delay as a result of Suggesting that we're going to send this through the cap that I can speak to that which is um, so I've been Asked in in conversations with the city manager. We've been requesting meetings for the two by two since early fall or late fall and We We're unable to find a time that that worked in the fall. However, we were able to go Um to view some of the services that are offered over in san mateo County, so that was the last time some of the members had a chance to engage We expressed that we wanted to meet again and the schedules didn't um work out until Um until march and so Apparently, we're not going to be able to meet until march, but a date has been set And so we will be meeting and I'm hoping that we can have more frequently scheduled meetings So we don't have such a gap and the amount of time that we're able to engage But a meeting has been scheduled and so um, we can bring this forward. That's great I just wanted to make sure that that including that wouldn't delay Any recommendations coming back to us or make taking some action and then I guess I just wanted to um Ask about a concern I have that I think that I appreciate the kind of narrowing down or Prioritizing for the next Two months of the catch's work But I also want to make sure that we do leave the some space for the catch to deliberate and make recommendations On other strategic actions that might be taken and that they might want to include in the final report So I didn't I don't want to in any way I mean, I don't want to just open it all back up. I'd like these to be the priorities But to also say if there's Related to these something that the catch wants to recommend to us that that happened So I don't know how if that's yeah, I mean, I think the intent is that The intent really is to Really get there. They've done so much good work on the safe sleeping and siding and program models that You know, you know really getting them to top that off But if there is I noticed in the not not recommended Policies that there is something so I mean, I think if they want to bring some of that stuff forward as part of a final report I don't think I need to put that in the in you know in the emotion per se As long as the catch members and leadership feel that that's clear that implicit then that's okay with me But I just want to make sure that we don't Say well, you can't we don't want to hear about that The language says focus on it doesn't say exclusively. Yeah, and I think the main thing is they have two more meetings. So prioritize Thank you Walkins councilman crone and then I put myself on I guess I would just I would I'll just add that I I appreciate that because I also saw within some of the areas, you know, the the ideas around prevention and recommendations I know that it's need to be focused, but if there is opportunity for their input, we'd be happy to receive it Did I recognize surge for 30 seconds? He had a 30 second comment. Did you want it? We are filled with such a nitpicky wordsmithy bunch that two meetings We couldn't get through everything that we really want to get through for you So going till april even just on that list that we offered like we're gonna have to be fighting every minute of our meetings Thank you I'm one of the things that I was actually going to say as it relates to the motion is Asking if a friendly amendment can be made To not restrict the amount of meetings that they can have So if they if they as the catch wanted to have additional meetings that we not we not say they can only have two additional Because I think that that's it may be a A conversation that they could have and it might be that they want to meet more than two more two last times If I make for clarity, are you suggesting that instead of having a meeting constraint that it's a deadline or a timeline? My understanding is that the time the deadline is This is going to sunset in april And so my thought is that If the catch feels like they want to meet more that we're not saying that they're going to conduct Two additional meetings and rather than have that strict limit on the number of meetings that they can have that if it's if there's flexibility around that So the way i'm interpreting this is it might be more than two just by virtue of two two meetings And then prepare their final report. They need to adopt a final report before it comes to you So I see this kind of as an as three meetings most likely Um, you know, I agree with surge that it is very it has been challenging to come to consensus That in part is the reason why they really should narrow their focus We talked about citing at the very beginning of catch being the most important Discussion that the catch should be engaging with the community on if these next two meetings are around citing and that's embedded with The the public and from their community listening forum and really trying to bring all of those thoughtful Considerations together and engaging with the community on that quite frankly That's probably what they have the capacity to work on As they we also want to bring back focused strategies and have them talk about What kind of where they currently are with their committee work? I think if the catch hears that and focuses on the citing and programmatic considerations around safe sleeping That is that is probably what they can manage at this point. Um, and that really gets to the The need to really translate that policy work up to a regional perspective Susie I had a question actually briefly with regards to the final report um Just kind of curious as whether or not like what kinds of recommendations they might be able to consider Providing in that report as it relates to kind of next steps like so if the catch is going to be focusing all their work around citing How does that relate in terms of what is also going to be included in this final report? So the way i'm thinking about it is there's probably two different kinds of reports that we need to bring to you one Really a staff-driven report that talks about the homeless coordinating committee recommendations where we're at with those Much of what we're talking about is actually in that 2016 report So an understanding that while you know as brent mentioned we have the all-in plan. We're waiting on focus strategies We have our own homeless coordinating committee Report there is a need for staff to come back and talk about strategic direction as we layer on the catch recommendations with that I think you know we as staff are working towards so many different angles around homelessness Right now having an understanding of what's happening with the haps funding for instance There are discussions around a new homeless governance model Regionally that we are starting to do a roadshow around as a subcommittee of the hap It's it's going to be important for you to think about the catch recommendations within the context of this bigger picture I think that the second bullet there While it's very specific around Agendizing safe sleeping. I think that two by two committee meeting on the 17th of March Will um, it will be helpful for the committee members to really think about what this next six months looks like in preparation for budget season season And ensuring that the funding recommendations are really Narrowly focused on what we need as a city We still have challenges between Some competing values between the city and the county as it relates to outcomes and Focus on emergent needs versus these long-term preventative strategies. So there's more work to do So I would imagine that the catch report will be one piece of this which will be enhanced by A staff report us as well from staff that looks at the broader picture It occurs to me even those of us who are pretty well Entrenched in this issue It could be helpful to have a study because you there's so many things about to converge just to have a separate study session You know the one we had last week. I think it was so informative And just take two long hours and get the different people Presenting and and pulling out and be useful for us and useful for the community too. It seems like we're at that point So I just throw that out as an idea. Yeah, I mean a study session I mean, I know that we have departmental considerations as it relates to budget season I think homelessness is probably can be considered almost its own department as it relates to how We work cooperatively to bring out, you know policy and outcomes In your direction and obviously those will be tied to how you spend your money moving forward So for the purposes of trying to move this forward if I'm hearing after input that instead of two it would be three meetings For the first bullet to direct the cash to conduct three additional meetings Another friendly amendment. Oh, did I not see the friendly amendment out here? You just didn't specify three. Oh, okay. I didn't know if we if where we were on that Is that I think if we keep it at two additional meetings with a third Meeting maybe we could add with a third meeting to prepare and adopt their final report Is that fine Sorry, Candice. Yeah, I was just going to say that typically the way it's worked is that we've provided direction to our subcommittees at a meeting And then a following meeting we accept their recommendations and deliberate on motions And then the last meeting is to present a report to them To make sure that we are, you know, accurately synthesizing the information and then to come to you as soon after as possible. So I think Up to three Or similar language would be good. Okay, up to three. I think that works for me. Sorry Bonnie. Why don't we say to conduct up to three additional meetings To prepare final report in order to sunset. And then I guess you can delete my friendly. Oh, we'll draw my friendly amendment It's my problem I just had a question about the county because that's come up a lot in our Long-term history talking about this issue Is that in the county is the receiver of this money from the state? So Is there anything in our besides the two by two? Is there anything that we are asking or you know ways of of working with the county that shows that you know They're going to you know be good neighbors, I guess or work with us Well, we'll try to answer it here. Yeah, the answer is yes. I mean, I think the the The workings with the counting the relationship has really changed quite a bit and I think the they have Really changed. I think their approach to homelessness and the indications that I hear at least from my counterpart over there is that they're they understand that Their level of responsibility has to change and I think a lot of what's sort of driven that is really this focus strategies Where they really have highlighted Really some of the the needs that need to happen in the system of care And also I think because the state has taken this up now There are an arm of the state you have to remember the counties are arms of the state So if the governor's saying this is a priority that's telling the counties that it has to be a priority so that's the other indicator and You know the focus strategies is really looking at that model of saying we need a regional system. We need, you know Three or four navigation centers in our county Those navigation centers really should have any day services shelter services And they're sort of committed to that in addition to counties and other things too Like part of their sales tax measure for example that they've approved. They've dedicated funding for Shelters and that sort of thing. So there's they've had some indicators. They're pretty significant I would say to To demonstrate they're they're committed to really working with us and taking the lead on this project It's you know, it's it's a process. So it does take time It's it's hard to see the immediate results of it, but I think it's certainly moving in that direction from all indications Thank you In addition to that if I could add I agree with everything that martin is saying that the county is actually Historically, it's the continuum of care. That is the the conduit of the funding through the state Most recently with the governor's Budget surpluses some of that funding went directly to the county, but typically it's through the coc The homeless action partnership, which is comprised of county and city jurisdictions as well as service providers, etc Is the Body that makes funding decisions around the coc We are moving because of the focus strategies work towards recommending a different governance structure, which provides much greater interest and authority to the cities to actually have A vote on where that federal funding goes So, you know, I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit because we kind of just started this road show But I would expect that we'd be engaging with all the council members and our executive leadership on what that's going to look like in the next month or so The other thing I would just add is that with respect to funding It's more than just funding related to The sheltering or the cash money or the state money that's been appropriated Really you have to think about all the other money that goes to the related and support services like mental health services and substance abuse And there have been improvements and increases in that and it's all interrelated So a lot of the funding is to is on that front and that also comes that goes through the counties Which is why it's important to have it all be highly coordinated and integrated Councilman matthews I would just say in terms of county partnership and buy-in I know the supervisors are bought into the focus strategies process in a way that they haven't been in the past and I would just say to the community We've had sustained advocacy Brought to the city council and I would say take that advocacy to the county as well I know they have a human services commission a public health commission I know they got a parks. I mean all the things that affect us here I don't know all their commissions, but and to the supervisors as well and In in a constructive way say We see the willingness potential and desire of the city to Be more collaborative and productive in our approach. Um, please supervisors Play ball So I think take this advocacy energy to the county as well Well, the only thing I would add just to what was Shared by the staff here And I think really what was the question that council member chrome was getting at is how are we Active participants in this process and knowing that focus strategies is coming in with recommendations I think having been a part of the council for many years really wondering what that looks like. It's really confusing It's not transparent and frankly we sometimes get information brought to us that we don't have really a role And so to really improve that I think will allow that transparency that I think you're trying to Get to in regards to how are we active participants along with other jurisdictions in all of this regional issues Just to say that that's exactly right That's been part of the challenge because there really hasn't been any sort of a structure historically It's all had all it has all been around just funding the winter shelter So it's more administrative in nature grant processing in nature Structure that we had historically and so that's why governance is a big part of the also the focus strategies discussion So that we can have a more effective model and a more deliberate model because that is a major issue. Yes That's right. I think I would just like to echo the So much of this is so it's so interwoven and I do really think a study session is a great idea because We can really lay out sort of all the progress that's been done in the last year Which has been pretty significant. So it'd be good for the community to understand all the pieces Well, thank you Is there any other comments from members of the council on this item? I just like to say again So much appreciation towards all the members of the catch all the members of the community and staff who've worked through this process because we've gotten a lot of great recommendations on ways that we can move forward and really looking forward to the final report that comes out and Yes, this is a very critical time for our community for our state As we are trying to navigate some of the new laws that are in place Around like how we're able to enforce people who are experiencing homelessness The funding that's available and then just the opportunity that we have to try to address these issues I mean we after seeing what was happening in the pogand up the other day it's really clear that we have to do something because people are going to go somewhere and We have to think about how that's going to impact our natural environments our drinking water safety around potential for fire And in addition to all the things we take into consideration here in the city limits or inside the the urban spaces of our city so with that Go ahead and take it to a vote all those in favor. Please say aye. Hi Any opposed that passes unanimously with councilmember glover absent and that will conclude our item Item number 15, which was a status report and midterm recommendations to the council by our catch Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both I didn't Yeah, let's do that All right Hey, so the next item on our agenda Is item number 16, which is the monthly report on general plan and zoning ordinance reconciliation effort And the presentation will be provided by sarah noisy senior planner Good afternoon. Um, so this month's report back to your council is pretty brief Um, we haven't had a lot of new motion on this On this item. We continue to be waiting to receive our funding from the state. We checked in with them earlier in the month They said check back in two weeks. I checked back this morning. We are in the queue They have a backlog of grants that are Waiting for funding. So Like so many government agencies, they have a little bit of a, you know, lack of capacity compared to the volume of requests that they're getting So we are optimistic that we'll have that money They gave us, you know, some a deadline of some something like 10 to 15 business days But um, we're crossing our fingers that that's actually comes to pass So, um, our goal is still to have that Request for proposals ready to release as soon as we get the money We have a solid draft of it now that we're working now back and forth between staff Um, and we will be taking the report that we brought to your council on the 28th to the planning commission at their march 19th meeting and so then the, um Results of that meeting the the discussion from that meeting will come back to your council as part of our next report back in april so That sort of um, that sort of covers what we've been doing on this topic Um over the last month. So if you have any questions, I could answer those Any questions by council members? Is there any member of the public who would like to speak to us on this item? Seeing none, we'll bring it back for action and deliberation The report second. Okay. So an motion made by council member Watkins seconded by council member brown to accept the staff report Any further discussion? Seeing none all those in favor, please say aye. I Passes unanimously with council member Glover absent Next item on our agenda General business is item number 17, which is the residential rental inspection service update and resolution to modify the residential Rental inspection service checklist and data collection Related to rental housing and the presenters on this item will be laura landry code compliance manager and sarah noisy senior plan Good afternoon mayor city council members. I'm laura landry with the code compliance manager with the planning community development department Our presentation to you today is in three parts The residential inspection services risk update The application of sp 1226 to unpermitted units And the rental housing data collection subcommittee report I will be presenting the residential rental inspection services risk update On october 2 on october 8 2019 city council directed staff To explore options for the legalization of unpermitted units this included This included a study session on the rental program A proposed amnesty program in the application of sp 1226 city council also directed staff to Make changes to risk to focus on health and safety and expand the outreach to the tenants and community This report this presentation is Responsive to the request The residential rental inspection program was created in 2010 as a joined venture with ucsc to address the substandard housing conditions and maintenance of the current housing stock Implementation of the program included the registration of all the rental units in the city And as part of the maintenance program A Checklist approved by city council was created This checklist was to be used for the self inspected Inspections as well as city inspected inspected rentals This is to assure that the limit that the minimum habitable habitable requirements are met on the dwellings Since the inception of the program there has been limitations And challenges this is due to the design and maintenance of the program And the current program that we have the in-house program is limited Here we see a map of the city of santa cruz Illustrated in blue are the rental units in the city Currently we have over five thousand two hundred parcels and over eleven thousand one hundred rental units in the city Here's the current sorry my apologies. Here's the current checklist that we used today And this is again for the self inspected properties as well as the City inspected properties We will review the checklist In detail as it pertains to health and safety During a rental inspection the rental inspector looks at the exterior of the property to assure that there's a visible address In case of an emergency first responders are able to easily Find the location that the roofs don't have any holes or that they're sagging The junk rubbish and overgrown vegetation are maintained and this is to prevent road infestation The trash facilities are provided as well. This again is to prevent road infestation Crawl spaces cover that are Properly covered and again It's another to prevent road and infestation out and into the property We also address inoperable vehicles And this is to prevent the contamination of oils into the soil As well as any runoff that can come into the street and into the storm drains Stairways need to be properly maintained And in working conditions in other words no loose rails or loose threads Exterior walkways and exits need to be kept Need to be unobstructed again in case of an emergency Exterior lighting is required to prevent any trip or falling hazards And for electrical panels They must have panel covers They can't have any exposed wires And be properly labeled. This is to prevent a shock hazard in case of an emergency If the tenant or a first responder needs to shut off the power For water heaters They need to be properly vented strapped And in working condition The electrical panels as well as the water heater during our inspections have found to be at the top three of the most common corrections Require parking require cover parking is required in the zoning ordinance, but it's not It but it's not considered to be a life in safety and will recommend the removal from the list We also inspect multifamily multifamily properties three plus more units We assure that the fire extinguishers are properly labeled and also in working conditions We require the five-year inspection on the sprinkler systems We also assure that the electrical meters are properly labeled and also properly covered That the existing fire lanes are also properly marked For interior inspections The dwelling must have hot and hot and cold water running that they must have electrical power That permanent that there's a permanent heat source on the property That sewage is also functioning properly with no surface sewage in or out of outdoors Entry doors and have to be in good condition and free from obstruction Exits windows that includes the windows and doors also have to be functioning without any obstruction And again, they would have to be also free from infestation Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms made the number one list on our correction list They need to be in place and functioning Mechanical also needs to be functioning that means any venting system that means thermostat as well as air conditioning Electrical and the sub electrical panels again also need to be covered. They need to be properly labeled and without any exposed wires Plumbing that means sinks toilets Tubbs have no that should not have any leaks and of course properly secured Counter space and sink and sink surfaces That's for a food preparation area, which is required by The ipmc Windows are not to be broken and they're properly functioned in case of an emergencies and of course free from obstructions sub floors flooring and sub floors are Need to be in place with no holes or deterioration that could cause a fall or a falling hazard Walls of course free from holes or And cannot be missing in sections As previous as previously stated The residential rental program has over 11,100 rental units In the calendar year 2019, there were over 3,280 inspections that were conducted And the most common corrections found were again the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors because they were either missing or malfunctioning electrical Because they were in substandard conditions or again not functioning and as well as water heaters that were improperly installed Here we have two water heaters To the left you'll see an improperly vented With an improperly vented um water heater with no temperature pressure relief valve and a loose strap What is the temperature pressure relief valve? Okay, so this is a safety mechanism That was designed to automatically release water in the event that the pressure or temperature exceeded the safety limits If missing or my functioning a tank can rapture that is possible To the right we also have another um water heater that has no venting no strapping and also has an improper temperature pressure valve In case of an earthquake You can see that this is not secured and would definitely fall and it would be a hazard Here we have two more water heaters one of them is to the left It's completely cluttered with a propane cylinder right next to it And to the right you see that there's a this water heater is not functioning But yet it's still connected to the water and gas lines Here we have a smoke detector This smoke detector has been covered by plastic which defeats the purpose of the smoke detector In case of an emergency or fire The tenant or occupant would not be able to know The fire statistics provided to you in the report state that three out of five homes Three out of five home fire deaths result from fires in the property without working smoke detectors And the risk of dying in a home in a home fire is cut in half with homes with working smoke detectors Here we have electrical Substandard electrical To the left we see a bathroom outlet shows that it's exposed wire, which is also an electrical shock Yes, that's the bathroom To the right we see unpermitted wiring right next to dry vegetation and wood shingle sightings With the spark it that would be fuel for a fire Here are two electrical sub panels To the left you see an unpermitted electrical tapping And to the right you see an exposed electrical box both are a fire hazard and shock hazard These examples that you see today Are the if not addressed Are are a potential hazard to the occupants of these units as well as the surrounding areas These are the threats that the Rental inspections rental inspectors prevent when they conduct their inspections This is the service that the rental inspector inspection program provides to the tenants and the community In october of 2019 we reported that due to the zoning standards there was Unpermitted units Would have complications in the To be permitted that there was complications to permit the these units With the new state adu updates These zoning standards are no longer an obstacle Zoning standards such as the zoning district minimum lot size and owner occupancy are no longer an obstacle for these units With the current study session that we reviewed It was found that up to 90 of the unpermitted units can now move through the legalization process These means that this units cannot proceed with the permitting process currently in place Due to the new state adu updates in which That has now allowed approximately 90 percent of the unpermitted units to be legalized In an amnesty program is not recommended An an amnesty program would meet an expense to the city for the development Implementation maintenance and the number of units that could benefit are limited To further expand the outreach program to the tenants and the community The risk will continue to participate in the biannual Neighborhood cleanups. This includes the lower ocean and beach flats area We have also attended the second ucsc housing fair that was that was That was that took place on february the 11th We are also working on updating our webpage to include updated information in brochures And also to have the weekly Rental inspection schedule posted on online This will take place as of the first week of march I stated previously in the presentation the current In-house program system is not equipped to support the risk program We are unable to provide reports Efficiently and set and on sets limitations to the service we provide to the community This the on the current program also is not Available to the community and they're not able to see their inspections or the status of Their corrections The rental program would need something similar Something like 3di or a similar software that could be more efficient with reporting That could provide a higher level of service And also be available to the community so that they're able to follow What to their inspections are what the corrections are going to be And when to expect them And now to talk about sp1226 We have senior plans examiner John Luke Lucas Members members of the council So sp1226 was passed last year. It's been codified in health and safety code section 17958.12 Which refers to the building officials authority to grant modifications to current code requirements to provide for a case-by-case Evaluation of unpermitted construction based on the codes and force when the construction was performed Use of the prior codes is just to justify unpermitted construction is dependent on the Condition that there are practical difficulties in altering the construction to comply with the current code standards Authority use prior codes to justify unpermitted construction Will not be a panacea for all in some cases previous codes are More restrictive than current codes Authority does allow us to approve does not allow us to approve substandard construction Or construction that poses a life safety or health risk As a finding is required that the modification proposed Is in compliance with the intent and purpose of the code and that such modification does not lessen health life and fire safety or structural requirements practice The applicant and their design professional or contractor would perform an initial review of the unpermitted construction identifying areas where it is impractical to comply with current code standards And to research whether construction complies with codes from the time of the original construction They would then submit their proposal and documentation to the city Building a safety division for consideration Oftentimes this evolves into an active collaboration Between the city and applicant to arrive to arrive at conditions of approval For addressing those items. They're not conformance with current code And are not they're not practical to make so so now i'm going to talk about um The effort around um creating a rental data um a rent a collection of rental housing data So just as a little bit of background rental housing has been a topic of conversation at the city council for quite some time We won't go all the way back to the beginning. Um, and The last time we were here sort of discussing our needs around the data related to rental housing This is the motion that passed was to establish a two-member subcommittee At the time was then councilmember Cummings and councilmember brown were appointed to the Subcommittee um direction was given to city staff to assist the subcommittee in exploring all the options for creating a program that would collect data and information related to all rental housing units in the city and then um Looking at similar programs returned to the council. We are not um, we did not make our Hoped for a deadline of the first meeting in october and we're here now to discuss it. So Um, one of the first things we did as in meeting as a subcommittee was to get really really crystal clear about what is the ultimate goal for this effort for this sort of project um Once we have a clear goal Then we can set objectives and then we can sort of set out Program elements that will help us meet those objectives in service of the goal So this is the goal that we came up with to create a complete Trustworthy data set of rental housing units in the city of Santa Cruz in order to create a tool that is useful to tenants landlords and city policy makers That can be used to identify trends and changes and inform choices and policy that would contribute to stabilizing the rental housing market so the um The program that I am about to discuss we believe and the subcommittee believes would fulfill that goal So as I mentioned in service of that goal the objectives that were identified by the subcommittee were to First collect information and this is the information we would be seeking to collect um, and for each of these sort of pieces of information for so for for Um, you know rent amounts we'd be looking for mean and median and changes and seasonal effects So there's a bunch of different aspects of each of those Data points that we could potentially be researching But we want to number one collect information number two make that information available to the public in some manner and then develop a program that that solicits a high rate of participation in order to create a really relevant and accurate data set Again in service of that goal to create something that can really be used by landlords tenants and city policy makers so um One of the the first tasks that the subcommittee sort of engaged with was what's what are the tools that we would need to have in place to really develop a data set and to manage um, a large amount of information that is unlike Information we've really had to manage before and so we spent some time looking at our existing systems and talking through the um limitations of those programs and um, and then Once we had once we sort of understood that we didn't The way that we would have to work with our existing programs was going to be extremely labor intensive We combined that with also sort of researching other sort of similar programs that exist in the state Um to sort of see how they manage this task of registering rental housing And what we found is there is a mix of in-house and um vendor programs and the most commonly used vendor service is 3di They are a company that is based out of los angeles. They handle the rental registration for both the city and the county of la They also handle. Um, I think they have a total of 70 cities in their portfolio. So they do mountain view. They do alameda They do a lot of size jurisdictions to santa cruz and um, their service does a lot more than we would need it to do and so we the um The what we discussed with them was really limiting the scope of what we were Interested in doing which was really just about collecting data and generating statistics So some of the screenshots that are included here illustrate features that we aren't Currently anticipating having locally and it's just interesting to see what the software and the service is really capable of And the way it can function So using a vendor offers several advantages, you know, they have experience with this with this Sort of effort. So they have um the ability to sort of roll things out more quickly Which was one of the concerns that staff had initially when we were thinking about um having In operating this program in-house There's an existing platform that they the way that works they kind of um, you know plug in different features And the the interface is very slick. So That could get up and running more quickly. It's it's web-based. So there would be a a lot of ability for self-service on the part of landlords and tenants to go in and manage the properties about their the Specs of their property the features of their property This also allows because it's online. We get to really dial in that level of transparency and the city gets to decide Um, if they want to make the data completely transparent We would have the ability to do that if we want to mask the data and release it in a more aggregate form We also have that ability. It's highly um customizable And then also because this is just, you know, sort of an existing product that we would be customizing to our local market The rollout could be um more smooth and ideally faster than if we were developing our own tool in-house so, um This service allows both landlords and tenants access to the features of a property and we can decide which Which features of a property those various users can adjust and edit This this screenshot that I have pulled up here. It's very small. You can't read the text. Never mind I'll tell you what it says. Um, so this is the um This is a screenshot of the property owners Portal and so this is adjusting the type of unit or the type of occupancy that a unit is experiencing So is there a tenant in there? Is it a rent subsidized tenant? Is it vacant? Is the manager in that or is it the owner in that unit? So with every one of your, you know units that You own you'll we could decide what features we want to know about that unit and one of the things that we've identified as an objective And a data point is identifying You know this the influence of ucsc for example So we could have a student tenant would be one of those tenant types and then we would be able to track that for A housing unit and see how frequently we had tenants and in what neighborhoods and in You know what sort of proportion of the total rental population or tenant population? I should say um So furthermore as laura mentioned this this same software could also really improve the experience the customer experience of the rris Because you're able to get that level of self-service. You're able to look up online. So right the way it works right now is our software That we use to track all this information is really land use management software and So They have to call us on the telephone, which already seems like 2003 We have to like ask them information. We type it into the computer. We look up the information We read it to them and they just believe us that we're telling them The right thing or the complete piece of information because sometimes they have other questions that they don't ask And then we have given them inadvertently incomplete information. So just having this tool where people could Answer their own questions. I think would be Um an advantage for staff and an advantage for the public and would improve everyone's experience So in terms of cost software vendors are not free The cost based on the one quote that we have this is just one company There are probably other comparable software firms out there that offer other products This was as I said the most frequently cited vendor The the cost to initiate based on their initial quote would be about $77,000 in the kickoff year and then After that it would be about $42,000 ongoing on an annual basis and this is these numbers are based on The number of rentals that we are estimating we have in the city So laura mentioned that we have around 11 000 rentals. Those are the rentals that are registered in our inspection program So that excludes ad use that excludes owner occupied units that excludes mobile homes Probably excludes some other things that i'm not thinking of but all of those units As as currently envisioned could be included and would be included in this collection of rental housing data That's really the subcommittee is really interested in getting a comprehensive view of all of our rental housing units And how they're all sort of Functioning together as one market. So that's just some context for the cost So this question of Do we develop a program that is a voluntary program or a compulsory program? Was definitely one of the sticking points the last time we were here with the city council Staff had initially proposed that we develop a voluntary pilot program A lot of that was based around Wanting to be able to roll out something successful and having never Done a program like this Staff was thinking about you know, we're going to learn a lot And if we go out immediately by the compulsory program that puts us in the mode of having to enforce it and having to Charge a fee and it just seemed like a much more labor laborious and sort of intense Undertaking having never done anything like this So that those aspects of creating a compulsory or versus voluntary program are really addressed by including a vendor as To provide some service to the city it allows It allows for some guidance and some expertise and some You know smoothing of at least the technical aspects of the program There would still of course be this community aspect and there is or there was at the time also concern about You know the tone of our conversation around rental housing has been really heightened and intense So the other thing that has also happened during the subcommittee process is ab 1482 passed the tenant protection act of 2019 passed And sort of brought in at the state level a certain amount of rent control and requirement for cause reviction so We are optimistic that that has changed some of the intensity around this topic. We'll see how that goes and At any rate the the recommendation at this point of the subcommittee is that we initiate a compulsory program The having a vendor would make that feasible and also based on the experience that we Doing our research and speaking with the vendor You know there's they have some examples of how voluntary programs haven't really yielded useful results And then they've turned to compulsory programs afterwards that sort of informed Also informed our conversation So then the next steps on this topic would and this is part of the recommendation In your in your agenda report So we would the staff would conduct some community outreach and I think the subcommittee would be involved with that also Really having a specific conversation around the detail and the frequency of that data that gets published. So You know, I think We have a choice of how How fine grained we want to make units Rental housing data available to the public and to individual tenants and individual property owners Um, and we could publish information at a neighborhood level. We could publish simply city-wide statistics I think that's what alameda does is they just publish city-wide data And they publish it On some kind of regular basis. I'm going to get this wrong. It's monthly or quarterly But they publish it a few times a year at least and um, and it just sort of an overall view of what's happening in the city so we have some Some space there where the city gets to make a decision So we would want to do some community outreach about that and then include that Um, sort of the results of that community outreach in the ordinance that would Come back to the council to Establish this program and create it Which would then also would have to include a fee amount. So we would have a little bit of work to do on how to set that fee And then um, we would also want to identify really specifically who the vendor is that we'd like to work with and enter into a contract So, um, I would be remiss without mentioning the opportunity cost and implementation and timing So there are multiple city departments departments that would be involved with this effort It advance planning and possibly also finance So, um, you know, that means that some of our housing other housing items that are on our work plan right now would get Pushed back a little bit It also means in it there. They are currently in engaged in migrating our agenda management software And so those two projects would kind of be happening at the same time and there would be kind of um You know, there would be a time impact on on having the load of both of those projects at the same time um, so that said If there's direction today from the city council to proceed as recommended by the subcommittee Um, we would begin our contracting We jump in here if I messed this up, okay We would we would begin our contracting First and then we would begin our community outreach right after and then um, ideally we'd be back with an ordinance Before the council to um, you know, essentially create the program I mean that would really be the point of which the create the program is created or not created was If we have an ordinance proposed in front of the city council And so we would be shooting for june of 2020 to bring that back Um, so again, finally the recommendation of the subcommittee is that um staff be directed to conduct community outreach to determine the detail and frequency of the information That staff develop an ordinance to create a compulsory Registration program for all rental units in the city And that we contract with an appropriate vendor to achieve those stated goals So um on all three of these topics that you we've just discussed Um staff is oh, I'm sorry. I have another recommendation before we get to questions. I was moving into questions So um our rental inspection program also has a recommendation which is modifying the checklist There were a few items that laura mentioned and then um, also as part of the rental inspection program I'm contracting with the gent with a vendor to um provide a new software system and that heightened level of customer service We talked about so now we are available for any questions you have Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. That was a really great summary of number of topics that are really important to the community Um council member brem Yeah, um, thank you. First. I want to say um, really thank you for all of the work that you have put into this Being involved on the subcommittee has helped me really understand Um, you know some of the challenges and and concerns that you all were trying to address when you first came To us or when we first came to you and you um talked about those um, it was really uh, wonderful or it has been a wonderful Process to kind of really dive into this and it's it's pretty complex I was really thrilled when we found the possibility of a vendor that could kind of help us in so many ways address the challenges um So but I have so I have a couple of questions one's about rental inspection and then one is about the rental data So I guess I'll start with rental inspection. Um, so you mentioned that um, Based upon the changes, uh under sb 1226 About 90 of uh, the units that you are in the universe that could possibly be Go through the permitting process now. Can you talk a little bit more about what that means? Are these abated units that now can be um Come online or are they units that you know of that people have not per I mean just kind of what that looks like and then Um, how much of that is about the owner occupancy versus other issues Okay, so the um ability to now uh legalize approximately 90 of the unpermitted units comes from the State adu updates that uh just came into effect and I believe were adopted in december of 2019 So those units would that would mean yes, um owner occupancy would be one of them for the next five years And that is an approximate um, I believe it's in the agenda report of uh around the figure of 200 and 38 units that would be the um 243 yes So the list of the items that you see in the agenda report these are the um The units that now could potentially be legalized um through the permit process that is currently in place And so the status of those units is just limbo at the moment the status of those we again have um several units in the queue I believe 180 um units are currently 185 units are currently in the permitting process And 256 are waiting to be processed So so these are units that we have inspected they have passed our checklist And they're still on they're able to stay on the market now. We're allowing them to legalize. Is that correct? These are units. Yes. Yeah Okay, thanks for that and then um With respect to I don't have a lot of questions about the second part because I was involved in the um the subcommittee But with respect to the opportunity cost I know we talked about this in the subcommittee. Um, but I did want to just ask if you could Say a few things about The potential The the the cost reductions ongoing, right? So so I know that there is a cost upfront to That's an advanced planning issue For sure in terms of staff time. Um, but in terms of the ongoing potential Efficiencies to be achieved for the rental inspection program to use this Can you say something about that because the way I read it here? It seems like well, yeah, it's going to cost and it's going to take away from other Activities, but my understanding in our conversations was that in overall within planning that it could lead to reduce Staff time needed. No, that yes, that's a very good point. Yeah, the opportunity cost that we um identified in the report Are really about initiating, you know, like starting up a new project And I I think that it is accurate to say that over time it would sort of reduce the workload Related to individual cases. So right now there's just a lot of churn on individual rental inspection cases specifically That I think could be minimized or even possibly part of its parts of it eliminated by the addition of a software vendor There will be some level of ongoing staff Required to um administer and monitor this rental data collection Effort um sort of whatever that becomes it's really hard to identify that and it's also hard to say Is that something that will live in planning like sort of adjacent to the ris? Is that something that will live in finance because it's essentially about number crunching and that's what they do over there Is it an it function? It's you know, we're going to have to get a little further into it before we can really dial in exactly where those staff people Would have to be for that program I have a follow-up question about the opportunity costs One of the things that you mentioned and I think one of maybe the prior slide I don't know if you want to bring that for me was um a significant or not I don't know if maybe this significant but housing items slowed and postponed I'm wondering if you could say a little bit more about that Because you might ask that question. I actually have a hidden slide here um So There are several things that advanced planning has had in the in the queue here. Oh for crying out Sorry Can I just start from this slide? So there are several things that advanced planning has had in the queue that we have wanted to um Sort of get around to and um We haven't had time to get to these so um, so The big thing um, so there are a couple of things going on here. First of all advanced planning is experiencing some staffing shifts and shortages at the moment. Um, so uh Our our bandwidth is more limited now than we would like it to be And there are all of these things that we um are interested in doing and have been asked to do by the city council. So Um initiating this program would have an impact on you know doing the work around um Objective standards for multifamily housing and then um, it would probably postpone. I mean because the At least our intent would be to roll that out pretty quickly and to write an ordinance pretty fast here in the spring over the next You know a couple of months and be back by june So we had been Otherwise sort of anticipating that we would be doing some more ad u updates and like going out to the community in the spring to Like start our next round of ad u updates. So that would probably have to get pushed back Because the objective standards can't get pushed back. Then there are the rest of these items are things that we have Sort of Been planning to do. So we have some changes to the way we do plan development permits. We also have our pc subcommittee That's working on housing issues Which include these things listed here that um, you know, we wouldn't be able to get into that work with them We also have some changes to our parking standards. Um, substandard lot regulations Slope modification permits and then beekeeping and chickens is sort of hanging out there too as something that we need to get around to If I if I have just a follow-up question in terms of the prior item in the reconciliation work too Your is that also a consuming aspect of your time at this time? In terms of ongoing projects as aside from these initiative these projects you want to initiate So, um, that that's really about that project's really about objective standards for multifamily housing at this point So just a follow-up to that question because it looks here the the way this is written that To do this would mean foregoing a whole bunch of other things and I would just push them back So these are things that had been on our lead. You want to jump in on our two-year work plan and um The rental data collection wasn't really on our two-year work plan when we wrote it, you know So these are things that would just get pushed back a little ways So yeah, I just want to clarify that we're not talking about None of these things The amount of time spent to implement a rental data collection program would mean that Is the is an equal is equivalent to the amount of time it would take to cover all of these things Because that's kind of the way it looks and I I just want to be clear that that's not what You mean sure. Yeah, is that would no, I mean a lot of time. I don't yeah, no it would There would be an impact. I'm gonna let the director take that one Good evening mayor or afternoon mayor and council members lee Butler the planning director and I think the the point that Sarah's trying to get out here is that If if we're expected to report back in june, then this is going to be a high priority for us We're going to be out there. We're going to be doing outreach. We're going to be drafting ordinance We're going to be communicating with the vendor and all of that's going to take up a lot of capacity And that's just this initial push Because after that the implementation of it is going to be working with that vendor to Identify. All right. How are we going to make? These things work in terms of the interface with the community and what's going to be Visible versus what's not going to be visible. So we'll be we'll be working through a lot of those things even after june and so To directly answer your question All of these things That those are going to take more time than this all of them But but all of these things are things that you know are important to us that we've heard many of them from the The housing blueprint subcommittee, you know with the enhanced density bonus and the The promotion a variety of housing types and so they've been in our queue for some time where we want to get to them and We were hopeful that we would get to them And if the council has other priorities, we just want to be clear and transparent with the council that That all of these things we wouldn't be getting to there There may be certain things particularly as we build some additional capacity on our team Which we're working on for advanced planning We would be able to get to some of these but there would certainly be a delay And some of these things that we also have for example our planning commission subcommittee working on and We're hoping to take those and and bring them back to the council as soon as we can Just one other quick follow-up if I could because I really want to make sure that i'm clear about this before we Take any action today So in our conversations in the subcommittee, it seemed like You were There was an inclination that the opportunity cost could be worth it given that it may also help with the rental inspection program data collection and monitoring But if that's not the case then I think we need to go back and have more of a conversation in the subcommittee That if that's not the case my sense was that that was Could be desirable on your part But if not, then I think we need to keep talking at the committee level. So So I am on that sure happy to So implementation once it's once it's implemented there would be some Some some time savings in our residential rental inspection service in terms of people being able to access information and schedule things I would expect that You know the the scheduling of inspections for example that we currently do manually over the phone writing letters talking to folks That Would be an online process. So there would be some time savings associated with that We're also in rolling out other improvements to that That service right now whereby Online payments can be made and so we're we're going to be getting additional capacity from that perspective So we would be getting some additional capacity. What's really unknown in terms of the long term is What does it mean for us in terms of data analysis? How often are we reporting back to the council? What information are we reporting back with? If if we're making policy decisions, how much analysis of this data is used in and is that meaningful given the macroeconomic Issues that are out there. So, you know, we'd have to put all that in perspective So so that's the the sort of the the tail end of it on the front end This is really a decision for the council, you know, we if you would prefer for us to hit the ground running and Work on rolling out a rental data collection effort. We can certainly do that and the the Transparent portion of that is some of these things that we have said are are sort of next in the queue Are just going to get pushed back and and hopefully as we build capacity some of these things can still move forward But we we certainly would be dedicating a lot of time towards this effort Is that answer Kind of uh, yeah, I mean, I'm I guess I'm just still trying to understand if um Like are we talking about until june? No work might be happening on adu updates development permit changes So let's take a committee. I mean, it's just kind of yeah, no, that's a good question. It's a good question for sure So let's use adu as an example because that's um Probably I have like the most complete thoughts about that. So it's also my project And I think I would probably be staff on the rental data effort so We had we have said to the public that we would be back in the spring to discuss with them Other options for adu's If if I'm working on intensely getting this ordinance done by june I I will start that process but not complete it in the spring so That ordinance which we had hoped to maybe have back to your council by september about adu's I probably honestly would be to the end of the year So that's kind of the delay that we're talking about is that you know that that work will Probably kick off because I have made that commitment publicly and I'd like to keep that But I won't be able to complete it if I'm also completing this rental data collection. So It's okay to do that right this is but if this is part of the council's decision We have multiple priorities and we have limited resources So we just like to remind you of all the things that we do all the time that we're working so hard to get to so, you know, we take any opportunity to sort of Remember like we we do have a full work plan and We want to do what's the priority for the city, you know, and this is your job to decide what's the priority for the city A couple questions and they maybe Stay up here for a second. And if could you go back to that the slide that was just on so One of the questions I have Is around the objective standards because my understanding is that we wrote a grant as a city To the state so that we could receive funding to hire someone to work on the objective standards And we're still kind of waiting to hear back on whether that grant was successful or not But It's my understanding from that is that the majority of the work on objective standards will be done by this consultant If should we get this grant funding and I was wondering if you could speak to that It seems like that would alleviate some of the work Yes and no, uh, and yes, the majority of the work is done by the consultant in these efforts But there is a project manager who Particularly at certain points in that process Is working sometimes full-time on that, you know, when deliverables come in in advance of community meetings Um, plus there are you know, typically weekly check-ins on these types of efforts, particularly when there are Significantly Aggressive timelines as you know, we're trying to get this done as quickly as possible so that we've got the objective standards in place So there would be uh, there is even though the the Consultant is taking the lead There is a really substantial amount of work to manage that consultant and that happens in-house now They are doing significantly more than we are And carrying a heavier load, but there is a constant interaction and a constant management of the consultant Other question I had um Is related to the ad use so it seems like a that At one point there was a lot of work that the city was going to be doing as it relates to ad use and because of the The fact that sp1226 passed a lot of that work has been more or less eliminated because of the fact that um The the ad use state regulations have changed and therefore for example many of these units where we were going back and forth on What factors to consider to whether or not they should be legal? Well now the state's mandated that you know certain Units are legal um as a state policy. So I'm just kind of curious how that The change in the state laws have impacted Some of the work that was being done on ad use in terms of alleviating some of the work At the city level sure a lot of things have been done and I think one of the objectives that we have is to Help the community understand what the allowances are So getting information on to our website getting handouts that provide information about the the new allowances And then we also have I believe some specific direction from council on things to Reach out to the community regarding and so I'll let sarah chime in on those right Yeah, so we do have council direction specifically about owner occupancy to reach out and have a conversation about around that for existing ad use So that's a piece of it. And then we also in the in the course of adopting the most recent state laws It created a couple of Funny little like not loop the opposite of a loophole like a knot in the code that we had need to kind of untangle and untie Now these are not these are not sort of the the big ticket items And they are items that we I know we have a few applicants that are sitting in our queue and like Can't do their ad you Can't legalize their ad you because they have like a short-term rental permit on the property right now and it's a multifamily property. So That's something that we we'd like to get in there and untangle and write some code around So there are there are a couple of these issues that we We are aware of and then also, you know, we want to kind of hear from the public of what Challenges they're also they're continuing to have Then Ideally, we would be creating a big effort around guidance documentation and like a much better website So people could like specifically looking for ad use could you know find what they're looking for and have it really focused so That work will happen. It's a matter of timing and you know, we want to do like I said, what's the priority for the city and We are happy to do whatever that priority is I also like to ask and maybe you could weigh in. I mean, there's a Number of new units that are going to be coming on On board in the city. It sounds like they're going to be built We have you know one project that's about to finish right now. There's proposals for other projects Um, and it seems like there's you know, potentially over 400 almost 450 You know ad you units that are going to be coming online with the changes in the state law I know that people mention often that more units that we have That'll you know have an impact on our housing stock and housing prices within the town and so i'm wondering um If you could maybe speak to that because it seems like if we're going to have a bunch of units come online having Some kind of data collection mechanism in place would actually be good so that not only with the passing of um The statewide rank control but also with having more units come online It would give us a good sense of how these policies might be impacting our The housing cost in the city sure so a couple of points related to that The the 450 units That you know could potentially be legalized one. They're online right now You know, they're occupied people are out there living in them And The number of them that actually get legalized, you know while there's the opportunity to do that You know just because they meet they now meet the zoning regulations that allow them to be legalized and just with The fact that sp1226 is there that doesn't necessarily mean that people are going to actually pursue legalization Because oftentimes there can be a cost to that and and there will always be some cost to that for example Um, you know, even if everything was done to the code at the time You're still going to need to come in and get your building permits We're still going to send an inspector out and you're going to have to open up some portion of that to show that The construction was actually done consistent with the code I mean, we can't see the plumbing without having a window into the walls And so, you know, there will be and same thing with electrical and you know So we'll be looking at that and there there's a cost to that and some of those are going to have substantially higher costs You know if the they don't have a foundation for example You know, they may meet all the planning rules now and they don't have the owner occupancy issue But if the the foundation needs to be completely redone The individuals may ultimately choose to not Um, to not actually legalize that unit So I just I want to set expectations that not all 450 of these are going to come rushing in and and get an approval over the counter in fact, none of them will because there's a process that they need to go through and that is the The building permit process they're they're not permitted And so in order to be legalized they have to get the building permits and part of that is our verification of health and safety standards and Applicability and their consistency with the codes even if they are the codes at the time that they were built So that's sort of the first component of that question. And then the the second component was Was whether or not It would be helpful to have this As these new units are are coming online and what happens, you know, is how will that change the rental market? Certainly that information is has the potential to Illuminate what's happening in our rental market. There is some of that information out there But a database like this would certainly be more comprehensive than that You know rental housing turns turns over over the course of time So we would know for example new information. We might be able to get some historic information with the With the If if we request pass or we require past Rental rates as well. So so that could help set trends or really this is about trends You know knowing the information today isn't going to be useful. It's it's something over time that would be helpful and There are a lot of factors that affect The housing rental costs, you know, what's happening in Silicon Valley. What's happening at ucsc Larger economic forces Are at play than than individual projects, but certainly having that information could play into The larger data set of what we of what we have in making policies. Can we use it as a Definitive yes, this is what's happening. You know, I don't think that we would be able to do that Because of those larger forces and because we don't necessarily know the null alternative You know, what would have happened had these projects not been built and so There there are a lot of unknowns, but but certainly having more data would be Something that we could discuss and I'm sure something that we would debate in terms of What the meanings of that data are Vice mayor Myers and then Matthews and Watkins If we want to get into debate, but I just do have a couple quick questions You mentioned that The compulsor kind of the voluntary program. Sorry The voluntary program You mentioned specifically a city amount view and a southern california jurisdiction band in the voluntary program And i'm just curious What what was what was their program specifically and and why Why was it Not not successful. Did you get that level of information from them? So um, so for the city of mountain view, um, they're I don't know a ton of details about it, but I do know that they're their program They already had in place Um Some sort of rent They have a rent. It looks like a rent control. Yeah. Yeah, it's like certain units are rent controlled So they already had that in place and that already existed and then they were creating You know a registration process And they created it initially as like voluntary that people would register and it's like in under two months They were back with a compulsory program So it just seemed like their experience was they just didn't get any uptake with a voluntary program They weren't getting any of the information that they were seeking. I don't know as much about the southern california jurisdiction Except that again, it was like a matter of months that they Sort of weren't getting what they had hoped for. I don't know the details of their program and I can't remember if it was either Venice or Santa Monica it was like one of those sort of beach communities down there And I don't remember unfortunately I don't remember I don't know a lot about that one Did you guys get a chance to meet with like the realtors or did you guys Um, I mean was that a step or is that I'm just trying to figure out a little bit about The work that's gotten us here. Did you have any outreach prior to getting to the mandatory? Or I'm just curious. It's more of a question than anything else. I'm just as you're working through this Well, there were certainly meetings prior to moving towards having a subcommittee work on this So there were meetings, right? We had two focus groups before the subcommittee was established. Okay. Okay. Thank you It seems to me this Number agenda item actually has two very distinct and different things one is the resolution modifying the residential inspection checklist and that seems to me pretty straightforward Included in that recommendation as I see it is amending the checklist It talks about enhancing resources meaning more outreach, but also the use of a software program such as 3di now Looking this over it looked to me as though this contains the recommendation to Initiate a program But that's not dependent on using that program for the second thing which is a whole Rental registry and it just tell me what that If I'm reading this correctly Are you online to add a program for the rental inspection program? So you are correct in that they can be segregated the We have been we have been looking to replace our Land management system for some time because it's quite antiquated, but It's one very costly and to a really significant time commitment that given the level of development activity right now We're reluctant to undertake at this point in time so the discussion about 3di as it relates to the rental data collection is what Spurred our understanding of how that program could also be used for the residential rental inspection service So so that's sort of how that that Came to be is when we when we saw that the rental data The program was really designed in a manner that Could facilitate the work that we do there We said If we're doing it for this then We should be doing it for that as well It's a you know a small delta in terms of the amount of work because a big part of that is actually you know Getting all of the information getting the correct parcels and the correct number of units and so forth all into the system and then working from that data set Okay, that's clear wasn't clear initially so We wouldn't it sounds likely and the online component to the rental inspection service if it weren't also being done for the Registry is that a correct statement? That could be done. That is not how we have proposed it at this point particularly as we're rolling out the The online payment system I think absent the rental data We would take a step back see how the online payment system works and and then look to See if there are other programs out there that might be better suited But really, you know what we were thinking and the reason why I said this at the beginning is What we're initially thinking is that when we update our land management system We would be doing that with the rental inspection That's kind of where I want to go and I'll just it's still part of a question but to me updating the rental inspection checklist is just Minor doer and if it has to just keep paper and computers, that's fine I have a lot of questions about the rental data recommendation Among them is the fact that a whole lot of other things that we've said are really important get bumped And I don't need to repeat all those again, but one of them I heard was The migration of the sire system and I am going to turn to Laura now and maybe ask you Am I understanding that Because I I understand the migration of the sire system to be a priority for all the departments So given the Timing of the rental housing data and what will happen with that program sire That migration needs to happen and we would hope to be done in the summertime Based upon the ramp up of the procedure and ordinance and anything else in contracts with a vendor We would probably dovetail toward the late spring early summer of Finishing sire and then ramping up for rental housing data and possibly rental inspection on a new platform So there's going to be overlap and that could slow down sire toward the end Or it could delay the fast ramp up of the rental housing data implementation of a system But in the meantime planning and community development could be working on the process and ordinance pieces of rental housing data While it finishes up and works with the rest of the Departments on the migration of sire and the document management system Okay, well it gets back to this whole issue of having so many priorities We have none and um And I also kind of wanted to address I think you have a bigger picture concern about land management And that to me excuse me, but that's much more important is to deal with that whole big Migrates that's what so many people in the community are interested in seeing is updating that whole land management program and I'd rather do Something that serves a whole lot of people kind of on an ongoing basis Because I honestly don't see which we can get into discussion later The value of a mandatory registration program now yes, so Implementation of a land management both employee personnel resources that are needed and financial resources that are needed that is a You know, that's the king kong and then implementing Rental housing data and that piece of it is more of a of a chimpanzee size so We could you know You could make the argument if we keep doing these smaller pieces and we're never going to get to the big piece But we could conceivably peel off Rental housing data and then possibly rental inspection services on a niche platform and then Because implementation of a land management The functionality there is big and it's more generic and The rental inspection service the reason why it's struggling on our current platform Is not necessarily the fault of the current platform The current platform is built for big things like permitting and business licensing And the in the massiveness of planning and community development The specificity of a rental inspection service or a rental housing data collection Is more in a niche product like the one that we found so It's both a product as well as Do we really have the capacity as an organization as the city to go after land management right now? I won't take up any more time, but it seems to me there's a lot wrapped up in this question I I maybe have a question for possibly the city manager's office but One of the things when I kind of think about in terms of the opportunity cost listed and specifically the ad use right if I Reflect on the housing blueprint subcommittee work You know ad use was a priority that came out of the community at a very long process that the prior may mayor had engaged in for Housing outreach right and so ad use was something that I've learned from the community That they really wanted to see the city prioritized and so sarah when you referenced. What's the priority for the city? I wanted to know a little bit more. Maybe you can share Right now we don't have a strategic planner work plan in place So as we're starting to look at the priorities for the city And and gauge the community on those priorities What do you think that timeline could look like in terms of some of the strategic planning efforts? Well, the the council has initiated a strategic planning process in the time for that You got you got an update from nicole recently, but the the plan is to do outreach This month and next month and then bring it bring it back to the council in april with respect to Then sitting down with the council to put that to bring together all the feedback that's Brought forward from the outreach process and then the council can then begin Identifying the issues and prioritizing those so I expect that will Couple of months after that Thank you mayor A lot of questions up here. This is amazing. I Love to hear this. This is great. Um, my question. I think is from miss laundry. Um I question it's about the rental inspection ordinance that you said it was 2010 Why do you think the uc administration? Were you here in 2010? Yeah What what do you think now looking back that the uc administration would support a rental inspection program? As I understood it the Rental inspection services was created Um for to address the substandard housing conditions for the students at uc ac As I understood it and also for the maintenance of the housing stock the aging housing stock in the city So you don't think it had anything to do with um, their lowered occupancy rates and their dorms at the time And they knew that this I mean a program like this would naturally tend toward taking units out of Of of our housing stock. I mean at the end of the day just any kind of program like this would eliminate units I believe the intention was to have the students be placed and permitted the habitable conditions well You know where I come from on this particular Issue the rental inspection because I don't believe it's In fact, I would make a motion to because you need more time So if we got eliminated the rental inspection program you'd have more time to work on other things But not sure that the four votes are up here right now But I do believe it it's coming. I wanted to talk about the covered parking So we eliminated that for um legalizing units So the covered parking although it is required it was not considered to be since the direction was to Gear the risk program to health and safety. It wasn't considered to be a health and safety item So that's the reason that we are recommended it be removed from the checklist but no no Hope that it will be removed As we move forward in the building regulation world so um Removing the requirement for covered parking on single family lots is one of those parking updates that we are trying to get to um That's something we're aware of as a a roadblock and just as further information any parcel with an adu Is not required to meet that standard for a covered parking space Great. Could you put that picture up of the uh plastic covering the smoke detector? Yes You you very well explain the problem. Why do you think this is a problem? Why do you think tenants would do that? Because they're smoking indoors. They don't want to set off the detector all the time I've never smoked and my the smoke alarm goes off all the time It's just you know, I've in fact I have three rentals and The smoke alarms are always in disarray um Not so much with the carbon monoxide detectors, but the smoke alarms Is there any way of solving this this issue like addressing it because is it that the stoves aren't And they're not sucking up the the fumes that are coming off the the stove area and that's why the smoke alarms are So in this particular reason the reason um that the uh smoke detector was covered It was due to the smoking in indoors and didn't want the alarm to be set off But is there any way to address the people who don't smoke but their their stoves are actually setting off the smoke detectors? and that's yes in my Experience that's why people disable the smoke detectors because it's the cooking that sets off the smoke detectors Well if An individual is choosing to smoke on on the property and they're wanting not to set off the alarms I would say, you know smoke outdoors But is there any way of getting a smoke detector doesn't go? I mean this problem doesn't exist I mean this is a really constant problem of the smoke of the tenants disabling smoke detectors So the the places where smoke detectors are required now in the building code kitchens are not they're not required to be in kitchens And they shouldn't be in kitchens because they do go off all the time They shouldn't be in bathrooms because the steam will set them off They're supposed to be in sleeping rooms and in within 10 feet of sleeping rooms So if you have a corridor that's adjacent to a bedroom or in a bedroom So if you have a rental and it has an inoperable smoke detector in The kitchen doesn't need to be there. I would just remove it and make sure that the smoke detectors are in the bedrooms They're also required to be on every level including the attic. So The last question is the amnesty program Why do you think the number of units is limited and why would we not why why was it so much? Why was it so difficult for this the city to We don't have enough resources to pursue that program. I don't understand why So due to the just current state regulations those actually Allowed the units more units to come into A level of now being permitted and going through the legalization process than it would an amnesty program that could be costly to the city So typically an amnesty program what we what we're able to provide amnesty for is zoning regulations And based on the changes that have been made to ad use this year. So allowing ad use on multi family properties Allowing junior ad use on single family properties Allowing ad use that are larger It's addressed a lot of what would be addressed what would have been addressed by an amnesty program We don't we can't do amnesty from a building code, right? That's why 1226 was written so that We could take a case by case look at those units So based on our analysis There is a small number of units that don't qualify under the current zoning So and any amnesty program would only address 40 Out of 441 units. So that that's the numbers. I agree with the councilman Matthews These are two really separate issues and I would appreciate if we split the question if we have a motion any other Comments by the city council Seeing none That's a that's what I was going to say next so I'd like to open up for public comment And so if you would like to comment on this item Please line up to the left and you'll have two minutes for public comment Good afternoon. I'm scott gram As far as ad use go I believe SB 1226 Allows for no covered parking if the ad you is in what used to be covered parking and I think that the ad you program is a lot more Updating that is a lot more important than coming up with this Registration program and to make the registration program mandatory. I think it's a little bit of overreaching The rental inspection program itself is a little bit of an overreach A lot of tenants think it's a privacy right issue A lot of landlords think it's a land rights issue I think the Rental inspection program instead of being compulsory should be An opt-in if tenants want their place inspected that they could opt into it If landlords want their place inspected they could opt into it But to have a compulsory thing. I think it's an overreach the same With this registration program if you want people to register Make it an opt-in program at least try it, you know Um I think if you reach out to the tenants you're going to get a lot more tenants responding to it And giving you data Then you will if you just reach out to the landlords and say, oh, we'll give us the data on your rentals I think if you Include the tenants in what you're trying to do You're going to get a lot more information. You may not need to make this compulsory and that way The staff could get on with this list of things that they're putting off to try to make a compulsory law Um, I think it's really a waste of time to try to force this and everyone And then they want to buy the software before they go to the public and have public outreach I'm going to speak in favor of this rental data registry. Um, I think it's it's really critical that we have this information I Wouldn't respectively disagree with Councilmember matthews that that it's that it doesn't affect a lot of people The majority of the households in santa cruz county are renters and the majority of of these renters are in Rentals where uh, there isn't this kind of data being collected right now Typically a pausing for one second. Excuse me in the back of the room if you can please Thank you Typically the type of commercial Data that's available is surveys that are done on on residential properties where there are 50 or more units and That's not a lot of the the rentals in santa cruz. So we just don't really know a lot about our own rental market and and Um being a a homeowner and a potential landlord of of Room rentals that that's a really important piece of data for me to be able to understand what the market that i'm getting into and there's no no way for me to Track that In any sort of timely manner. There's there's the american community survey, but that happens A couple times a decade. I think So having having timely information and having it be all rental units. I think is really critical for Not just landlords and tenants, but the public and making better public policy So that we can move forward and have a better system. I'd also just suggest that um The privacy concern is important and we should figure out how we can segregate that data so that personally identifiable information isn't made public. Thank you I'm a realtor and I One of the things that I kind of try I also participate of it It's gonna stop you for one second. Could you please pull the mic down? Oh, I'm so sorry um I am my name is kelly and I'm a realtor in town and I Participate a little bit from the first program and listen to everything today, I have a few questions in regarding to How how can we know about about how much we spent in the first ordinance that took place that today my clients used Versus Talking about 72 or 77 A year right as For the 3d is going to be about 70 something thousand and then 42 for the implementation, right? And then I try to understand how much what we already spent For this past that we are using is not so efficient versus to the company that you guys try to hire another thing is that You mentioned one of you guys mentioned that That you went out to to find another company that has in los angeles, but We never heard if there is any way for us to develop Our own with the the information that we have so far If it would be less costly and efficient as well or you needed to relay on the 3d Company that you guys are getting a quote I'll just mention that what we can do is maybe write some of these questions down And then after public comments over we can have our staff reply to some of those questions. So I will wait or I will receive an email If you want to wait until after public comments over we can then relay some of the information back to you that you've asked for I have a client later how many hours just for me to understand it's not it's not important, but it's for me to kind of be It's probably going to be two minutes per person. We've got about 15 or so people up here So probably within the next half hour 45 minutes will be because you don't have any answers right now We do but we we will be asking All the questions that come up at the end of the public comment. Okay Um Did someone go out to my question? Understood. We're writing. We're writing your questions down and when public comments over We'll provide the answers to these questions that you've asked. Okay. Thank you Okay, um here at philip, uh, I don't think anybody has actually established a definitive benefit of collecting all this information Other than geo would be nice to have information Um, it there's a lot too what you're discussing as the rental registration also being expanded to every possible kind of rental when you say all Rentals you're talking about somebody renting a room You know, uh, you're greatly exceeding what the normal rental inspection You know business would be uh It's not clear the benefit would we'll say on uh data collection whether You know it would be an advantage or a disadvantage It does seem like it would interfere with the free market and housing in some way that you don't really know what that is Depending on the information or landlord might say hey, I'm running this too cheap and raise the rent Or a tenant might say I can get a better deal over here. You don't really actually know what will happen It will interfere somehow um Anyway, I'm gonna try to read this I guess um We don't know what you're gonna do. So we'll just talk to the worst case here as for the data collection items content I see once again zero respect for citizen privacy as well as never before fees imposed on the citizen re with no Sure public benefit the justification is weak It doesn't matter if radical advocates want this kind of thing to wage a class war against landlords Who think tenants aren't going to be paying for it? They will end up paying for any cost of this You are supposed to be protecting citizens privacy not invading it We pay for services in this city and this is not a service a big brother disservice The idea that a sample of voluntary data collected is somehow not plenty useful representative It's not really supported by mathematical sample theory It's just a phony divisive pure conjecture to justify a kind of money grab of rental registration for all rentals And a total intrusion into really none of your business private data collection These kinds of public abuses of authority are all too familiar without this council Many cities like Santa Clara that are run a lot better than this one have adopted mandatory safety compliance by signature Places like condominium single volume homes are exempt from the usual commercial type rental inspections simply require owners to attest by signature very much Hello, my name is jeff vc. I wanted to talk about two things about the registration program first is uh I don't think it's I don't think it's possible to do without an exorbitant amount of money and here's the reason why The confidence of your data if you had a data collection program, you had 90 95 confidence as an example of your data That could be meaningful data, but I don't see how you can do that It's unless you start a group like the irs added. I auditing group. I'm serious about that How are you going to do that if you even if you make a mandatory in landlords They have to do like three years worth of back information. How do you how are you going to verify? It's correct You're going to do schedule ease bring them in and then what about all the subleasing that isn't is under the table Right ten at subleasing none of that's covered, right? You won't see any of that So I don't know how you can get a high confidence of data to be honest Without putting a huge amount of resources in and getting an audit program of all the landlords and I'm a landlord I'm not saying that's bad. I'm just saying it would be really cost prohibitive The other thing is if you're looking for like rents deposits number of bedrooms baths dollars per square foot parking laundry utilities yard Uh, which city it's in that information is available already It's called craigslist and zill I I personally do my own audits and I just did one last month And I did it for all the what bedrooms and two bedrooms in this area, right? And it covered like there's about 52 bedrooms and about 41 bedrooms And I got all this information and I guess all public and like in in zill they do a much better job of It puts, you know the square footage and everything But uh craigslist doesn't always do that all you have to do is respond and ask them and they'll tell you So any data that's missing and then craigslist you can build email you all the new offers all the new things coming on All the new listings. I get emails. They send them to me. I don't have to go search for it. They give it to me Craigslist doesn't do that. So craigslist. I just monitor it, right? And I don't use any listing that's over three days old because all the good listings will be gone in like a week Right and any re listings where they it doesn't they republish it and I can see it because I gather all the data It's the date is there all you have to do is have somebody do and I'll If anybody wants to see the data for last month, I'll share it with anybody. Thank you. Yeah Hi, I just wanted to um Try to get it something that I think is a it's going to be a little hard to kind of put into the right word So i'm just going to do my best which is this is a residential rental inspection service And in in part two here of the rental data recommendation. It says a compulsory registration program for all rental housing in the city And et cetera et cetera and I think you know one of the things that came out in the last issue on the homeless issue was that It was pretty shocking to hear that some of our city council members didn't know that there's thousands upon thousands of people living in the backwoods in parks in I mean We need data on that and that's not going to come from homeless people going into shelters because by definition homeless people are Usually very nervous about giving personal data because we have so criminalized homelessness And this is something I have found by extensive conversations You know, I don't know how many What i'm really trying to get at here is we have renters Who are able to afford rental units in Santa Cruz? But we have so many renters who are not legitimate renters renters who might be paying somebody to stay in a car on their property renters who are renting storage units to keep their personal possessions in Including survival gear Identity your driver's license your social security card. We have workers So what i'm trying to get at here is I i'm seeing a huge gap here I think we need to somehow find data on potential renters People who are in the market somewhat who are Renting its storage units people who are in RVs and vehicles and if this is compulsory, of course, they won't give it I'm trying to say there's a huge gap here. There's a Black market that we need to get data on somehow Currently the state of california has a five percent cap on rent Plus inflation this is something new and it will make a difference on the rent increases in our area Especially for the worst offenders This is something I think we need to see how it goes Before we spend over 280 thousand and five years just on software alone But we're delaying priorities our priorities are to get housing for people You know, there is a lot of information on craig's list there really is There's just such better uses for the money alameda and mountain view. They have the money. We don't This is a potential for harm because what happens is this gets rolled out There's so much attention to it before we know it landlords realize what other people are paying and then they're upping it They're upping that eight percent or more whatever Depending on inflation. They weren't gonna do it. There's tons of rentals around here that don't do market rate And they don't really want to but then there's a lot of attention thrown on it And they're like, well, I'm sort of silly for not Paying you having people pay this much. That's what people are paying Look, it's right here in the database and then you have more problems You're causing because more people will have higher rents And I just don't think we have the money for it. And I don't think we should push back other priorities. Thank you so much I've got a variety of scattered comments. I lived in the same house in Palo Alto as a renter for 44 years Um, I dealt with the owner of the property And I would get notes, uh dearly We're going to raise your rent $50 a month if that's a problem Here's my phone number. Give me a call The other kind of renter Is one in a larger place where there's maybe a property manager Towards the end of my landlady's interest in her property. She hired a property manager And he came up to me and told me, um, I'm going to double your rent in the next three years Rather than hitting I moved So I think that there are different categories of rent That needs to be dealt with and I would say that when you're dealing with a mom and pop Leave them alone When you're dealing with a developer A big huge apartment building Those renters need protection because they're not dealing with the actual owner of the property And then just as an aside Um In my business and building sometimes the homeowners do the decorating And we've had exterior doors and windows and craftsman style interior doors in american colonial a kitchen in um, uh modern and uh a spiral staircase in norland's wrought iron every one of those decisions was made Very intelligently and very thoughtfully But when you walked into that house You didn't know where the hell you were because it didn't hang together And I'm concerned that with this particular ordinance that you guys might be focusing in on Such a specific area and missing the big picture I hear from these people these people that there are big priorities that they're working on I wasn't here for the beginning. So maybe there is a purpose for all of this. I can't see it Yeah Mayor council members, thank you for taking the time to look at this incredibly important issue of housing We all recognize that housing is one of the greatest crises that it's currently affecting our communities My name is bradley. I've been a renter in this community for five years now, and I urge you to Uh address this I was addressed this rental registry. Um, what is it put it in place? We need to know what's going on in our community We need to know about the evictions about the people who are losing their homes whose rents are increasing rapidly In the 2018 election and in the general housing conversations that are happening in this community So many people are claiming that they know what's going on that they know what's happening here And we don't we need to understand the problem if we want to properly address it This is absolutely the number one priority that the city council should be looking at. We need to know what's happening in our communities Thank you Thank you Diddo on that Um, I'm Nancy cruzo. Uh, I want to Address that very same thing I read a lot of letters last night about the loss of privacy to land Lords and while I understand The the feeling Tenants have never had any privacy We tell everything from the day we go to rent place till the day we leave We are we're inspected My landlord had used to have me take down signs You know, there is no such thing as privacy for most Tenants I think we need this data collection. I think it's vital We live in a city that is one of the most expensive in the country Property here is is like gold We need to know what's going on with that property. We're we're attractive to global investors We need to know what's happening Uh, thank you for doing the work to get here. The details are not all clear. I'm happy to see I think compulsory is necessary because Looks like research shows that the other doesn't pay off Thank you Hello everyone. Um, my name is Madeline and I have been a resident from santa cruz county my entire life Um, so I know a little bit about the experience of living here And I just want to thank uh, first of all the planning department for that wonderful presentation. That was great Um, and I'm thoroughly convinced that uh data registry of some kind is Very important in santa cruz county. Um being a tenant here is not easy. It's a very uh difficult experience and there's a lot of opportunities for predatory behavior And I think that gathering data about the housing situation and uh tenant experiences here Is very important and can help shape housing policy Um, all those other items that were listed in the opportunity cost Could honestly, I think benefit in some manner from this data. So those Decisions could be improved By implementing this that's all I have. Thank you Yeah, everybody. Um, my name is Owen and I'm a rental in santa cruz. Um, not a rental or enter In the house. Anyways, um, so I'm also speaking in favor of the rental registry Um, so I was present during the conversations around the implement implementation of a just cost protections ordinance Um, and I remember one of the big arguments that came up against the ordinance was that We don't have data around evictions. We don't know if displacement is a big enough issue to implement such a far-reaching ordinance. Um So Here's the answer to that We have we can have a registry that will tell us whether or not this issue is actually as far-reaching as we think it is It'll allow us to craft really effective policy Um, I believe that effective policy is always going to be decided by very very thorough and nuanced data Um, and like people have said in the past, you know, we this data isn't going to be complete. That's okay It's better to have more information than less when coming up with local policy um And when it comes to the use of city resources in order to um Move this piece of this ordinance. I think that We know that housing is a huge issue. We know that Many renters Are impacted by the costs of rents here and the lack of available housing We know that 60 of Santa Cruz is impacted by the rental housing crisis. So I think that's Gives us a good sense of this being a high enough priority to put it ahead of the other items that y'all listed as opportunity costs, so I'm very much so and I'm much so in favor of it And I really appreciate the city planning department for putting together that Really really really good presentation And for um, you know moving ahead on this because I know there's so much to do So really appreciate y'all for doing that Thank you. Thank you Hey, everyone, uh, I want to speak in favor of the rental registry And also advocate for making sure that um We we allow for people to get access to the data without revealing any personally identifiable information about the tenants themselves um on top of that I I would like to Also speak in favor of of doing the inspections that are going around I've had friends that have left here that were Basically living in extremely boldy situations. The landlords aren't going to deal with they love that they can just keep Renting them out for a high price And not have to pay the consequences of it You know they've owned the properties since the the 60s or earlier and really Like a lot of this stuff needs to get fixed or addressed in some way I don't want to see something red tagged and for tenants to have to leave But at the same time I do want to improve their living conditions. Thank you yeah Mary Hesketh When we moved here, I I'm a landlord in other states and I was really surprised to look at the property data online and not be able to see who the owners of properties are And I Finally found that this was due to Just privacy concerns for the citizens and I Listen to this about all the data that you guys want to collect on people and I think where is the privacy You know, where's the privacy issue here? I mean, you're not concerned about privacy anymore Like you are with property ownership I think that the rental data collection is intrusive the rental inspections have a purpose to keep Units in good maintenance and order for tenants, but I am not clear as to the purpose of Collecting all the static except it would be nice to have it There are tenant protections already in place You know for evictions and such those can be reported I'm not even sure how those are going to be addressed with collecting more data So I'm just I'm just not sure what problem exists that this is going to address other than just wanting to know more which isn't necessarily Something that I think should be a priority for the city All these other things that you're foregoing or postponing seem to be more likely to increase amounts of housing for people which is what we keep saying that we need And I don't think that gathering this data is going to help that situation. Thank you Lynn Renshaw Santa Cruz together. I agree with the comments about data being available There's the American community survey Survey Craigslist Zillow what hasn't been mentioned is the city's own housing element which has a thorough inventory Of the units in town. It also has average prices for one bedroom a two bedroom So that data is also out there regarding the eviction data Santa Cruz local Compiled the eviction data A few months ago and showed a declining trend. So that data has also been collected Um I also agree with the fact that it is a misusing city resources to gather Data what would be done with this data? What would change based on this data? And the last thing that I want to remind you is that if Uh, well two things 38 items is a bit excessive. I counted the number of items requested on the data set And again by overreaching and doing something that's invasive You put more of the rental housing stock at risk because people will not participate at a certain point. We rely on Over half of the single-family homes Our rentals. So that's about 7,000 some Houses those could be sold for a million dollars people don't have to participate in the rental market So all the things that you do here. You should be very careful to protect the rental housing supply. Thank you I'm Cynthia burger with center cruise tennis association. Thank you for inviting me to this sarah If we had data we could indeed find out if what lynn said is true. So You know that would be helpful that that You know if if you do this then there won't be more rentals We don't know any of that those are just common threats thrown out there So how many cities currently That do or don't have rent control have data collection ordinances. I'm just giving my questions How has collected data affected their city finances? Where is this data ordinance on your list? It was already put off for four months And I didn't see a prioritization on that list and I didn't see the data ordinance in that list Where is The majority of renters the largest group of them are students from ucsc Couldn't to fund the 3di software expenses Couldn't you pressure community housing and other departments to subsidize all or part of the software If you can figure out how it's going to benefit students. I think rental data will benefit the parents who Students are calling me all the time about their students rental situations And I think if they had more data, they'd it'd be good for the cosigners All over town You're reaching out to the community about owner priorities like adu grandfathering in but another new law of much greater overall Consequences the tenant protection law. So have it can you do? Community outreach to renters. So don't you think that if you get established a rental data collection? Process and you'd actually that's also actually community outreach to tenants It's kind of hard to do community outreach to tenants because they're such a huge group And it is never done effectively, but if you had a data collection, then that's your way to inform You know have a central for uh for the 60 percent of your constituents Thank you Before you speak Is there any other member of the public who would like to speak to us on this item? You'll be our last speaker. Okay, um two things First of all, it's been about what eight months nine months since tenant sanctuary has been active and um I would believe I would hope by this time they would have some Not only anecdotal but actual real data as to what is going on in terms of evictions three-day notices Landlord issues and so forth that I think being tenant driven Coming from the tenants themselves would be um very valid data that I would think you'd want to evaluate before looking at spending Again, a quarter million dollars over the next five years Uh, so I'm surprised tenants sanctuary isn't here to weigh in I would really really like to see their their what what they've um gathered so far in the last Eight months. I believe second Um being an engineer. I really I'm kind of data driven. I like the concept of numbers and so forth And I'd be very interested in hearing this what what is going on actually in the city of Santa Cruz as far as a lot of these issues, but um The best source of this data is actually From the tenants themselves And it really it doesn't matter what the actual rent is who care, you know, one bedroom is 1200 dollars another one's 1800 dollars A studio might rent for 14 or 800 what counts and what's really important for this whole debate discussion and policy is rent burden I would like to see What the people are paying for rent, but then the tenants answer questions as to their income They're maybe that gross income netting with you know, the devil's in the details But it's rent burden. That's important To policy making and you need the tenants to drive this data So again, and I think I agree with Cynthia I think she was saying the same thing that it's tough to go and do public, you know community outreach for 11,200 units and who knows 15 16 000 tenants. I thought it was far more. I thought it was more like 20 or 25 000 but That kind of data coming from the tenant And what their rent would be really really interesting to have. Thank you. Thank you Okay, um, I'm wondering if we can bring it back. I know there were some initial comments that were made by community members regarding Some what was in the staff report today, and I was wondering if we may be able to address those first Sure, so um the one woman asked about The cost of developing in-house versus going to the vendor So that is something the subcommittee discussed. We looked at that at length. We don't really have An existing software product that's really well suited. I mean this is part of what you're hearing from the rental inspection service is that The product that we currently have that we're using for that service For lack of a better term. It's a very clunky. It's it's not designed to do something as nuanced as the rental inspection service and so asking it to do yet more and collect information about Specific units and then about events that happen at those in those units It would be nearly impossible to make our existing software do that So then we would be talking about building something from the ground up and if you want to talk about opportunity costs I mean that would just be there's no comparison to going with a vendor versus, you know Attempting to develop something on our own in-house once we drill down to you know the The type of data and what the objectives really were it became pretty clear that That would be you know a full-time One or two folks in it for like six months to a year to really develop a tool in-house so We quickly started looking for a vendor and we've identified we believe a very good one so What were the other questions and I think there was one more around the fee Which I think was covered that part of the outreach that we would be doing moving forward would be addressing The fees around and like how much those fees would be and maybe sure. Yeah, so I mean if you take the If you take the the cost of the software so there there so the cost of the software divided by the number of units that we have The ongoing cost is between three and four dollars per unit That doesn't that doesn't take into account, you know city costs that would be involved in administering this program So there would probably be an increment that would be about, you know staff time and administrative burden And again, it seems like the fee for this Program would be pretty low And that's that's an annual fee correct Well, yes, so so we could decide I mean again We could decide right now as I'm envisioning it. We're going to be paying our vendor annually We do our budgets annually. It seems to kind of make sense that it's an annual fee If all the questions have been answered I'd like to make a motion Actually, if I could there was one question that was asked if you don't mind before That's okay That I was hoping that because it was a question that I had too was which cities Which cities have these types of data sources, but don't have rent control? I think that was raised, you know, so yeah I haven't come across any others that that don't have some kind of rental Stabilization program and also collect data. I was not able to identify any Okay, so if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying all cities that have this data system have a rent control Well, yeah, so elcerito. I just heard that from the audience. That's true. Elcerito They initiated a program with rent stabilization and rental registry And then they rescinded the rent control the rent stabilization portion of the ordinance So now technically they do have a program that is just Rental data and rental registry Um, and that program was just initiated in the summer. So it's hard to say how that's going I do know. I mean I talked to the staff person in the summer And you know, they're I don't mean to laugh they're doing it on paper, which is ambitious And um taking up quite a lot of time and it seems like that's really what's necessary in their community Given the population of who their landlords are as they have to do it in the mail with stamps and paper, which seems so It just is very labor intensive Yeah, but it was but it was designed because it was supposed to Mimic or it was initially it was initially created to go hand in hand with rent stabilization and tenant protections And then the rent stabilization portion was pulled back I'm gonna let I'm just gonna in terms of acknowledgement just acknowledge that councilmember browner ahead and then Matthews and then mires and I know that there some of this is follow up question, but I'll wait for questions, but I I'd like to be acknowledged to make a motion Okay, but I'll acknowledge your desire to make the motion and then I was interested in the first chunk only I just have a question um on the timing of our Updating our housing element. So I know that that's coming up And would we be gathering this kind of characterization data for that process at all? So i'm just trying to understand sort of Will we be looking at any of this information in terms of Again, I'm kind of struggling for Sort of the so just to answer that just briefly because I know it's getting late. So Yes Although, you know the Information resources are oftentimes aggregated. So, you know across the city for example and certainly You know something like this rental data collection Could have we give a much more fine grain set of information. So, you know, you it might be Citywide for some data sources. Maybe it's by census tract if you're looking at Some of the census data and so Would we look at that trend of I mean would we look for a trend like evictions or I mean, is that the kind of thing we would diagnose in our housing element? I know they're fairly I know the housing element is sort of, you know, it's done by according to state standards You know, so there's not a lot of but I'm just curious And again just a short very short Answer if possible you look at evictions Oftentimes the only data that you see is what makes it through the courts. There isn't information that's readily available that is You know what and maybe there is But you know, I'm not aware of good sources of information that say, you know, if a landlord says You know your one year lease is up. I would like you to I'd like to give you notice that, you know in 30 days Um, you need to be out. I I'm not aware of any good resources related to that and I think your question is what's included in the housing element and um Information about evictions is not included typically we do include um Point-in-time information about rents and point-in-time information about vacancy rates Those are part of the housing element But some of this other stuff about, you know, how long is the typical tendency in Santa Cruz? You know, how our rents Changing seasonally that that's not it doesn't go to that level of detail. I already is not counting. Okay. No, thank you councilman brown Yeah, so I was going to make a motion that included all of the elements that are before us For consideration, but I think given what I'm hearing maybe I'll just make a motion related to the rental data recommendations and then we can take the rental inspection checklist separately in a moment. Okay, so um I um, I just I will briefly say um I believe it's in the public interest to collect this data. I believe that Um, we need to better understand what's happening in our community. There are wild um allegations and you know statements made all over town and in this in these chambers about what's happening And then we say we don't have enough data if we say we need data, but then we say well data is gonna Hinder our goals. And so I just believe it is in the public interest to better understand this So I support a rental data collection program I also recognize the um workload challenges And I kind of wish we had had more of this conversation prior to bringing this to you That with the subcommittee um to really think about what Uh, a realistic timeline would be like It looked like for you all um, and so I want to make a motion that we direct this subcommittee to Work with staff to determine a realistic timeline for rolling out the program a rental data collection program And how this relates to other other projects including Directings or including community outreach and feedback efforts Focused on the type frequency and detail of rental housing. It's kind of in the staff Bonnie to help you that part um Timing for uh introduction of an ordinance to create a compulsory registration program and um Also, I guess the I think that it makes sense to Sorry, I'm commenting in the middle of a motion but um to Do that and then also to contract to consider Negotiating a contract with 3di or another appropriate vendor. I'll second that So we have a motion made by council member brown seconded by mayor Cummings and sure I just um I I'll if I if I may I just I appreciate the interest in wanting to sort of pause. I think My hesitation I think well, there's a couple things one I would say we did have a really robust community outreach and engagement process that I know council member brown You're involved with as well that led to a series of recommendations So for me the opportunity costs based on the community priorities that were shared with us that we were trying or are trying to implement But frankly haven't been Implementing many of them to really move the needle and housing in ways that the community said they want us to Is just too significant at this time personally Not but I also want to acknowledge that you know having been on council through the series of debates and the contentious discussions around rent control and and lack of information That one thing that stood out of the seppos report for me was that gosh There was this sort of nugget of common ground particularly around how do we get more information that we all believe and And I I don't I Don't want to lose that potential By saying that this could be the one thing that that's going to be that solution If we're if we're truly going to try to engage the community on this I think it'd be helpful to hear what Come out of a common ground there and I and I say that Specifically around this time because having been on council to see how divided our community got on that We don't want to miss an opportunity to to really have this potential for common ground and reconciliation in my opinion So I just am hesitant to say we are putting this community process with this solution Without fully understanding how important it is to really Massage that community process in a way that's going to hopefully lead to something that everybody can really believe and agree And find this value to the community And I say that having and I know that those who've been on the council with me before having lived through that It was it was hard to see our community so divided and I do think affordable housing is something we all share So those are my thoughts just want to um Kind of follow up on that because I think that what has been The motion that's been made Part of why i'm seconding it and supporting it as well Is because a big piece of that and it's in the first recommendation Is to do this community outreach. So Since we're not You know going recommend that going into the contract with 3di and we're bringing that back as a factors to consider That's also something that we're able to Incorporate into that community outreach piece And you know, I think I want to just you know reiterate again some of the statements that were made by the community Which it's hard to know what's happening to renters when we don't have data and I think that just you know as being someone who was actively involved in the rent control campaign and who later Then ended up running for council With part of that being on my platform is that if we continue to not have data on what's happening with renters within our community We're not gonna we're going to continue to see our community be divided because Rents aren't going down and a lot of the housing that's being proposed, especially as it relates to market rate housing is just you know more High rent housing and as we continue to see University grow we continue to see the impacts potentially from the tech community growing over the hill We're going to see that influence on our community And as we continue to see that those pressures our community is not going to get any better And so this is an opportunity in my opinion, which is why um, you know supportive of it is that we Are trying to address concerns that came out of our community around the people who said Before we make these big policy decisions. We need more data Um, I also want to address some of the comments that were made earlier because one of the pieces of this community outreach Is that we're going to go to the community and say what kind of data do you want to be public and what should be kept private? additionally There's an opportunity with this technology to have both tenants and landlords to be able to see What's being you know, um displayed in terms of what people's rent is And so if there's a discrepancy between the tenants and the landlords tenants can then contact the city and say You know, here's a copy of my lease. This is not incorrect Or you know vice versa from the landlord if we're collecting data on notices to quit for example It's also an opportunity or high rent increases for example And i'll focus on the high rent increase portion There's the potential, you know, depending on how these community conversations go for there to be a flag and say Hey, to the tenant your rent has been increased above the threshold That's acceptable in the city If this is going to make you move out you can then contact your landlord for The exorbitant rent increase violation so and and to I think something that came up earlier around Cities in california that have this technology how many of them had rent control In addition to this technology cities in california all have rent control now So I mean to say that Um, I think we we no longer have that as a comparison because all the cities are under rent control It's a way for us to then incorporate technology that's been used in other cities and has been proven to be effective To start tracking our rental market. And so that's just one of the comments I wanted to make behind this and um, you know, just really point out that this can Very much help us have a better understanding of how people and that rent burden Comment can also be incorporated in as a question in the survey that we have available to tenants. So um personally, I think that You know the intention of the motion is to you know, work with staff to see how we can fit this in But also address this really big concern about The need for more data and then have a process where we can reach out to the community And really engage with the community to see what is appropriate so that we can start Getting past some of these divisive issues that have come up in the past So I realized As others were speaking that I there was a final part of the motion that I wanted to make related to timing of Coming back to the council with a plan. Um, I'd like to try to do that quickly And so I if we could put in the motion, uh, Richard with an update To council at the second meeting in march that gives us enough time I think to have one meeting to try to hash some of this out. Um, so if that was that acceptable And um, and then I just wanted to speak to the question about rent burden because I think that is really really important Um, and I will say that there have been some data collection efforts there They've been very small sample, you know, small data sets very limited. Um, but what they show is that Huge percentage is the people who are surveyed in the no place like home survey And then an internal survey that graduate students have done on the ucsc campus that Huge percentages are rent burdened at, you know, 50 percent of income 75 percent of income levels So I think it is something that we should be trying to look at more closely and and get additional data on But I don't think that this is the the way to get that done I mean, it will be a piece of that puzzle that will help us understand Um, what rent burden looks like kind of more broadly what if we if we can actually see Um, have more information and aggregate that about rents and you know And then I also wanted to speak to the privacy issue because I take that very seriously and that is why we are talking about Being very deliberate about what kind of information would be made public and ensuring that We there's no legal ramification and then also just know You know, kind of ethical concern about that as well I mean, I think getting the data is critical and how we use it is You know, we're going to be determined in the future. I think Um, finally, I'll respond to the the point about well, you're it sounds like you're just collecting data for to collect it um, so why would you do that but We're collecting data because we don't know what the What is ha we don't know what's happening? And so there may be something to be done with it and we just don't know that until we Actually start collecting it. I heard somebody else mentioned. Well, we're going to be asking for back data for years That was not the intention either Was to start now we to get some kind of baseline so we can see what's happening over time So with that, I'll just others I would suggest that in your motion you add some element of assessing With some degree of completeness the information that is currently available on Santa Cruz rental statistics because People have mentioned a lot of different sources And of which is comprehensive, but collectively May be useful to know and they exist now I will be voting against this For several reasons For one thing the whole Proposal has morphed from the original proposal which was for a voluntary system to a mandatory one Since that suggestion was first made, of course, there's been state action which has put some Very clear limits on rental increases and just cause so some of the motivation that existed initially I think has Certainly lessened significantly Among my main concerns are that I'm not sure that we we really in time will be able to use this information For local housing policy. I'm curious. Maybe I'll ultimately be proven wrong, but I think that we are so much in the shadow of mega trends between Silicon Valley and the university Over which we have pretty much zero control. I read in the paper today or yesterday Silicon valleys and I don't know how many zeros are on this adding 100,000 square feet a million square feet of commercial space I mean someone out there may know it's a huge amount Housing not so much. So I think you know, we're just we're going to be The expectations that we will use this information At a significant level in the city of Santa Cruz. I think is Optimistic so I'm not sure there's going to be a specific benefit. I think also If carried out as described It will the the whole privacy issue How much is accessible to the public will be one more disincentive for the smaller and mom and pop Landlords to stay in the business and It was interesting to hear the stat Which I assume is in the ballpark correct but about half of our rentals in the city are Single family homes and those are the ones that we know are at risk of just going a different direction in the market So and also fundamentally I am concerned About what this will do to displace the things that to me are really important like getting to the adu getting to the Design standards getting to the parking requirement all these things that we have heard for Years these are obstacles to It's almost low-hanging fruit to freeing up some more housing. So For all of those reasons I will be not supporting the motion Make it clarification. Was that a friendly amendment? What was the suggestion take it or leave it? Well, it's we can I don't think we need to do it. We can just do it. Yeah Good point Is there any further comments? I If you could could you please read the motion again I'd like to get clarity on it because I am supportive of the community outreach kind of being built into this conversation And I do think that we're also putting the solution ahead of that process. So if we could split split it potentially I'd be open to that Well, I'm not sure how we would you mean direct the subcommittee to work with staff on rolling out a Community outreach and then everything else be separate. Yeah To work on the time I mean, you're you also meeting with them if I can my understanding is also to understand the implications for timing and Other opportunity costs, but if that is the first step, I I would be interested in supporting that But you would do not want that to include subcommittee discussion about an ordinance or a purchase agreement with 3di I think that could come back after the it could be informed by the community process That's why I think you're I feel it's conflating this the solution with the process So I feel comfortable with the process, but not necessarily already proposing the solution Not sure how we would separate it. I could just also just for the record. Maybe have that be reflected in my statement Yeah, that number one would essentially inform two and three which could come out of that community process But at this time I prefer that I'm supportive of that If that's easier So, yeah, would you so did you want me to read it again? Yeah, either way. Okay, so So the motion is to direct the subcommittee to work with staff To determine a realistic timeline for rolling out rental data collection program and how That program relates to other projects Including Community outreach and feedback efforts focused on the type frequency and detail of rental housing statistics that will be made available to the public Drafting an ordinance of an ordinance creating a compulsorily compulsory registration program For all rental housing in the city And establishing a fee necessary to cover the city's cost associated with this program and Three negotiating Or Join during I don't know if that's a word, but I'm negotiating a contract with 3di or another appropriate vendor In accordance with city purchasing parameters to deliver products and so on Direct staff to return to council with an update at the second meeting This is just editorial, but it seems to me odd to include the name of a specific vendor in something that's still that Penitive if you just say entering the contract with an appropriate vendor a contract with an appropriate vendor And we kind of know Oh, I had a question also when you say all rental housing in the city does that Apply to rooms and houses And one of the things that I would say is that um The 3di when we had discussions with them around Would there be an ability to Distinguish between different rooms and they said There's potential for it because if you can call a room a unit, then you actually have an independent unit Within those households, so but again, these are all You know part this would all be part of this community engagement process I just yeah, I just I I'm not going to support the motion this evening Um, uh, I I I guess I'm struggling kind of with A little bit of the cart before the horse In terms of really being able to do that robust community outreach And feedback effort, so I really appreciate that that is part of the process, but I feel at the same time also Creating a required rich a required program Um without that feedback. It just feels a little A little reversed to me. Um So that's I just wanted to state that Just want to make one comment about that because I I understand the concern But I want to remind my colleagues that we have had a pretty robust set of Public opportunities for the public to weigh in this has been on our agenda multiple times We did focus groups and my concern is that What I considered to be you know, the perfect becoming the enemy of the good is is where we're headed with that so I just think that kind of Diving in and doing the community outreach Along the lines of yes, we are going to This is our plan to do this and how should we do it is is a different thing than saying Should we do it or should we not do it because if that's the question for community outreach? We'll just keep having the fight about it forever So I kind of feel like at a certain point we need to make a decision I'll also add to that that we did do that community outreach Um already and we did have those conversations And one of the things that came out was that working through working with a vendor They informed us that the cities when they've rolled these out Um that the voluntary programs didn't work and so that it had to be compulsory because many people didn't engage And so I think that's the purposes of including that here And I offered just one last little piece of context Every ordinance that is initiated by your council Every time you give direction to staff to go forward and draft an ordinance that process Always includes community outreach The council has a community outreach policy that basically at the earliest point possible in the process We're doing robust community outreach on some scale And so I think the direction Coming at this point from the subcommittee Gives a little bit of extra Emphasis to that that we are focusing really hard on the community outreach and then specifically on this element of that drafting of that ordinance And this is all part of a typical process for developing an ordinance the ordinance isn't final The program doesn't exist until your council takes final action on that proposed ordinance So there is no program being created today You're giving us direction to go forward and draft one together with input from the community So um, I I think that's important for the public and for your council to understand that we are There is no program today. There will be no program tomorrow There will not be a program until an ordinance is adopted by your council I think I mean if I if I may I think one of the things that what we heard though Also is that by moving in that direction you redirected your work and as a result of that Some of the things that may have been on the radar in terms of the vetting that went through the housing blueprint subcommittee And other things that we feel could move the needle on housing Will not be attended to given just the reality of the fact that there's a limited amount of resources So I appreciate the clarity and I think there's also a broader understanding of the opportunity costs associated Further discussion Oh, there's a motion made by council member brown seconded by myself. All those in favor, please say aye. All right any opposed? No Set motion Yeah, oh, I'll be back on our agenda next time So that was um council members brown Council member crone voting in favor council members Watkins matthews and bisonary mires voting against with council member glover being absent Technicality Do we Rediscuss the whole thing next time or does it come back for vote with drew having? The one thing that you would need to do is to accept public comment Mm-hmm, but um in terms of the staff presentation, that's purely up to the council. Yeah That was just technical Did you want to move the other one? I mean I'm go ahead make the motion on the first item Um, and that would be modifying the existing residential rental inspection service checklist as proposed and If at some point it becomes fiscally feasible to migrate the record keeping for that program to online service That makes sense your motion. Yeah Sure resolution modifying the existing residential rental inspection service checklist as proposed And At such time if it becomes financially feasible Migrate that program to online record keeping I'll second the motion motion made by council member matthew seconded by council member Watkins Yeah, I'm not going to support the motion. I don't support the rental inspection ordinance Uh, and for the record the rental inspection ordinance has been a disaster for renters landlords graduate students and undergraduates as well In our complex Santa Cruz housing puzzle If the uc admin wants to help student renters it must significantly decrease its on-campus housing fees So Bring it to a vote All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, so that passes with council members Watkins brown matthews vice mayor mires the mayor voting in favor Council member crone voting against council member glover absent So At this point we're going to adjourn until a public comment Oral communications which should start on or around 7 p.m Oh, that wasn't much of a gavel All right, good evening everyone Good evening and welcome to our 7 p.m. Session ask that Good evening and welcome to the 7 p.m. Session the february 25th 2020 meeting of the city council I would like to ask the clerk to please call the roll Thank you mayor council members Watkins here matthews here crown here Weber absent crone vice mayor mires Here and mayor Before we begin I'd like to announce that we have set up overflow seating at the civic in the tony hill room At this time we'll begin oral communications Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the public To speak to us on items that are not on today's agenda If there are any members of the public who would like to speak to us on these items Please line up to my left and you will have two minutes to speak We request that you sign in to ensure a correct spelling of your name in the meeting minutes However, it is not required Out of respect of other members of the public many of whom are not accustomed to speaking in public I'm going to ask that the members of the public. Please refrain from clapping cheering booing hissing Or other similar types of behavior that might discourage all members of the public from stepping up to the microphone to have their views heard And um with that we will get started with public comment. And so you'll have two minutes Catherine Herndon santa cruz This is a letter I wrote to the city council On january 26th 2019 Dear council members and it's on the don't bury the library website still I was very happy to vote for measure s because I love public libraries I go to the downtown library and check out items regularly and often From the wonderful people who staffed the desk I never would have voted for measure s If I had known the funds were to be used to cast aside this building And destroy more trees land and sky with a parking garage How can we ever again? Trust the words of city ballot measures and promotional mailers This library issue strongly influenced my my votes First council candidates So now my hopes are somewhat renewed. I wrote that then now i'm scared again, obviously Everyone should go to watsonville and experience the vast concrete coldness Of the multi-level structure encasing their library A watsonville library employee came to one of our past council meetings And testified that exhaust fumes seep through the garage into the library Our downtown library has very easy convenient access on foot or wheels Parking is always available in front of or around it And it feels much safer than being inside a parking structure, especially after sundown It's a comfortable familiar and pleasant place to visit Just please undertake what we thought was going to be done When we voted for measure s Please restore the present building and our trust Thank you for the people and the planet Vote no on the recall save the downtown library save the ma'am, thank you market the The farmers market and the big trees. Thank you save our commons Hi, i'm deba marks and i live in the city The pro recall movement Is not a grassroots movement donations from the real estate industry To santa cruz united and santa cruz together to promote And fund the recall election total almost 80 thousand dollars the donor list reads like a who's who Of real estate and construction industry Does a construction company in arizona who donated four thousand dollars to the recall Really care about a personnel issue on the city council in santa cruz The recall of two legally elected council members Is really about punishing two progressive council members who care about neighborhoods and care about disadvantaged members of our community It is about real estate profits And promoting high density infill in the city Sadly this recall Movement is spreading all over the country to get rid of democrats and it's pretty sad and pathetic to see this political Revenge movement happening here in santa cruz I urge everybody who's watching this to go to the website stop the recalls Stop the santa stop santa cruz recalls dot org and get the facts. Thank you Okay, I am sorry to be here. This is not the way I wanted to spend any evening let alone this one The recall started immediately after the november election But then they found out that they needed six months to wait before they could get going By then we'd had the 12th of february perception speech Where in the former mayor? Gossiped about what people had told her That she was being bullied Not that she felt bullied but she had been told that she was being bullied This set up the emotional charges against two fine human beings Who didn't deserve the treatment that they have received from the other side? Up on campus chris and drew are being called out for molesting women and molesting children The recall is about money and development and there will be others after me and obviously before me who Have spoken to that issue Our former mayor winningly or not poured gasoline on a low level power grab over money and lit the match Stop the recall has played by the rules truthfully. We've had town hall meetings concerts contests We go door to door canvassing the dark side Has had signature gatherers harass people lie to people yell at people They've been told to leave by the police. They've been cited by the police And then we have ryan cuterty and his a-hole comment in the op-ed We are at a crossroads. We can choose community Or we can be a commodity Choose community Hello, everybody. I'm Sheila curio I wanted to share with you something I learned a couple of days ago that you may or may not have heard about that's Something that's of honor to our city um Santa Cruz's major achievements in the realm of climate action for the year of 2019 Attracted international attention last week An organization an international organization called the carbon disclosure project announced on february 18th That the city of santa cruz had been selected as one of the top 105 Worldwide cities noted for climate action in the year 2019 And hadn't been acknowledged in that way the previous year According to the cdp These 105 cities representing a combined global population of 170 million are leading the transition to a climate safe Future and setting an example for others to follow. So reading that I felt Extremely proud of our city Thank you Locally environmental groups have also been vocal in praising the climate actions taken by our targeted progressive council members In august the santa cruz climate action network posted on social media The council member glue driver was a quote visionary for his work as lead sponsor of santa cruz's green new deal resolution In august the santa cruz climate action network posted on social media. Whoops The santa cruz sierra club chose to oppose the recall of council members druglever and chris krone noting that they have Energetically followed through on their commitment to the environment a commitment that we chose to vote them for And affirming that both council members are important to the council majority that protects our local environment Having taken the lead in providing free bus passes to downtown employees Supporting our city's urban tree canopy Protecting the site of the downtown farmers market from development into a 40 million dollar pork parking structure And managing ucfc growth etc chris and drug's presence on the council is critical for the future of our city. Thank you Hi, i'm bret garrett and i'm just following shila with a list of some of the accomplishments of the city council in 2019 and 2020 Which i appreciate Raised the inclusionary zoning requirement for new affordable units in new construction from 15 to 20 Developers in the city of santa cruz are now required to build 20 of new housing units at affordable below market rates Secured funding for the warming center and reopened the national guard armory and 1220 river streets providing overnight services for people experiencing homelessness Stopped the corridors plan and redirected city staffs work toward affordable housing Introduced the green new deal resolution Appointed to a pro affordable housing planning commissioners to the city planning commission Free metro passes and jump by credit for all downtown workers decriminalized entheogenic and psychoactive plants and fungi Oral communication time right now has been changed from 5 30 to 7 p.m To increase access for working people introduced a proposal for the establishment of a beach flats improvement fund passed a resolution to support ucfc graduate students strike and the cost of living adjustment cola um And passed a resolution to support amamudsen tribal band in protecting their sacred lands of urus stack located in the santa cruz mountains So i want to thank the city council for all you do We must retain our democratically elected progressive city council in particular chris groen and drew glover who are under attack Please everyone vote no on the recalls. Thank you Hi, elise casby here. There's a business ethic quote unquote. It's called eliminate the competition It was uh refined and perfected by the bush family with their completely murderous and unethical business Practices in the oil industry in texas Eliminate the competition is one of the things that is absolutely wrong with our business climate today And with every other policy that we have repressing us in the united states The united states is under a massive reactionary wave It reminds a lot of us of what happened in the south In the 60s the civil rights movement had to Struggle through that repressive wall with non-violent civil disobedience from all walks across the spectrum Of ethnicities and beliefs and religious faiths to show the injustice of that It was a violent repression and this is what we're going through I have to wonder how violent the repression of the recall is going to get Will people be taken out? I mean, they're able to lie at every step Cynthia matthews martin walkins and donna mayers are not Refuting the recall are not repudiating the recall and in fact they favor the recall because they represent reactionary development and real estate business interests They are shielded from real solutions about the climate They don't know what the real solutions are And so they are absolutely a part of the recall movement I'm asking everyone in this room and every student up at ucsc To make sure that you register to vote on same-day voting if you're not already registered and vote on the third We absolutely need to create a future that's viable and where our community community voices matter Not just big money and ruthless mean untruthful dispiriting repressive Eliminate the competition Ethics Good evening, uh, marv lewis, uh, sand crews We are at a crossroads in the city as we all know and that crossroads I would define as Between money and power versus truth justice and compassion And what we have here is precious. We have a representative government that was elected by the people We do not have a government as of yet where special interests can come in and flood this city with a huge amount of money infiltrating social media and all print media and Grass roots and say that we need to dismantle this council for the good of our interest Which is developing this city which is selling the city and the answer is no The people do not want this And so I am asking as unrealistic as it is this evening that this council go on record And refute this recall that you come together and you make your amends And that you publicly say that you refute the recall and that you are going to stay together as an integral body Now granted that will most likely not happen this evening So I am asking the people of Santa Cruz to refute this recall because by refuting this recall we get to abide by The integrity of the process that we set in place when we elected all of you to this council and In the long run We stand to gain More than we are going to lose by watching this council be dismantled By an ill-directed maligned recall effort Thank you Thanks for listening to us Only rarely does a community have a public occasion to exercise collective political morality But that is the situation that we face in Santa Cruz now Next Tuesday voters will decide whether to recall two members of this city council This is a question that will reveal as marv said whether we have integrity as a community Proponents of the recall have engaged in a relentless Year-long campaign against drugweber and chris crone Some have repeatedly and falsely accused them of bullying and sexual harassment Charges that an $18,000 investigation by the city did not substantiate Recently a county supervisor used hearsay to label glover and crone and I paraphrase orifices for excretion His smear is of a piece with unsourced recall flyers at ucsc snide next door Accusations vandals tearing up vote no on the recall signs and slick mailers funded predominantly by real estate landlord and tourist industry money $155,000 and counting so far spent by Santa Cruz together and Santa Cruz united Far more than any individual has ever spent to run for a city council seat With a relentlessly divisive manufacturer of spectacle by opponents of crone and glover We are somewhere between cofka and groundhog day Santa Cruz deserves better than this. I have faith that voters in our community Want a city council where diverse voices represent the wonderful diversity of Santa Cruz I have faith that we will collectively affirm our political community and that it is above this mean spirited crusade To overturn a regular election. I have faith that voters will reject the recall I hope my faith is well placed. Thank you Hi, i'm carol polhamas. I'm gonna uh extemporaneously start my speech in a different direction So I see some of my former students here in the back of the room. You guys know me very very well Can I stop you for one second because we very much want okay I just want them to know because I see that they all have no on the recall signs that they are being misled They need to do their homework. Do your own homework. Don't let people tell you lies Okay, that's not why I came though. I came to say that I applaud the ucsc democrats for their work on campus They've had a broad range of speakers come to present on issues for the students and try to keep them well apprised of what's going on, which is awesome In that context january, I was invited to a debate about the recall and you'll have all surely heard about what happened With councilmember drew clever and a previous incident that I was not privy to But it was brought up again in question and answer and ultimately What happened there during the debate greatly influenced their endorsement of the recall of councilmember glover I want to recognize the ucsc democrats for standing up to say what happened was wrong And for having the courage and the conviction to issue a statement about why they led Why their experience led to the endorsement of the recall of councilmember glover The incident reflected poorly on not only him but also you and also me and anybody else who lives in the city I understand that this may not be something directly related to city business But since one function of the city council is to hold each other accountable when the city cannot I'm asking you to strongly encourage councilmember glover to issue an apology to the ucsc democrats for what happened It was really it was not okay I wish he was here tonight. I didn't know he wasn't going to be because I wanted to say that to him personally The recall is grassroots eight different neighborhood organizations started it do your own homework. Thank you Speaker My name is julie francis and i'm here to follow up on something that happened two weeks ago at city council Drew glover made a motion and the council majority put off taking action on a second substantiated harassment Against claim against him You have had two months to address this and you have just swept it away The public deserves to know all the facts surrounding this additional account of harassments It's unacceptable that the council majority is choosing politics over transparency of government To protect one of their own I applaud kevin grossman and all the city staff for going public with the harassment they felt Also at the meeting mayor Cummings said he was having a meeting with drew behind closed doors The public also deserves to know what happened in that talk Thank you for the time to speak speaker I am james ewing whitman I uh Got here late. I can't really talk about number seven the strategic climate or number 14 the small cell I left before the residential inspection because I had other stuff to do Oh, so okay about 35 years ago. I learned a really good strategic way to communicate with people It's called a one-minute manager. If you have negative observations You should say that one-on-one But if you have positive observations, you know, you can say that so it was great to see Mr. Bernal in his office area yesterday morning before nine And it was wonderful to see you tony walk in the streets today. That was great You know Santa Cruz is not an island It certainly seems like Santa Cruz is an island as I walk around and I communicate with people It's like people don't look up to see what's going on and I think that This is like its own place in the world that it's got its own biodome, but let me tell you about Santa Cruz island It's a little bit southwest of Santa Barbara Spent five days on a 38 foot motor sailboat never turned the motor on and after five days on this boat we went to Do our business on Santa Cruz island You know and I'm uh sitting down to take care of business And there was a bore that I was looking up to And I'm assuming it's a female because there were three smaller bores So, you know, I'm just kind of happy that uh my energy was positive enough not to be attacked when I was in a very vulnerable place So I don't know this recall is just unfortunate And it'll be interesting to see how the dynamics changed. I've spoken several times here I like and respect all of you, but I have some serious questions So thank you for your time Thank you Good evening Scott Graham. Um you know the recall is a Unbelievable situation here in town. We have a group that is going after Drew and Christopher for caring about homeless people for caring about poor people uh This whole thing about Harassment wasn't even a charge against them. The charge was gender discrimination, which was unfounded in the rose report so The recall the the pro recall people Have gone way out of their way to make up lies and have truths and just to continue This false narrative of what these guys have done In order to get them recalled when the real story is they want them out of office so that they can continue to build non-stop in this town For only the elite. They don't want to build anything for poor people They don't want to build anything for people with no money. They want to build stuff for the yuppies and and From over the hill that work the tech techies that work for google and facebook and all these other high tech companies And so the question is Is santa cruz for sale? I say no No on the recall santa cruz is not for sale And so when you vote no on the recall vote no on chris no on drew vote. Yes for tim fits morris Vote yes for catherine byers Rene golder is a republican. I can't understand how the women's democratic club Could vote to endorse a republican replacement candidate. It's absurd. Thank you yeah Well, i'll be glad with the recall thing is over. I didn't think it would actually come to this But I guess it is But I don't live downtown so Or anywhere near downtown. I'm in soquel But i'm very concerned about that lot for parking lot and i'm also concerned that we have There's meetings coming up to decide what to do with this library beautiful library across the street and I don't want them to be secret meetings. We need to have open sessions so everybody gets to come And a decent hour like evenings, you know an evening Or two for these meetings so we can the whole public can have some input We don't want to lose those trees. They've been sequestering carbon for us for more than 200 years Thank you Pat kiddles santa cruz I often say things that are unwelcome here sometimes Members of the city council have interrupted me very rudely When I was only exercising my perfect first amendment right to speak without being interrupted Anyway, I'll get to the point here there's always a bitching and moaning about development and Well When the population grows there's going to be development. That's just the way it is if you don't want the population to grow Let me rephrase that if you don't want more development Then we can't have our population growing. We have to be adult about this It's like a little baby who just wants two highly contradictory things and can't face up to the fact that they are mutually exclusive today, I I get a lot. I'm told I'm a hater Or a xenophobe or all this crap if I say what I'm about to say today I had a very good rapport with an Iranian and a chinese fellow and I I'm in solidarity with both of them as they Are at odds with our government at any rate The point is we can't just keep growing and if the fact is that immigration is where our growth is coming from Then it's insane to have your sanctuary city policy which literally Invites everybody on earth to move here and be protected for doing it. That's the reality You don't want to face that. I hope somebody listening to me today hears that and has is It makes enough sense to you that you won't be Intimidated by these open borders people who at the same time demand that we cut carbon emissions And then invite the entire earth to move to its most notorious carbon emitter Grow up. It's not you got to make a choice Thank you I just like to see with the show of hands how many more people would like to speak during oral communications So just so you know oral communications is 30 minutes Generally from seven to around seven thirty Um If you'd like to speak to oral communications, I'm gonna ask again that you line up to my left and I'm gonna Can I see in the number of hands again because we have an item Okay, so if those of you who are still here who would like to speak if you can line up to my left I'll give you one. We'll we'll give you one minute because we have an evening item That's probably gonna take us well into the evening Hello council members. My name is sam Hughes. I'm a phd student at the university of california santa cruz I'm here to update you on the current graduate student strike as of midnight of tomorrow 85 or more of my friends and colleagues are set to be fired I know that 18 percent of them are international students Which means that they're going to be de facto deported because it is illegal as someone on a student visa to work for any employer Other than the university of california santa cruz I know that there's not anything you can do tonight because it hasn't been agendized But I ask for any of you that care about the issues that we're facing to please consider coming out to the picket tomorrow So that you can hear some of our stories And to please do whatever you can to pressure the university of california to provide us with a living wage eight percent of the graduate students in our department do sex work in order to afford getting our phds and That's the situation that we're living in and now we're about to be fired Thank you. Thank you My name is jasper thomas. I'm an undergrad at uc santa cruz and involved in strike activity Undergrads are currently encouraged to report ta strikers to the school via google form. Every other day, it seems the administration Is passive aggressively sending emails to the undergraduates and tending to turn us against our instructors and mentors This trend of misinformation is also present in the many communications related to the striking graduate students They tell them that the school is planning to do things for grad students But phrase it using copious loopholes and tell them to be content with crumbs in the words of andrew hosier burn Power has been cried by those stronger than me straight into the face that tells you to rattle your chains if you love being free I support the graduate students and their decision to cry straight into the faces of kletzer and larive and napolitano Telling them to give in and rattle their chains in support of a system that does not support them Please inform yourself at pay us more ucsc.com And i'm nancy cruzo and i'm Speaking about the recall um Out here it feels like a holy war Where repentance is required and characters are defamed and besmirched And it is hysterically growing And it seems to me That is very much about moneyed interests Not about the characters of two councilmen Who we elected And would like to have served their terms We do not feel that they have done the wrong they're accused of we do not And we feel that our votes are being stolen from us And it does feel like a war it feels like a crusade And i wish very much it hadn't happened because it must feel a a whole lot worse for to the two individuals and their families But so much of what has happened should have been handled internally Thank you I actually came here to talk about the circles and I I believe that's on the agenda tonight, okay But I also want to say that I am for no on the recall as well and I it's dumb dumb founding to me and friends of mine are on the opposite end of this and I myself have never experienced this so-called bad behavior From either chris crone or drew glover so I've been going around and handing out flyers in neighborhoods and it's been very interesting I think there's so much so many ways that we could come together Instead of be on a war I agree that some landlords are good landlords and they deserve to not have obstacles put in their way On the other hand I i'm really distressed about our city being overdeveloped Really fast and I think we'll live to regret it Thank you Well that concludes oral communications And now we'll move on to our public hearing item and which is our only evening item And is the 111 errant circle council consideration of whether to designate the property at 111 errant circle as a historic landmark And or to list it on the historic survey Historic preservation commission recommended that the structure not be designated or listed Um environmental determination exempt and so we'll have a presentation by ryan bain senior planner So I don't see ryan either So we'll take a maybe a two minute break to uh Allow people who are here for oral communications to clear the chambers and then to uh Allow our staff time to Okay And I think we can get started So I'd like to turn the meeting over to ryan bain senior planner To lead the staff presentation. Yes. Good evening. Um, we're here to look at 111 errant circle and give a little background um back on december 10th city council directed staff to Bring forward The uh historic designation or recommendation whether the site should be listed as historic landmark to historic preservation commission um being that there are actually two sections um for historic designation being both Uh the historic building survey and landmark We came back to council just to clarify if they wanted the hpc to look at both criteria And um you confirmed that you did Um and on january 30th, uh, we did take it before the historic preservation commission um and they considered the designation and recommended against listing on a five to zero vote In addition to the recommend the recommendation of the council to not list the property They also had some advisory recommendations. Um for the future project potential project um One is that If there'd be some open space at the focal point of the woodrow avenue view shed That there would be a historic interpretive plaques or signs surrounding the site to give um a historic perspective and description of the uh the development of this the circles neighborhood And that the street pattern um be the circular street pattern be retained um just to give just kind of a little timeline of the site Back in 1889 um was when the tabernacle the original church was constructed As part of um the religious encampment That's when also the concentric street pattern was developed for the uh the campers In 1900 approximately the the missionary baptist church that's a couple blocks away was constructed and still still present In 1935 is when the tabernacle church actually burnt down And then from 35 to approximately 55 the property was leased to the city for use as a park and In 1958 to 61 is when the current Garfield church was constructed um in terms of the historic building survey um in our zoning ordinance section 24 12 4 40 It establishes procedures and criteria for listing. There's seven criteria And just go over there real quickly. It has to be recognized as a significant example of a cultural natural archaeological or built heritage um It has to be associated with a significant person Uh or event or person a significant architect designer or builder Has to demonstrate some type of architectural significance Distinctive stylistic characteristics and has to retain its integrity Um As part of the uh submittal for the proposed project, um A department of parks and recreation primary record or dpr Was prepared by page in turnbull as a city-approved historic consultant And that was in may of 2019 As i mentioned as part as part of the application for the development of the site The report concluded that the church um building does not meet the criteria For listing on the national register of historic places The california register of historical resources or the santa cruz historic building survey um in addition to The dpr that was prepared by page in turnbull We also um had it peer reviewed By dudek, which is a consulting firm that we contract with to to conduct that peer review and to comment on the adequacy In consideration the level of the documentation And that the conclusions are well support and support in all applicable state and local regulations and dudek agreed that the subject property is not appear eligible for listing um should the council decide to um Proposed to list the site. I just wanted to make you aware that under 15331 The listing would be exempt So based on the dpr 523 report prepared by page in turnbull In addition to the peer review conducted by dudek The 111 errat circle property does not meet the criteria for listing On the national register the california register The santa cruz historic building survey Or as a city landmark The hpc reviewed the documentation and agreed with those conclusions And recommended the council that the property not be listed And therefore staff is recommending that the city council Not list the property at 111 errat circle on the city's historic building survey Or as a city landmark I'm available for any questions And I also wanted to mention that christine at dykes of page in turnbull A historic consultant to prepare the dpr report is here for any questions as well Thank you for that presentation. Are there any questions from members of the city council? Ryan, I didn't quite catch. Could you go back a slide? You were mentioning section 15331, sorry that one. Yeah, what is that? Oh, that's under cqa. That's just under cqa. Yeah, if It's questionable if this is considered listing is really a project under cqa, but If just to cover it if you decided to list it There is an exemption under that section. Okay, great I did actually have a question regarding the page in turnbull report and that's one of the things that's listed in the Is that for Certain properties to be considered It's the building that property is either a building site Or object that kind of fits some of these criteria And i'm just wondering if you might be able to speak to because it sounds like there has Been a lot of emphasis on the building, but i'm wondering if you could speak to the site itself As whether or not it's considered a historic site I might have christina speak to that but just Essentially when it comes to a site Normally it's it's the structure that really conveys the historic significance to the site That that gives that significance. So Just designating a vacant site Really isn't something that would be That would be done and in terms of a listing Is my understanding of it, but I might ask christina the same question came up at the hpc meeting as well So maybe she could speak to it a little more eloquently than i can Good evening council members What ryan said is is historic preservation practice that In order to List a property on a historic register you must Show that there is historic significance as well as historic integrity You need both of those things and integrity is the ability of the property to physically convey its significance And that relates to The location in the setting as well as the design and the materials And um workmanship feeling and association These are concepts that are outlined by the national park service and our Standards that we that we use in historic preservation analysis So it really does still come back to The physical building or features on the site Even if a property is found to be significant in association with events or people instead of its architecture those that reason for significance still must be Conveyed by what physically is is on the site currently Any other questions from council members Seeing none, uh, we can open it up for public comment If you would like to comment on the item that's before us I'm going to ask again that you please line up to the left and you'll be given two minutes to speak And before we get started, um, I'd like to invite up brett packer From circle of friends who reached out to Um the mayor's office and requested four minutes of extra time So you'll be given four minutes to begin public comment on this item I Hi, I thought we're gonna have a little more time and so with three of us we're gonna present together Um, but I'll do the four minutes and then they can Talk individually Um Hello city council and um, thank you for your service and hello community and thank you for showing up. This is important Um, my name is brett packer and I'm a member of the circle of friends And I lived in santa cruz. So it's since I went to cabrillo in 1983 I've raised three kids here. They've all gone to school in local schools and currently I have one at pcs and two at cabrillo To make a living I build and remodel local homes um with a small company I initiated this project over two years ago with my fellow circle of friends as a way for our families And the families of my friends to be able to build homes for our families and live here In this very expensive town where we wouldn't be able to live here and build homes Have homes in on the west side if we weren't doing it this way um We're all working together. It's a sweat equity project from this planning process right on through the building projects And then we'll be living there together in a co-housing situation Somehow we scraped the funds together to purchase the proper property And started down the road to create our co-housing community Before we actually purchased the property we met with the city officials the staff numerous times To confirm that the r15 zoning would support our project which we were told it would Engle family homes and also To confirm that It was not listed as a historic resource resource We were told that it wasn't that old and then it was not listed And we were actually told we didn't even need to do a report on it at that time So we moved on and purchased the property. We worked with the city staff We worked with all the city departments met with all the council members met with our neighbors at the circles and on multiple occasions had meetings With the neighbors along the way the city staff encouraged us to have a historic analysis done Just in case any questions were raised. We hired one of the most respected firms in the state page and turnbull To prepare an analysis and they concluded clearly that the property did not meet any of the criteria listed And the city subsequently hired their own consultant Dudek to review our report and dudek agreed with the page turnbull report In december of 2019 Our planner ryan finally told us that our application was complete And he's ready to schedule us to go before the planning commission Which would have been the normal trajectory of our project as we moved through the process We were very excited. It had been two years of a lot of hard work Um A few days later we were surprised to find out that we were taking an unusual turn Um, and that some of the city council had Decided to send it to the historical preservation committee To get a reading Another reading on whether It was historically important and should be listed Um So we had the historical uh preservation committee committee meeting on january 30th And as you know, the historical preservation committee voted 5 to 0 against listing it Additionally, they specifically noted that it was unfair to the applicants To try to have the property listed after we had put two years of effort and great expense into the planning process At the hpc meeting a show of hands revealed a very strong majority of the full house to be supporters of our project And against having it hijacked as a historical listing Of the 75 letters sent to the hpc for that meeting 60 were from supporters of our projects only 15 were from the opposition Is that saying have three seconds That's yeah, your time is up. All right. Thank you. Thank you I'm going to remind the community that out of respect for time Um, if we are clapping that's going to make the meeting go on longer We're clapping after each individual who speaks so I just like to ask that you hold your applause And we'll get through all the speakers and we can make our decision and then you can applaud at that time. So thank you You'll have two minutes I'm ross gibson city of stark preservation commission, but recused on this issue when this uh Site was advertised it was called the heart of the west side And it's not just because it's the center of the west side It's because it's always been the heartbeat of west side community activities the The center area had been designed as the focal point of the entire circle's neighborhood It was the uh, uh, this is a poor neighborhood There's small lots no backyards to speak of And so the community commons was the place where everybody had a front yard so to speak There are no sidewalks on the Commons because it invites you to enter or leave the property from any point now The problem that we have is that it's never been Understood in context with the neighborhood itself because if it wasn't just a zoning issue It was a human issue a neighborhood issue It was showing that the neighbors are stakeholders that they're actually going to lose something When this project comes into fruition. It means that you have to go outside the neighborhood to hold a meeting to Engage with certain community services and so forth At the historic preservation commission. I felt that there were some deficits in the In the They did a good job laying out some of the issues but the things that were left out were like the section on neighborhood setting from the preservation plan And it it hits all of the aspects as a as it relates to the neighborhood Now obviously it's a budget building And the reason for that was it's a poor neighborhood and the congregation needed something cheap But I think the solutions that they created were quite Astounding to be able to preserve the open space in the middle and have enough room for services. Thank you Evening council and thank you so much for this opportunity to speak my name is Barbara Benish. I've lived in the neighborhood about six years I'd like to acknowledge also the land of the almond moonson whose Land we are actually discussing tonight and acknowledge their Original presence in this neighborhood As we know the land was not owned by our first people's nations It was shared and it was stewarded by them. It was a community place And what we're trying to save is not just a building for a particular religious group or a building itself But what we are talking about is the site and the place and the community It's been a place for generations for all kinds of learning activities athletics Growing healing spaces and this is what we are trying to preserve we Some of the things that were said earlier by brett and it's unfortunate that we've all come to this place because we all know each other And we weren't really consulted as he said And if the original historic report was By page and turnbull was by their group Then I would question that and I did read the report and if one of my undergrads did that report they would not get a very good grade The commons what we are talking about here is a very inarticulate messy democratic place It's not something we can put a dollar amount on it's something that is Invaluable if we lose this commons that is so unique to santa cruz. We will never get it back again I appreciate these people on housing But it doesn't have to be in the center of this community that's been there for over 150 years Thank you Yep Hello, my name is freya sands and I live on wilk circle I had a plan but then it got changed because I got nine pages of handwritten notes from on the On the station area of gordon mildrum a minister of the circle church and This place has been a Wonderful place for me personally and many other people, but I will read you just a little excerpt from them From his work From the time that the old tapernacle burned to the ground in 1935 We've never given up the idea of erecting another building on this site Further it goes we Always stipulated in the original deed that the property was always to be used for religious purposes So we waited to keep very much alive our hopes of gaining the circle property for a new home for the garfield park Circle church and finally A big wonderful sanctuary Was dedicated and stands fitting to the monument of the courage determination Loyalty love and devotion of the members of this church Who helped bring this fruition to fruition starting on up to over 6 1958 The day after our groundbreaking ceremony was held on the after our morning worship service We are moving forward if that is not history What is thank you very much for your service Hello, my name is april now block. It's my first time speaking at a meeting. It's a very important issue for me Um, I started attending church in 2007 at disciples of christ church at the circle Prior to this I received my ministries through tv preachers, which encouraged listeners to get involved in community fellowship Although I have gone through many trials I'm grateful for that first step taken on easter sunday 2007 when I walked down to the circle church Pastor steve was the pastor of a very small congregation of mostly elderly people Who had been members for generations and the homeless population Which seemed to be a passion of his I full heartedly jumped in and helped wherever I felt there was need Cooking for the homeless remodeling a shower cleaning the buildings running fundraising community outreach craft holiday fairs Creating the newsletter and being on the board in the process I got a very clear picture of the church and surrounding community These are my observations the church did not have enough discipline or able-bodied people to properly execute the idea to Help the homeless and the mental health issues which come along with caring and helping them Two the attempts made to draw the community into help failed The neighbors rightfully so were unhappy with the poorly managed homeless situation at the church I sat through the meeting of the historical society with a heavy heart Finally, the neighbors were standing up for the community green space Property, but it was appearing to be too late. I left that meeting wondering why there was no community posting Absolutely none when the property was sold To a developer Now two years have gone by with many dollars spent The meeting you are having tonight should have happened two years ago. Why was the community not notified? Why why did these people not let us know? I now work a job in redwood city caring for the mentally ill I recently attended an ecu summit where study was reported on about green space in communities When greed and space is taken away Mental illness goes up in our community. Please do the right thing for caring for our community as the whole body We need to bring people together and we need to help mentally ill all of us Included, thank you Hi, my name is sue powell. I live on wilk circle And I've been there for 36 years. I'm here to speak in favor of historic preservation For the circle church as a local historic landmark. I have a letter that I would like distributed And then in addition, I have petition signatures. I have Paper petition copies of paper petitions from 251 people that have signed in support of not demolishing the circle church And I have an online petition with 1512 signatures of people not wanting to Um To have the circle church destroyed Online there's 15 12 1,512 only 1478 printed so but that's still a substantial number So we have 1,763 people in the city of santa cruz that do not want this church destroyed And in addition, there's another 87 people who sign that are from the county and the other people Have connections in town their families of residents And I'm running out of time in my letter I touched on five important points about the historic preservation commission Decision about not giving a historic designation Probably the most important that you could consider. Hopefully is that The criteria for a local historic landmark was not considered by the historic preservation commission They only looked at the state and the national registers and the criteria for those So it's possible that the city council could Designate the circle church as a local historic landmark and I hope to read my other comments I'm also very concerned that Ross Gibson was asked to recuse himself from the historic preservation commission meeting by the chair And I was hoping that the city attorney would take a look at that to see if that was really something that should have happened We think he should have been able to be on the commission offering his historical insights He's thank you. Well, thank you so much Hi there. My name is Matt. I'm on. I'm a resident of d4 street for the last 15 years Um, and I'm here to speak against the listing of the site in the historical survey Um, I believe that the significance of the circles as a site is as a Gathering of a community, uh, which is symbolized by the circular shape of the neighborhood and I think that um that Uh, significance will be maintained under the new Usage that's proposed as a co-housing site. I know that Brett is planning to provide a community space there such that um The opportunity will still be there for the neighborhood to gather And to appreciate the significance of their neighborhood and and my neighborhood as well. Thank you very much Hi, thank you My name is nada milkovich and I also live on the west side. I have two adult children That grew up on the west side And I support the circle of friends development project I'm in favor of following city guidelines and zoning in favor of the change that is necessary and important for our city The applicants have worked diligently through the planning process for two years working closely with the city staff On the basis that the circle church not be listed as a historical resource For the city council to list it at this point is totally unfair to the applicants We desperately need housing in santa cruz and the circle of friends is a group of local families. These are not big developers And they will be providing much needed housing for our families I've studied the application. I've helped Brett for a couple years now and I um I see it as a very fair and he's been playing by the rules Um, so please do the right thing and allow the circle of friends to continue this project I encourage you not to list the church as a historical resource um It might have been nice at one time But uh, we can still have a community space for the neighborhood that does not have to go away Thank you for listening and thanks for Doing your job Good evening. My name is akua parker After the historical preservation committee decided in a unified vote five to zero not to list the circle church And turnbell and dudek conducted separate reports and reviews concluding the church did not reach the criterion to be listed as historical It would be negligent to ignore these unanimous findings The 2013 historical building survey conducted by the city and the hpc did not list the circle church and frankly It would be hard to miss This council sent this project to the hpc to get their recommendation The recommendation is very clear. I encourage you to maintain the integrity of the hpc and to not list the circle church We don't have a dilapidated church crisis. We have a housing crisis As a young person born and raised in santa Cruz I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to be heard in local politics This weekend I was canvassing and imploring people to not support the recall as I find it a necessity to have diverse and progressive voices on our local city council As someone who grew up playing volleyball in the circle church I understand the sentimental value of the building, but sentimentality is different than historical value I along with many others face the reality of not being able to live in my hometown due to Astronomic cost of housing The future homes at the heart of the circle will play a part in solving this problem I look forward to the community space the circle of friends will provide A space for dance yoga and a game of volleyball I thank the council for their time and urge them not to list My name is willow record The fact that we're still here questioning whether or not the circle church should be deemed a historical site is shocking It is a building that was built in 1961 and numerous assessments have all assumed it not worthy as a historical landmark It feels like we're a scene in a west anderson movie about a quirky small town that is blatantly Disregarding evidence and trying to call something what it is not I was born and raised in santa Cruz and played basketball and volleyball in the gym of the circle church all throughout elementary school And junior high as a high schooler. I hung out on the lawn with friends some of whom who are no longer with us It is a sentimental place. Yes, the circles themselves are an important part of the west side community. Yes However, the church is not the pinnacle of the atmosphere that the circles create on the contrary It is pretty run down and underutilized I've always wondered why the central point of such a beautiful area had to be something so forlorn Years ago. I remember talking with friends about how amazing it would be for the lawn in the front to be a Big community garden instead What the circle of friends aims to do with this property is exactly that to make it beautiful Something that we can be proud of to have a community garden in spaces where people can gather and interact with one another Contributing affordable housing in a time where it is desperately needed And at the same time making something aesthetically pleasing and useful as a community space If we stop the circle of friends in their tracks A larger developer will undoubtedly purchase the property Someone with corporate lawyers and deep pockets who will have no problem proving that this site is not historical at all Because it is not if we want to maintain the integrity of this town The solution is not to edge out locals who want to beautify it This unique quality of Santa Cruz will be lost if we wait until big real estate moguls come to gentrify it until it is Unrecognizable I am grateful for the circle of friends and others like them who wish to contribute to the community while maintaining its beauty and integrity. Thanks Hey there. I'm gauged oven So I grew up like or I was actually born like 200 yards away So similarly totally has a place in my heart and you know, I will have a little pang of sadness to see it go Oh speaking the mike. Why thank you I'll just read what I have I guess Um, so when I first heard that it was bought I totally like my heart totally sunk You know I was thinking like shit just big gnarly ugly money project going in and I was actually super Surprised and stoked at who you know like the kind of group of people that ended up getting it I think we're like pretty lucky actually that that turned out to be that way um, and I think kind of the like the main Thing is that like as long as the church remains the way it is It's just going to be like an irresistible target for All kinds of developers, you know, and it seems like pretty obvious that the highest bidder is going to win out in that situation and like pretty much of this Historical listing right now seems like pretty shaky. It's like it seems like it's not going to hold up against hardcore Corporate lawyers and the people who are going to be the next people contending for this spot. So I really um I feel like we kind of have as a neighborhood caught a Lucky break really in like getting people who actually live here and actually care and actually want to build community instead of you know what um Frankly, I assumed was going to happen to it when I heard that it was bought So thank you Good evening. My name is Henry Hooker. I've lived in Santa Cruz for 30 years I agree with the unanimous decision by the historic preservation commission that this church is not historic The proposed housing should not be further delayed Santa Cruz has a housing crisis Nearly 28 000 people work in the city of Santa Cruz 72 of those workers 20 000 people Commute to those jobs from outside of the city Lack of affordable housing in Santa Cruz means more cars on the roads And we see the disastrous effects the disastrous effects twice daily on highway one 40 of all the greenhouse gases in california Come from transportation So housing policy Is ultimately climate policy We the citizens and leaders of Santa Cruz Need to come together and welcome more residents in all of our neighborhoods Workers would have a chance to get out of their cars and bike or walk to work Santa Cruz would be a leader in addressing a statewide problem I urge the city council to reject this delay attempt I also urge you to move quickly on all projects that provide affordable housing in the city of Santa Cruz Thank you Hello, Santa Cruz city council. My name is Philip Roper. I live in Watsonville and work for Caltrans In Santa Cruz as a transportation surveyor I'm friends with Joe combs in this circle of friends group I've worked for many civil engineering and land surveying companies in Santa Cruz and the Monterey county The parcel where the proposed construction will begin has not has been determined not to be a historical site But for some reason this is still up for debate My friends do not have the ability to pay for an environmental impact report Which will be the next step for this project if their property is designated a historical site Historical site is determined using evidence in a detailed report These reports have been created by page and term bill as well as the company of the city of Santa Cruz chose dudek Both of these companies determined that the property is not a historical site My father is jeff roper of roper engineering. He has worked on many projects in the city and county of Santa Cruz I've seen many many projects become delayed or fail While in the permitting process one project I worked on with my father was delayed 10 years He walked the site or we walked the site when I was a freshman in high school And when I graduated from college we started the boundary survey Public opinion from neighbors in the area that enjoyed biking and hiking on the property was the main reason this project took so long to begin Private property should be as such private. No one should no one wants to own property in a city Nobody wants to own property if the city can deem it Apart for its citizens this property cost my friends three million dollars Where was the outcry when this parcel was up for sale two years ago? This is probably the only shop my friends have at owning a home in this area Treating them as a developer trying to make a profit on this project is unfair and untrue There are a lot of hurdles that the project still has to cross in order to break ground Please do not let the public outcry create an extra impossible step for this development process Just because people have fond memories of the parcel that was in the past. Thanks Hi, my name is hillary martisious and I live On walk circle and I do not want to see this Circle church demolished and I believe it is historical because it isn't just a building. It is a it is a History, it's a history of a place when there was nothing out there on the west side There were people who came there and broke ground and designated it for a purpose It is historical. It has always had its purpose It can remain in our community. It can be used for different things But it doesn't have to be housing. I feel sorry for people who are maybe going to lose on this case I feel sorry for them. Yes, but there are better places to build housing than in that center of our neighborhood Our neighborhood is precious to us. We need a Another area like a louden or something or use it for what you want to but it's not an ordinary space It's not just housing. Thank you Hi, my name is rocky peak So historic preservation punted on the question of whether or not to designate Herit circle as a landmark What would you expect they're an advisory committee? They can't make a big decision That represents the best interests of all the citizens of santa cruz You cancel make the decision to benefit all the citizens of santa cruz Not just a small handful of developers and their buddies Historic preservation also made a recommendation. It was illegitimate because they considered arguments about housing supply Housing supply is now within their jurisdiction The argument that this project would improve the housing situation in santa cruz is absurd The 12 mcbanjans that will be built on this site will be a detriment to the housing situation santa cruz These 12 mcbanjans will raise the median home value in santa cruz Which will stimulate further speculative buying and further speculative development Driving out low and medium cost housing This project is not in the public interest. This project represent a public injury The project would come at the cost of the public of desecrating a landmark That stands for a culture the cultural heritage of inclusiveness and common ground By now you've heard the sob story of these of this vision of a fantasy commune It's not your obligation to enable these people's ego dream It is your obligation to protect the interest of the people of santa cruz by designating this property as a landmark You need to look no further than your own general plan of 2030 for the significance of this property on Thank you. Thank you Good evening city council. Thank you for your time. My name is cindy bacon I am a local midwife of 30 years within santa cruz And I have retained an office at 504 and a half errat circle across the street from the church and next to circle market For 23 and a half years coming on 24 actually Um, I have great concern for the families of santa cruz obviously by my Life's profession and I have delivered many babies within that circle neighborhood It is a working class neighborhood and I speak very strongly against this site being destroyed and turned into housing That neighborhood for the mental health of its citizens as has been previously stated requires open space Requires a place where people can go and have classes We have an autistic school that is currently there and as people have earlier spoken here tonight Nobody in the community was aware that this property would change hands. We question the legitimacy of the minister and how this all went about the change in the bylaws of the church We feel completely aghast aggrieved and disenfranchised of that as community space that had two schools regularly has weddings All kinds of community events it literally functions as the heart of the west side neighborhood And yes, I am privileged to treat the direct descendant of the minister who founded that church and believe you me It was founded for families for children for the health of the west side of santa cruz What can be more historical than the entire west side shaped around a piece of property was never meant to be I agree Luxury homes 12 homes are going to solve the housing crisis in santa cruz crack me up I compare it to the project near ocean street extension that has been delayed for years one and two Small bedroom houses that are close to the freeway now We're going to put 12 homes in the middle of the circle and call this a solution a solution to housing and traffic No, i'm sorry Hi, my name is patrick katie. I live in capitol and I teach math in watsonville I'm here to speak in support of housing at the circle church property and hence Against historical designation for the site while i'm sympathetic to community members concerns. I'd also ask the council To weigh the region wide impact of continuing to block housing in santa cruz Everyone knows there's a housing shortage in this region in this state As a public school teacher. I see the impacts of that Housing shortage and the students I serve many of whom face housing insecurity and homelessness When they leave my classroom um I don't think there's a solution to this shortage that doesn't involve building all types of housing everywhere And compared to the scale of the problem. I know this is a relatively marginal decision But I'd ask you to consider whether you want to make it marginally worse or marginally better I'd also ask you to consider that across this region In rooms like this localities find justifiable reasons to to block housing I just asked the council to consider those who are Going to bear the cost of those decisions In your designation. Thank you so much Thank you Hello, my name is jim snook. I'm a 39 year resident of the west side interestingly That's almost two-thirds of the time that building has been there and I don't think it's historical or architecturally significant And I'm also a former member of the city housing advisory committee And I do believe advisory committees can make significant decisions and advice and We don't we there are very few places in the last 40 years the few empty lots we have have disappeared There's very few places to build housing. I think this is a good place. It's consistent with the zoning It's consistent with the neighborhood like say I've lived near that site for 39 years and I don't have any problem with putting housing And I think it's an appropriate and logical use and it's a misuse of historical Of the historical process to block it and by the way on an aside I think recalls are a bad idea too just for the sake of a few people here Yeah Patricia and I've been a resident in Santa Cruz for 29 years 17 in Santa Cruz and 12 in felton And I'm in support of the circle of friends project These are not mcmansions that are going up. These are individuals who've pulled their money together to buy properties They can build their homes That frees up rental housing when they go into their own homes and you know, I understand the sentimentality of the neighbors because There was an oak tree that was taken down at a ensignal elementary in menlo park where I went to elementary school It had a bench around it that people sat around And you know, it's gone And every and just seeing it gone was really hard for me because it was part of My childhood memories and my childhood growing up at that school So I understand the memories and the attachment of the community Um, you know gatherings they've had there but the property has been sold and according to your Statement you can only add it as historic if the historic preservation Commission recommends that And they have not they've said it's not historic landmark. It's not historic building if you're going to get into the site issues really There were all alone tribes all over this prop, you know area there before that there and then after that You know Spanish rancheros and I don't know how you can decide issues out in the entire county of Santa Cruz becoming a historic preservation site because really they've been Building and you know modernization going on for you know decades and centuries So just to try to bring the site into it just seems irrelevant Unless you're going to take the whole county and you know reason on that but um, I just Feel that you should uh Keep the integrity of the ordinance that you have set Because it doesn't meet the criteria for historic um designation Otherwise you compromise the integrity of the ordinance is that the council has set in place And then thank you. Yep. I am Jim Allen young. I live on errant circle Across the street from the church been there almost 30 years Uh raised two kids in a little tiny house. I love our neighborhood Uh, we've got the two markets. We've got you know a couple other churches in the neighborhood, which are great We've got our little library. We've got garfield park but I've never considered the church to be Something that belonged to me in the way that the library does when the city wanted to shut down the library Huge outcry. That's what motivated the community You know, we took part in that as well, but I've never considered the church as being something that belonged to us personally It was always the church um I was happy to see that it was being it's been being used because it needed to have some income generated to be able to be Maintained because there was a long time when that wasn't happening. So the fact that it was being used we've used it To first daughter's childbirth class was there Kids using the gym. I mean, we've been involved in the use of this site as well But when I realized the site was being sold and I knew it was going to be on the market I was really happy to see that the people who actually purchased it were local And that they were going to be bringing Housing into our neighborhood that fit our neighborhood. The type of density Is respectful of who we are as a community Uh, I just look forward to one day having them as neighbors across the street. So I would ask that you Encour with the historic commission's recommendation and not list it as a historic site. Thank you Hi, my name is zaya packer and I've grown up here my whole life I've spent 19 years here And I work five days a week and currently live in a chicken shack in the back of my dad's house and I could not afford To pay the exorbitant prices of rent around here right now And I just think that as a city we need as many houses as we can for people like me who've spent their lives here And want to continue living the beautiful city that they love and It's not fair to the people who've put in Hundreds and hundreds of hours Into this project And now all of a sudden this is just one more way to delay it And it's It's a This issue is a representation of what we can be as a community And I think that we can take a step forward and Turn that church into something beautiful and real I've biked past that church thousands of times growing up around here and it is a big gray rectangle That has a lawn covered in dog poop and that is all it has ever been and I don't see that there's any reason for it in any way to be historical. Thank you Hi, my name is William lands um, I'm here to discuss, uh, the historical significance of the circle church And uh, actually the lack of it if the facts presented by the circle church By the circle of friends who wasn't enough I will speak from my own personal experience Uh, I attended good shepherd school and was greatly informed and participated within many parishes within the community And circle church was never been a part of that broad band of churches I participated in or learned about I have never seen such the importance significance of circle church And I've never seen it as something of historical value to say is to be a historical site is an appendement to the housing crisis Uh for the sake of being an appendement I'm 17 and we'll see the problems such housing crisis And within my childhood have seen such housing crisis as it has forced me to move to multiple places within the community Uh, the circle church the circle of friends housing group and other local voters with their roots in this community You're fighting from my future and uh and uh people Trying to preserve the church are fighting for their past. Thank you Yep, I wasn't my name is Jess Reeves I wasn't going to speak today, but I didn't see many Young family parents who live in the circles here So I just wanted to speak for a number of my friends who have really young children And we're the future of the circles and I spend most of my afternoons at circle church talking to other Parents with my dog Going into the gymnasium playing with my daughter And I just want to make sure that the property Is kept as a community resource because as soon as we take these community resources away from our community We don't really get them back. There's not The city isn't going around buying up private land for people to use again It doesn't really happen that often so I just really want to see it preserved And the historic goal of the church in our sort of secular society Isn't really that strong anymore But I was raised Catholic and it I'm really missing that as part of the community and that actual property provides as a community space For me and my friends and lots of other people that live in the circles And I wanted to say that you know all the different businesses that are opening there Like I kind of had in my mind even before the property was sold that one day I would open a small cafe or something like that and one of the small properties along the side of the church that's working right now And you know that that's not going to be a community space for people in the future I'd also like to speak towards the fact that it's not really High density low-income housing if you put 12 units on there If you guys do decide not to keep the church as a historical site It'd be really great if you made it so that it was a actual low-income unit And made sure that's not just 12 units but maybe Why not put two level apartments in where people could actually afford to live and stay in the community? Thanks very much Hello, i'm carolin ronzano And thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight and thank you for the opportunity to bring this issue to the hbc We appreciate that Unfortunately, the hbc failed to uphold their responsibilities outlined in their bylaws An article 2 it states that the historic preservation commission was established to protect the city's historic and architectural resources They did not do this the ruling was based on them asserting a verdict of what they deemed fairness Which is not within their purview to decide They cited that it is happening too late in the process and referenced a bait and switch The reason this is happening so late is because of the bait and switch pulled by the developers When purchasing the property the realtor representing the group assured the pastor and his realtor that he would maintain it as a community center Which was a criteria that was important to them And this is referenced in multiple sentinel articles around the time of the cell It was not until almost a year after the sale that the developers Disclosed to the community their true intention of a housing development for the property This is when the community started to organize The pastor has recently said that if he knew that they were actually planning What they're planning would have not sold to them and it was almost two years after the property was sold that that The historic report was made available to the public There was not a lot of time to respond to that if this was a year ago It would be completely different verdict that during the hbc Evaluation the commissioners noted that the historic report minimizes significance of the church's qualifications were stark designation It excluded key reference material and they referred to the historic report as patronizing I want to what i've circulated to you is during this process. We've discovered that The circles does Qualify as a historic district. This was told to us by charlie duncan who is Approved city historian It was represented by the planning department and their Report and also in a letter from page bull and turner to brett packer the same conclusion Please consider that we're making your decision. Thank you Good evening city council I am one of the developers one of these big nasty developers My name is jinny stone and i'm a lifelong santa cruz local I was born and raised here And i'm here with my friends that we call ourselves the circle of friends partners Two years ago. We joined forces to fulfill a dream of building not only affordable homes for our families But an intentional community We are teachers builders firemen nurses small business owners Some of us are and our first time homeowners and none of us have experience as developers We had the crazy idea that together we could afford what separately we could not That is to stay in santa cruz as homeowners on our beloved west side By working together these last two years We gained not only the goal of our objective but a deep connection to one another the land we bought And the greater west side neighborhood Our project follows its r1 5 zoning designation to the t we ask for no variance We are building homes for our family not four-story condos for maximum return on investment Given the space we will provide significant housing with the least negative impact to the neighborhood possible For the last two years. We have met more than weekly. We have worked closely with city officials We have poured our life savings our sweat our heart into this dream We understand the significance and the importance of the property and we know the responsibility we take On in curating the site Please respect our diligence in adhering to the process especially in the issue of historic designation This is one of the first items we looked at and asked about before acquiring the property Anyone familiar with our project knows we have more than adequately shown that the church is not historic Please follow the recommendation of the hbc and do not list as historic. Thank you Greetings city council. My name is robin stone and I have been a resident to santa cruz county since 1971 I raised my children in santa cruz and I have worked as a public health nurse for the county of santa cruz Since 1989 I am currently semi-retired My daughter has been involved with the circle of friends co-housing community since its inception I have gotten to know the members and have been very impressed by the thought and integrity That has gone into creating a sustainable intergenerational community-minded housing experience These are hardworking people Many of whom were born and raised in santa cruz and all of whom contribute in various ways towards its betterment I have also witnessed the applicants jumping through hoop after hoop for the past two years To comply with the planning process and be responsive to the needs and concerns of neighborhood residents One of these hoops involved preparing three reports, which were very viewed by city consultants The reports clearly concluded that the church circle does not meet the historic property criteria However, at the request of a small vocal group of community residents who have strong Emotional ties to the church and are trying to derail the project The city council agreed to send the project to the historic city historic preservation committee To review whether the circle meets historic property criteria and make a recommendation They unanimously concluded that it does not meet criteria While it is sad and unfortunate that the neighborhood group and circle and friends Have not been able to come to an agreement on how to move forward the project has been delayed for too long The neighborhood residents are not able to buy the property The circle group does not have the resources to let this go on indefinitely All the roadblocks that they haven't had to endure are creating unfair hardships In the face of trying to create an exemplary housing solution Thank you Hi, I'm um, Holly Ikra. I was a student at UC Santa Cruz. Um, and I lived in Santa Cruz for six years um, I wasn't planning on talking tonight, but I kind of wanted to speak on behalf of um, like my friends and Colleagues who grew up in Santa Cruz and utilized this space Most of them so when I first I moved back this year and um, I learned about the project They're trying to save the circle church or I learned that it was going to be demolished and um And uh, so I started like reading into it like reading all the different historic reports and all that stuff um And I was just kind of and I was shocked and so I started sharing about it and all of the people that I know also didn't know about it and Couldn't imagine anything else going in that space that wasn't designated for like a community amenity um So I think that it's important to keep this space a community center and and And possibly revitalize it as it was um, utilized like in the past for um Different community benefits. Um That like have been talked about tonight um, and also When it was created it was intended to be a community space Like by the original people who put up the church and all that so Thank you. Thank you Good evening council members My name is Caitlyn wild and I have lived in Santa Cruz for 21 years I currently live on the west side on on arid circle and I am one of the members of the circle of friends As you can see we're very passionate about this project and about this place We understand that the church's open lawn policy and rentals have been a resource for this community It is one of the many special places in Santa Cruz that holds significance to us through our personal histories However, the reality is that memories and dreams are not what determine historical status The rules and criteria that determine this are clear and so is the historical status of 111 arid circle We feel like we've adequately demonstrated above and beyond the reasons why the circle church property does not qualify for a historical designation However, that's not to say historical things have not happened there and we value that history as part of the hbc's Conclusion not to list the project. They included some recommendations These ideas were already in our plans and we are happy to comply with them As Ryan said earlier, they are as follows an interpretive walk around the circle with plaques in the four directions commemorating the site's rich history similar to the interpretive signs and relics of the trolley turnaround at the intersection of woodrow and west cliff number two Retaining the open view corridor as you look up woodrow towards the circle church from west cliff and number three Maintaining the open green space in the center of the circle in addition to maintaining the circle design of the land We hope that through following the hbc's recommendations and commemorating the site's rich history We honor it as the good stewards. We are and will continue to be Also, we are creating housing for locals by locals our plan promotes community and affordability We plan on building a unique green co-housing project with a diversity of sizes and styles of homes That we hope can be a flagship for future groups like us that have a dream of creating intergenerational sustainable and communal long-term housing Thank you, reynolds. I live at 1111 young love avenue, which is two doors down or up from the church and In the best of all possible worlds The city of Santa Cruz would have bought this property and made it a community center like loudon nelson And a park and i'm really sad that that didn't happen because I really think that would have been a good thing and I i've pretty much lost hope that that's going to happen or anything like it But I was uh reassured and so were some of my neighbors To hear that it was going to be a co-housing unit With like 10 or 12 units um, I keep hearing Very mixed other things that the city wants to add owner of two-story building and different things like that My concern is living two doors down that My pretty quiet street will now have 60 extra cars going down up and down it Every day because california and young love are the main thoroughfares Going back to town So that's all I wanted to say, but I hope you'll take those the neighbors considerations As well into this building project. Thank you. Thank you Good evening mayor council members matt huerta with the monterey bay economic partnership And we're in full support. I think you saw our our letter that we're in full support of this development moving forward Um without the historic designation. I think that they've uh, we've certainly gone through a very extensive process to arrive at this it's we don't take it lightly and um One thing that struck me along the way was was that uh, how impressive it is to have residents come together And to try to forge their futures together And deal with one of the most intense crises that we have here in our region and most intense issues that anybody in the state Is dealing with and so while it's not going to solve our crisis overnight or any major stretch It is for them and you've heard from some of them directly And I've had the pleasure of meeting some of them personally and I can very much see that how impactful it is And it is going to have a community impact because if we can't Move forward with these kinds of developments if we find ways to slow things down We're not going to be able to move forward. I was in coming here even today From uh, you know from from selenus and watsonville. Um, I passed by at least Maybe thousands of cars on the way here And a lot of folks are Not able to live here in the community. So while this is again, isn't going to solve all of that problem This is a step in the right direction if we're not able to you as a community leaders here aren't able to take advantage of Of these unique opportunities where you have willing partners and the appropriate places Um, how are we also we're supposed to move forward. Thank you for your leadership Oh, i'm evan siroki speaking Uh in support of not designating the church as historic and uh Now this is this whole meeting here Series of meetings third meeting now about the project is really why I wear this shirt like You know, you usually see me like I support all kinds of projects You know and you usually see me like supporting some some big shot developer or something That's like seems to employ more land use consultants and lawyers than like actual people in the building trades to like build housing And so like this all seems really like Wrong and like this really gets down to the personal level of like how Difficult it is to get stuff built here. And so I'm just speaking in support of uh, you know Proving this project and moving forward and kind of commenting on like the larger scheme of things too, you know like this is Probably way more like red tape bureaucracy That's really needed for getting housing built in general And in terms of this project, you know, you gotta have objective criteria If you're gonna make a decision to designate historic and I really don't think there is maybe some people brought them up but I think you need to really closely evaluate that and Uh There's, you know, a national historic designations that have really specific things like events people Architecture information and your own the Santa Cruz historic building surveys seven criteria. And so You know, I I think like, uh The reports that are done don't seem to indicate it. And so Uh, yeah, I get this, uh Moving forward My name is mark thomas. I'm one of the circle friends And I wanted to speak to the issue of what we're here for tonight We're here for to see whether this is historic or not Whether should uh designated as historic There have been a lot of folks that have spoken to the sentimentality of the issue that they really appreciate the property And the features of the property But what they're speaking to is not necessarily having anything to do with historic status There is no historic status for a community center. In fact, it's a church not a community center It's always been private property and it's always been rented and the main reason it was used as a community center And their words is because there wasn't enough community support to support the church As evidence I bring forward a letter from pastor Barry Wilkins who Filled in his pastor. Well, the other pastor was on an extended sabbatical He says what I remember about the church from that occasion when it was slowly dying The property was poorly maintained not because of lack to desire but lack of financial capacity of its small congregation I also remember the congregation was serving the street people as Santa Cruz While the service was going on there were people waiting on the line for the meal that the church served them after worship I remember the property had features of social ops lessons deferred maintenance mostly undistinguished architecture And almost a complete lack of updating. This is not to demean the desires and wishes of those who worshiped there Or that churches or other churches could have purchased it But in the normal course of marketing the property, no church came forward It's quite normal for a parcel of land to cycle through various uses over time These repurposing occur according to community needs market conditions social evolution occurrences of nature and the emergence of new dreams And almost every repurposing will leave some people disappointed and others quite glad So this transitional land is not unusual It's one thing for an active church to graciously opens its doors to the neighbors for community events In my view, it's quite another for the neighbors to insist that someone else preserved the place For their convenience once it ceased to be a church If that was their priority and widely felt need it would be reasonable to expect that those neighbors would have purchased the church Thank you very much. Thank you My name is Elise Kazby. I'm a community organizer It's uh, this is not something that I have investment in in terms of I'm not a property owner I'm not somebody that's going to be building housing on that land But I am a community organizer and I'm somebody who is deeply in love with Santa Cruz I have to tell you that that love is ebbing I come from new jersey I come from a very crowded place where property values have reigned supreme The only value is the value of money in new jersey in philadelphia and on the east coast In la and in many places across the country What's happening is the people who are the most tent and tenacious at holding on to property at holding on to ideas of property value and development Of mine what I can do and maybe I'll do it prevail over and over and over And over and over and over again Santa Cruz is becoming someplace that I really question how much I really want to live here It's not the community that I fell in love with so many years ago in the place I've come For decades when I had a couple days of vacation. It's become more monstrously greedy and ugly It's become filled up with McMansions and people who seem to really only care about what that they can get out of it Often because they've paid their dues. They've worked here, but as a outsider. I just want to say this These rules about the historic designation are narrow very very narrow And they don't really speak to a community And the history of the community I also want to say that that space i'm very familiar with it It could house 200 people with environmental design that was extremely environmentally harmonious And a community center could be provided. It sounds like the sale of the parcel was not properly noticed Hello city council member My name is joseph combs. I'm one of the owners of the circle church And I moved here when in Santa Cruz in 1990 when my mother was enrolled in usc I was eight years old at this time and we lived in the family student housing on campus Since then I've been living and working in Santa Cruz for the past 30 years I've lived on the west side the majority of the time When I first saw this church was up for sale. I was worried it'd be turned into apartments condos or some of their massive housing project Which would not fit into the neighborhood Very soon afterwards a dear friend of mine approached me with the opportunity to be part of this group the circle of friends My initial reaction was not only do I have the chance to achieve my dream of owning a home where I grew up I was also able to be a part of something that saves this neighborhood from a profit-driven development And it keeps it a nice place to live Two years into this process. I still feel this way and I know we are doing something good They'll have positive ripple afflicts that will last for generations We understand this is a very special place and we want to honor that with our project by bringing life and community into this neighborhood With the addition of new families and homes I just want to say to you that like a designation historically does not guarantee any future owners will have a public open space for anybody to enjoy It's a private piece of land It's pretty hard for us to imagine the situation where the church is designated historical after all these professional valuations Recent local historic survey and the HPC five to zero vote The work that this commission and the city council does To protect and enhance the use of historic structures and lands is of paramount value to the community Please do not make this decision lightly There are very real world consequences for us in the community Please look at the facts when making a decision and not the sentiment the sentiment while they were real has no bearing on the historic status of this building Thank you My name is elizabeth olsberg And I have a lot of questions about the Everything that's that we're talking about tonight, but I keep picturing these historic plaques and just think for a minute about When you've been a tourist somewhere and you're looking at a historic plaque What's it for something that was destroyed by a fire or a natural disaster or Just over time like we don't use trolley cars anymore But we have this beautiful space That's so rare and special So why destroy it and then put up a few plaques? I just don't get it You know like I've done a little research and The way that the neighborhood is designed around a circle and the way our neighborhood specifically was designed The the people who did it wanted it to be different than other circle circle or circular shaped neighborhoods where the center Would be the center of power And if you look if you google circle neighborhoods You get like the capital building or you get things in europe where the The power is in the center these people wanted to do the opposite So they put the smallest Homes the smallest tent sites in the near the closest to the church closest to the circle It really hot. It really is a special place So thank you so much Hi, my name is dyne packer. I am rep packer son. I currently live at 326 Uh wilk circle in my mic mansion, which is a 1904 two bedroom house with a chicken shack out back that my brother lives in That's a two minute walk from the trailer that one of our other Developers lives in which is a trailer at the circle church We're not developers We're a group of santa Cruz people who have lived here my dad since the 80s me my entire life My brother's entire life our families their entire lives We've built our lives around santa Cruz And now so many people are being forced out of santa Cruz because of the housing crisis And we have to address this housing crisis through building these projects That's the only way that people that born and want to stay in santa Cruz can't stay in santa Cruz Furthermore, though, this isn't about the housing crisis. This isn't about sentiment. This is about historicality This is not a historical site as has been cited by three of the reports by the largest firms in, um, california This is not a historical site based off the planning commission's recommendation and the historical commission's Recommendation which by voted five to zero against this being listed as a historical site Please don't look at the sentiment. Please don't look about look at anything else Please just look about the factuality of whether or not this is a historical site Which it is clearly based off recommendation of scholars Who know the who know these facts who know this Based off the companies that its job is is to determine whether or not these are historical sites Everything is pointing against this being a historical site Please make a logical and accurate decision about this not being historical site as this is what this meeting is to address The historicality of it, which it is not. Thank you Hi, good evening. My name is jennifer smith Um, the last time I spoke with you was on the day that ricky martinis was retiring from the police department And um, that was a really wonderful, uh story to listen to with ricky about his service in santa Cruz And ricky and I sat in school band next to each other and delmar school and we played the trumpet We really liked each other and we both came from very poor families in santa Cruz and we both Poured ourselves into our communities the moment that we had the opportunity to do so ricky put on his blue uniform And went into the police department and I put on my blue uniform and went into martial arts and taught children Risk and children into the dojo and um through our hard efforts We were able to buy the building up at the corner of chestnut and mission for um a price that was Affordable to us and be able to provide classes to children throughout the community No one ever asked the kids that walked in there and no one ever talked to the parents who came in Certainly not to me as the chief instructor of the children's program for 15 years and said, you know, is that a poor kid? Is that a rich kid? I didn't ask are you a poor kid or are you a rich kid? I just taught the kids that were there Taught the adults over there We nurtured the families that were there and we thought about their futures And we thought about the benefit of this gathering place that they had that was so special That we were so fortunate to be able to put in an offer on and come up with because we had a great real estate agent Who talked the rotary club the women's club into allowing us to buy it so that we had the opportunity To run a dojo a multicultural, you know a place to nurture families and children When I look at the circle church, I think of the same thing And I was drawn into that space with the promise that we would be able to do that And it was sold out from underneath us As far as we could tell we've tried to bring offers to the developers And they haven't taken it seriously It doesn't have to be 60 units. It could be bought back There's a group of people in earnest who are putting money together and we'll like to see it continue for the public benefit Like you to consider the public benefit value of that space in your deliberations going forward. Thank you Hi, my name is john sears and I've been a neighbor of the circle church for 44 years now and I didn't know that I was going to get uh, hey it was going to be in such a esteemed company here tonight with a number of historians that I did nobody tell me this is going to be a history convention The the dpr the first they say there's three studies that there was a there was a dpr which was Several of the historical preservation commissioners read and said it would be a disgrace to have on the public record So the dpr was redone There was a peer review done on it Which did not speak to the historical accuracy or the historical points Of that it only said yes, you checked all the correct Boxes and we assume that the history is correct now I started It was a little over a year ago 15 16 months ago When I learned what their plans were for it prior to that most of the neighborhood thought that the new owners Had been represented as saying yes, they were going to keep it as a community space. So I got in I started looking into the history of it talking to neighbors who've lived there for most of their lives And we're just uncovering the history of this place. This place was a basically red line neighborhood This was the other side of the tracks this is where you put your black people and brown people and hard-working people I've talked to people that grew up in this neighborhood. It said we were like granola It didn't make any difference what color you were. So we had a co-housing situation Before there was co-housing And that's why this neighborhood works. You look at it the google map Incredibly dense neighborhood with an open space in the middle. That's why it works. So Do what you can't Hi, my name is canis. Um, I wasn't going to speak but I think no one's Addressed today the issue of what is a california historical landmark That has not been considered by any of the studies It has to meet one of three criterias that are listed the first last only or most significant of the type In the state or within a large geographic region And i've done searches about circular communities throughout the state and even the united states and can't find any I mean, this is a very unique Urban design layout. It's very intimate. It's very pedestrian friendly And it's very community oriented The number two criteria is associated with an individual group having a profound influence in the history of california Not only does it have strong religious roots in certain waves But also after world war two it was african-american community and then a working class community The third criteria is a prototype of or an outstanding example of a period style architectural movement Or construction or is one of the most notable works Or the best surviving work in a region of a pioneering architect designer or master builder Well, of course the original church was destroyed in a fire And there is has been emphasis on the building itself But really it's the the whole design of the entire community. That's completely unique To california. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak on this item? I Don't I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation I'll start out if there are no questions to be asked I want to appreciate everyone who came here and It's very clear to me that this is definitely a neighborhood with Very deep and distinctive historic features Um And I do want to say I think the process has been honored as this Certainly the purchasers of the property Were given an indication At the time of purchase that it was not on the historic building survey. They proceeded in good faith With that understanding and I understand Different people in the neighborhood from the cellar, etc Understood different things to be anticipated. But as this came forward, it was brought to the city council with the request That the issue of historic status Be examined As as the proposal was already Launched That was done. It went to the historic preservation commission Um, and I do want to say because Someone raised the point. What's the role of the historic commission? They can't really make decisions And I do want to say that we take all our advisory commissions seriously and I do know all the members of the historic preservation commission I know they're serious about their work and about the subject The question and we heard so much testimony about um housing crisis and and many people said Honestly, that's not the issue before us tonight. It's a very real issue for the city But it's not the issue before us tonight. The issue before us tonight is um, whether to As a council List the property on the historic building survey or to follow the historic preservation commission's recommendation It's it's my feeling that The Case can't be made for listing on the historic building survey So I would be prepared to make a motion at the appropriate time That we uphold the recommendation of the historic building Commission I do want to say also which many people have alluded to Cities buildings communities evolve over time We see that around us all the time in Santa Cruz, but um, many times that evolution serves contemporary Uses in a way that still preserves the feeling I I love this neighborhood And I'm just thinking as I look at this map So many features that are are truly distinctive the circle pattern the little markets there The missionary church Garfield library Bethany curve the whole wide woodrow where the trolley car went down To the beach and those are as collectively Such a part of that neighborhood character And I think it could well be worth exploring historic neighborhood status without knowing any details, but The issue back to us is does this meet the standards for listing as a structure on the historic building survey My feeling is that it does not And I did ask our staff What's what happens going forward? If that's the direction the council takes That then the project would move forward to the regular planning process Which would be Design and the various land use issues Where many of the other subject that have come up tonight Would be Would be taken up So, um That's my feeling about the site So I think I will go ahead at this point and make the motion that we uphold the recommendation or the finding of the historic preservation commission There's a motion made by councilman Matthews Seconded by councilmember Watkins to uphold the recommendation from the historic preservation commission Thank you mayor, um Wow Kind of like to go home right now So it really um real a lot of passion out here. I really appreciate everybody's presentations Really Impressive I wanted to go back to uh, I guess the planner who talked about what a historic landmark is But somebody say that they get very beginning of the meeting who I think it's yeah Because I think I think you can ask a question and then if planning staff have the Answer or if it needs to go to the people who wrote the report we can figure out who the person is I thought she was talking about what the the National parks Uh designates or defines as historic preservation Um, so that was my question. What could you repeat that? Uh, good evening. Christina dyke's page in turnbull again. Um, I believe what I had said was I was describing that to list a property And on the national register of historic places the california register and it's included in santa cruises historic building survey A designation criteria that you not only need to prove that there is historic significance But also historic integrity and integrity Is defined by the national park service? And there are concepts that relate to the physical The physical building that's on the site and the characteristics of what of the building and the features that are on the site And that those physical characteristics Are able to convey the reason for the property's significance But it always has to be a building involved There are other types of historic resources For um For the national register and california register that could include objects or cultural landscapes that involve Built structures as well as landscape features But um for the the purposes of this project that we were evaluating We're looking at the the building itself um as the historic resource on a circular site And the landscape around it. Thank you So they they didn't actually evaluate this for any cultural landscape or landmark status. It was just about the building Is that with what the um Historic preservation commission took on is that did they limit it to that or did they talk about landmark status as well or cultural landscape They had the same discussion that you're asking right now. They asked about whether or not you could list just the site and you know absence the structure and they kind of had the same conversation and if we had identified that the Um landscape features of the site contributed to the significance and identified a cultural landscape then we would have in the documentation Okay, thanks. Appreciate it. Um When I go to the state parks or the national park site, it says historic preservation is a conversation With our past about our future It provides us with opportunities to ask what is important to our history And what parts of our his of our past can we preserve For the future through historic preservation We look at history in different ways ask different questions of the past and learn new things about our history and ourselves Historic preservation is an important part way for us to transmit our understanding of the past and to future generations Our nation's history has many facets and historic preservation helps tell these stories Sometimes historic preservation involves celebrating events people places and ideas that we are proud of Other times it involves recognizing moments in our history that can be painful or uncomfortable to remember That's from the um the uh national park service website I had a couple questions that came up from information that the Some of the neighbors gave us and I just was wondering if somebody could um respond to that I guess mark thomas's name is on one of them could could mr. Thomas come up for a second respond to a couple questions Yes I don't know if you've seen this document. It was something that was Submitted to us. Uh, she knew realtor mark thomas from the alternative family education group and she asked Mark to review her proposal bid for the church. That is what brought his attention to the sale of church He prepared his own bid and as he was privy to this offers on the property He was able to slightly outbid them. Additionally, he uh, he said that this is there I'm quoting from the thing He misled the church and the seller's realtor by claiming that he would maintain it as a community center Is that what your understanding was or did that ever happen? That's not accurate Um, is that an issue that's before the council right now? I don't think so and also council member come I'll interrupt right here because I think that um, that might be a question that Is worth having as a conversation worth having with the developers around What kinds of agreements were made? But I don't think that that's appropriate given what we're talking about right now Well, some of the speakers that came to the podium mentioned things like this too. So I'm just, you know, wondering The other question I had was uh um Mr. Harkakian is he part of this group as well? Alex? Alex is yes, and is uh, he owns three parcels He owns three parcels. That's correct. He owns three shares that is And it says that he's lives in los angeles and he's a businessman. Is that true? He is a businessman. He owns a home in big sir as well He's looking to build homes for his children here. He has three children. Thank you. Thank you Questions or conversation Yeah, I I do want to I have a question and I just I want to clarify this because I keep hearing it over and over and so I'm just in terms of the The question regarding one of the historic preservation commissioners Recusal on this On on this vote and discussion um I'm wondering um Tony, uh, mr. Kandadi if you could Explain what was that a required recusal and on what basis? I just want to better understand that The commissioner in question penned a very detailed extensive report in which he essentially concluded unequivocally that the property was an historic landmark And um, I asked john barisoni to analyze that question under the standards that are applicable To a common law conflict of interest and so the Chair of the commission asked The commissioner to recuse On the advice of my office okay But not based there was no financial interest or any other kind of some of most of the Criteria that you are not aware of whether or not The report that was prepared was done for compensation. We don't we do not know that It was based on the conclusions of the report that really predated the commission's hearing of the matter So I do have a couple of comments if no one I don't hear anyone usually Other people are jumping in if you have a question go ahead um Two questions one I'm just curious in response to one of the questions that came up. Um, and I was just wondering if Anyone from that any of the previous owners ever approached the city around selling the property to the city for You know community space or as a community center I'm not aware Okay, let's see there. Okay. I'm just curious because um, I think that there's a lot of concern and I think one of the when I heard that this property was for sale and this was way before I was on council But when I heard that this Property was going to be sold. I think that was a big concern I had from other folks is whether or not it was going to be maintained as a community center and my sense was that um The likelihood was that it was but I think that's all dependent on who buys it So, um, I was just curious because I wanted to know if the city had ever been You know, um, they've been outreach done to see if the city could buy it the other question I had Was around there were three other Um recommendations by the historic preservation committee and these were advisory recommendations, which it sounded like um the Current owners of the property would be interested in Incorporating into that their site plans and I'm wondering if that could be if those could be included as conditions for approval so just curious in terms of moving forward as Um as the planning rolls out for the site Yeah, I think those are things that We would include as conditions of approval of the project when it comes before the planning commission and eventually the council Um, and as was mentioned, I think they're agreeable to all of those conditions. So we would include those And I was just going to ask I'm happy to include that in my motion as well So I would include in my motion that we also um support the Additional recommendations of the hpc regarding um project design including uh sometime of Focal point For the woodrow avenue view shed The project include historic interpretive Signs of some sort and the street pattern be retained That's in broad brush what they recommended and from what I've heard of the um proponents of the project These are the intentions they have as well. So the details would be worked out So I was a friendly um, I just incorporate that into my lord. Yeah Someone at the podium said maintaining uh open green space. Is that part of what you just said I didn't say green space that was not actually what's in the um hpc recommendation I feel most comfortable with um a focal point as a Architectural design feature. I mean woodrow is such a it has such a view corridor. There is a circle I think there'll be plenty of Good design opportunities to be developed without being specific Mr. Mayor Myers I just wanted to thank everybody for coming out tonight and um It's really obvious you have a pretty um, just a unique neighborhood there. Um, a lot of longtime residents I used to live on woodrow myself way back in the day. Um And so I really want to recognize the the uniqueness of the air of the neighborhood Um, and truly it's a difficult very difficult Conversation to talk about change in our community and so I I think our job tonight really does have to do with the process around the historic preservation consideration And um, but I just want to acknowledge that, uh, you know, there's a lot of neighborhood Care that's going into everyone's statements and um Just acknowledge that You know, I I appreciate the fact that this group of people have gotten together. They are seemingly trying to really fit into the neighborhood and make the neighborhood part of their community And um, so I just appreciate everybody being here. Um, especially some of the young folks that showed up tonight Um and sharing your your thoughts with us. Thanks Brown So I also want to appreciate everybody for coming out and also um, all of the people here in the room and and outside this room who have put so much time invested energy and resources into um, trying to Come to what They believe is the the best use for this. Um, this property um, I too have really sentimental attachment to The church I lived on the west side kind of right near there in various homes. I'm a renter. So I moved around I move around um For many years when it was painted gray and the first time I saw it it was kind of jarring. So I know that um, the changes that will come as a result of Um, the loss of this structure will have an impact on the community I also understand that the use of this space as community space Has been really significant. Um, however that that Use has been de facto. That's been in practice, but that is not That is not because there are any particular rules About a designation as community space Could you know, what of that we had as a city Been aware and had deliberated upon perhaps Doing something, you know purchasing the property and doing something differently that didn't happen and So but in terms of the question about the improper notification of the sale of the the site I don't believe that that is I mean, that's it's private property markets. So we don't have control over that unfortunately and As somebody mentioned, we have, you know, very narrow criteria on which to make a determination here And that we that requires that some that we put some sentiment aside So, um This is really challenging thing for me to you know, I mean I've been grappling with I've been talking with people I've read all of the materials and in looking at this um This map that and with some of the points of interest, I I believe that there may be some um That it's worth considering in discussing the potential for a historic district or neighborhood here. I do think there uh is There's sufficient evidence to suggest it's worth exploring. Um However, that's not what's before us tonight as council member Matthews suggested so A lot more could be said, but I think I'll leave it there just want to weigh in um because The reason why I asked that question earlier about purchasing whether the city have been approached is because I also agree with many members of our community that We need more community resources in terms of Places for community members to gather and places that offer Spaces for different types of community events classes what have you But again, and I think this was kind of mentioned by one of my colleagues previously is that Given that this is private property that has been That is allowed for the public to use it in um in public ways over time And that that property wasn't provided as an option to the city for purchase And that through the private market. This has now gone on to a private group um, it's It's unfortunately as was mentioned before there's very few um points and it's really narrow scope of how we can Designate this as a historic site and um, I think that we have been very responsive to our community When the community reached out to us and asked us to send this to the commission for approval We respected that as part of this process Even though this has been the the group has bought this For some time ago and still has a lot of They still have a lot of work to do in terms of getting the final approval on this project This still has to go to the planning commission and this project is going to come back to the city council and so I think that We Are you know doing our best to hear the community? But also are being respectful to the people who are also going through The process of having this evaluated for the purposes of development. And so um, I'm hoping that as this As this continues down its path that the developers continue working with the community members Continue working with the city council So that we can try to have as much community benefit that comes out of this project as it moves forward but given Kind of what we've gone through in terms of the way this building is being designated and that's what we're reviewing today I'm going to be supporting the motion that's been made I see chris wanted to say something too And then I have one more comment and I and one thing I'd like to add as well is agreeing that This neighborhood and just the way it's been laid out and how it's changed over time. I think as well Merits some review for a historic neighborhood or a historic district. That's that's what I want to speak to but if chris wants to go first Yeah, this um, again, I was really impressed with a lot of the Young people who came and spoke at the podium. Um and my original intent in all of this was to allow neighbors to have their day in court and um I think that was fulfilled and you know, I again the whole notion of Community space and history of place It's not an ordinary space. We heard As I said, it was the heart of the west side Heartbeat of the community activity community commons intimate pedestrian friendly It's it's a painful decision and My old friend mr. Gibson is probably not going to feel good, but um I don't feel like we can go against the historic preservation commission Given what we have before us right now and what we're being asked Thank you, mr. Rand If I could a final comment, I actually um Took the lead in designating The neighborhood around where I live as a historic district national register historic district. It's it's a bit of work And whether or not this hits that threshold that can be explored But there is just so much unique character here and obviously several people said that Just their attention on this project has made them discover more and more about their neighborhood It's history and the people that live there and honestly that's That's such an enjoyable part of doing local history and I do notice that the The garfield park library the missionary baptist church in santa cruz market all have the historic blue plaques I'm sure there's more potential there for discovering and putting up landmarks Developing a neighborhood walking tour It's all there to be had. It's wonderful. So There there may well other be be other opportunities for some kind of historic interpretive features or public art in the neighborhood as well So whether or not it proceeds to a designated historic district There's there's so much to be Discovered and celebrated. I think that's that's a great future That everyone can take part of and I do want to also say Someone mentioned that they really came together with the neighborhood to save garfield park And I hope most of you know that the council just about a month ago approved plans for the renovation of the garfield park library and When it is remodeled it will have much more flexible open usable space and I think will become Much more than it is now a community hub for that little area. So something I'll still look forward to Yeah, thank you That's more walkins I'll just keep my comments brief because I have my colleagues have pretty much said it But um, I do appreciate the suggestion around the historic district And I'm glad to know that you know what what that means and how to actually get there Because I was curious in terms of the steps that that move forward and exploring it and I just want to thank the community for coming out and I think how Where we are today is really the question before us as has been suggested by my colleagues here And I hope moving forward that we and I appreciate the ad to incorporate those elements that were recommended by the historic commission That we retain the history. Um, although Acknowledging the change so um with that I I appreciate the discussion in the work of our historic commission Okay There are no Further recommendations the motion before us is to Accept the historic preservation commission's recommendation To not list the property at 111 errant circle on the city's historic building survey or as a local historic landmark And to incorporate their advisory recommendations as conditions for approval Which are open space at the focal point of the woodrow avenue viewshed Historic interpretive plaques and signs and to retain the street pattern And just for the actual language, I think what I said the project design include a focal point At the woodrow avenue viewshed Without being any more specific. Okay, so That was to include a focal point At the woodrow avenue viewshed Okay, so no further discussion. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed that passes unanimously with council member Glover being absent The threshold for historic