 All right well good afternoon everybody welcome to the 12 30 p.m. public portion of the closed litigation session of the February 26 2019 meeting of the City Council and this part of the meeting the council will will receive public testimony Thereafter the council members will move to the courtyard conference room for our closed session I would like to ask the clerk to please call role. Thank you mayor council members crone here Clever here Myers here Brown here Matthew here vice mayor Cummings here and mayor Watkins here At this time, I'd like to see if there are any members of the public who would like to speak to any of the items on closed session Now would be the time to do so You're here to speak on closed session Okay, yeah, why don't you come on up and we'll give you two minutes and you could address the council before we go back into closed session And if you could please at just bring the microphone towards you so This is about a Infection that I got while Fishing in by the boat walk next to the boardwalk in between the jetty and boardwalk. I was just out for an hour with the fishing and Just standing in a walking in the breakers of the the beach After about an hour after the fishing I went home took a shower and and started feeling nauseous and then it was on my way to San Jose To friends house and start noticing my legs swelled up and start getting real nauseous I just got ended up getting a fever. I was getting a cold sweats and it turned out that I got a flesh-eating Infection from a bacteria. That's that's in the water At the Santa Cruz boardwalk in front at least from there to the jetty. It could be all over. I don't know but that's where I was standing in the water and It was a really really bad infection. I mean I spent 15 days in the hospital had had emergency surgery and Two big patches of skin removed from my leg and that's where they found the bacteria and I don't know what else to say about this other than the fact that there were any signs Because later when I got out of the hospital I had some newspapers and I read the back of the newspaper and it gives you a Quality of the water in Santa Cruz that I'd never seen I'd heard from a friend and it clearly stated There's a red flag saying do not come in contact with the water And if there's if it's that bad there why are there no signs before anyone enters the beach at any Beach entrance. I've taken pictures at everyone and there are no signs nowhere Stating you anything about the quality of the water People should not be when people when it's stationed in the paper. There should be signs on the beaches. I Mean, I would have never been there if I would have known Thank you, thank you for being here and for sharing your perspective and I'm sorry to hear about your medical The situation and so we'll go now into closed session, but we'll take in your testimony Yes, I have a request to add an item as a subsequent need item and it is a lawsuit that's pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals entitled Zabrisky versus Federal National Mortgage Association or Fannie Mae This is a request for amicus participation on behalf of a non-profit called the Public Rights Project that is that is Joining in a petition for rehearing in the Ninth Circuit against a ruling that was made against Zabrisky and in favor of Fannie Mae, so The reason why it's coming to your attention now is that it came to my attention After the agenda was posted and the reason why it's a subsequent need item is that there's a deadline of March 8th to To add our name to a an amicus brief that's going to be filed in the Ninth Circuit And so that's before your next council meeting. So I would request that the council add this as a subsequent need item Did you need a motion from a council member? Okay. I'm prepared to make that Making the findings that this came to our attention late and we need to act with urgency I'll move that we add this to the agenda. I'll second that so motion by council member Matthew seconded by myself any further discussion All in favor, please say aye. Aye Okay, so at this time, we'll go ahead and adjourn our meeting to the courtyard conference room where the council will go into our closed session Well, good afternoon everybody welcome to our 1 p.m. Session of the February 26 2019 meeting of the city council Before we begin our meeting today, I would like to take a moment to remember a day that we as a city will never forget on February 26 2013 at about 2 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 And 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 Today is the first city council meeting since the tragedy took place that fell on a regularly scheduled city council meeting So I ask that we take a moment of silence to remember their sacrifice and celebrate their service Okay, at this time, I would like to ask our clerk to please call roll. Thank you. Mayor council members crone lover here Myers here Brown here Matthews here vice mayor Cummings here and mayor Watkins Karen The clerk could please lead us through the Pledge of Allegiance Do we have this is the time for the presentations or do we move on to our Introduction of new employee introduction introduction of new employee Okay, well, we have a new employee and you'll kick us off on the introduction on this one We have Bonnie Bonnie bush introducing our new employee with the city clicks Thank you may count some members as you know, we've been without a deputy city clerk for a while now So I am extremely happy to announce Julia Wood who is stepping into the position Julia has been in Santa Cruz for about six years spending the first several years working in the South Bay managing home owners associations which We we found really aligned with a lot of our rules of Brown Act and all that stuff She has family that lives in Santa Cruz and she was drawn to make Santa Cruz home with its unique character Diversity and strong sense of community as well as our beautiful beaches forest and hiking In her free time Julia enjoys walking along walking with her dog along West Cliff working on DIY projects or Cooking with her partner for her friends and family. So please join me in congratulating Julia and welcoming her Welcome Julia. I'd like to now introduce or have our public works director Mark Dettel come up to introduce It's a new employee afternoon Mark Dettel director of public works, and it's my pleasure to introduce Joe Murphy our new assistant engineer in in the wastewater division Basically should be doing Design and engineering work related to our wastewater treatment plant wastewater collections and sewer lateral ordinance implementation it's an existing position and Works for Scott Gluck's she was born in Mountain View and lived in Pasadena and in Oakland and Berkeley as a youth and then Arcada as an adult she currently lives in Santa Cruz and For the most for the past 30 years. She's been a student She did a 10-year stint as a chef in Northern, California and spent the last five years researching Water reuse technologies in the lab, which is great because we're starting our tertiary project at the wastewater treatment plant potentially Working with Soquel Creek water. So we're pretty excited about that She went to school at Humboldt State University in undergrad and then did graduate work at the University of Colorado And when she's not working she loves to cook. So please join me in welcoming Joe Welcome Joe Okay, if our director of water Rose Mary Menard can come up to introduce her to the employee afternoon mayor and counsel Today, I'm pleased to introduce to you Lewis Kay Lewis has just joined us as an associate professional engineer and Lewis is a wonder man for from our point of view. He's a guy who brings us lots of experience He doesn't have water experience But he's got a lot of really great construction management experience in a variety of public and private settings over the last 13 years He's worked at Sandus in Silicon Valley as a project manager the Department of Navy as a civilian contractor in Pearl Harbor as a nuclear engineer over a period of three years as well as some land development work he's did in Illinois for a number of years. He comes with a engineering and project management degree from Michigan Technological University and He grew up in Honolulu and when he and his wife decided where to relocate This was sort of as similar as you could get Honolulu with you know in the continental 48 So anyway, he's married and has a dog likes to surf ski and hike And so it's a perfect fit and we're really thrilled to have someone with his experience joining our team working on all of our Rehabilitation replacement efforts for our capital program. So please welcome Lewis Kay Welcome and then lastly we'll invite up our director of finance Marcus Pimentel to introduce a new employee Thank You mayor. I'm proud to introduce you to Alex truly Boy just hack that last name Alex Alex Alex we go by first names Alex will be assisting Laura Nolan in our purchasing department and we're really honored to bring him back home Alex came from Santa Cruz Worked in Santa in our area in purchasing went off to manage purchasing in El Dorado County And we were fortunate enough to bring him back home. So we're really excited about this opportunity Alex brings many years of experiences of purchasing with Really, how can I help attitude and we've really appreciated that about him already in his first couple weeks He fits right in with our culture of how can we serve and support our city in a creative collective way? And we're excited about where he's going to go in the city We're excited about helping his development move through we have a small purchasing group of three very Dedicated people, but just three people who do a lot a lot of work for a city our size So we're really honored to have him here and look forward to many many years Maybe a few decades of commitment to the city of Santa Cruz and again, we're glad to bring him home It's hard not to comment on your tie Marcus Very fitting for your position Okay, at this time, I'd like to invite up a short presentation From a Prince Lasha on International Jazz Day Hi to everyone mayor Council members, I would like to present to you a small version of what we did With the support that you gave last year, okay International Jazz Day in a week Presenting music seminars for a week in a classroom setting at our local schools Assisted music students to excel in music International Jazz Day concert at the Santa Cruz City Municipal 1 This is a free public event Come and enjoy it with the support that we received from the council and the mayor last year 2018 Basically what we do We do International Jazz Day We go through the high schools Elementary and middle school We try to get the kids to pick up an instrument instead of anything else To if you learn an instrument, it keeps you busy. It humbles you it makes you Become a servant to that instrument Keeps you out of mischief Plus you learn how to count and you do math and science much more easier the last person was and in a rail from Monte Carlo and This year we have someone called Who is it you got me all nervous now anyway Pete Escavito from Los Angeles. He's coming this year with his nine piece group and his family and I can only ask that as we go through the schools this year that we get more confidence from the kids to learn an instrument and Support from the city council Again, thank you Mayor and city council a pleasure Thank you for your presentation Prince. I had a chance to go last year with my family It was a beautiful day and very windy on the wharf, but it was incredible. So I Appreciate the presentation so at this time we'll go on to our next presentation Which is the parking for hope check presentation So today I am so happy that the city of Santa Cruz in partnership with the Santa Cruz downtown Association will be presenting hope services with the fifth annual check collected from our parking for hope holiday program and For those who don't know hope services is a nonprofit in Santa Cruz that provides training and support services To adults with developmental disabilities in doing so their crews have helped to keep our downtown streets clean and welcoming for over 20 years The funds were collected from the downtown meters the week before Christmas with the usual rates supplied However, all proceeds this eight-day period were designated for donation to hope services over a hundred and forty three Thousand in total has been collected for hope services in the last five years This means that the total amount collected in 2018 that has been donated to hope services today is 30,862 So we'd like to welcome the hope services team to the podium to accept to them do the donation Thank you Thank you So at this time I have a mayor's proclamation and that will be Declaring February is African-American History Month in Santa Cruz So I believe we have some folks here to accept the proclamation and before I go ahead and hand it over I thought I just read a few of the components So the African-American community in Santa Cruz has since before the city's establishment contributed to its trades industry arts culture Philanthropy education and community despite centuries of racial discrimination and whereas the Santa Cruz chapter of the NAACP was established in 1949 partnering with the city of Santa Cruz in 2018 to bring about March for the dream and honor for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Which unites our community around common goals of fair treatment unity and universal human dignity and Whereas the Santa Cruz community Embraces its diversity promotes the teachings of African-American history throughout the entire year and acknowledges the invaluable Contributions of its African-American residents and visitors as we celebrate African-American History Month, so now therefore I Martin Watkins mayor of the city of Santa Cruz do hereby proclaim the month of February 2019 as African-American History Month in the city of Santa Cruz So mayor Watkins, I want to thank you and the council so much for this I'm delighted that you decided to acknowledge all of the contributions that the black Community African-American community black community African community have made to history We really appreciate it I'm not gonna go on And I don't have a lot to say I'm Deborah and you're all looking very well remember my face because I'm gonna remember yours Thank you. Thank you for being here Thank you so much for being here today to accept that. It's a pleasure Okay, so that concludes the presentations for for this afternoon So we'll go right into our business. I have a few announcements and then we'll move on to the regular meeting Today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 and streaming on the city's website at cityofsantaCruz.com Lynn Denton is our technician for both this afternoon and evening sessions, and I would like to thank you Lynn for your work All city council members can be emailed at city council at cityofsantaCruz.com If you would like to communicate with us about an agenda item We'd like to receive your email by Monday at 5 p.m. Before our council meeting This provides us with an opportunity to review your email and include it with the rest of the agenda packet Please do bear in mind that all items of correspondence with the city and city council Do constitute public record and are generally subject to disclosure upon request by any member of the public Accordingly if you have sensitive or private information that you do not wish to be made public You should not include that information into your correspondence with us Our rules of decorum are on the window ledged to my left and it's my job to keep the meeting running Without disruption and we asked that you respect your fellow citizens when you are inside and outside of our council chambers At this time, I'd like to ask if there are any statements of disqualification Seeing none City clerk are there any additions or deletions to today's agenda? Pardon me mayor I had sent the council a Message this morning Recommending tabling of one item which I'm prepared to address now or when the item comes up on your later in your agenda We could address it when it comes up later. Is that that's fine. Okay. Thanks. Okay Okay, so at this time I'll make a quick announcement about oral communications Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the community to speak to us on items that are not on the agenda Oral communications will occur at or around 7 p.m And I'll now turn it over to our city attorney to provide a report on our closed session Thank You mayor and Your Watkins members the city council there were several items on your closed session today the first I'm going to touch upon was not listed on your agenda. It was a Subsequent need item in a lawsuit pending in the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals in tight Zabrisky versus Fannie Mae corporation On that item the city council authorized the city attorney's office to join in an amicus brief Being prepared to file in the Ninth Circuit On behalf of the public rights project and this has to do with Fannie Mae's reporting of credit history information in connection with a mortgage lending More details are available on that upon inquiry by member of the public the rest of the items were all on your agenda item a was a conference with Legal counsel involving liability claims the claims of Julie Gilbert Alfred Gilbert and Johnny Louis Poff Those items are also on your consent calendar this afternoon for counsel action There were two real property negotiation items as well involving city-owned property in Scots Valley Commonly known as the Sky Park property. I'm not going to list the APNs But they are listed on the posted agenda City rep met with and gave direction to its negotiator Bonnie Lipscomb with respect to potential agreements for the use of the property by PG&E and also by Scott's Valley Education Foundation. There was no reportable action on those items. Thank you Okay so we're going to switch it up a little bit and Now is sort of an opportunity for us to report on some of our external Communications for those of you that are new to the council. This has been something that has sort of changed I'd say throughout my time of rotating Every other meeting or occasionally and generally would take place at the end of our council meetings So today we thought it would be a good idea or I thought it'd be a good idea to sort of switch it up and have an opportunity for us to briefly share out any types of actions or activities taking place in terms of your work and assignments as Advocates on behalf of the city. So if you could please share briefly anything in terms of Reportouts to the council and maybe I'll start with you a council member crone on my right. Thank you very much. I One group the community advisory group and possibly council member Matthews wants to add something to I thought we had a fantastic meeting couple weeks ago and a Lot of information was generated Concerning how we are going to move forward With a sort of partnership it seemed to me between university and the community I Think Chancellor Blumenthal was very open. I actually heard him for the first time Talk about two thousand instead of Ten thousand and I and I took that as a very positive number And I think that there was real work It's the best meeting I've ever been to tell you the truth from the university city over the years. I'm going back to 1998 So I just am positive and of course we've been meeting with the Chancellor I think everybody's been meeting with the Chancellor meeting with him today and Another another very cordial conversation although he Does not think that we can the campus is going to grow But I think that's you know, hopefully a longer conversation and he knows where we're coming from Thank you We I said on the youth violence prevention task force steering committee and we had a meeting in Watsonville at the Health facility out there with different stakeholders It was a little bit different of a steering committee meeting than usual because they invited different service providers from the area So that we could discuss the issue of racial equity They had been conducting some racial equity trainings and implicit bias trainings with different representatives from the service Organizations as well as figuring out ways to implement racial equity training with police departments throughout the county. I was Encouraging to hear the feedback from the different Service providers as well as other elected officials and police departments that were represented in the room What was one of the most encouraging was the Watsonville police department? I believe which are the ones that are really taking the lead and not only having sent their officers to Get trained as trainers in racial equity But then also Dedicating a sizable amount of hours within their police department for additional racial equity training So I'm looking forward to seeing how we may be able to implement that in Santa Cruz Yeah, I attended both the finance committee for Metro I'm a seated member of that subcommittee now and also the Metro board committee board meeting this month Main report outs really have to do with our partnership with Metro potentially on the Pacific station project council member Matthews and I requested a Joint session on that at some point so we could inform each other of the opportunities of And working with partners on a project down there at the Metro station and Other than that, I think those are the main main items Yeah, so I'll be on the finance committee moving forward and we also are starting to work on the budget for the Metro as well I just thank you for reminding me council member Myers That we also met for the community programs budget committee to talk about things and that was really interesting And I look forward to whatever you decide to update the group to but I found it really interesting Because we were discussing the ways that we could Distribute the home and CBDG funding specifically CDBG, which is the money that comes from the federal government that allows us to fund Non-profit programs and different things around there So it was difficult conversation because we're trying to figure out how we can Span out a hundred and eighty six thousand dollars of cross projects that are the total I think it was like six hundred thousand dollars of requests that came in So it's really a difficult Job to really figure out ways that we can prioritize that from that experience though and from the conversations that we had I'm really looking forward to finding additional streams of revenue that we may be able to infuse into community programs Thank you Just a couple of quick updates from so I said on the Monterey Bay Community Power Or which is the powers authority that over for now? I think 20 jurisdictions one more coming in the tri-county area that has taken responsibility for procurement of power and distribution of Well, we in a we still we continue to work with PG&E for the time being The distribution they still operate the power grid, but we we had a conversation about How things might proceed and what it might mean for ratepayers given PG&E bankruptcy and So far it does not appear that there will be any significant changes We it looks like given that we've made some sound decisions in terms of our procurement we're likely to be stabilized through the This process so I'll update you again if we hear anything new, but for now ratepayers can be assured that Things should be status quo as PG&E works out. It's financial dealings with the bankruptcy courts The Regional Transportation Commission has a meeting we finally Did approve the staff recommendation for the preferred scenario on the unified corridor investment study? This is going to lead to some pretty major investments in Highway and rail trail Rail trail Development and so I think that for the city of Santa Cruz What we'll be seeing most clearly and immediately well immediately in the medium term will be improvements to the segments of the the rail line and the trail that come through the city So we've begun working on that and this the city council has voted the past to support The measure D allocations for those projects and so that'll be continuing here if you're in South County You'll see that freight Up, you know freight service continues to operate on the rail line. We have a contract with progressive Rail as a as a common carrier for us be given the withdrawal of Iowa Pacific from the area. So Everything's moving along smoothly there and last but not least the area agency on aging has met and we meet monthly and Have I think I mentioned this at a previous meeting, but now things are kind of Starting to move ahead So there's a legislative agenda that they support and I'll be bringing a couple of key pieces of legislation or with or across the city of Santa Cruz sign on for some supports for senior services around housing and Meals and other health care services. We finally have some potential for movement there with the new governor And so I'm hoping we can support those efforts and in addition. I think I've reported on the AARP Has requested the local jurisdictions big try to become age-friendly Jurisdictions age-friendly communities. There's a process that we go through and so I'll reach out to staff to try to bring A proposal back for us. There's no real fiscal impact at this time However, we have that may give us access to some funding through AARP And so I'll be working with the county supervisors on the AAA to try to make that happen as well To to be continued. Yeah, several of mine have been reported on already the the UCSC community advisory group and Metro Really, I think we're reaching a very encouraging Spot with Metro discussions on Pacific Station and looking at the broader possibilities there. I Sit on the mid-county groundwater agency, which is collaborative for the mid-county basin aquifer and we're continuing good research and progress on work with Soquel Creek on aquifer recharge your comments about the Issues for aging Reminds me that the health care and all policies committee met to kind of get that off the ground That will be good information to incorporate as well Very general preliminary discussion with that subcommittee Yeah, and we met community programs, so that's it. Thanks. I Do I say I think I appreciate you're putting this early in the agenda because I think we all spend a lot of time on these subcommittees and Assignments and typically it's been relegated to the very end of long meetings and we're kind of pride So I think it's important that we share these updates. So thank you. I like this. Yeah, okay. Thank you for the feedback on that So I'm gonna prove I'm on the Association Monterey Bay Area Governments as one of the One of the committees that I sit on and there's a presentation by So the acronym for Association Monterey Bay Area Governments is AMBAG so I'll refer to that the rest of the day there is a presentation by the AMBAG energy watch program and it highlighted energy watch energy savings in our region and From 2006 to 2018 annually our region has been saving 103.5 million kilowatts of energy per year which is and in six and in 2019 were projected to have an annual energy savings of six million kilowatts per hour for the year and The AMBAG region has actually met the 2020 goals under AB 32 targets in 2015 and so these targets that we Were supposed to be by 2020, but I'm now a bit by met already I was a reduction in greenhouse gas by 20% back down to 1990 emission levels And the hope is that by 2050 will reduce our levels by 80% of the emission levels that we were producing in 1990 There's a beacon program which honors voluntary efforts by local governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions save energy and adopt policies that promote sustainability and In 2017 and 2018 the city of Santa Cruz won both silver and gold for agency energy savings and We won platinum the Platinum award for community greenhouse gas reductions The gold award for an agency greenhouse gas reductions and silver and platinum awards for sustainability and best practice And Santa Cruz County was the first county to ever receive a gold beacon award We're doing really great with with greenhouse gas savings They also announced that SB 1 local streets and roads program project lists are due on May 1st 2019 so this is Dedicated 1.5 billion dollars per year in new Formula revenues to cities and counties for basic road maintenance rehab critical safety projects on local streets and roads and so cities will And counties will need to have a resolution approved by their councils or boards and project lists Information uploaded on to the online intake pool and submitted to the California Transportation Commission by May 1st to be eligible for these funds Moving on and also on the Local agency formation commission so laugh go I just know it by attack or them so but Patrick McCormick who's the executive director has announced his retirement and will be succeeded by succeeded by Joe Serrano and I just wanted to see if we could pull up Something that I handed out a map that I've handed out Sorry That this one Okay, so there's copies by the window if the public want a copy of this map Let's see if it comes up. All right, so One of the things that Patrick McCormick wanted to do before he left was there hadn't been an official City map none for the city of Santa Cruz And so he began working on this and it turns out that in the late 1800s the city limits were extended in parts Along the eastern bank of the Salamence River and then south to the southern boundary of the county of Santa Cruz Which is three marine miles out into the ocean and so this is actually a more accurate map, which hadn't been produced and And it shows that That's the city of Santa Cruz actually their boundaries actually extend out into the ocean Three miles and so we decided at that point in time that we should extend the sphere of influence of Santa Cruz to meet the boundary limits and so we voted to extend the sphere of influence at that point in time and So this is the accurate map of the city of Santa Cruz take too much time on this But I'm just curious about this this little carve out. Oh, yeah You could I mean people might be wondering what that is. Can you yeah? So when when the de Anza property was included into the city limits, they did not annex that one sliver of Of the three miles out into the ocean and so if the city at any point in time Or if laugh go at any point not in time wants to annex that portion into the city of Santa Cruz then Since it's within our sphere of influence. It would make sense that we could go ahead and annex that into the city Yes, not to load it on at this meeting, but it seems that this must have practical implications for us Yes, no, so that's a question for the city attorney at some point in the future. No, don't even bother now Hascos added this to our sphere of influence it must have some Theoretically Just one quick thing I wanted to point out the you'll see the little island where the water treatment plant is The other island that we have that's not shown in this map is the landfill Facility so that's also an island of the city of Santa Cruz No, not skypark we owned the property but The landfill is actually annexed into the city just like the wastewater treatment plant That's actually a territory of the city of Santa Cruz So I a lot of the things that I'm involved in have already been reported out The only thing I would add is that at the community programs meeting We also had an update on the core process Which is the community investment process with the county in the city? So there will be probably some information forthcoming on that. Did you have something to add to that as well? Or I'm sorry today When you're done, I do have a report out on the library board. Okay, perfect So then I'll just before before we we move on to your report for staff reports We have our budget subcommittee meeting continually on that. We'll have a presentation from Marcus today and There was a CJC meeting with the the criminal justice council and there was a presentation on the BASTA program as well as some restorative Happening in our in our city and county And I think that I think everything else been said so, okay, please So the city manager participates on some of these regional bodies as well the one I wanted to report on today is the library board which has the Join powers authority That is comprised of the city administrators And so just to provide a brief update on what the board has been working on Part of it is it's been getting ready for the budget. So we've been receiving presentations on budget assumptions and we're receiving in the report from Marcus on budget projections in the coming months So just getting ready to go over the budget for the next year In addition, we've been reviewing or starting the process of reviewing a variety of different policies including a patron data privacy policy Library security security cameras policies. Those will be first reviewed by the library advisory Commission or committee that's established and then they'll come up to the board So the director's been giving us drafts and just giving us background information as we look to review and adopt those policies and then the other thing just more particular to the city of Santa Cruz is the director is moving forward with beginning to implement the improvements at the our two branches Garfield and Brants of 40 the two smaller branches and They've done some preliminary designs and we'd be holding some community meetings So be on the lookout for those meetings that each of for each of the branches to get the public's input on The redesigns and remodeling of those branches, which hopefully will start later in the year They've hired a project manager get those going so we want to get those projects completed as soon as possible That's it. Thank you Well, thanks everyone for your work in the community and for taking the time to report out today Okay, so at this time we'll move along to our consent agenda and Those are items five through sixteen in our agenda And all items will be acted upon in one motion and less an item is pulled by a council member for further discussion At this time, I'd like to ask are there any council members who would wish to pull an item. I Just want to make it quick. I don't want to pull anything, but I want to make a quick comment on number nine Very quick number come members of the public one-minute pull item seven and it'd be great to get a brief Report on item eight as well. So I'll pull both of those Any other consent items to be pulled I Had a comment on one, but I'm trying to find it if you would just bear with me for one second Yeah So we'll go ahead and move on to any items that there's comments only I remembered what it was. Yes, it's item The item regarding the Santa Cruz affordable housing bond initiative Is that item nine or yes item nine Asking the mayor to submit a letter of support to assembly member stone and others as appropriate and I would just suggest that we also Send that Information and request for support to community housing advocates. So we get more voices Supporting that action. It is really really significant to us and let others know Antisport marks effort, and I think this is the item you planned. Yeah, so and I had a similar comment that was Request that we reach out to the Santa Cruz City school district to see if they would also this this bill and I know perhaps through the schools committee we could take that action or And just also just to thank assembly member stone I met with assembly member stone with some our staff and he was quite Amenable to doing this and so I'm glad to see that we are gonna Hopefully should this pass Actually be able to make use of the 16 million dollars and the funding that the city Has and has been unable to use for the development of affordable housing in the future Thank you. Yeah, quick follow-up. I think as you all know Don Lane and Fred Keely have been continuing Their leadership of a group interested in the future of funding for affordable housing and they've got a deep list of people who are Interested in that so just asking them to spread this message out would Would spread the word well. Yeah Thank you, and thank you council member Brown and working with for working with assembly member stone for this Any other comments on items or any items to be pulled? Okay? so if I Want to make sure that I'm clear the recommendation for item 9 is to extend to have the letter go out to our Community housing advocates and our Santa Cruz City schools district Should we add could that be a component of the motion to be the city schools? It could be included in the others with an interest in promoting affordable housing, okay? So at this time is there any member of the public who would like to speak to any items on the agenda Except item 7 or 8 which have been pulled Seeing none We'll go ahead and return for motion to move the consent agenda with the exceptions of 7 and 8 Okay, okay motion by council member Matthews seconded by council member Brown any further discussion Okay, all those in favor, please say aye Okay We'll go ahead now and move on to the pulled items We'll start with item number seven and I'll have you council yeah, thank you very much I want to thank the mayor also for bringing this forward with me, and it's something real important It is a resolution supportive HR 530 to rescind Federal Communication Commission regulation Related to 5g technology. It's a very very short item But it just it gives the power back to the cities is what it's going to do to regulate What we should be regulating correctly, I think is and it's sort of We're reporting These boxes and how we're going to deal with 5g technology as we move forward But as I said a couple members of the public I think want to speak to the council as well So I'll turn it over We'll go ahead and thank you for that and happy to support this item We'll go ahead and see if there's any members of the public who would like to address the council on this item Please let I line up to my left Okay You'll be given two minutes and just before we get started you you had requested additional time for the other item correct So we have that yeah, okay, so two minutes for this one. Okay. I'll do my best Thank you mayor Watkins and council members For supporting on issues bill. It's very important and I appreciate it very much The FCC is facing many legal challenges now, which I'm very grateful for no one knows where this is going We only have a small window of time left to choose wisely what we'll do before 5g actually arrives So I think there's many steps that we do need to take in addition to this one although I'm very grateful you're taking this first step became an emf refugee in 2014 when I became severely disabled by wireless radiation I Found ways to control my personal environment But it's still very difficult for me out in public especially here today But I it's worth it for me to come takes me a couple of days to recover after I've been out in public Every new tower limits where I can go very soon This is going to get much worse when the 5g antennas there's going to be hundreds of them in our town come Tomorrow the first 5g satellites are going to be launched by a company called one web The first of 900 for that company. There's been Elon Musk and SpaceX has been FCC has approved 4,000 and 425 satellites for them to be launching as well 12,000 Total is what Elon Musk is asking the FCC to approve so this is Much more than just a Santa Cruz emergency It's really a planetary emergency and I just really want to highlight the importance. It's I'm like a canary in the coal mine I'm a person who actually feels this with my knowledge I think everyone's being affected, but this is coming very quickly So I ask you to please Listen to what the butterflies are telling us as the butterflies are rapidly disappearing. It's been said. This is why thank you Next speaker Hello console. I refuse to get bogged down in Spirit by all these things and I thank you for taking up this resolution on supporting 530 I wonder if you've seen the letter from the Marin lawyer Who has a lot of technical background and experience? It's It's very frightening to me at this point. I really think we have to Take care. I mean he's pointing out that is okay This happened with DDT. I saw thousands of pelicans and in two years they crashed I Cashed after early exposure and it took having to walk not even in the neighborhoods But out just out in the wilds in order to gradually Get myself back now with 5g there won't be places like that We will be condemning everyone and here's the thing if early exposure Leads more and more people as it increases to become sensitive. We're backed into a corner We thought barely got out of the DDT thing You know and reclaim that We've gotten the pesticides off of our street medians and out of where they were putting the cheerleaders on them up at UCSC and worked it out here but This is I'm very worried and if you think oh well these are just good business people trying to make money I mean what is the purpose of this all it is going it is really set up for is For there to be streaming that doesn't use cable It's a money thing people think about it from a money thing They're not maybe evil setting it up, but look at the ways that we could destroy ourselves with this Thank you, please This is my first time here, and I I'm very impressed with our city people and what you're doing That's why I clapped a couple times and I want to thank you for even having this resolution It's revolutionary. I remember when Santa Cruz stood for something besides itself I mean being selfish like we all are tended to be when we put up a sign that said a nuclear free zone Well, I protested against the nuclear proliferation in 95 and we stopped the Nevada test site for four hours Including Greenpeace and all the other people that were aware of the dangers of Radiation look what happened with FEMA Shema to look what happened around the world. We have now Nuclear on every doorstep and next we're going to have satellite shooting down Well, we already have satellite shooting down, but they're going to be shooting to every corner of the of the planet and These are owned and operated by worldwide conglomerates Corporations, they don't care about any of us They want us to die is what I think But you know, I only see what's going on around me I started at HP with a master's degree and I did 25 years of Silicon Valley. I saw how corporations work I saw how They don't care about anything but the bottom line because the law dictates that And we're not going to have any rights If you guys don't stand up And I know you guys have got the guts to do it And I'm praying for you and everyone on the planet We need a lot of prayer Right now I wear this outfit because it protects me. I have shielding in my home. I spent most of my retirement money Thank you staying alive. Thank you. Thank you Okay Next speaker Marilyn Garrett, uh, thank you for supporting Anna as shoesville 530 And 5g is an extension of the untested extension of a Technology we know is dangerous All the microwave radiation from cell tower cell phones wi-fi And as I've been coming here since I retired from teaching in 2000 You all have received documentation of the harm And one of the most recent piece of What I want to give you on 5g is on November 30th, there was a talk called 5g microwave on slot What it means for us And though Anna as shoesville Just deals with the proliferation of the 5g It really encompasses the totality Of the exposures we're getting which are multiple So on this dvd. I'll give you and I might have given one to you already chris at an earlier event Dr. Carl Merritt who was trained as an Electrical engineer worked in radar in the canadian air force and knows about the Biological effects of these exposures. He speaks Occupan chris marquette bakova Dr. Brian anthony who's a chiropractor and it also shows Verizon promotional videos on how this 5g Goes through walls millimeter wave technology And they don't say this is what the military uses to debilitate people Thank you, so I'll leave this with you and something that appeared in the comic news on 5g, but I don't I'll give one copy. Please do. Thank you for supporting this bill and let's go further to stop the harm And an additional speaker Are there any other speakers who'd like to speak to the council on item number seven? Steve con cannon a resident of felton fourth generation santa cruzan I I won't go into the technical aspect of it, but um somehow the tele Communication is very ambitious and moving quickly. They got into washington with their wish list And they got her approved back in 96 Now we're stuck with it I benefited from growing up here and seeing the changes. I went to local schools I went to cabrillo probably kept me out of jail as I found my interest However, if the 5g Materializes, I'll have to leave the area and I think I have something to offer to it And um if you give this consideration, it's like we're uh in a war here and we're calling for reinforcements We're in the 11th hour Um, I'm kind of independent I'd like to see the federal government stay back there in washington. They seem to be very busy Very intrigued with themselves So if we have an opportunity locally To keep some independence, I encourage it. Thank you. Thank you castle And I believe you will be our last speaker unless we have others interested. Okay, go ahead My name is ronda haves I want to thank you for supporting ns shoes 530 Um What you're seeing here today is really the tip of the iceberg of people who are being affected by this already Um, I normally don't make it down here for the same reason some people have said I've been very affected by this. I had to retire early That's cut my social security It's very threatening And to add more that there aren't places people can actually go to get away I know someone that goes to the parks every day to get away from this Is is is insane and this bill at this point Cities and counties, I think have accepted it more on a financial kind of a Outlook, you know, we can make the money here instead of having it go to washington or to the companies There's a lot more to it than that We would hope that you would think about the health of the community even though we've been restricted from doing that If we don't know, I mean, there's been lots and lots of studies coming out of europe israel We've you've been given a lot of these materials. I imagine maryland can give you more This needs to be really looked at You know, we need to be a leader in other ways and not be Looking back thinking about the tobacco thing and thinking why didn't why didn't we see this? Why don't we pay attention people? We have sleep epidemics attention deficit disorder. We've got so many things going on What are the causes of all those things? It's important. Thank you Okay So seeing um no other members of the public interested in addressing the council at this time We'll bring it back for action and declaration Councilor come. Oh, I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to thank the mayor again and also anna issue our Representative represents parts of santa Cruz resolution supportive Excuse me. I'll make a motion to adopt resolution In support of hr 530 to rescind the federal communications commission regulations related to 5g expansion second So we have a motion by councilmember crone seconded by councilmember glover any further discussion Okay, all those in favor. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That passes unanimously So we'll then move on to item number eight and I will Go ahead and look to councilmember crone. I believe that you hold this item. Thank you, mayor. Um, yes, this has to do with Our city participation in county-wide landlord incentive program. I just had a couple questions uh for our economic development director Just uh wondering what and this is more just to inform the council. I I think and see if we can Um Assist more in getting this program to work As I understood it did none of the money was was you utilized and we're asking for It to be a longer time period instead of just a year Um, that's one question and the other question was the 21,210. Is that rolled over from last year? Or is it going to be effectively doubled or was it doubled from the previous year? Good afternoon mayor and members of the council at bonnie-lipscomb economic development director Councilmember crone i'll answer your second question first and it will roll over to the second year So it's a maximum of up to 21 000 a year that's committed towards the program And so any funds that weren't used in the first year. It's just it's the same commitment of funds So in the follow-up and advance of this meeting. We had a few sort of back and forth Questions so councilmember crone had reached out to me in advance with with his question And I would say and from the feedback from the housing authority that that in the first year of the program the pilot program The program actually has been very successful. So It's a it's a lost mitigation fund So even if we haven't spent the the funding the fact that it's there and available If there are problems with section 8 tenets is what makes the program successful Um, the reason why we're requesting the expansion of the reach of the program beyond the first year of tenancy So the way the program works right now We initially and in all the jurisdictions across the county set it up so that you could only file a claim a landlord Could only file a claim in the program If um, it was a new tenant and it was within the first 12 months of that rental agreement And the reason why we did that is we we each had limited funding and we just weren't sure how widely or how many claims We would receive so we wanted to limit it the initial year to make sure that we were Attracting perspective landlords into the program However, after the first year, we didn't receive any claims in the city of Santa Cruz. There were some other claims across the county We didn't receive any but the success of the program during the pilot year Is that they actually increased the number of landlords participating in the program by 65 landlords So it went from 1800 to almost 18 1865 and they added over 200 during that same time frame over 200 units New units of affordable housing countywide um, so The housing authority feels like the pilot year has actually been really successful as as an extra level of assurance for landlords That whether you're an existing landlord or a prospective landlord that if you participate in the section 8 program That there's a loss mitigation fund for you if there are problems arising from any tenants that are that have section 8 vouchers So they really feel like this program has had a big impact That is good news. I that's the missing piece that I didn't realize that and I'll be ready to move it when it's time Okay, are there any other questions? Thank you. Thank you Any other questions from council? Well just a comment. I'm happy to support it as well And I had many of the same questions which I talked with money about And it seems to me a double success in that there wasn't much need to draw down these funds But their availability really encouraged a whole lot of new landlords And and made more subsidized units available and we all know It's it's a huge problem with people having a section 8 Certificates and places not willing to take them So the fact that we expand the pool of landlords willing to take those certificates is a real step forward in Affordable housing preservation creation. So good work. Yeah Thank you Are there any members of the public who'd like to address the council on this item? This is item number 8 on our consent agenda Seeing none. Okay. We'll move it back for action and deliberation motion to approve an amendment to the agreement between the city and the The city of Santa Cruz and the housing authority of Santa Cruz county for county-wide landlord incentive program Authorizing and directing the city manager to modify the existing agreement revising the program requirements to allow for participation From landlords with a longer term tense Okay, so we have a motion by council member crone seconded by council member matthews Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. All right. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously So that will conclude the consent agenda So that brings us to item number 17, which is the encroachment permit for the wireless facilities by verizon at 117 at moracy boulevard and Go ahead Mike fairy planning Good afternoon council. So this item was continued from the last meeting because there was some confusion on plans and what had been reviewed I did meet with Sata over ryan and we went over the plans and then she had some specific questions I attached the rf engineers response to the staff report Since that meeting, I think yesterday you got another email from sata And this morning I forwarded an email response from hamlet netison from bill hamlet Um, so I'm here to answer any questions you might have and the verizon representative is also here Thank you Are there any questions of mike at this time? Seeing none We'll go ahead and maybe and open it up for Public comment and then we'll return to the council for action and deliberation Are there any members of the public who would like to speak to this on this is item number 17? Okay, and you'll be given two minutes. I'm sorry. You have your this is the additional one. You have four minutes for additional Go ahead. Thank you for the extra time So I've I looked through the report again, and I saw there were still there's still a major error that concerns me The antenna model is still not correct And the and it's being referred to in the body of the report as a panel antenna still which it is not So in the 220 report from hamlet netison It says and I quote there are indeed three antenna elements within the shroud Although the 360 degrees indicates that all three are always active providing service in all 360 degrees around the antenna unquote To me this this explanation is not correct And it's a misunderstanding of what the antenna actually how it actually functions Which is not three antennas totaling 360 degrees I went to the website on this of the empanel website about this antenna to find out about it And it describes it as having three different frequency bands with each band broadcasting a full 360 degrees One at a range of 696 to 960 megahertz and two at 1695 to 2700 megahertz But in the h&e report it describes only two frequency bands One for aws at 2100 megahertz And one at for pcs at 1950 megahertz There's nothing listed for the range of six of 696 to 960 megahertz, which is the third band on the antenna Um, so if it's true that quote all three are always active unquote, then this is this seems to be a very serious omission to me So when I look at the table of prevailing exposure standards from the engineering report it lists three possible frequency bands for this 696 to 960 megahertz range None of those are listed What I also note about those three is that there they have much more restrictive public exposure Limits about half of what's allowed for the higher frequency. So this is again very important if that band is going to be active So um, so I anyway, I considered this calls into question all of the rf You know calculations because I don't see that this antenna is adequately understood in my opinion Um, so I also take issue with the statement by Hammond and Edison that quote It's a common practice for the zoning drawings not to include operating specifications for the proposed facility That is why we include the pertinent information in our reports unquote But to me this is not transparent I mean, how can the public see what's actually being proposed? I I've spent hours looking through these reports and I've you know, I'm not an rf engineer, but I've You know we're being asked to trust these reports as being true and accurate But I've found all these errors. So How you know, it's just not the case are we trusting them because they're experts How can we we as the public or even how can When they are using a proprietary system, which they've stated for their rf calculations We don't have the information that we need to verify How can how can a city engineer confirm these numbers are with the and within the scc maximums exposure values so So this is the second time we've done this and I didn't expect to find more errors But I did when I looked more closely a couple days ago So I you know when I look at the conditions for approval It says I had sent to you a number five That if there are errors In this the documents then that's reason for denial. So I ask you to do that Are there any other members of the public who would like to address the council? This is item number 17 are in our agenda And you'll be given two minutes I'm I'm opposed to any additional cell towers being added. We have plenty of bandwidth in this county Only the ultra High techers want to have even high higher frequencies Throne at us and we don't know what these frequencies are. It's all proprietary Everything is private. We can't know the the public's too ignorant to know Right and the city council obviously has to be come up to speed and Get information that's inaccurate in many cases and one of the things I studied I was I was a technical writer For 25 years in the silicon valley and part of the reason I am sensitive and I have and I love butterflies And I love bees and they are dying In droves the insects are dying already. We don't need any more Bandwidth and in this bandwidth. What is there? Well, this is quantum physics folks And quantum physics is all about dancing. It's the universe is Vibrating and what do you think these these insects do they vibrate and have antennas to pick up the vibrations And they they they migrate according to these lines that are invisible for us to see And one of the things I found in trying this to heal myself from this electronic Ooze that has affected my whole life And caused me to retire or well not just retire early I had to leave because of disability from Hewlett Packard in 2003 and ever since that I've been studying This phenomena and trying to find solutions and one of the things I found is what's called rife technology You can look it up on the internet It's about these frequencies One of the most important things I found in getting my rife technology, which helped me a lot And why i'm still here talking is there's a frequency. I just want to say it and then i'll your time is up And you're welcome, but you're welcome to submit your your comments to us, but your time is up at this time Thank you. Thank you 1910 hertz are known to have deleterious effects and cause And I'm gonna go ahead and say your time is up to everybody gets the equal amount of time. I appreciate your respect I just had to add that. That was what I was trying to get to. Thank you very much. Thank you Okay, our next speaker. This is item number 17 on our agenda And you'll be given two minutes I was just walking by I had some city business and I noticed this was on the agenda I'm a little surprised that there's this Fake science for lack of a better word is still out there regarding dangers of cell towers and RF radiation In my previous career, I have a bachelor's in master's degree in electrical engineering Carnegie Mellon and I was an engineer and rf engineering is one of the things we we I worked on in the various defense companies 5g is the beauty of 5g is it's going to have many many smaller Size cells so they'll be transmitting less the danger if there is any and there is some documentation about you could see Things on the internet where there's the head is heating. It's from the cell phone If you don't like the radiation, put your cell phone down. Don't own one. It's very it's really that simple The the radiation is again the smaller the cells as 5g will develop Is less radiation and just for point of reference The we've been bathed in radiation since marconi first, you know I did his first experiments and the human body absorbs the peak absorption for the human body is 70 megahertz That's not that far from your from k-pig on your fm dial So k-pig is doing more damage to us probably than any 5g cell towers or future Future technologies and also the deny 5g would be like denying the interstate system It's a huge economic. I mean there's it's a 20 50 billion dollar projected industry Revolutionize the internet of things the iot and so forth. I can go on but that's tough. Thank you Are there any additional speakers to item? Okay Given two minutes and then you are interested, okay Despite what industry says No safe amount of radio frequency microwave radiation Has ever been determined There is no safe amount The effects are cumulative When you watch the dvd, you'll see some of the independent science and the facts about it In terms of fcc limits of exposure, there's an article here about Uh The violation of the of cc radiation limits at wireless antenna sites monitoring was taken place Thousands of sites are violated so We're getting this in voluntary mandatory exposure And putting these locations in the public right of way as that's happened where I live in aptos 13 In a square mile freedom boulevard day valley mcdonald I have this detector of microwave radiation. I've shown this before This is the sound component And it's way up in the red as it is by the bus stop where I go where they put an antenna Prior to that there was no reading The effects I will give you just one report by Santini in france several years ago titled neural behavior symptoms near cell towers Fatigue sleep disturbances headaches feeling of discomfort difficulty concentrating depression memory loss visual problems irritability And um cardiovascular problems think the list goes on and you're welcome to leave that with us I will do that and I hope you deny this Okay, and your time your time is that because it will be committing this harm very much Okay, is there any other speakers here to address the council? Okay Okay If it's you know, there is the ada and you have no business ever allowing anything in the right of way Since we already have people who are sensitive to it. Secondly, I want to point out this marine Lawyer is pointing out that the Ways that we've been looking at are not the only ways that people are damaged When they compare it to microwave the thing is it all has to do with Jostling and it is affecting chromosomes at much slower levels now Babies in utero already have their gonads. They already have all the eggs or sperm They will ever have We have seen a dramatic decrease in male sperm over the last what 40 years From all the assaults that may not all be um wireless microwave But by golly it sure is and those little babies who knows whether or not they will ever be able to conceive and We're just setting ourselves up. We really have to just stop now I wouldn't put any more cell towers in I would make there be have to be An absolute demand for it by the citizens in an area before you put anything more up Because it otherwise it is just allowing ourselves to be walked over By an industry There is no reason if this we're trying to give clean food or water or sewage treatment to people And you had to weigh the problems with the benefits that would be one thing But this really isn't a benefit. This really is something that is Uh making bound to make more and more problems. Thank you. Thank you Okay Are there any additional speakers who would like to address the council? Um, I only have one thing to say and that is that when I looked at the map of where this is going to be located It surprised me. It's like right in the middle of a shopping center. It looked like close to many businesses People who have to be there at their jobs for eight hours at a time Or perhaps there's even some living areas close to there too. Um This isn't right. They these people, you know, they don't know this tower is going in They may depend on this job and now They may become ill or have to quit and As we know there's already a lot of problems We're going to have a homeless thing here tonight I think you know how big the homeless thing is and how many people have Ended up there some of them because of this very issue Please consider where this tower is. I think you're pretty close to the staff of life, which is a health Business and then I think 24 hour fitness people are going there for their health. They don't really want to Be bombarded by any more unhealthy Technologies and they already are please consider The location of this tower. It's a very bad idea. It's here for they're doing it for the money It's a money thing for them. What are we getting out of it? Thank you And I believe unless there's any additional members of the public who'd like to address this, you'll be our last speaker. Go ahead just briefly I I I have to applaud the ambition on the telecommunication people it's it's it's like a crusade But when we went through the thing on the smart meters with PG&E and they they gave us their information some of it proved to be false the PG&E is kind of under the microscope at this time But there's a legal term. It says do no harm And regardless of these philosophies or these pushes for telecommunication my god Young people in the unborn There's experts out of England who are saying What this lady just said These young women they're not protected as at the young stage They'll have they'll have problems in the birth even if many won't give birth. So it's It's a very serious situation I frequent Morrissey Boulevard there and I I think these things need careful review Fugitious careful, but we don't want another cigarette debacle And the estimate is the tele The Wi-Fi X emf is going to far exceed The cigarette cover up That's all I have to say and thank you council. Thank you Okay, so seeing no more members of the public interested in speaking to us We'll bring it back for action and deliberation to the council Okay, is there any council members who'd like to I was wondering if the Verizon person could answer a question about the accuracy that people pointed out or the inaccuracies sure Good afternoon council mayor. My name is ben hacks that I'm with sequoia deployment services representing Verizon wireless on this project Um, I'll address that right off the bat First thing I want to address because I keep hearing this is that Bill Hammett is the Verizon RF engineer and that is incorrect Bill Hammett of Hammett and Edison Incorporated Is a consulting agency which we hired because we have to get an independent agency That will show that this complies with FCC standards Which in his report he states Will be 0.089 of the applicable public exposure limits And is 0.2 of uh in the second elevation 0.2 of the public exposure limits He also in his transmittal that I believe mr. fairy Provided you as well as his information this morning, which he was nice enough to provide us on very short notice Stating that the antenna that is on the plans the antenna that is referenced in everything the antenna That is with the encroachment or with public works right now and being reviewed Is the antenna they did their Um Modeling on and their report and he stands by his results He probably they probably do thousands of these reports for not only the carriers but for cities who also want reports Not to mention they will also be providing a report after this is on air To make sure that it meets the standards that it says it will in this report As for the bands it sounds like i'm hearing She's saying there's three bands three bands aren't three antennas. It's not a band. It's like a radio like a frequency There's only two frequencies that are being used on this So the third one is not being used Verizon doesn't have the sec rights to that frequency So that's why it's pcs and the the other one That is why there's two bands they are 360 as they also state in their report They take in the worst-case scenario. So the highest power levels the most usage at one time. That's what this report is based on That's also once it's turned on whenever it is built They will go out and confirm that these results are those As of that i'll answer some of your questions I'm just just a and this is not a rhetorical I mean who's who's asking for more cell service because i've never once That's my seventh year on the council. I've never once had anyone right to me and say we really have bad cell service Could you please um, you know get some more cell towers or? I would encourage you to go online and just type in Cell You know just type in the word cell tower and you'll get a million different forums just as there's forums there Who needs a cell tower? You'll find a forum of a million people who say I get no service. This is crazy. I'm gonna move Uh, I have to switch carriers Because of this and that's the whole thinking people say oh, well, I don't need one. Well, you might be t-mobile I'm t-mobile. I'm representing Verizon today, but I have a t-mobile phone Um, I have a t-mobile phone because there's a tower that I can actually use I live in a predominantly residential area where there's nowhere that You know you could get it through planning To propose a tower. So I have t-mobile. It's almost a prohibition of service for the other Uh companies, but it is what it is So that's how I'd answer that. Thank you council member Myers and then I think we have a question from council I just have a two quick questions. Um, and mike this might be you. I'm not quite sure. Um You you I mentioned that that this the company will you know be monitoring the the tower and The antenna and reporting out the the the levels and if there was an exceedance What what happens so is there someone on you know city staff that would then receive that And how does that handled? I don't know if you want to tag team it, but I'm just curious how we handle that as a jurisdiction The only time I've ever Seen um or and I've only seen it in testing not in the actual once the site was on air But it will happen sometimes you you put a site and we have to see if it's going to work and and if it's even close to The exposure limits they figure out a different design. They have to reconfigure it Before they even build it now if you're saying from an after we provide a report to him Um Sometimes the cities even go out when they conduct those reports generally not bill hammers a very respected person He would lose his license and lose his entire company Same as verizon Verizon will lose their Verizon will lose their License and will not be a company anymore if they break these FCC laws. It's it's in their best interest to follow the law um Like anything else and and mike just are these reports available in in the planning department if someone wanted to look at these or how how how could these be looked at by somebody if they If they needed to if they felt the need when they're ready to get a final I give them like a temporary final on the computer and put a little notation in there that says within 45 days Come in with an rf report. I usually get that emailed to me. It's a pdf and it shows Typically it shows that it's operating at what they predicted or even less most of the time So they go out with meters and ground truth The modeling study and then I just put that in the file So they are available if somebody wants to look at them. Okay. Thank you Councilmember matthews Yeah, I just have a question regarding the final paragraph on the agenda report Which says a recent FCC ruling severely restricts the ability of public entities to regulate small cell installations To 60 days So this is time sensitive So my questions are what are the limits and what happens if we fail to act? I don't know So that's a new FCC ruling that goes into effect April 15th So planning of this year so planning and public works are currently going through ordinance amendments So that we can meet these new shot clock deadlines and the deadlines are 60 days for all city permits from the day of submission to When the permit is when the decision is made For any new micro cell site going on an existing structure If they're going to put it on a new structure or a replacement utility poll Like this case, we have 90 days And that's from when they submit their materials Well, typically we can toll a clock, you know, the regular State permit streamlining allows you to toll a time limit. You get 30 days to review an application We have 10 days with this new FCC ruling So we'll get we'll receive the applications. We'll have 10 days to either ask for more information Or not and then 60 total days again for Any new small cell that's going on an existing facility or 90 days for a small cell that's going on a replacement or new poll so And that's just an honest question so Um When the staff report says the ruling severely restricts the ability of public entities to regulate Is it strictly the amount of time they have to reach a decision or is it other criteria? And I I do remember previous discussions that you can't take into consideration health That's that's still In effect that's from 1996. So the health issue for us as regulators for the city That's kind of it's out of our jurisdiction We are allowed to regulate the aesthetics of how these are going to look And so we've seen some we've brought some up to city council where we had examples of some really horrible looking ones and And after working with the applicant some much better looking ones So one of the things that we're going to be coming to you with is the design criteria That we would like to see and and that would be part of this whole catch up with fcc recent rulings And existing rulings Any additional questions council member Mike I was just wondering a member of the public said if there are errors in the proposal then we can deny the permit Is that true and are there any errors in this proposal? Uh, the condition is true. That's a standard boilerplate condition. I don't think that there's any errors I think that the email That we got this morning from bill hammett explained some of the discrepancies that that Mr. Ryan talked about if you look at This is the email that came in this morning from bill to myself And on number one he's talking about the three and tele antenna elements and he says that there is some confusion there However, um and and the different bandwidths that she was concerned about And the last sentence of his paragraph is for not horizon is not authorized by the FCC to operate All of those bandwidths. So the antenna has the ability to operate five or six bandwidths but horizon isn't allowed to use that so they're just using the ones that they modeled and that's the result That you see in that rf analysis Um, and then there was some confusion about the antenna type and he's got a very complicated Explanation each letter in those antenna models Represents, you know a panel Whether or you know if it's an o then it's not going to use that particular panel I didn't want to I could read the whole thing to you but So no, I think that this is accurate and I should have said that he's an independent Engineer that's registered by the state and we have used him as a third party review in the past So that when we get something that that we're kind of scratching our heads about we've hired this company to do a third party analysis I think I've worked with him for 20 years easily Thank you. Thank you And I meant to ask this as well So what happens if we fail to act or deny the permit again? This is an honest question What happens to Failing to act in a timely fashion results in the permit essentially being deemed approved. Okay one way or the other I just remind the council that this is uh coming before you as a request for approval of an encroachment permit, but the Planning department already reviewed and approved a permit for this project back in 2017 Get it out there. Yeah I will go ahead and move the item Um And uh, so it's uh, I'll make a motion the resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an encroachment permit to rise in wireless for installation and maintenance of underground conduits vaults At great cabinets and wireless canister antennas Mounted on utility pole at 117 moracy boulevard within the city of santa cruises right of way We have a motion. I'll second that motion pointing out that we did previously take Action supporting a federal legislation that would give local jurisdictions more authority over these types of facilities and in fact we have Virtually no jurisdiction Right now other than aesthetics and I look forward to updates of the the zoning code, but For what faces it's right now. Yeah, I will support the motion So Yeah, I'm just from what I had heard about some of the timelines associated with the shot clock the Timeline for the new law starts in april So we have about another six weeks or something according to that timeline right april 14th So Is there harm in delaying the decision until the council meeting before that april 14th deadline so that we can Have as much information as possible or to follow the process of the bill and all that stuff I'm not sure what calendar we're operating under currently, but the regulation that was Promulgated back in i think september of last year and that either took effect in january or or will take effect in april Shortens an existing shot clock So it's not like we're not under any time constraints based on regulations that were in place prior to the new FCC ruling Um, so again, I don't know What the current shot clock timing is but it may Um result in our having deemed approved the project so I anticipated this question. So the application was submitted on august 31st 2017 The zoning administrator approved it within 90 days. They approved it on 11 15 17 And the shot clock for a 90 day project expired 11 31 17 So we have been working with the applicant and and this again is one of the reasons we're Going to adjust the ordinance because after they get through the planning permit process Which is typically about three months for a public hearing Then they have to apply for an encroachment permit and go through that process with public works So we're very far behind the shot clock Cut off Yeah, I just I just wanted to state to that. Um, I think we're in a difficult decision. Um, and obviously we we support legislation to try to provide local local oversight again for these facilities. So Uh, yeah, I just would encourage that we stay on top of on top of that and uh, but I did want to move the item Okay, so we have Thank you. I just want to go on record and say that I am concerned if there are in fact physical elements that are Experienced by some of our residents with regards to the increase of microwave technology even if it is important for different aspects of Life for other individuals. I think it's important that we're making Santa Cruz a space in a city that works for everyone And trying to figure it figure out as many solutions as possible to mitigate the impact or unintended impact of installations of new cell towers on our vulnerable populations. I just wanted to come on the record and say that So we have a motion by uh, council member Myers seconded by council member Matthews Just wanted for clarity for clarity if this were to not pass you said that it would the permit would go forward regardless We will go forward. The question is, um What are the what are the circumstances under which it will go forward? Will Verizon file a legal challenge? Asserting the In a declaration a declaratory relief action asserting that the shot clock has already expired or will it simply Proceed as though The permit had been issued my recommendation. However, is that you Um, not just decline to take action on this because the encroachment permit has a lot of important conditions that we want to be able to ensure are enforced in When this project goes forward so so declining to take action does not Without consequence even though it may result in the application being deemed approved Okay. Yeah, that is a point that hadn't been mentioned before that there are a lot of conditions associated with the easement And I would be quite comfortable Including in the motion that we encourage ongoing rigorous science scientific investigation into the effects Sure, I'll accept that. Okay. So, um, did you catch that in terms of our support? Okay So it seems that we have sort of limited choices here I just want to put have something for the record that um that I hope that As a city we do our best to make sure that these types of technologies are Producing the minimal amount of impacts on a community if not You know zero amount of impacts on a community monitor them very closely Yeah, I would I would just add and I know that the circumstances around the choices that we've made in in other cases Where we are not necessarily fully supportive of federal law um, you know that we the city has Chosen to in the past stand up and say we do not support those laws. For example with sanctuary city um nuclear free zone um, there are different circumstances obviously, but you know, I am reminded of a comment made by A public commenter at our last meeting about Sometimes it's time to stand up when it comes to um, you know, what we consider to be laws that are You know not in the public benefit and in fact have deleterious effects on I know that we're not allowed to say that Or the federal government tells us we're not allowed to say that as per the FCC But and the telecommunications act, but it doesn't mean that we can't say it and so I say it and Yeah, I can't support the motion on the floor only because like I said before I've never had anybody come to me And say dang I want more cell service. I want more cell service Of course your cell phone drops out lots of places around Santa Cruz, but it's not I don't think it's because of this particular box We don't have people who come to us Saying we want more cell service. We have people who who are here saying Really, let's let's take a step back and really rethink this national policy as well as our local policy. So For those reasons, I'm not going to support this motion Okay, so, okay Just one more um on that note just something uh to That came up from the city attorney's response for me was that if the Concern or the reason why we're moving forward on this is threats of a potential lawsuit from Verizon Then I am even more principally concerned of moving forward with this for that reason because then we have the federal telecommunications department with telecommunications monopolies and large corporate entity threatening with Community members that have expressed that this will Detrimentally impact their life and ability to reside in the city limits. So I don't think it's a good idea Um, I'll go ahead and see if you want to clarify your comments My interpretation was something other than that in terms of the limitations for our control given the constraints of the situation in general Is that that was my comment? I'm not concerned because I don't think there's a legal basis for the telecom companies to Bring a legal challenge against members of the public for merely expressing their own valid Concerns about the health effects of e-mf radiation The bottom line is it's the city that is subject to the FCC regulations Not not individual members of the public and and they are free to um You know express themselves and advocate for what what they believe in so I didn't mean to suggest that it constraints um Ms. Garrett or or other speakers who who have For a long time now at least as long as I've been in the city of Santa Cruz Advocated against the placement of these cell tellers throughout the community Okay, so um, we'll go ahead and take a vote. We had the motion by councilmember meyer seconded by councilmember matthews So all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, so that So then that fails with and so then The eyes were councilmember matthews councilmember meyers and myself the nays were councilmember brown vice mayor comings councilmember glover and crone councilmember matthews just a question follow-up if we could get an idea of what conditions of the easement are As a result of this no longer enforceable That would That would be helpful this time A lot of public works come up for that. Okay Schneider system director of public works the encroachment permit requires that Person that's issued or the organization issued the encroachment permit provides a city with uh insurance that Indemnifies the city if anything happens You know related to the installation So without that insurance where I don't know how well we're protected or not Got it. Okay So we'll go ahead. Okay. So that concludes the vote at this time the Yes, I would just Say if I could I believe if there's if there are any second thoughts it could be reconsidered Today if someone who voted against it decided they wanted to Re-initiate the item. Is that a correct statement? Yes, it can be it can be reconsidered um during Same day that the action was taken. That's right Okay. All right Thank you. And so at this time we'll move on to item number 18 And so item number 18 as the one possible reappointment or appointment with the term expiring january 1st 2022 Starting with council member brown each council member Will name one nomination and once their nominations are complete then we will have each council member say their vote So go ahead Okay, sorry to stall time. I didn't include public comment So I don't know if you want to do public comment before you do the nominations and vote Okay So at this time, is there any member of the community who wants to speak to us on item number 18? And that is the parks and recreation commission appointment No, it's okay. I'm glad. Thank you Okay Seeing them we'll go ahead and return it back for nominations I would nominate um, I'll I'll tear a hat Yes, I'd like to nominate ron goodman and I'd like to speak to the reasons for my nomination We did get a letter from tony elliott elliott the parks and rec director who spoke to about the Pillars of objectives for parks and rec agencies which include health and wellness conservation and social equity And urged us to consider diversity In our appointment I'd just like to say that um, I have Known ron not well, but In the course of community activities for many many years And I think he would be an important addition To the existing commission He and his family have been active users of a great number of parks and rec programs and facilities over the years um, he has a Long breadth of community involvement in a wide variety of issues and activities He has um A professional experience in the development and implementation of long-range plans I think that's especially important since we are About to move to adoption of our parks master plan Uh, he's provided personal leadership in a Variety of sports and athletic activities for both kids and adults in a whole whole range of activities Not anyone he's He's widely respected for his constructive participation and leadership in the community Um, and for those reasons, I think he'd be a really strong addition to the commission in its work ahead And particularly since the um, we always have an eye to diversity Um, there's uh, currently only one man on the parks and rec commission. So Let's hear it for a guy Thank you Is there any other names to be nominated? Okay. I don't have any other No, neither any other names to be put forward as a nomination Uh, no, councilman brownstone my nomination Councilman crown I just want to uh, read the last line here of al-terra hatton's um application Lastly as a woman is significant uh with a significant mobility disability I offer a perspective derived from a set of life experiences Which are likely quite different from other commission members I can confidently say that plurality strengthens any group and a diversity of perspectives allows for innovative problem solving Thank you. Okay. We'll go ahead and call the vote. We have um, Ron Goodman and al-terra hatton as the two, uh, nominations put forth And Goodwin Goodman, um, I'm going to go with hatton I'm with hatton Al-terra hatton All right. Thank you So at this time we'll move on to uh agenda item number 19 And that's the user charges for wastewater services and the proposed five-year increase And we have steve here I can just say, uh, my name is steve wolfman. I work for the public works department. I'm a senior civil engineer and um The subject today is The user rates For wastewater users which we pretty much all are within the city of santa cruz There are a few septic users around A handful just to let you know Mostly out beyond Meter canyon not meter canyon Further out. It's a ways out. There's about 12 large lots out there so I can kind of begin before my power point comes up really the purpose of Is the purpose of the action Day is to approve A flyer Because by proposition 218 When we increase user fees We need to let everybody know who is a user on what the increase is going to be And send, uh, you know a flyer with information on it for those For those users and um, so you have before you you have, uh, you know the user flyer and the rates that are proposed in the user flyer and, um We would be sending those out to everybody and then, uh, 45 days after that flyer is sent out We would be coming back to the council for approval of the rates So Come on up there Place anyway, so There it is That's a picture of our wastewater treatment plant down near near lagoon um The blue domes are the trickling filters and um Also in the forefront is the that's our secondary clarifiers. Actually one of them is empty At the at the when this photo was taken and then in the background is the The earlier portion of the plant Called advanced primary So we have a wastewater enterprise fund The money is used exclusively for the construction operation The maintenance of the system Uh, we have a very extensive collection system Usually one pipeline on every street in the city Some are in easements and sometimes we have two pipelines. So we have 160 miles of pipes 25 pump stations and we have the regional wastewater treatment plant Which does include a state certified lab Nice photos there So the regional plant, um, we've won several awards there. It's a it's a very well run plant Very innovative. We generate a lot of electricity at the plant from both solar and also We use the gas that we collect off of our Anerobic digesters We treat all of the wastewater from the Santa Cruz county sanitation district So I listed there, you know, it's it's basically everything along the coast all the way To I think there's even some in La Selva beach that is part of the Santa Cruz county sanitation district But definitely all of live oak and capitol and so cal and aptos that it all gets Collected by the Santa Cruz county sanitation district. They have their own collection system They pump it to us And then we treat it So about half of the wastewater at the treatment plant is from that That district and half from the city 10 million gallons every day is about what we treat um by By state law and by the grants that we've received over the year We our our rates have to be based on the cost of service. So um, each user category they're charged based on how much they generate and more importantly How difficult it is to treat treat their wastewater So A gallon of wastewater from a restaurant is more difficult to treat than a gallon of wastewater from a residence or from an office supply store or Or city hall. So the rates there's different categories and different charges There's just a list of the different users That's kind of a repeat of that. We treat All those different types of users the high strength users are mostly the restaurants and some food processing type um The medium strength users are You know different people who use a fair amount of water for some sort of business so, uh Last year over the last year we've we decided to do an infrastructure Uh equipment study The treatment plant is is aging nicely, but it's still aging and a lot of the facilities now are 25 to 30 years old We did major projects Uh, the advanced primary and the secondary projects in the 90s We spent approximately a 100 million dollars at the treatment plant To upgrade it to add secondary but also to modernize the plant So the infrastructure study, um, which really, um, Basically says you need to spend more money at the treatment plan to keep the equipment and the You know up to snuff and and really You know the proper working condition Um, we maintain it very well, but sometimes you just have to replace Uh, especially the electrical and the controls it just stuff gets obsolete You can't you can't get the equipment anymore. Uh, the replacement parts This is a list of, um projects that I would uh, uh, I would hope that we would accomplish most of these during the five years of this rate study The one at the top the ultraviolet disinfection We are under design right now to complete that we have a pretty, um, innovative system for Disinfection we used to use chlorine gas that was always very exciting at the treatment plant Um, and then we went to hyper chloride, which is basically a stronger bleach Which we still have as a backup system, but we we installed about Well, it says in 98 we installed the ultraviolet system And it uses lights Basically and the controls on that system the lighting systems. It's just it's very it's obsolete now The the technology has come a long ways. We will save power on that But it just has to be replaced the the equipment is hard to find parts for now and So we're pretty excited about that project. It'll reduce our maintenance costs, too And then this is just a list. It's uh It's it's preliminary for sure. So are the costs They could go up Hopefully they'll go down. So that's Um, this is kind of a summary of what the increases are for The top line is probably the most important The second line there with increased operational costs just from basic inflation And also because there are Like for example, the the lab is doing a lot more intense testing and has the ability to So the lab costs have also gone up more than just inflation The fund balance is approximately half of our operating budget, which is what You're supposed to maintain for a For a operation like this and Without the fee increase we would have no fund balance within two years if we do the projects which There's really no choice but to continue to operate the plant at that level With those projects So we have a five-year rate increase 7% a year. I'll get a little bit more detailed about what that means per customer You can see that the fund balance You know will stay around The 11 million dollar mark, which is the targeted mark for fund balance So for a single family resident This in the first year of the increase it would be a little over three dollars a month As an increase multifamily a little less than three dollar And we have the low sewage producer. It used to be called low water user rate It would be about a two dollar A month increase And we can go over a little bit later if we have questions about what that low sewer producer is, but it's basically Well our residential rates are flat rates so Whether you have six people living in your home and you do laundry every day or you're a single person and You you don't do laundry and you don't use the shower much or whatever, you know, it's the same rate The low sewage producer gives that person who's a single person and they're living in a house and they're not doing You know, maybe they're doing the laundry at a laundry mat and it also for multi residential Apartments and such not that if they have a really low water usage during the winter Which we assume is going to the Waste water system they have a special rate and it is a significant discount for those users And then we just have the low strength and the high strength business like I said the high strength would be a restaurant An increase of around 36 dollars a month for for those users and that's for a typical because your Your businesses We are charging them based on The usage that shows up on their water meter This is cumulative. So over the five years if you're a single family resident You would have a monthly increase of almost 18 dollars a month in 2023 Yes, 2023 And and the same, you know It shows what it happens to the other user categories there This is a cost comparison to the county of santa cruz or the santa cruz county sanitation district. I should say We are significantly less than them In the different categories, they do not have a low sewage generator category The 65 dollars and 25 cents is their existing rate And they're slated to also go up on july 1 um and somewhere I have that information about what they're going to be but it will be more than 65 dollars and You know at the end of the five years will be at about what they are right now And they don't appreciate me saying that but How it is So You know we have we have to increase the rates I mean if we're going to keep the service that we have right now And we have no real choice of how keeping the service we have right now. I mean we are providing secondary wastewater treatment um, we are you know, um, we have a big collection system which You know, we have to maintain We clean all the sewers Usually once a year Many of them we clean more than once a year. We have uh inspectors that are going out and being sure that You know, the businesses aren't putting more Improper waste into the system that we can't treat Um, and of course, you know, we have to provide the level of treatment that we're providing by law and By our environmental responsibilities um I say here that the fees are modest um I mean you you could look at over a five-year period that they could be Significant and I'm sure to some people they will be uh, but It is uh, such a critical environmental System that I don't think there's um any choice And This is a slide. I wasn't actually going to show it to you, but this is a slide that does have some comparisons to some other um districts in the in the local area um Cifika is quite a bit more Watsonville is significantly less Uh, probably has to do mostly with the fact that they have some very large rural users that they um That helps quite a bit Scott's valley is about the same And you can just look at the list. We're we're we're doing pretty good in terms of our um In terms of our rate when you look at similar sized and similar locations so Any questions? Let's see the best picture I like that one. That is our secondary effluent our final It's uh, the only thing that happens after that is it goes through the uv disinfection Thank you, Steve. Appreciate the presentation. Are there any questions from the council at this time? Councilmember Myers? um Steve I noticed in the staff report that there was a rate increase in july Uh first 2017 and I was just curious what that rate increase was And sort of it was less. I think it was three Or is it three years? Oh, no that rate increase was a that was part of a four-year increase Okay, and so that was a four-year increase. Um, that was the last time we came to council for an increase So it was a four-year increase. So, um It would have been like the four previous years would have had an increase and that was the last increase But you you don't recall sort of the kind of the range of three percent typical. I think that there's increases Actually, you know what? I have that That increases those increases were five five five and two and a half And um with the low sewer uh the the lower Basically user. Yeah people who aren't Do do you find those customers? Yes, we find all of those customers. I identify them They do not have to apply it is automatically done by our IT Okay, billing department. Thank you And on that that's tied to the water use isn't it? It is tied to the water use during the winter. Yeah Other questions from council Mentioned laundromats, uh, where do where do they fit in on that on that table? I believe they're in the medium strength And pretty much anyone who uses water as part of their business Is typically like a small coffee shop that's not really doing dishes or maybe he's just doing a few Things like that. How did you come to 80 hotel motels? Well, um When we developed the ray, um, that was just how many hotel motels were in this Were in the system Looking at ucsc It's hard it's hard a little bit hard to see it's tiny font It is on one of the colored pages that we have. Um, this is what they this is an interesting example So they pay right now 51,000 almost 52,000 a month Is that that's a month and then it's it'll top out with this rate increase at 67,000. Yes I mean I You tell me but yes, that sounds right. Yeah, is it the single largest water user in city? Absolutely by far by far It used to be select con systems, but now it's ucsc And did you know the the kind of like numbers they're using? Do we take any of that in consideration if they're going to grow by 10,000? So 5,000 they are they are what the one sewage They are the one customer that actually has a meter on their wastewater discharge So, um, they are metered So as they use more as they generate more wastewater Their bill goes up And I just want to add that I really appreciate um responses that the director public working mark that'll has as offered During we have kind of a back and forth on emails this weekend It's always great when you can get a department out on the weekend To get to respond. It's wonderful. Um, and I will say most of them do So I was really concerned a couple questions This is well above the cost of living These increases and if somebody's paycheck There is there's nothing for low income discount And the senior discount was I think responded to you just responded to it's good that we they don't have to apply for it They we actually go out and find the low sewage users um I just you know, it's it's a hard Going from you know that that much of a percentage increase even though the county is already there You know, it's still you know our our customers haven't contemplated yet that yet Is there Director Dell mentioned something about we can't because of 218 we cannot give low income users A lower rate but We can use the general fund If the general fund wants to pay the difference, I didn't exactly understand that go for it Do you want to respond and then maybe I can respond to council member crone whenever you like Is your question is your question related to the question that okay? Yeah, just um would so and if the council were to decide Just in the event that we decided we wanted to provide some kind of subsidy Because recognizing the property restriction would it have to come out of the general fund or could it come out of water enterprise? So mr. Conduct I think okay go ahead. Yeah, I think Tony will answer that so, I mean the way I look at it is that um that Providing sewer service in terms of the fees that are collected in order to provide that service is sort of a zero-sum game Where the full cost is attributed or is is paid for by the by the rate payers and under proposition 218 the amount of the Proposition 218 defines different types of fees into different classifications and And sewer service is is considered a property related fee or charge So it's under the the um rule set forth in section six of article 13d, which is prop 218 What it says is that the amount Of the fees cannot exceed the proportionate cost of service attributable to each parcel that's subject to the fee and so um If you if you look at that in terms of what an individual rate payer pays And the cost of service study analyzes it is how much does it cost to provide sewer service to each Connection that is using the sewer service and we're the council to Take some portion of those rate payer funds And and use them to subsidize rates for a certain class of users then that amount Can't be attributed to the parcels that are paying the fees. So that type of a subsidy is not permitted under proposition 218 and that's why the directors Reply in my opinion correctly states that The council is free to do that. You're not prohibited from by prop 218 from doing it. You just can't use other rate payer funds to subsidize You know a low income tier of uh of fees Councilmember clever, did you have a question my my question was pertaining to the impact just because it is disconcerting I really appreciate the the presentation and I totally understand the importance of Recycler the water treatment and how we can use that with our wastewater and sewage Management, I am concerned though about the cost of living and how this could impact low income families, especially with the Stagnant wages that we see and the unregulated housing market that we have right now It could detrimentally Impact people's finances because I was just doing some rough math here and I will reiterate just rough math I'm a people person not a math person But at for a year at the total of the 17 $17 and 80 increase by 2023 Then that's an increase of 213 dollars a year On someone's living expenses. So I just want to put that out there and express concern and I would be interested since now I know it's not possible because of 218 for us to offer different levels of Costs for rates. I would be interested in exploring Ways that we may be able to supplement or subsidize the cost for low income people I I share the concerns expressed by council member Glover. I don't believe there was a question though, and I'm happy to respond to any questions Thank you for the presentation. By the way, I was just curious as to whether or not Um If homes or businesses are to put in any kind of water saving mechanisms Would that be able to allow them to shift down? in terms of consideration for how much they'd be paying Well, we for for businesses. Yes. I mean if the business We so we take a business and we assume that like for example for most businesses We assume that 80 percent of the water that they used Is going to be wastewater and 20 percent is used for whatever irrigation and things like that and so um Their their cost per year. So especially let's say a restaurant Their cost per year is closely related to how much water they use Especially the larger water users like restaurants or maybe the wineries or the new beer You know producers. So, you know They do save based on that for For residents The only time that that would really save is if they were able to get to the low sewage generator That would be the only way that they would really be saving if they you know reduce their Uh Worked at all public works director. I just add that we do have a significant portion of our Residents that are in that group. So that is uh, I believe it's about I think it's four 4,000 4,000 so it's not you know, it's not a Hard to reach level, but it just does recognize So if they did significant water savings that could put them into that group if they're close and we do an automatic You know, um check of their water use so that puts them in automatically. They don't have to apply I just want to speak to that it's easy all you have to do is use less water And then it appears on your water bill at some point. Congratulations. You're a low Low water user Yeah, I mean I I would I mean it's true. Uh, it's a really nice. It's a really good program. Um, you know and The argument in the water department would be that it's It's harder for your normal person, you know a family is gonna It's just gonna be really hard to reach, you know, it's it's just not really for your typical You know four unit family and you know It's just it's pretty hard, but we have 4,000 customers that are in that category And like I said, it can be a multiple it can be multifamily units Which I think, you know More than half are in but there are a fair amount of single family Units that are in that Category and it is probably the biggest question that comes over to customer service is about I didn't I'm not in it anymore or you know, or how can I get in it? You know, so it does happen where people go in and out of it based on their water use One more question Last question is Is that water consumption? Rate like for each of those categories fixed and how is that projected to change over time Just to get a sense of like if people are in one category now Um Is that percentage level going to shift for the and then result in them becoming at another level for the residential or for the Residential yeah for the residential it it would shift each each year. You can qualify for the Low water low sewage producer. So each year they can shift The rate itself is going to go up evenly for each category. So if you're a low water Low sewage producer now Your rate will go up, you know the the two dollars. I think next year and then It'll go up, you know two dollars the year after Um And it'll continue to do that and if you're a single family resident It'll go up the three dollars each year and you know, so It'll always be a relative to each other. I think I might have misspoke on that What I was referring to is the amount of waste that's produced. So I don't know what for example Whatever the low sewage production rate is right now. Is that expected to change? Adjust no over time. Okay. No. No that would not Yeah, sorry. Yeah, that's So I was going to open up to public comment. Did you okay? Is there any member of the community who'd like to address the council on this item? This is item number 19 are in our agenda Okay, seeing none. We'll return back to the council for action deliberation or did you have a further question? We have 8 000 it says here the um Multi-family those are apartments Well, uh Any Let's see Anyone who it could be a it could be a duplex it actually um We actually put into that a single family resident with a adu We consider that two multi residential units even though it's really one single family and one multi residential. We consider it to Multi residential units. Would it have two meters or no just one We do not we do not we do not judge on meters. So it would be one meter But their low water usage would be based on two units So whatever they use would be divided by out of 8 000 How many um, do you think are single meters for a bunch of either apartments? Yeah, um, I think we've got I think about It's how many it's 4 000 and I think that it's um I don't know if I have that I do somewhere but it's I think it's around 60 to 70 percent of That 8 000 is a Single meter Well, yeah, I just have the number of connections. So for 4 000 the number of connections is 2800 Some of them are single families so because the issue is like There's the incentives for For um, you know apartment dwellers to save water You know, you know, there's none there if they're not paying it directly if it's then I've heard during this whole rent control thing that People were getting their rents increased and the justification was be beyond what the 2 percent Was the water use they said oh Now we're gonna charge it for water It was it was kind of insidious, but I'm just wondering how do we give incentives to single, you know studio apartments, you know That are all in the same meter Well, I mean a couple things there, I mean In the incentive here is for low sewage generating um It is true that the water department has over the years has been encouraging meters per unit instead of one master meter but that doesn't Really? Well, I guess that would change things for us also, but that kind of gets my question. Appreciate it But if I get to just say it's just these are fixed costs. So they don't vary every month They're fixed for the year. So Um, so it it's per unit. So I think I don't know there's justification to say that your Sewer rate's gonna vary. So we're gonna raise your I mean, it's once the rate set for that year Then that's what it is. So I'm you know, it's per unit doesn't matter how much you use Just to follow up sort of a follow-up on the The ability to subsidize ratepayers While I think it is true that the ability to Get in a water conservation tier might motivate someone to use less water thereby generate less Sewage discharge The legal basis for doing so is that it actually costs less to provide the service to people who use less water and and not per se Just to encourage people to use less water And I think if I remember correctly in 2017, we talked a little bit about the Just the sort of the cost of living challenges and the imbalance and trying to support People and ways that we can and so I think that would be we I think if I'm here kind of getting a sense of the council I think there is interest in exploring what that could look like in the most legally kind of A sound way whether it be an application type program or such like that Um, because I think I remember that conversation. I don't know for the council members that were with me then Taking place then knowing that, you know, it is that cost of living in balance that we're seeking to kind of bridge Um, and we have aging infrastructure in a lot of needs. So how to balance that but um, I think now would be the time for action and deliberation if Well, this is merely just set a public hearing and this has been very informative But I will go ahead and move that we set the public hearing based on the proposed, um uh Rate increases and other information presented to us second Okay, oh Well, they motion by council member Matthew seconded by council member clever any further discussion council member So the public hasn't heard any of this yet, right? This is just here and now we're going to send out postcards and stuff Correct. So we might be hearing something. Yes. Okay. I mean that's the whole idea Thanks Yeah, I also just want to give big props for this thing that went out from the wastewater this newsletter, which I thought was Fantastic and speaking to the quality of service the Both the environmental and public health benefits, etc. It said it was great And I got to assume you're going to be doing in addition to the notices a good deal more visibility public education and and um, both the the aging infrastructure the, um Rising standards for environmental quality to protect public health and environment. All of those are just undeniable Got to do that. So, um It's it's one of those utilities we take for granted, but Good work on this Thank you. Okay Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes you news Thank you, Steve Okay, so we're moving right along to item number 20, which is the budget adjustment adjustments and information on the city's financial status and we have Tracy and marcus here Thank you, mayor calce members. We're here for part two of three part series on Primer on government finance today. We're focusing on a little deeper dive into the city's Operations part one we recapped kind of governmental financial trends at a high level what's going on in the state of california What's going on in the country today? We're diving a little bit deeper into the city and part three in a couple weeks We're going to focus in our unfunded Needs within our capital investment program I have i'm marcus pennantel your finance director. I have with me proud to have with me tracy coal or Principal management analyst Focusing on the budget and she's going to help with our presentation We had planned to do a combo presentation a couple weeks ago. And if you remember we we moved pretty quickly So i'm going to share the show a little bit with her with her tonight So we we thought because we moved so quickly we want to at least start with a quick recap of a few of the slides A few of the themes from last time just to orientate you So that'll be the first few minutes for our presentation trace We'll be covering most of that and then we'll get into what we're calling our big five topics that you should know about as Accounts members and what our community should be aware of there's certainly other things and there's certainly deeper dives That we would be more than happy to go do But we wanted to start at this level to make sure we're understanding at a high level what's going on in the city So we're going to spend some time just orientating yourselves with a few of our financial reports Our budget document and how that's orientated our annual financial Report called our CAFER our audited financial statement One of our reports that you see frequently our investment portfolio report So we're going to focus on some high level just reports that we do Then we're going to jump down into our what we call our first full service plus concept and just orientated you to How much we do as a city of santa crs More above beyond most cities might maybe our size we do a lot of services beyond our boundaries You've heard a few of them just prior in the prior session We'll talk a little bit about the complexities of our reporting structure. We're bigger than a few checkbooks or quickbooks We're very complex a business service provider nonprofit hodgepodge of funds we also provide accounting and services beyond our city so we do Records for other another agency, which is a whole another complex system. So we have we're a very complex dynamic Model from a funding standpoint We'll spend some time a little bit on our financial trends. Again, we can probably spend three hours on our financial trends But we're we're carving some maybe we'll do a deeper dive in there and we'll finish with the keys to fiscal health all told I used Would joke about we have 40 slides. We do have 40 slides We're on time here. Yes So we'll we might skip through a few pretty quickly Some maybe we'll come back to march 12th depending on timing and we would definitely want to pause about every five or eight slides Just to see if there are questions We don't want to move beyond where you might be with questions because we're going to be shifting from different topic to topic So that's my long Long-gated intro and we'll get going So marcus for clarification. You'll go ahead and let us know when you're ready for us to ask questions in terms of So why why now we had this concept really it's preparing for our may 8th budget study session Leading up to our may 28th budget adoption We want to start bringing you contact high-level content. So you're you're orientated to what's coming ahead We'll also want to prepare for community engagement and presentations. We'll be doing to you and other community partners and stakeholders and community members This is a second of three study sessions. We plan to release our budget our entire budget in april So you'll see that document and the public will see that document in april And you'll have hopefully close to a month before the budget hearing not at least three or four weeks We also plan on publishing as they become available more reference materials online And we're working with the your city council budget ad hoc committee on some possible new financial reporting Structures and tools. So that's something we're going to be exploring over these next couple months It's aggressive, but you know, it's something we we want to try to endeavor for So That's our goal. I'll turn the floor over to tracy Thank you marcus So as marcus mentioned, I'm just going to recap a few of the items that we kind of rushed through the last time We were here a couple weeks ago We're just going to talk a little bit about the local government is not in a boom cycle How the state is again Doubling our pension payments Our decreasing tax bases where we'll talk a little bit about that The projected economic slowdown and some unreasonably low reserve levels So why consider reductions in an economic boom? So local government is not in a boom cycle You'll see in a later slide that many many other cities are facing the same budget issues as the city of santa cruz The state again will double our pension payments to backfill for state pension investment shortfalls Decreasing tax bases our sales tax utility users gas tax those types of taxes Those are declining at this time or staying very stagnant projected economic slowdown Is just coming up and unreasonably low reserve levels again. We talked about There's no disaster contingency and our general fund reserve is only at 10 percent Okay, projecting economic slowdown the next 12 months right now. We are in The second longest expansion Soon to be the longest period of economic expansion in just a couple of months And why we feel the slowdown is coming we've got a regional housing crisis that's that's going on The economy must see continued increases in consumer spending As increases interest rates increase Because consumers will see their debt increase their car payments credit card payments those types of things housing school debt And we also have the federal and state government Threats to our our city with our impact fees and the fact that we're a sanctuary city So I have to do this one You're talking about this Pension investments we hit on this a lot, but it's really important to understand We are part of the state's pension system most government agencies in the state of california Part of our pension system most government agencies throughout the country are part of a statewide pension system Our pension system is underfunded By nearly 30 they have a 144 billion billion dollar shortfall in their pension system It doesn't mean the benefit is unaffordable If you look at the benefits between miscellaneous and public safety There's there's some arguments and debates over the the cost of public safety But generally the benefit of itself is not what's causing this current issue It's it's the lack of investment returns when we've done some general analysis of Comparing calPERS investments versus what they usually have done in prior economic recovery cycles And then compared calPERS investment cycles to what the market other index funds eight different index funds How they're individually doing and we average those and these are you know You're one of the male normal index funds not necessarily your high aggressive funds Both of those scenarios turn out that calPERS could be superfunded right now instead of shortfall Which would mean we wouldn't have had seen our rates double and then poised to double again So it isn't that we're saying that the benefits are not The there's too much discussion on the benefit side. There's not enough discussion on the investment side And that's been a topic that hasn't necessarily got enough traction And it's something that we've talked about as staff with league of California cities We've talked about a staff with calPERS And it's something we we want to finish tonight with a little bit of support and see if we can get a direction to Have this council take Direct staff and or yourselves to write a letter and appeal to the state investment board calPERS to reconsider their investment objectives If again, if they just follow the market or what they've done in the past We wouldn't be in the situation as we are right now and that's unfortunate You know, we're we're doing what we can to be prepared But a lot of government agencies who just don't have the resources or flexibilities We're going to have so i'm worried about a lot of my peer of our peer cities throughout the state as we go forward So just wanted to pause on that Again, just a reminder If it weren't for the investment shortfalls not just the losses of seven eight nine But they're shortfall since then in the recovery period We wouldn't be having most of our financial issues right now And we'd be able to talk about how we're investing new resources into new programs But because of that we're seeing our rates double and double to 11 to 12 million dollars a year again Just let that settle in 11 to 12 million a year more every year to maintain this cost Because of the shortfalls that's a lot of new revenue that we have to find to offset So that's a big big issue for us Okay, then we have declining and eroding revenues. This is a pretty Great slide. We talked about our sales tax staying very stagnant or declining Tangible items that we used to buy cds Sales tax programs dvds games. We're now like downloading all of these online and and doing this all online now. So there's no There's no sales tax that are associated with those anymore We have aging baby boomers that are shifting their spending to non-taxable health care and services And the law is still playing catch up for all those online sales That we love to do gas tax We have the ride sharing Reduces a few sales and the energy efficient cars and you know while they're great for the environment That does decrease our our gas tax that we receive And then franchise and utility tax Of course online streaming is replacing our our cable and you know, we'd rather just watch netflix instead of you know getting our cable through a provider and Landline phones are are vanishing although I still have one but a lot of people are getting rid of their landline phones and Taking cell phones instead And we are facing higher risks and occurrences of emergency failures Some of these pictures are are pretty Pretty crazy to look at. Um, I can't believe that west cliff one every time I look at it But every other city every year the city has some major project that wasn't budgeted for And it would be really great if we had funds set aside for this These types of emergencies or other general fund cip projects. Um, we just don't have that at this time Okay, this is a slide that we've used before but we've updated for the current fiscal year and as you can see with a lot of our comparison cities Um, we adopted a structurally balanced budget for fiscal year 19, but a lot of the other cities were not so fortunate And this is something that's happening across the state Advancing for questions. So we'll pause there. That's part one again. Just a recap We've talked about these themes a lot over the last couple years We pushed through pretty quickly a couple weeks ago. But just wanted to pause and see if there's any questions or comments on Are there any questions from the council at this time or It's the sixth slide and you talked about The slowdown federal and state government threats And you mentioned impact fees. Can you just explain what those are? Yeah, certainly the the feds are not in a position Our current administration on looking to how they can help local government. That's not necessarily their their poise So we're concerned about a lot of initiatives working, you know, they've threatened that sanctuary if you're a sanctuary city Then this is going to happen. So that's a concern at the state level In the sense of kind of similar story to what we're talking about fuel taxes That's a there's a good story coming out of the state But part of it could jeopardize a funding source for us We rely on impact fees traffic impact fees Building impact fees parks relies on certain fees to help fund capital projects and the state wants to either restrict or stop our ability to As barely as the housing is that how they're yes as a way to lower the cost of housing. So that's that's a current We'll see where the legislation goes But that's a current new a new thing that we're tracking on because impact fees are a critical source for us to fund capital Councilor Brown So on slide five and the slide four, I believe you repeat just to make sure we get it Unreasonably low reserve levels at 10 of general fund reserve available Could and can you just remind us what reasonable reserve would be and we'll we'll come back to the reserves a little bit later on this presentation But bottom line is we we set as a minimum floor to a two month reserve a couple years ago So a 16.7 percent that's a minimum our recommendation The the data showed us that we should be looking at a 24 to 28 percent range for our city of our size of our complexity so we don't we're not quite at the recommended level and then we modified a reserve portfolio to take advantage of some Paydown perrs. So we've actually reduced our general fund reserve from 16 to down to 10 percent So we can use that that extra money to pay down some higher rate credit card debt essentially I don't know if there's a longer short answer. Hopefully short Why is CalPERS not investing the way You might want them to Stick short. I can talk on this for a long time. They've made political and staff I'm filtering I don't like They've made choices that they look bad when they lost so much money So they don't want to look bad again, but they made that choice during a recovery period They've also made choices political choices as they have always done to let's not invest in these funds with these things That's always happened But I think they've gotten ultra conservative because they're human beings and they don't want to look bad again And so they don't want to put their fund at risk by doing so they've picked a wrong time to do that Coming out of the worst recession period is the wrong time to be ultra conservative Maybe not ultra conservative, but clearly too conservative Who's on that board? Is there it's a board that makes that decision? Yeah. Yeah, they're appointed by the governor No, they're independently elected through the CalPERS system. Okay. Yeah And our new stuff So there's five big topics we want to review today, and I'm just going to jump on in instead keep babbling So there's a lot of financial reports some you see some some you don't but there's a lot of reports that we do Is a city some departments do reports. We do a lot of reports in the finance department So I wanted at least reference a few reports and jump into a deeper dive on a few Certainly you've seen and we've talked about the city's annual budget a lot But we want to orientate you a little bit about how the document's constructed and what's in there and what's important What we don't talk often a lot is about our audit and financial statements our comprehensive annual financial report our CAFR I Can remember the 90s and a little bit of the 2000s when we present these reports regularly to councils and we'd be able to spend time Breaking them down in 2004 the reports were restructured in a way that made them more user friendly to banks and bond holders and bond rating companies and less user friendly for Community members and council members and we've since seen seen more changes in that document that unfortunately It's it's a harder document to get to and to translate Meaning it's a 215 page 215 page document audited by an independent firm To its validity and you have to get to page 51 to Start seeing something to make sense And then you go about another hundred pages and get to about 167 and you see some more things that make sense And then in in the beginning in the middle. There's a lot of stuff. That's really really really Accounting ease you really have to understand the dynamics of they have to back this out and take out this number It just doesn't make sense So it's a report that we we struggle with a way of how we can communicate that But we build it into our budget. We build in some of that data into our budget as far as Projected fund balances our cash flow statements. So we build that into our models But it's a harder report that we can you know, it's not as easy. It used to be to digest Happy to spend time on it whenever you want really happy to Just ask But but I want to let you know it's a document we have out there It's on our website and every now and then because customer customer client community member does call You know generally they have some making background and they ask questions about it But it's a report that's there, but it's it's really tough to digest it opens with mandated management discussion analysis But it takes things like blending your waterfront and mixing that with the journal fund and then talking about the aggregate And none of that makes sense because you can't talk about a journal fund and the waterfront in the same paragraph Because you have to break them apart to make to make it make sense. So it's a really hard report to digest I'm going to pull back a little bit because I sound like i'm bashing my own profession But I just want to point out why we don't talk about it a lot because it's just it's a very difficult tool But we do build a lot of that data into our budget We do spend a lot of time doing our major presentations this year doing even more so and we do a lot of budget presentations Around the budget time. So there's other information that we present during the year And then there's some other reports one that we'll talk a little bit about an investment report that you see on a monthly basis You see a grants report that comes to you on a pergola regular basis on an update on grants that we're looking at There's a state State controls report required by our state of california. There's numerous different versions of those reports that we do Aggregate on the city down to road projects down to some other Places and then we do we have reports that we work with bond radio agencies These are some of the headline reports that from time to time We'll talk to you about but just want to call attention to these headliners There's a lot more below the details and we'd be happy to drill down into any of them But we thought we just do or no orientation to our budget So the last year's budget are awarded by the national association of finance officers association very high High accreditation received its award for 2018. So we're proud about that But some of the things you'll find in the report that you want to pay attention to our budget in brief It's a newer addition we brought in a couple years ago to try to keep that to two pages The information changes, but it's meant to be the two pages that you would need to have or want to have On different data points So if there's something you're curious about or you think we should have in the budget Let us know and we'll get that on that page because it's meant to be the two pages If you carry around with you then you then you have that There's also the two messages the city manager's message and the finance director's message Both with different themes the city manager's message provides a strategic level overview What's happening now at the high level and what's coming the years ahead and the finance director is typically more Numbers based what's going on the deficit what's going on the budget document So there's kind of those three reports that are good to make sure you're aware of and looking at Within the budget there's a highlight of every department in the city Tracy, do you remember which department we're looking at? It's finance. Yeah finance. Sorry This these are examples of what's in there and I don't mean to drill We're not going to drill down. I mean, we're not going to ask you to read that But within the document you get you get information about their goals their accomplishments You get the numbers about their what their allocations are you see pictures generally of who's in the departments you get Get a sense of who they are Pulling up a little bit higher examples of what's in the budget Schedule for each department you'll get three years of data. They're prior year actuals The current year adopted amended an estimated actual budget and then next year's proposed budget You'll be seeing this in in april. You'll see the more version recent version of this Within the schedule you'll see the highlight of the total operations of each department by its major classifications personnel and capital and in operating costs And then you can also see what its net general fund cost is to the city So in this case the finance department, although our total department cost is 8.3 million our general fund cost is 2.8 million So you can see the total cost of the department to run other activities But our core general fund cost starts at 2.8 million and then goes down even after that After we start charging our time out to other operations You'll also see the position count in every department. So these just want to highlight the different details You'll see on this page that are helpful information to have We'll talk more deeply in a couple weeks on our cip. We want to highlight different things in our cip You'll see last year's audited last year's information. You'll see the current year's proposed budget You'll see the next three years or next five years what we planned to have in project costs And you also get narrative little narrative descriptions for every project at least a couple paragraphs So you have a little bit of an overview of what that project is doing And projects are grouped by fund department and then whether they're new or existing projects and we'll talk more about that later on Getting back to that caffer thing I do want to point out There are some good stuff in there and things you might pay attention to that people are always surprised with is We have demographic data on the city in in the audit 10 years of data on that in the city So we have average median income. We have population data We have we we compile information so that if somebody outside the city was looking at they get a sense of who we are You'll also see 10 years of revenue expenditure information You can get information on the top property owners. We list the top property owners in there. They're assessed valuations So there's different data in towards the back-back back of the report page 167 on like I said page 51 is good Page 167 through 215. There's some good stuff in there Also, forget in the statistical section. We also track some High-level indicators like calls for service acreage Number of classes that we offer and park some rec program over 10 year periods. So there's some other data Moving on to our last of our reports we wanted to cover tonight is every month We spring to you a portfolio investment report and what this does is it aggregates It's the total aggregate of cash we have in the city So at this point in time we might have a we generally carry between 100 and 120 million dollars in cash Depending on a capital project needs payroll needs and other things that fluctuates Our choice is either park that money in the bank and just let 100 million dollars earn nothing Or go out and invest it. So we have we don't have an investment department We don't have investment staff. We have other duties as a signed team that comes together and makes decisions on investments so What's important about this is council often has told us we don't want to invest in these things We want to divest from these things So what you'll see in this report is where we're investing every little transaction ad and you can have assurances that We're not investing in stocks that you don't want or banks that you don't want or projects You don't want so that's probably the most important thing of that report It just affirms that we're adhering to council direction and policies Yes, and that's slide eight of eight. So we're done with the section I just just quickly is there uh Is there a committee? I mean, you know calpers has sort of its investment Which who serves sort of as our investment sort of deciders? I guess I want to say we have kind of two tiers. We have a Informal group of investment bankers brokers that we contact. They're not Park we don't pay them money They don't get a fee from us, but we call them with advice. They always want our service So we will will inquire to what different people recommending in the market We also check with our peers where people are putting their proceeds at and then that comes down to our group Within the finance department. We have a kind of a group structure that has different subject matter experts And we look at the different investment portfolios ultimately There's kind of three criteria in any investment strategy yield. How much do you want to make? Cash flow how soon do you need your money? And security how safe is your investment? So we start with safety and this is taxpayer dollars We we ultimately want to be safe with our money. We next go to liquidity. Here's the next priority option We want to stay Flexible we don't want to park all of our money in a 10-year bond and then have to wait 10 years to get access to it And then our third and last priority unfortunately is yield because that's our priority So yield is our last concern. So that drives our portfolio down to a place where right now we're earning 2% I can remember time for evermore where you had you can expect three to four percent rate of return in your yield for a similar type conservative portfolio The market changed interest rates went down to zero negative And so for a 10-year period we've seen rates about 1% Instead of 4% that's cost us about three million dollars a year That just because of the fed's decisions on pricing when they bring down their rates the things we invest in the safer things The two-year five-year 10-year loans those rates drive down So our portfolio hasn't been doing great But really nobody else has either so we'd have to get really bold and start going into the stock market Or investing in crazy things like housing projects We don't want to do to really attract go chase yield. And that's just not our primary mission is chasing yield. It's liquidity and security Any other questions from council at this time or I probably over explained that and I can do that You throw things at me to let me know you're done. I'm done Moving into our second only two slides here So one two and then we'll quest positive questions Just a full service plus. This is quick. You know this you've been around you're from this community We are a full service plus city. What this first slide does is it it talks about our departments As units and then what their impact is on the general fund. So please fire parks and recreation city manager cleric it And most of planning community development. They start with mostly general fund operations Now sometimes they charge their staff out to other projects and and They their cost goes down a little bit But they start with their predominantly general fund predominantly primary service departments And then you get down to our other departments economic development They also part of our housing they manage our housing program. So they get to some of their staff live in the housing Not general fund finance. We're about 50 50 split We we we have a lot of staff doing work for a lot of people outside of the city Outside of the general fund As does hr hr has a bigger split and they also manage workers comp and some other funds And they get down to public works and then water ultimately that there's no general fund impact in water Public works has the road and transportation projects. That's largely in facilities. That's largely their general fund impact So that's that's kind of our core service and you can see the hierarchy who who are predominantly general fund departments And which ones are or less are impacted. What is more interesting in And is this graphic that we keep working on and keep tweaking But if you just assume that those core services like every city has is that center thing You look around and you look at all the things that we do well above and beyond what most cities might So not all cities have utilities a lot of cities rely on districts Those are all managed by the city and then our utilities go beyond our city districts. We serve well beyond our boundaries Some cities have fire departments. Some cities don't some cities police department Some cities don't very few cities contract out fire and bring in other fire services We bring in u.c. Santa Cruz's fire into our operations I'm Also not aware of another city that contracts out accounting services And in financial reporting and budget services, we do that for the county library system We we do all their accounting. We do all their budgeting. That's we do their purchasing. That's atypical. That's not a very normal model So those are examples of things. We have a very active marine safety program We also have a lifeguard services. We provide down the coastline not just within the city that's through contracts So we're very complex very big thought. How can we do things more efficiently for the whole community? Not just Santa Cruz approach. So Just want to let that settle that makes us very complicated and doing things that not a lot of cities do and it makes some staff and finance and accounting get a little Purchasing like this is different. Why we have two different boards We have a separate jpa board of its own entity and they want different purchasing roles and processes than the city council And and they're all the same employees So we have a lot of complexities in our system But I think we end up with a more cost effective for the whole community system But it does make us very unique I'll pause there You know all stuff you should know Of course we are unique Any questions at this time? No, okay Apologize for the slide When it starts it makes sense and then when I look at it I go boy, this is this is wonky So we'll work on this but what it what it really does it we're trying to graphically present how complex We are from a funding financial accounting model So we have our traditional general fund that has some unique things You have your typical departments that we're all used to you can take an accountant from You know a city in los angeles or a small town Locking out and bomb springs or Mountain Fresno and drop them here and they're used to doing accounting for a police department a fire department Those are typical things also in our general fund. We have Trusts that not all cities do we have a public trust. We have economic development trusts Those are a little unique then we drop into our enterprise funds. They have an entirely different business system They're a four sort of a for-profit cover-your-cost system that funds their own capital and they're accounted for as a business unit So instead of treating them as a cash flow cost accounting system We treat them as a full business as if they're a grant of construction or a private PG knee utility So we do a whole another set of books for all of our enterprises which makes us very complex Every individual fund water fund storm water fund waste water fund They have their own fund accounting structure So every operation has it's almost its own accounting system that's blended in with us And their cash is restricted illegally restricted and a lot of different reasons why we restrict them You know our utilities are restricted for this purpose Some of our grants have different types of restrictions So it makes it very complex when you bring things together And you end up with a pile of cash that might be 114 million in our portfolio But a lot of it is restricted money for utility utility funds enterprise operations or grants It makes us a very complex animal. So we have a hard time communicating that to the public You know, you don't find a business that's on one hand delivering security services aka our police department and another hand delivering utility services like our water and out of the same company That's atypical, but we do that and so we we we it's hard for us to tell our fiscal story because we're so complex So that's what we're trying to get out more work on the slide On that And I just said all that so I'm not going to go there But that's just a listing of the or for different revenue restrictions I'll pause there. See if there's anything again just kind of orientation comments and stuff. I think What's also important? Hey, are we growing? I have family members. I have colleagues. I have peers They look at the city of Santa Cruz and they look at their own staffing. Oh, wow, you guys have a lot of staff Wow, you're you guys are always growing staff. Wow Well, if you look to 2002 so this chart tracks back to 2002 And rolls forward to 2019. It's just snapshots in time. So you can see the trend lines We are just a little bit over 2002 staffing 756 in the city to 781 now If you've backed out the 10 ucsc firefighters, you backed out the nine Rangers and you backed out the five unfunded compositions. We're essentially at our 2002 staffing levels What isn't at the 2002 staffing levels is the service expectations 2002 there are fax machines Mail letters and we were talking about this earlier in the last week We're right wrong. We're indifferent You might have three weeks lag time between when you got it when you received it and then when you opened it up And came to your desk and you responded to it now you have twitter you have emails I mean and instantly respond and that's not a bad thing It just the service levels have changed our community has grown. We've become more complex In our service delivery. We've brought on more programs into the city not less So since 2002 our service levels have really increased But our staffing is still effectively at our 2002 staffing level. So It just provides a little bit of context and certainly if you look down in our parks and record department 144 people in 2002 and they're nowhere near that now 87 Most of our growth has come out of our utility funds, especially our water fund Most recently in our public works utility funds Outside of that, we've really not had a lot of growth in our city as a position count We've done a and i'm really proud of this be able to communicate this. This is really this councils and the city managers and prior city managers Lins on it Being smart with where we're investing our money and really thinking about what the bang for the buck is So this city's tried to do A lot of smart things with very little staffing. So that's the storyline here Yeah So last year in 2018 management partners came on board and did this really great analysis of Us compared to other cities We looked at the property and sales tax and transients and tax revenue. We're all in par with our other Comparable cities Our business license tax is far below our peers although our utility tax is above Our police fire and parks and recreation staffing are on par with our our peers or slightly below And the administrative staffing that we have here in the city of Santa Cruz is one of the lowest And that's our city manager finance human resources information technology and this The full presentation is out on our budget website. So if any of you feel you have the time Check it out. It's it's some really good information Just to reiterate this was a big lift that we did last year and we'd like to update the data Probably every two or three years We we love to do it every month But just the resources and the time may not get there But we set we established a really good baseline of how we compare and what are some be Indicators and that's going to help us as we move forward into things like performance measures that are based on the council's strategic Goals that didn't inform the work plan. So Ultimately, we want to get to the type of performance measures that make sense Just and you know the so the the process of of doing the Looking at those financial trends and also the comparisons with other communities was really Illuminating and so I thank you for getting that started. I think we also talked about Looking at some additional indicators as well as in the future And I just wanted to make sure we captured that and I think that'll happen through our work on the site And then coming back to council It sounds sure that sounds accurate to my recollection. Yeah, I mean it's you know future indicators should be driven by the council's strategic goals And the last goals were 2015. So I think when the new goals are set up Then you you decide which indicators you want to measure the progress on those goals So I think we're we're in that place where we're getting closer to that certainly So this is a hard slide for us because we're humble and we don't we don't do a good job Telling our good stories or when things go good and when we get awards We say great job and we put it on the wall. We don't tell anybody about it let those types of things We want to pause a little bit and just talk about our our projection models because we we do a lot of projections now We've reorientated ourselves instead of producing reports from like three months ago We we look out three five seven years and we start projecting out where things are going we've been reinvesting how we do reporting in our department and we've come out with a forecast model that Best thing to do with our forecast models and say well, how good are they? You know, how credible are they and I'd say luck but also a lot of hard work and a lot of thought goes into that What we're showing in this slide and it's a little busy, but if you Ignore the sections in yellow and you show that that corridor in the middle Within the last five years our forecasts for the general fund have been nearly perfect, you know again A lot of hard work some luck, but nearly perfect. I mean 97 accuracy 99 accuracy 99.8 accuracy two years in a row That's pretty darn good to We joke like if you think you're your own self and your own business or your own family and you say today's February 26th talk to your family and say hey by July of 2020 How much do you think we'll have spent in a year and then see what your guess is today versus July 2020? Well We've hit 99 accuracy in our models before And that's great But it gives us worry because our models are showing red And so that that's good that our forecast has been pretty credible pretty realistic But it's also bad because our models are are indicating. We've got a lot of work still yet to do Um, so I just want to comment on that again We're not afraid of saying when when they're a little skew in 2018 We probably over projected expenditures. We thought we're going to do a lot more But our shift focused on certain areas and so maybe we weren't as aggressive with doing other things And we didn't have as much staffing replacement as we thought and 2000 2014 Our revenues outperformed our expectations That was the year the year long drought and we ended up with a tourism all year long and our tut revenue went nuts We had a really good tut year that year, but then tut returned back to a normal level So we're happy to say when we missed it, but by and large our projections have done Recently really well and we're proud of that and we'll let you know when they're not and we'll keep tinkering and adjusting Getting into some data, you know, it's hard to talk up here not get into financial trends We want to spend these next few slides at least snapshotting again We could do deep dives into a lot of our operations and we're happy to whenever you want But at least give you some high level stuff of what's going on in operations So this first chart is police and fire blue police red fire And layered on with their calls for service So if you go back to 2009 through 2018 You look at their total costs in the department and then their calls for service on the line above And they happen to correlate each other and that's great on the other hand. Sometimes it doesn't matter It's just coincidence that they correlate but What what we see here is that the police department from 2009 to 2018 their budget really hasn't increased a whole lot They they dropped a little bit and then came up a little bit more But they don't have a a growth trend line yet their calls for service going back to 2009 at nearly 80 000 Versus 2018 over 100 000 their calls for services increased dramatically, but their costs necessarily haven't kept up at the same place now That's just an example of a different conversation that we'll have about performance indicators because you might look at that and say well that's interesting But you could also look at that and say well Shouldn't we we'd be tracking fte counts versus service indicators and what's been their staffing count? What's been their part-time staffing? What's their overtime costs? So a it's a storyline that's interesting and but b it's also to be careful of when we get to that performance measures It's really important to choose the right measures Because you'll look at data and might be telling you the story that's the wrong story So a if i've confused you enough This is interesting and what it shows you that police department's done a pretty good job controlling their costs While their cost for service has gone up. So that's probably the narrative there When you look at fire their trajectory of their budget has more closely matched the calls for service increase So you see the calls for service about 7 000 and now at 9 000 and their budget almost tracked exactly at that same level What that doesn't correlate is ucse coming on board. So that's anomaly in their data that increased their budget But didn't necessarily Significantly increase their calls for service. It's certainly a little bit But a again a good story there that you don't see these budgets doubling or tripling or even increasing at an exponential value They're really holding steady on their total operations since 2009. So those are both good stories positive stories there There's a busy slide for you Sorry about that I can be known to get too busy But what is on the slide if you think of the left side of it with the arrow that points you down below It the top left corner tracks overtime. So that's overtime across the entire city So all operations citywide including the library water departments What people often might assume is we have we we use a lot of overtime in any city and in this particular city We don't a police and fires where you typically see overtime That's exactly where we see overtime in this city. So if you think through our water department, they've had a big lift They've had storms 17 and 18. They've had drought They've had a lot of projects yet their their overtime is hasn't tripled in costs same with public works They've had a lot of demand for projects and yet you don't see their overtime Because the city does a really smart job of how do we manage staffing and how do we limit our costs and overtime? So once you get beyond police and fire you get down to water public works A little bit in part for recreation and then the rest of the city I had actually increased the parameters of that graph to see anything for the rest of the city because the numbers are so small So that's just showing that we really don't rely on overtime in this city outside of police and fire And then that fire Jump when you look at that you'll see Certain levels in their first couple years and then it it came up to a new level about 1 1.1 to 1.5 And then this last year it spiked up Well that chart below kind of tells that story in this last year in 2018 We had almost a million dollars of reimbursable overtime where we were sending people around the state to help with fires So that that's a big big storyline and what was going on in that department's overtime So it's it's also telling us where you can't just look at the total numbers You have to drill down to see what's what's going on and what's driving that So just wanted to pause there the charts on the right are just like well I don't know We've got a little too carried away But there there are some of our other departments parks and recreation public works Planning community development and all of our administrative services where you can see their trend lines over that same period of where their actual costs were and where they're at And outside of parks and rec that has had seemed some increases But a lot of that is known stuff that we were doing You haven't seen a lot of dramatic changes in total costs in across the city Similar to that position we looked at before Because I have a quick question about the overtime for the strike team reimbursements for fire Is that reimbursable by the state since they're being? Yes. Okay. Yep And it'll it'll probably end up being more than that when you Cumulate it because it For us that was our accounting period But if we got monies in october november it it's not reflected in in In those june of 2018 numbers. So it probably ended up being a slightly higher than that This is another way we're talking about purrs. This is another way talking about their their impact of their investment So this is tracking Forward where we think purrs rates are going to be 2018 through 2022 and again, they've already doubled So we were already paying double more than what we used to just a few years ago There aren't a trajectory Double once again over the next five years and what you're seeing is that blue bar on top is that shortfall investment If we backed out what our costs would be under a normal situation It's those pink and red bars below and it's that blue growing bar on top That is what we're having to repay because of their shortfall and investments not again Not just their losses, but their shortfall and investments So it's just another way of looking at how big those numbers are and how hard it is How much revenue we have to increase revenue or finding revenues just to keep up with these costs And then we finished with just a quick snapshot of where our revenues are our top tax revenues in the city are doing Property tax sales tax utility users and tax transit occupancy And what you'll see is sales tax and UT flat You know sales tax and a recovery period you you would expect seven eight nine percent growth rates and we're not seeing that We're seeing three four fives and there's a growth rate in in 2019 that's the measure of sales tax that Was approved this past june But outside of that we're not projecting major increases in sales taxes of the industries changed consumers are spending money differently And that's unfortunate because that tax base is not at the same growth rate that we'd like to see it at we're in I'll just comment on the tot growth We're not projecting major annual increases in tot growth. What we're projecting is construction projects So hotels finishing construction coming online and ultimately a lobby here coming online So we're the the significant growth there is more staggered to as more properties come online. We're expecting Higher tot returns to the city And then finishing with oh, if I could maybe just we have a question by count question I'm just curious on the projection on the property tax Is that or I'm wait, is that property? No. Yeah. Is that purely based on? Rising property values pretty much. Yeah, so the assessment so you don't you see the The line keep going Yes, and we haven't factored in what the impact would be from a recession on our local housing market And realistically Santa Cruz hasn't been impacted terribly by Recessions in the past the past who you haven't seen how these prices drop the greatest recession we hold steady So typically this still is a desirable place to live and typically there's still the values still hold themselves around here So we're we're assuming that those these continued increases in the property tax base Thank you And what you see on this last slide or some of our other tax revenues. Oh, sorry. Yes one question. Yes, please What do you attribute the utility user tax growth to the slow in that growth? It's a similar thing in that more and more people are going to go away from their landline phones Away from their Comcast cable packages and away from other things that are currently taxable and utility users tax We're going to end up with the utility users tax. It's really our own tax on water garbage solid waste You'll see less and less happening until there's reform to capture these new industries that Replacing it. So we're just continue to assume that there's be less and less growth there. That's unfortunate And where that conversation if you look down, we've added a new revenue that doesn't exist because it's not it's called lost sales We just wanted to conservatively very conservatively the number could be easily double What if revenue behaved more normally? In a very very conservatively We looked at sales tax and we looked at tot and utility users tax and it's Largely in sales tax, but we think very conservatively There'd be at least a million dollars more in our general fund every year If things were behaving more normally if we weren't having these disruptions in this new economy if if our If our tax system was reformed in a timely manner That's that's a very conservative It's going to be a lot larger than that but that's the type of impact that we're seeing in our revenue base At least a million dollars a year if not much higher And we put cannabis here because it comes up a lot. It's still a very small revenue base It's talked about a lot certainly But it's it's not you know, it's not a large revenue base for the city at this point in time Where our projections have it at a we're Looking at a scenario where it's plausible that the rates there might be pressured reduce our rates going in the future So that's why you see the spike in what would be this year's rate and then a possible reduction in our out years All pauses there that was kind of expenditures revenue in the general fund Again, happy to go deeper and dive, but uncertain about how deep we want to go in this form Slide 32. We're almost there home stretch So we wanted to talk a little bit about our fiscal keys And my colleague here Tracy we were talking about the slide and we both agree There's a better way of presenting it and we'll get there eventually But what we wanted to what we want to talk about is our reserves and where our reserves are currently and where we're Or we might want to look at things in the future So currently Our reserves our pension reserve and our primary general fund reserves are funded where they need to be when we look at our 2019 budget And they're based on a percent of operations 10 and 6 percent 10 percent and then 6.7 percent. We are funded our reserves That's a good thing. We were meeting our reserve requirements When we look at our two trusts in the general fund our city public trust and our economic development trust Together they're short about two million dollars because over the last several years we've we've eaten down some of our We're we're project ready ink and we've been hitting some ready ink from the past So we're we're starting to take away some of our flexibility in our trust funds We're hopeful that will turn But at this point in time What we're highlighting here is we're at a place where we don't have a lot of excess cash in the general fund In fact, we're probably we are clearly short in our trust where they need to be And we don't have funding set aside for natural disasters. Now this has become more Alerting when you see the impact of fires and and what it can do not to a whole community But even a portion of our community. We're certainly susceptible to that drought Susceptible that floods climate change very susceptible to that So we don't have the money it would take to wait 18 months for FEMA to get reimbursed for to give us that That bandwidth our reserves that we talk about above those are meant to help us as economies change And we can up by ourselves sometimes instead of doing what we had to do Most government agencies had to do in seven eight and go to completely the closing services shutting down services Almost overnight And so what those reserves are meant to do is give us a little flexibility and planning ahead and being strategic about that But we don't have those type of reserves to give us the bandwidth if we have an unexpected large disaster and we certainly don't have What I call opportunity reserves an operating reserve that if something comes up that we want to spend one time money on That we can do that easily. We don't have that setting aside a lot of Operations that's becoming a more best practice of thinking about not just your minimum reserves But what type of opportunity reserves you might want to have in case something comes up because it always does every year There's something that unexpected A council request a community request might be good to have a start building that reserve up So those are the types of things we think we're short Let alone we might want to increase our reserves because we anticipate a recession coming It will now would be the time to start being prepared for that Again, our story is at least we're funded at a minimum levels We have other reserves in the city And someone just highlight the water water operations did a really nice job several years ago and they Work with us and talk to us about it The types of targets they want to have and they set up in an equivalent stabilization reserve They looked at a 90-day operating reserve and they do have an emergency reserve for that unexpected What in case this happens because they're very susceptible to climate change issues more rain less rain Rain is money. No rain is no money But consumers anyways Where we don't have a lot of reserves is what you heard today's our sewer funds or solid waste or parking our facility or wharf We have other major operations that have large capital investments that we don't have targeted reserve levels yet And those might be a place that we're talking with our operating departments about where those numbers might come in at The good news is Is if you think of four keys to fiscal health and these are things that many cities when they get into trouble don't follow Well, they don't monitor their cash balances. They don't look out. What what are the cash needs three years five years out they don't They might have budgets that rely on one-time resources to fund operations. We don't do that They they don't look for far enough out and they don't invest enough time in developing models that Are reasonable for projecting out and they they're not thinking about their service level What does the community need and where our gaps and I think this city we can confidently say in those boxes? We hit those boxes now the level of Might be subject to the the lens of the person looking at it But my larger I would say that if I had to be asked we hit squarely all those boxes We're doing a good job with our long-range planning. Sure. We could do better We're doing a really good job with our budgets. We can do better We're doing a good job managing our cash and we're doing a reasonably good job of listening to the community And what their service expectations are and we're trying to be responsive And the main point here is government agencies all too often will Delay the hard decisions kick the can down the road and let somebody else figure it out And this city for has a legacy decades decades decades of making the hard decisions looking forward and planning ahead So kudos kudos to this council and and city manager and all their leadership Finishing with a lot of things we did last year and things we've had in place We adopted a lot of budget policies that do things like hey one-time revenue should be used for one-time resources Don't use one-time revenue to fund three years of ongoing resources adopt on-time budgets Build and rely on good forecasts. We've adopted this council adopted and set some good guidelines in place last year and I've previously used other guidelines to give us a strong foundation for how we manage ourselves Fiduciarily because we have a strong fiscal fiduciary responsibility you do as elected officials and we do as staff to guide you on that So kudos to all the work that's been done in that space Finishing almost to the 36 or 40 Recapping that's things that we just went over I could repeat them. I won't Recapping the bigger picture of things we're not in a Local government is not in a boom cycle. Our economy is doing well. We're not because of a lot of things We've talked about we have concerns about what the state's Investment issues are having with our pension costs and those numbers and that impact on our Ability to deliver services we're concerned that tax reform hasn't kept up with where it could be and Ultimately we want as a recession is coming is as we have risk to other things Now would be the time to start preparing for yourselves with cash users just in case things start happening We can be responsive and we don't have to be so knee-jerk in our reactions Finishing with what's next just as a preview what's coming and then there are some actions We need you to do March 12th. We're going to spend some more time in our capital investment program More about our unfunded needs and just where that's at We want to work continue to work with our community Our city council ad hoc budget committee on a lot of funds whether it's focus groups Community orientations presentations of this council. We want to be listening and making sure that our How we're presenting it to you and to our community is reasonable and makes sense And of course we have April 22nd as our expected date the budget will be released May 8th a full day of budget hearings You know have your coffee to your run be alert. It's going to be a good day And then may 28th is our target for budget adoption That's the formal end of our Presentation I could pause there before we talk about actions that are in the actual staff report Let's go ahead and pause we'll do questions maybe open it up to public comment And then we'll do the actual recommendations Are we planning on doing? A committee as we did last time of folks from the Community to look at the budget. Is that going to is that in there or is that not Engaged budget okay, but there's there's no date on it yet or anything. We're still working on that. Okay And um marx I had one other question about Uh city public trust Would if would sky park monies go in there? Yes, that's what that trust was created for was specifically sky park. Okay, and you don't have anything going in there in 2019 We we now we're close But um that will help Aren't any further questions at this time We'll go ahead and ask if there's any member of the community who wants to address the council on this item This is item number 20 in our no. Yes. I'm number 20 in our agenda packets It's really quick. Sorry On 20 um slide 24 big five financial trends Um, I'm just sorry just wondering um in terms of authorized positions. Are we talking here about um full time equivalent? Temporary, I mean because I'm looking at parks and rec and that looks quite low But yes, it excludes our temporary staff because thank you Okay, and I was remiss I left a slide shorter just recapping what's in our staff report Sorry about that But we have some budget cleanup items kind of summarized as things that we would normally clean up No impact of the general fund or no impact of operating funds just reallocations Carbon fund projects and cdbg and HUD changes based on the final HUD report We have a parks and rec utility equipment that was scheduled to be in the budget and just didn't get into the document You saw last june and that was our our error and there's recognizing that we had some insurance reimbursements again no change Um for a claim that we have we have about 600 000 that came in to reimburse the city Those are budget action instead of required Then we have some funding Requirements certainly our homeless support services have we haven't have a full adopted budget for that type of program So we need to recognize those costs. We have some FEMA storm FEMA 2017 typo storm damage administration that we have to do We have our election costs. They're done. We had elections and the costs are higher than we had and then We have an urgent project on our war for our fire marine marine headquarters that has it's Hopefully the project building might be a four million dollar project We're trying to do a band-aid of about 80 000 to address them Roof in some other significant issues to make a usable space for our employees who are there So those are the actions that are in the budget Great. Thank you marcus. Sorry about that. No, no, no problem. We'll go ahead and have public comment and we'll have two minutes Good afternoon, Bruce van ellen santa Cruz. Um, I I hope this is the right item I saw this as some budget adjustments and that's a little different from this very impressive Um presentation, um, but I'm are you actually making some budget adjustments because I have a request if you are Will you go ahead and pass them? Yes, this is encompasses the budget I'm here to ask you to reinstate the um Funding that was adopted by a previous city council for tenant legal services and at that time it was 15 000 What the group that was forming the the legal services non-profit found was that at that level of funding A little could be done to get started and collect some data and do some outreach But to actually have available attorney time it actually it really didn't Fit within a 15 000 budget and so um, we would also we'd like to request that the 15 000 originally appropriated be reinstated and and Available and an additional 15 000 We have a couple attorneys who are willing to work at at reduced rates. Um, this services to provide Tenants with legal support Even and that additional amount would pay for very little courtroom time by attorneys So mainly this is about attorneys who are available to advise and This is a service that no one is providing right now The california real legal assistance does have their own services And I know they're hoping to get funded to be back in the city But they really do a different kind of thing from what this little Non-profit is is aimed at doing so it's not really a duplication of services Happy to answer any questions if you have Thank you Good afternoon council. Um, I'm here to um, hopefully infuse some Opportunity for creative thinking there was an excellent conference up at peace united church this weekend on Reimagining god in the face of god of nature in the face of extinction So it sounds like it might not relate at all But I wanted to use a concept that I heard from there It was an excellent conference very intellectual very cerebral So a little hard to follow in some ways But it was excellent for helping us to really understand How to create platforms that are going to then translate into real tools To help us face these problems of climate chain and extinction So what I just wanted to say is um In light of that if you can put that aside for a moment With one thing i'm going to extract. It's the concept of under commons So under commons are things like animals homeless people Trees forests Our water with kind of the idea that All these things are helpful as long as they're healthy and we're all interrelated So it might be a new concept. So just hang with me for a minute I remember a few years back when chief vogal stepped up and said something like 1996 tickets given out to homeless people less than two percent resulted in any kind of payment whatsoever Also another thing that i've seen is a constant beefing up of the parks and rangers Walking down the pacific avenue and all over our parks with guns. It's another police force I'd like to see the city really analyze Is and also the ambassador staff that also are there to help but actually most of these people are harassing and moving Homeless people on endlessly. I would like to know the actual cost of this and could we come up with creative programs Something perhaps along the lines of the downtown street teams only with paying minimum wage, of course For people to be employed and to revalue these things into our economy. Thank you. Thank you Okay, any other members of the public? We'll go ahead and return it back to council for action and deliberation council So I I do want to make a comment. Um, actually I have one another question that I Would like or one question that I like to ask and then I want to make a comment. So the the question is um related to the um The budget adjustments um I just want to ask the question about the 183 thousand dollars in FEMA services being charged to the general fund I'm going to assume that those could have been charged to enterprise funds Were they were we able to charge them to enterprise funds? But I'm just wondering why it's all going to general fund Given the nature of what the FEMA funds are generally used for FEMA funds have been hitting many funds these particular ones were more attributed to cleanup costs attributed to general fund services like streets debris removal beach debris removal So it's more about these types of costs and the projects we're reimbursing for our general fund Other other FEMA costs were for water and other things were were covered. Yeah. Okay. Thank you And so I just wanted to make a statement here about the request from Tenant Sanctuary as Some of you will recall we approved The round this time last year a little earlier An allocation of a 15 thousand dollars with the expectation that we might continue that funding for tenants legal services and for a variety of reasons it's taken some time to For for the organization to for the group to be able to Actually deliver those services and then Also for us to then actually release the funding I I was apprised of this in early January that we needed to actually take action in order to make those funds available Now that they're ready to use them Given that we had some tentative agreement to Provide these funds in an on an ongoing basis and and this was really 15,000 for half a year over a year ago, you know, I would I would I want to support The requests that's been made by the the group Especially given that they're not in a position to Provide any meaningful legal services without having attorney time And given that the city has has not Provided does not support that in any other way We we've talked as you all know about the what tenants are facing in our community and I think that it's a it's a small amount. It's a small request that would Certainly get them up and running. It would also provide us with some baseline data For future budget considerations when we we talk about next year's budget If they actually were operating we could see and we talk about You know data-driven decision-making Evidence-based that would give us some Some measure of what they can do with that funding and and what we might be able to do in the future So I would support I know this is not the time to start Asking for additional funds, but I think this is kind of a special circumstance given that history And the challenges that we've had in getting it up and running. So I I want to support that request when we Make the motion to amend I I'd like to include that as well If I can my recollection there's my recollection on that specific one was that we would be moving ahead with appropriating the money in the mid-year budget given that there wasn't The services used last year and then revisit the process that that does that seem accurate to you? Okay so I I I'm not sure I've Who we're working with on this casey, but maybe bonnie or Or somebody can remember that 15 000 that we allocated in terms of the project okay I think it'd be important to revisit where we are where the process is what the expectation is and then Looking at but I do remember the tentative understanding of that there wasn't the ability to get up and running So there was this sort of understanding. We wanted to roll that over for sure that 15 000 But okay, yeah, I'm generally sympathetic, but I would prefer that we just put that one off for two weeks So we can get the background. Yeah, is that Sure. Yeah, that's that's fine. Um, but I do want to I would like for the the council to consider that request So are you making a motion to move the item with that direction or I guess it would be so I I If I don't want to cut off other comments about the budget or any other questions that folks might have but I'm Okay council member mires actually So, yeah, I would be supportive as well. I I talked with casey quite a bit about the the status of that so You know, but if we can maybe do it next, you know But I had a question for marcus on the 83 000 384 for the some of the expenditures related to the homeless camp, um Is there any way that any of that could be Realized back to us through any of the existing heap or cash funding or any of that? Is there any Is anyone looking into that? Yeah, it's something we're going to be coordinating with the city manager's office. They're Certainly been submitting their requests and See what the criteria is because we've got a lot of Possible eligible projects Thank you Yeah, um The liability insurance thing could you go over that a little bit and you'd mentioned an email about a jpa pool Maybe explain a little bit what that's about and how we are insured Yep, thank you. Happy to you I've seen this had to do with the uh the shone arled case Like most government agencies were self-insured because the cost to ensure a police department or fire department would be astronomical So we self-insure ourselves eventually we set aside money and we we cover claims and we adjudicated them ourselves instead of any insurance broker We participate in a risk pool so that there's we pull our money together And so anyone if we have a you know a catastrophic claim we can leverage other people's money so it doesn't Traumatize any one agency so we participate in a pool with other cities we call We put our funds together and we help cover each other's Larger claims so the first million dollars for us we pay ourselves It feels like a a large deductible anything above the million we can go to the pool and request a reimbursement back to us Because we pay into the pool And so that's what you're seeing here We paid the first million and we have another 600 000 that went above the million that's coming back to us In the long run because we're all sharing each other's risk We'll ultimately pay the full amount over a long period of time because we're all self-insured But it feels kind of like an insurance program with a million dollar deductible, but there's some nuance there Where does the million show up in all these numbers? It doesn't it's we have an amount that we set aside every year for an Unanticipated loss every year we have certain claims So we had that we have a budget for unanticipated losses this one Consumed above and beyond our budget allocation The other question has why did the election expenses go so far Above what we had budgeted What had we budgeted? Yeah, I think when the budget initially came in things like the citizen's Initiative that the city has to pay the cost for wasn't contemplated, you know Nine months earlier when the budget was the firstly originally being put together So that's a bigger big driver. Do you remember the placeholder that we had there? The placeholder so the placeholder again going back in time We ended up doing a special election in june and then we had the citizen's initiative in november We had had a placeholder for one election cost not two and then we had one that came earlier So I can't remember the exact amount, but we had enough to cover most of the june costs But not all of it and then the leftover in november Okay, thanks, and I had a question about the $1,000 for the ocean villa. I think Maybe tony elliott could respond to that or somebody from parks and rec possibly Just wondering how this money was spent. I guess it was spent as part of a vegetation debris removal But i'm not understanding. Does it happen every year or Is this a one-time expense? Yep, tony elliott parks recreation. This is an ongoing annual expense Excuse me. I've got chewing gum We there's an ongoing agreement that we have with ocean villa hoa basically This has to do with the maintenance of the path. It's just an earthen walking path along the fence Near jesse street marsh We do the work on behalf of the hoa We do that in partnership with cal fire And leverage employee various employees or various opportunities Through cal fire for example the Corrections department cal fire will work with them to do the maintenance on the trail. So it's an ongoing project Basically how this works this budget item We will do the work and then we will build the hoa So this is the budgeted item to allow us to do that work And so the thousand will go to cal fire or go to the corrections department or it would go through cal fire Which is our contract? And then payment to the to the workers to the labor whoever that might be and you don't know of hand how much they make an hour I do not Thanks, I don't know if we can get that amount possibly if we could figure out how much the I guess the inmates who do the work how much they would be making an hour We can get that information. Yeah Thank you for the presentation. Um, I am ready to move to amend the fiscal year 2019 budget With the I'll just rather than listing them with the rec the categories listed in the staff report And authorize the city manager to allocate Um within the applicable fund the budgetary changes to the appropriate accounting classifications to approvalated applicant applicable transfers And I would like to include in this motion if it's appropriate a direction to staff to come back to us for consideration of The tenants legal services Request at our um, february 20th or sorry march 12th meeting second is the 26th So that's a motion by council member brown seconded by council member crone Uh, so that's fine. I should I went back and checked and it's scheduled to come back. So that was a plan. So yes, okay Great any further discussion All those in favor, please say aye. Aye any opposed. Okay. That passes unanimously Thank you The last thing if it's your just direction decision We're probably going to do it anyways, but didn't want wanted to recommend that you consider a motion to direct calpers Oh, yeah to reconsider the investment strategies. They might be already doing that but anything along this Space would be helpful. I'll I'll move that the city issue a letter to calpers to uh Direct them to uh, and I may deliver that personally. Yes, please I'll second that motion And I would say yes with the earlier motion that we share our correspondence with league of california cities and other local Jurisdictions to get them to weigh in as well. Absolutely. Okay. Council member clever I maybe suggest a potentially friendly amendment to add the language of Uh, encouraging calpers to make responsible investments that represent the values that we as a city support Specifically, um, there's an issue with their investment in the private prison industry That is a big topic of discussion around the state And I think it would be great if we're writing them a letter to encourage them to increase investments that we stipulate That we do not support the investment in the private prison industry or oil I'll I'll accept the the amendment. Okay. Did you catch the amendment? Okay. I will as well. Okay. All those in favor Please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed Passes unanimously. All right. All right. So um Item number 21 And um, so this is the affordable housing inclusionary ordinance amendments And this is the one I think tony if you wanted to make your uh statement Do you want yeah, I was just going to say if you we were going to um, uh Vice mayor comings and I were going to provide a um A short report. Um, but given correspondence earlier today. I wanted to Hear from the city attorney first. Okay. So prior to having the report, we'll have the city attorney. Yes. Thank you Mayor Watkins members of the city council Earlier today, I sent the council a Uh, a message that attached a letter that we received just late yesterday from the Whitworth park and law firm As you know, they are representing the petitioners in the hatch pomerance lawsuit, which is the pacific laurel project being developed by dev dev con Uh, that the council approved back in december one of the causes of action in that Uh lawsuit challenges the city council's decision in september an october time frame to amend its inclusionary housing Ordinance in several respects um This item Is as I read it, uh in part uh A desire express us a desire to Revisit that ordinance that was adopted last year and to rescind some of the provisions of that of that ordinance um And in particular that the lawsuit challenges the 2018 ordinance on the grounds that it Allegedly does not conform to the requirements of measure o the affordable housing Uh provision that was enacted by the voters in 1979 that says that 15 percent of the residents Residents residences Constructed in the city should be affordable to persons of average income um So that's an issue in that litigation and against that backdrop When I read the staff report, which unfortunately I didn't have an opportunity to Do before the agenda packet went out this A particular uh statement caught my eye which refers to the 2018 amendments and says These amendments undermine the intention of the voters in passing measure o and In addition or contrary to the city's goal of increasing the number of affordable housing units for is its residents I'm not going to comment on whether or not I agree or disagree with um the statement particularly with respect with respect to um discerning the intention of voters By reference to something other than the actual text of the measure itself but That being said the letter that we received from the whitworth park and law firm recommends that the issues in the case namely The validity of the 2018 ordinance and the validity of the council's decision approving the dev con project Should be bifurcated for purposes of negotiating a settlement whereby the city would agree to amend Its ordinance more or less along the line suggested by this agenda item And since we just received that yesterday, I thought it would be prudent for the council to Table this item now until you've had an opportunity to discuss What's proposed in the context of the pending litigation. So that's the right reason for the recommendation um to table at this time Councilmember brown Thank you for The clarification and you know, I'll just say Just a quick comment, you know, it's unfortunate that we Received this communication without enough time to actually make the decision to consider this enclosed session earlier today Rather than deferring it and you know, I had been in conversation with Mr. Park and prior to the lawsuit about You know the our inclusionary housing ordinance and then those conversations Seized when the lawsuit was filed. So I wasn't sure where I I just found out when when you found out where Their council was looking to go so Given that you know, and I'm I'll just again express my impatience about getting this heard and You know it deliberated upon by the the current council, but under these circumstances. I do think it is prudent to Refer this to closed session on our march 12th agenda I do also want to ask though if I can is it possible right now to clarify because I like I said, I'm impatient and I um I understand that the planning commission meets the first and third Wednesday or thursday's excuse me So this would own if the planning commission is indeed meeting on march 21st This might result in only a two-week delay in getting it to to the planning commission as I think you all understand that the the recommendation here today was not You know a specific review of an ordinance or or reading of the ordinance, but rather to Refer it to the planning commission for their recommendation And and so that would just trigger a whole series of of actions that might be taken and and other conversations So, um, I just don't want it. You know if if we If we delay will the planning commission be meeting can you could you know? I mean there's they're scheduled to but um, they don't always meet every other You know every twice a month. So okay. Thank you here to answer. Mr. Butler That's okay. I was looking at you because you control our calendar, but it's not necessarily all of them Good afternoon, mayor and council members leave out there. They're planning director and yes, we do have those times reserved um, I would say however that uh, there's some work that needs to go into this and so When we get the council direction, we will pursue that That planning commission hearing date and subsequent Um council dates as expeditiously as possible We haven't scheduled, you know, what those dates may be and it may involve some Consultant work in advance depending on the council direction And another question if we do refer it to closed session. Can we also place an item on the open? agenda So that we can consider it based upon what we Our discussion in closed session We wouldn't have to delay another two weeks. That's up to the pleasure of the council Council member mires and then council member crone and then council member matthews If it sounds like we might make a motion to table this so I was just hoping to make a few comments if it's going to come back um so one would um Just be that if we could get the full text of the ordinance We have just certain sections and so I'd like to see sort of a red line version if possible Just to be able to read the whole ordinance through with And then in my research on the ordinance that was passed in september I just want to make sure that Or tony I would request in your review of the ordinance Just making sure that ab 1505 is That we and in the staff report if we can just make sure we're Not getting into a a place of where we might have some legal challenges So I do want to just understand the whether the consistency with ab 1505 if possible Thank you fair enough Council member crone and given that this is a report authored by council members I think that might be a separate memorandum attached to the report Yeah, I'm just wondering tony why would this stop All we're doing today is as um council member Brown just said is referring it to the planning commission So why why couldn't we still refer it? We're not we're not making a decision So I mean doesn't tell the court or a court in the future that that we're approving it We're just sending it to the planning commission Yeah And and I gave that some consideration and and just to follow up on council member browns earlier comment I also considered whether we could bring this forward as a subsequent need item given that it just came across my desk yesterday Um, and I don't think so because there's not any urgent need to take action That that couldn't occur at a subsequent meeting so um And you're right referring the matter to the planning commission in and of itself doesn't amend the ordinance and so would basically um constitute acquiescing to What is essentially a demand made in the lawsuit? but That being said the time constraints also limited my ability to analyze fully the implications of What is proposed here in the context of the lawsuit and in the context of the park and letter? So that's another reason for my request for additional time As we move forward it seems like the word vested to is going to become an issue So it'd be great if we could get some responses to that later In your that would be in the form of a confidential attorney client privilege memorandum, which we're working on. Okay. Thanks council member matthews I'm I support tabling this to a future meeting I will say that as the city attorney mentioned this was prepared by a couple of council members and Did not have the benefit of staff review The language is unusual in that it is written in the first person often so Those were a couple of my notes. Well, whatever. I mean, that's unusual And there are many statements that are made as assertion, but are are genuinely opinion. That's fine It's written by individuals, but I would say when it comes back to us We did get additionally after this was appeared in the council packet in the meeting packet We did get some pretty specific comments from staff on Disagreements that they had or clarifications. So when this comes back to us I would like to have the benefit of A more fully fleshed out staff if it has to be a second, you know companion piece Then that's what it is. It would include comments from appropriate staff. It might be planning. It might be economic development in terms of affordability requirements It might be city attorney in terms of state legislation, but that way we'll we'll have a A more complete idea of what we're dealing with Okay, we'll go to council member brown and then I'll open it up to public comment and then we'll take it back I will just comment that we actually did Vice mayor Cummings and I did Send this to staff. We had we met with them. We had multiple conversations and so this um This was presented in december And so we did put some thought into it the version that you received for a variety of reasons Mostly technological challenges on my part. Um was not cleaned up However, um those converse we we did discuss it with them and they have some ideas about What they might do for um, it should we decide to Send it back to the planning commission that they will be involved in that discussion And so we'll hear more from the staff So we'll go ahead and open up to public comment. Then we'll return back Is there any member of the community who'd like to address the council on this item? We'll have two minutes Good afternoon mayor and council members. My name is mark misciti miller And i'm a former planning commission for the city Commissioner for the city. I spent two terms serving as a planning commissioner And I wanted to just share a little bit of a perspective from the planning commission's point of view The ordinance that you are considering amending was The result of many years of work Not just by planning staff But also by expert consultants and uh of which a capyhead with uh kaiser marston Is a well-respected expert in the field of affordable housing and um economic feasibility We also received substantial input from members of the public who had much to say about this issue and the entire package of amendments that um You're thinking about revisiting Was really designed to substantially increase the supply of housing in our community Both market rate and affordable housing and one of the things that Was somewhat, um, I thought innovative was the idea of building in flexibility into our ordinance Which will allow us to respond to specific conditions that might Arise during the development of any given project or any Given socioeconomic climate that we might find ourselves in in the future one thing, uh Which which goes directly to the paragraph 24 16 0 55 dot four Which allowed this flexibility with approval of the planning director and the economic director And what I sensed in the staff report, uh, was that there was a lack of trust Between the council and the department heads and I thought, you know one way of dealing with that would be to retain that very important paragraph Providing flexibility and simply amend it to bring it back to council approval for council approval Thank you. Thank you, and you're welcome to submit your recommendations to us. Thank you Okay next speaker you'll have to hi elise casby. This is an issue that I've been um Diligently attempting to volley follow and I've been to planning commission meetings The ordinance um that has been to referred to that was passed by the city in 2018 of september 2018 I'm not exactly sure on what that is my concern is that the will of the voters And I think the the entire issue that the city is grappling with with really Building more housing units that are affordable or including those affordable housing units in the market rate development I want to um To say that I think that on the part of the planning commission and the city in general there is a kind of um reluctance and a An unwillingness to come to understand that there are designers and developers who use problem solving design methods with a much greater broader scope of Design flexibility than the current design dev The building contractor dev con is doing I think there's a habit in the city of going with certain kinds of developers and certain kinds of Interests and as long as this happens We're going to have a very difficult time To want to allow the 15 inclusionary of affordable housing Let alone to really I think get more real about the need for actual low income housing and not And rigidify our class structures in the city But really create pleasing designs and build housing supply That really is inclusive and allows for the diversity and liveliness of our city So what I would just ask is that the city not go into um contortions to try to Uh, as it seems in this wording, I might be wrong wave the retain in lufi's. Thank you. Thank you All right, let's go fast. Good afternoon, mayor council members My name is Robert singleton. I'm the executive director of the santa criss county business council Which is a consortium the 80s so largest employers in our county I'm also a planning commissioner for the city who vote in favor of the policy you're attempting to rescind Beyond that. I'm also a founding board member of santa cuisine be a board member for the housing advocacy network And a board member from new way homes a local affordable housing investment fund run by sibling simon To put it bluntly, I'm no stranger to the issues related to affordable housing in our community In fact, it's been my main issue for some time now What I have to say about your council report frankly nothing you aren't expecting I tend to side with staff and then I think your good intentions about the policy You're hoping you lack results in less affordable housing overall and less housing overall than the alternative Keep in mind we had a listening tour for over a year under mayor chase and the mayor charasas Which featured thousands of participants which ultimately meant to inform the very policy we're discussing today Beyond that we did deep financial feasibility now performed in the very policy You are considering which was performed in accordance to state law which explicitly requires a financial nexus study to justify any changes to an inclusionary ordinance The bottom line is that staff the housing community myself and others that are the loss as to why you're doing what you're doing I get that it's a campaign promise to stick it to the evil developers But we all know how ridiculous that is we don't have huge developers and Santa Cruz making windfall profits on the minimal housing production We've had over the last 40 years. We just don't to put the affordable housing crisis in perspective Let's just say we could use the city's entire general fund exclusively to build 100 affordable housing I know it won't happen ever but for the sake of thought experiment. Let's do it. That's roughly 130 million dollars So let's say you you could build each unit including the cost of land for 330 thousand dollars a unit Which again will never happen for the sake of easy math Let's do it. That means in the best year under the best conditions under completely unrealistic assumptions You can build 390 units of deeply affordable housing. We have 24,000 housing units in the city of Santa Cruz That means you can build roughly 1.6 Uh increase the city's housing stock. This number is interesting for two reasons one It's essentially the same figure that all of the measure h Measure h money you could have been used to build over the entire life of that ballot measure And two it's close to the total number of units that have been built over the entire 40 year lifespan of measure O in the entire city by increasing the percentage area you are making it hard to build housing There's no line of nonprofit developers hoping here to jump onto this market. Thank you. Thank you Okay, and you're welcome to submit the comments. Okay. I appreciate that Okay, so that will I believe conclude public comment for item number 21 And we'll return it back to council for action and deliberation This is item number 21 for affordable housing This is the uh suggested change to our Inclusionary ordinance amendment Okay, well, we're going to go ahead and close public comment unless you wanted to say something specifically about the item The item was to um to make changes to our inclusionary housing provisions and our To increase the inclusionary percentages back to 15 from 10 is the is the main There's some other things in there, but we're um likely to defer that for today Okay, so we'll go ahead and close public comment at this time council member matthews. Did you I did want to just add I do understand that the authors of this agenda item Consulted with staff at the end of 2018 But my understanding also was that there were some serious issues that were not incorporated into this So I do want to make sure that there's the opportunity for a full staff commentary In some form or another um for the issues that are presented Okay, so do we want a motion to move forward council member brown. Yeah, I would move that we refer uh the um The recommended action to our closed session for march 12 I want to be clear that I'd like to have this happen as quickly as possible. So for our march 12th meeting So we have a council we have council member brown making a motion to refer this to closed session for the march 12th Second it okay seconded by council members for the discussion Okay, and I just want to make one comment because I know that there are council members who are wondering about my decision to do this Given that it um may not um Have uh bearing on on the lawsuit I do want to respect the the ability of other council our council colleagues to to have that conversation And given that there's a lawsuit um, there's some things that we just won't be able to discuss here And so I just want to make sure that um people get that opportunity um And so that was that's my thinking if it if it doesn't delay things much longer. We've waited this long and um we've I think that's it's fine All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed no, so that passes with council member crone galevour Myers brown matthews and vice mayor Cummings voting yes and myself voting against Uh related I just wanted to point out for those who want to take advantage of this we did get a um information about uh webinar about uh meeting california's housing best needs practice for inclusionary housing Webinar series sponsored by the local government commission western center on law and poverty and crl a It's coming up february 27th And uh another day shortly thereafter march 13th, so um anyone's interested Easy to attend Okay, so we'll go ahead and move on with the agenda and now we're onto agenda item number 22, which is the uh motion that was uh Made at the last meeting to consider scheduling a study session related to transportation demand management um the agenda report was written by staff, but it was a council direction Martin did you want to know what was not written by staff? Well, it's said submitted by tina, but Yes, there was initially there was a uh staff report that was prepared and then subsequently Uh council member uh Cummings submitted the an additional report which is included in your packet and is listed on the agenda Um just because there was some miscommunication about whether we had the report or not But it was submitted and provided in the packet So essentially what this was a council, uh, there's a proposal put this forward and so I think I would turn it over to council member Cummings Okay, so it's by some of your Cummings. Do you want to present the item? Sure um Do you have any extra copies because I didn't get one No, that's that's an attachment, but um This was brought forward by a number of members in the community As we began to see new developments In the city parking come offline and shifts in modes of transportation members of the community brought forward a proposal Of ideas and justifications For the council and staff to consider on uh parking alternatives and uh transportation demand downtown And so what they brought forward was a study session would be Containing presentations by professor adam miller ball of the environmental studies department ucse Barrow emerson chief planner of the santa cruz metro Patrick seaman transportation and parking consultant and sibley simon president of newway homes Who's developed an innovative approach to? financing affordable housing Bringing forth this study session On march 19th at 7 p.m. And this study session would look at the impacts of parking and pricing downtown alternative commute incentives Parking requirement reforms and leveraging parking funds to develop more affordable housing Is that your presentation on the item? Okay. Um, are there any questions by council members? Okay, I have a question if this was community initiated Um, was it considered to have it as a community meeting that would be sponsored by the city as opposed to a study session? Because my understanding there's a different process for a study I think this would be considered as a study session Okay, so do you want to say more if I could ask our city manager to explain the study session process because I'm wondering if there's maybe an inconsistency with that Okay, sure. Sure. So, uh, if the question is how do we have how we how do we normally do study sessions? so Typically study sessions the the way they operated, you know, ever since I've been with the city Is typically they come at the request of the city council and typically they are The council says we want to study a particular topic or issue area and what they the council would do is to direct staff to Develop a study session and the council, you know identifies the topic the the issues the questions The things you'd like to explore the staff then works to put it together And and that might be with respect to collecting data information presenting the city perspectives Work that's been done policies. Uh, and then at times also if there's a need to get, uh, outside To do outreach and and to get information from different sectors the staff will do that too So that's the typical approach Where the council sets really the policy goals Or the objectives of what you'd like to understand and get more information about and then staff does the work of Getting it organized and getting together based on council direction So that's the typical approach for Creating study sessions that we've had historically in the city and most cities have it that way Just one more other thing I just wanted to point out too that uh, alex Clifford did send me a correspondence uh, regarding the the The best districts participation. I think he also sent it to the the representatives from the the metro on our council essentially Saying that he would He would uh, I'll read it I would I would like to respectfully request a view and the city council that the city identified city staff Member to participate in the study session instead of mr. Emerson And I think I think his perspective on it is he'd like to have uh, I think the city staff participated was Because I can that's typically also for other agencies the way study sessions are done So I think he'd just like to have that uh, typical process. I just wanted to communicate that as well council move around So when the motion was made to agendize this for consideration, I didn't um I didn't understand that to be um, you know, uh Declining to have study staff be involved in this. This was simply what I understand maybe um, vice mayor Cummings You can clarify that these were um Folks, you know outside experts that um, we would that at least some the majority of the council Said would would like to have um be present for that study session, but I didn't understand that to be precluding city staff preparing Uh a presentation as well, and I thought that was coming our way any way in that they might be That might be included so I just if you could Okay Okay Yeah, I Just a follow-up to I that I would welcome staff's participation in such a study session in fact because we want to hear various points of view Sorry, mr. Emerson, um is being pulled back because I think that he would present A very good interesting point of view. Um, also, you know, we staff is needed to put the whole thing together And I don't think anybody's saying no, um, we don't want staff participation. I think it's the opposite Okay, so Okay So why don't I go ahead and open it up to public comment or just a more comment? I'm sorry. I was just going based on the The the recommendation it was listed here And so I would just say that with respect to if there is an interest on council directing staff to put it together That I think we would need more time than march 19 to do that together to put it together Uh, so I just want to point that out as well If I can my understanding is that usually you there's a topic and then you build the The presentation around the topic you hope to understand more as opposed to having a Sorry, I just like the opportunity to go back and talk to staff about the timing and the scheduling and all of that We didn't really have that conversation I I understood that the proposal today was to To have a study session based on what was outlined here So and I know you'd have a discussion about this but in terms of the feedback I'd just like the opportunity to go back to to uh to staff and to Talk about the timing for it and we can get back to you I mean it looks like it's a in between Tuesday So we could you know schedule in between Tuesday and get back to you with a reasonable time frame as I understand there's no a particular Decision or action that has to have it by a particular time necessarily so um, I think given The workload and everything that we're working on particularly On some of these other issues we probably would need a little bit more time In regards to a community event This the city often sometimes can support those if that was the different route to take in terms of the oh, yeah Sure, alternatively. Yeah, so if uh, if a particular group wanted to and that happens all the time to uh sponsor work Some kind of workshop or some kind of session that's that's that's an alternative to and uh, you know, we can certainly participate in that as well Let's go ahead and open it up to public comment And then we'll return back to the council. Is any member of the community want to speak to us on item number 22? And you'll have two minutes Good evening council members brick londonati from the campaign for sustainable transportation Um, I just wanted to add uh, maybe part of this agenda for the study session The city has an ordinance that maybe you haven't heard about I didn't hear about it Uh, it's called the trip reduction ordinance And it asks employers to gather data about their employees Commute habits and as far as I know, it's never been enforced. So, um, that would be one thing for staff to to report about The purpose of that ordinance, you know, what what the uh What the prospects are of actually enforcing that uh, city of Santa Monica has a model Trip reduction ordinance and um, so I refer you to that Um, the there is a trade-off in in postponing it past March 19th Which is that the speakers that are identified there in the motion are available on march 19th. Um, So, uh, that would be ideal from that point of view Um Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to and I I think community will all learn from it. Thank you Hi council, at least casby here. Um, I I I don't think we have any time to waste on this. I understand, uh city manager martin Bernal's comments about wanting to Consult with city staff about their workload, which makes complete and total sense at the same time. Perhaps, um The study as it's being presented with staff being invited and not necessarily needing to do anything other than be present In that case it might be It might make sense to just ask staff to attend The reason I just want to stress this again is I just came from this conference that is, um Dealing with extinction, which is what we're going to I mean to say that this is a crisis is kind of and I it's an understatement. This hasn't happened in 252 million years and we need to inject a kind of sense of urgency and speed and Allowing ourselves to study up and I'm not sure what was just said about CEO Alex Clifford. Um, I think I may have heard that barrow emerson was pulled from attending which I find to be Just a shame. I'm not sure why that was if or even if I heard that correctly But I do want to say that I think that We have influences in the community that are working to abbreviate our bus routes and to cut bus Attendance and one of the main ways that they're doing that is by privatizing and encouraging riders to have to go with companies like uber And we need to get the come the public involved and to invite people into this discussion and have this happen as soon as possible This seems like an excellent opportunity. I just wanted to ask that you vote to have this study session on march 19 Thank you And I think it's a really good idea to invite and have the community involved In this sessions Another thing is I don't know what all the studying is about the studies in the past. They've been ongoing And putting it off We should be fast enough. Well, we don't have to put nothing off. Let's do it and We're in the work Put something off It just don't make sense to me So another thing is when If you're speaking a lot of things I cannot hear them say So I need to know what you're saying If you're going to speak I need to hear it so You know to get this Session this information going sooner rather than later is a brilliant great good idea You know, it's time to like just put in and go on and get the good work done. Get it get it going Thank you. Are there any additional members of the public who'd like to address us on this item? Okay Seeing none, I'll return it back to council First we'll have a council member mires and then I had a comment and then council member mathis and vice mayor comings Um, I guess my main comment is It's it's titled do it a transportation demand management study, but when I read the report there's a lot more in here than Um, just TDM so I think if we could also just I would request that the council members who Prepared or staff or Is just because it starts to talk about Using parking district funds for affordable housing So I just want to make sure the community's clear on what the session is about And it seems to be a little bit broader than the TDM Uh piece that is in it just in the subject. So I'm not I'm not saying I don't would want to talk about these things But I think if we can also revisit the the title and make sure we're grabbing the right staff so that we can I I I see a general trend in the in the report around Ending at housing and how do we leverage potentially some funds, but I just want to make sure that Uh The the community understands what the study session will be in totality So I'll just briefly say I if the march 19th date with the select speakers is the intention of the item Then I think having it as a sort of a community sponsored event makes more sense to me If the interest is having a study session on a specific topic with a diverse set of speakers and informed by Um input from the council and from staff Then I think a different approach would be more fitting personally. So that would just be my statement Um in regards to this item and then council member Yeah, I'm uh your suggestion if the um Citizen advocates who've put together this list want to put this on In the community It would be appropriate for staff to participate. Is that what you're saying would not be a city sponsored event It wouldn't be a city's much fits into the study session I I certainly understand the interest in The whole field of TDM. I think the motion The agenda item as it's been presented to us suffers from a lack of clarity and also is really Not right for action and also the In terms of a study session Puts an unrealistic demand in terms of timing and staff attention to do a good job on this as Was mentioned the topic is TDM transportation demand management study Session, but many of the items Contained in this report. We've already done. We did them at our last meeting. So The report seems to some extent already moot in some cases Again, there are some assertions that are presented as fact, which I think Well, again, that's that's a prerogative of the individuals that write the report I I really am much more interested in looking at a study session on Our downtown in general I guess there's a A little bit of a lack of clarity also Is this a TDM proposed as a TDM study session for downtown or as member of the public said A trip reduction ordinance which Pertains to the city generally. So what is the animal we're talking about? To my mind Council direction for a study session is is really primarily for the directive for the benefit of the council And of course the community Is fully invited and commissions are invited But it's typically been an opportunity for council members to get deep study on a big issue That informs our knowledge of the of the topic And I think in that respect Topics for study session, which do take It's it's certainly one more commitment on council members part But it's to do a good job takes a good deal of time thought An organization on the part of of staff time so And in that sense, I think we should give direction as a council on our priorities Would like to ask the city manager, when do we see Establishing our goals for the coming Time period Well, I think that's something that we want to Schedule as soon as possible We've talked about and historically what we've done is I'll try to speak more clearly historically what we've done is to Have when new councils are Elected is to do an initial session. That's a workshop on You know getting to know each other team building norms that sort of thing followed by workshops on Establishing the work plan in the strategic planning process. So we have to schedule those My sense is that councils interested in scheduling those as soon as possible And I and I would agree with that. So that's the other set of workshops that have to be Established to do that And I think the question is how does the council want to do that? So we've been working with the mayor and vice mayor to do that And just to add to that briefly is we've been talking also about other types of study sessions to explore in preparation for the budget hearings So there will be so that is already Underway in regards to the you know There's just limited time and resources. So I think the topics that we set aside for a study session should in fact Reflect a bigger picture of what what faces us and what we need to choose from and focus on Particularly since we've had To my experience so much attention on transportation Demand studies and the adjustment of the parking rates downtown and all the incentives that we just Voted on At our last meeting So I'm not sure that this needs to be a prior tdm needs to be a priority for The time and effort of a study session Personally I would favor a study session on the topic of what is our vision for downtown Broadly and how do we use our transportation? resources of all kinds to reinforce that vision and that vision should include a a healthy Business district it should include housing it should include visitors It should include civic spaces and civic activities all of these things And I don't think we've had that kind of a focus in a good long time for this city We're we're leaving out big swaths of the big picture. So That's personally what I would advocate for if we're going to do a study session, but I think The focus of this and the timing Is is not appropriate and Particularly to have a study session um Developed exclusively by an outside group without staff involvement Is problematical and I should also just say finally that one of the speakers I believe has what I would just call a tainted relationship with the city and I don't believe it'd be appropriate to include that speaker explicitly in the in the lineup of a city sponsored Program, which is why I think it's important to give more thought to to who what is the topic and who are the presenters? so I have vice mayor Cummings council member brown and then Glover and then mires, so I think one of the pieces is that um I don't want to underestimate the ability of members of the public to put together a well thought-out and well-developed presentation oftentimes Members of the public have only up to about four minutes to speak to city council members And I feel like what we're trying to do is provide an opportunity for A community group to actually have more time to provide a deeper presentation to the city council um, I do understand understand how Staff is under a lot of pressure right now They have a lot of demands and I think that this could be the first step in a broader conversation around this vision of downtown and how we can utilize our resources to To have a productive downtown environment Given the fact that there are speakers who've been preparing for this I would I think that it will be good if we give staff staff the time to develop, you know a presentation and a study session around downtown vision, but that we also Invite staff we invite our commissioners to come to this presentation That will be provided by members of our community so that we can get their perspective on This issue and allow staff the time available to come back Incorporate some of the ideas that maybe have come from that and some of the ideas have come from Community members and present them or incorporate them or not at that time Yeah, I um I agree with the vice mayor Cummings Comments and and I would just add that in the time that I've been on the council We have had multiple study sessions on a variety of topics those the Outside experts who have been invited have been exclusively determined by staff And I certainly have made recommendations about Folks that I thought might be good to participate in those study sessions. They have never been Included and so I don't see why just because this is not customary. It is not Something that the council ought to have some say in who the experts are who come to have a conversation with us I think it is a it's an opportunity to have some kind of thinking outside of the box get some new ideas We've done this at the regional transportation commission on multiple occasions related to our Our rail put, you know potential use of the rail corridor and it worked very well And we did not have You know any concerns expressed from the staff there at the time in fact they helped us organize it And so I I want to support moving ahead and like vice mayor Cummings said See this as a first step in you know, maybe getting generating some some new ideas and Incorporating those into future planning Thank you Yes, I would echo the support that council member round just said for vice mayor Cummings statement and for the idea of the Logic and in my opinion urgency around this. I also agree with some things that we heard from the community about the importance of Moving as expeditiously as possible into understanding transportation demand management and how we can better Move forward in the city to be as sustainable as possible I do want to point out that When it comes to tdm the the conversations have been going on For a while, but I do want to emphasize that there has been Some could say a shift in the focus potentially or in the Vision of council members on the body So to be able to all make sure that we're on the same page about transportation and have a study session with Community experts or community individuals that have a lot of knowledge around the issue I think is important as well and also just to reference the conversations around the parking fee adjustments That were mentioned before those were into my knowledge done with the understanding that there was going to be the need to offset a maintenance cost for the parking garage that was supposed to go in with the library. So with that Perspective and looking at how we can move things around so we can add additional cars if we're doing a new Study session that may change the decision of the city council on how we may be able to use that extra approximate 2.5 million that are generated from the Changed parking fees. So I think this is timely. I think it's important and I think that with a group of community-based individuals Just as similar to what council member brown said it should be a fantastic opportunity for us to learn and Nothing against staff and their decisions or their choices I'm sure that they're making the decisions and the what do they think are the best But I do think that it may be a good opportunity to try something new. Thanks Um I just Have a question. We were I'm not sure what this item is this I've read it and I don't really understand what it is I don't understand who wrote it Again, this is this is my struggle Um So and on the back of this sheet, which doesn't have any I don't know if it's a city document it says The last sentence on the last paragraphs first sentence on the last paragraph says metro believes in addition to Counted transit passes which reached to me like this should be coming from metro so I'm just uncomfortable with this kind of paperwork and then talking about Really important things about parking and how we how we're going to move through downtown And so I'm not I'm not going to support the item. I don't it's not that I don't want to talk about these items These are the most important things we should talk about as a city council But I don't this doesn't help me get there because I don't really understand What these pieces of paper are and they're unidentifiable? And I don't know who writes them. So that I I I think that there's more work to do March 19th is right around the corner And if this is sort of where we're at right now, I'm just not comfortable with moving forward on it. So so If appropriate, I can answer that question and if you look at the staff report The updated one that was provided That is a metro document If the staff report indicates see attachment, but we didn't get the attachment until Too late to include it in the packet. So it is an attachment related to Barrow emerson's Russian Who is now Has okay Okay But the staff just to be clear for the staff report was not a city staff report It was the council member just just to differentiate that too Also just to be completely, you know transparent here too staff does have a concern about You know in looking at the staff report Or the report the agenda report there We do have some concerns about some of the items that are in there. They're not exactly accurate And so again, that's the concern about Putting together a study session Without the staff working. I mean many of the of the workings with respect to the parking fund And its financial status and what can be it can be used for Is really something that you know, the staff would would be able to look at and explore and work with the city attorney on So anyway, I just have I just want to be clear I just have some concerns about that too and so if you are going to do a study session I think would just make sense to have it be well prepared well developed And then you have all the information that you need And so again, we're not against putting one together. I just think it would make sense to to have it be, you know coordinated With city staff and and we can work to do that as soon as possible Okay, so I'll just briefly make my comments and then I'll acknowledge council member crone and then council member lover Um, I I agree I think that if there's if this is the date and these are the folks then I think and it's a community initiated effort Then it makes sense to have it as a city sponsored community event And I think staff could participate in it and that would be the appropriate process for this In terms of the study session, I think that more needs to go into it So I don't feel comfortable scheduling it as a study session. I don't think it could necessarily Result in this not happening if it's just a community sponsored event It just wouldn't be necessarily qualifying what I think would make what I would hope our standard of a study session would be So council member crone council member lover and then We're okay I'm very much in support of the concept of a study session and um I don't know. I I agree with with council member. Matthews saying about a deep study of big issues and a vision for downtown I think that this would be part of that a vision for downtown and I think it does include housing and tdm and parking if that's part of tdm and and and um any sort of transportation issue Um I think that it we're running late here. We're running, you know, there's a whole, you know Global warming issue and we're we're not really keeping up and I think this study session Reflects that we are trying to do our best and Actually provide opportunities for people to get involved and implement ideas now To the extent that any of the um Named speakers are not able to participate What how will the decision be made to replace them or or restructure? Would that involve uh, I would hope If if this is going to be a city sponsored Event I would hope there would be staff involvement Let's I'll go ahead and go to council member clever and then there's not a motion on the floor at this point So with uh, just like a question about process if this is set up for the 19th and there's council direction to move on Scheduling it with some parameters. Is that would that not provide staff time to compile the information that they think Could be changed and then share that at the meeting to say this is what's going on Um, I I don't I don't believe so because I think we may you know, uh want to Because the question comes up. Well, who else should we include? I mean, there's certain perspectives Again, it depends on the scope. So for example If you want to talk about housing, well, we might want to include some housing developers Our nonprofit housing fellas if you want to talk about the downtown and that might affect downtown businesses Well, we might want to include downtown businesses And so there's a bit of of outreach that has to be done The list that's here doesn't include everybody that might be impacted by these programs And so if you want to be inclusive of all of these other groups, we might want to extend I will go ahead and you might want to extend Sorry, excuse me. This is now the go ahead. I'm going to go ahead and say the community This is now a time for the council to deliberate and there's not a time for the for public comment So we've closed public comment. So please keep your voices down That's a warning if you decide to continue to talk, I'll ask that you Be escorted out So you've been warned to not disrupt the meeting and if you continue to disrupt the meeting You'll be asked to leave. Okay, please go ahead. So I was gonna say we might want to extend an invitation And so again, depending on their availability, you need a little bit of lead time because you have to find out when people are available And I mean, I think much much like this was done But again to to be to have it include other Components just requires time to get it ready. So that's come. I can't I can't tell you for sure that we can have it ready by March 9th We can work to get it prepared as soon as possible And we'll do our best to get it done as soon as possible and come up with a date and report back to you So again, I don't want to Commit to something that we can't you know meet and have unreasonable expectations and then just okay. We'll go ahead and first of all I think it was that there was a follow-up to that though I hear you have a follow-up question. We'll go ahead. There was somebody who wanted to be acknowledged on this Matthews No, okay, go ahead With the Time frame because I know the vice mayor Cummings brought this forward at the last meeting So it's been two weeks since the last meeting has there been any preemptive kind of exploration into Finding people that staff might be interested in to come with like some options or to say Hey staff would like to bring these to the table or have we start in a ground zero? I think other than obviously we weren't sure what the council was going to to direct. I think other than Uh Discussing the fact that it would be helpful to have you know a variety of input Uh in general, uh, but no we haven't necessarily. I don't at least I'm not aware of that You know particular individuals or groups have been identified Again, you know, we didn't want to predetermine exactly what the council was going to direct Um, but and then again, again, there's no as far as I'm aware. There's just no particular urgency to This particular topic at this time as far as any sort of council action has to happen So that's the other consideration. Okay. Thank you You're okay. So now would be the time for action and deliberation or If anybody wants to make a motion I can't I'm gonna make the motion to um Since barrel emerson can't come from the metro to remove that portion of this Um In direct that we bring adam miller ball patrick siegman silly simon To present on Issues related to downtown development and the vision of downtown around parking pricing downtown parking parking reform Reform of parking requirements. I apologize And leveraging affordable housing as the first Study session with regards to Our vision of downtown brought forth by members of the santa cruz community I'm a second that as a friendly amendment could we have the city manager get back to mr. Clifford and ask him to reconsider that Barrow emerson join us. Yes. I'm also going to add that we invite members of staff to also present and Also invent members of the planning commission downtown commission Transportation and public works commission to attend the study session In addition with Two of the santa cruz community. Okay, so we have a motion by council member I mean vice mayor coming second by council member crown any further discussion. Yeah, I just wanted I will add that based on personal conversation. I understand that sibley simon is Not interested in participating at this point. I don't know if he's communicated that to others And again, I want to reiterate my opposition to paying someone to come and participate Who has a contentious relationship with city staff? I don't think that's productive. Okay, and council member gliver So it's my understanding that Mr. Simon isn't coming because he has other projects that he's working on and doesn't want to risk Advice of decision-making which is unfortunate that people are having to decide which issues they're going to advocate for The second thing Along with that is it's the second time that we've heard That someone has a bad relationship with the city, but there's been no Like I have no idea who or what you're talking about. So it's pretty vague And so I can't make a decision based off of Something I have no context so, um Okay Nice mayor comes if the information is correct that Um Sibley simon is not available To make this meeting Does it has anybody had oh can I ask a question of other council members because it sounds like other members of the Council have had conversations with Sibley simon. I just want to verify whether or not this is correct So I'll direct that at council member gliver um, I'm trying I'll try to find the Correspondence right now. It was updated that uh I got a message saying that he had pulled out because of the concern of this being Device of and could damage a conversation around housing that he's working on with his housing project. So okay, okay, so at this time we have a motion and a second and um Call the question for the question call the question. Okay. All those in favor. Please say aye. Hi Any opposed no, no, so that passes with council member brown vice mayor Cummings council member crone and council member Glover voting in support council member matthews council member mires and myself voting against Okay, so we have an additional item and that is the second reading of the Ordinance And we'll have a brief presentation followed by Uh, okay, you could go ahead and leave. Thank you very much. You could go ahead and leave now. You've been warned and thank you Okay Okay, so at this time do we not have a presentation Okay, so just right now we have the second reading and if there's not any questions we'll go ahead and open it up to Public comment and then return for action and deliberation Any questions at this time? Is there any member of the public who wants to speak to us on item number 23? Which is the second reading and final adoption of the ordinance related to the accessory dwelling units I'll have two two minutes. Hi everybody. My name is maryl luen. I came in here the last time and I'm just Wanting to thank everybody for considering this. I'm really happy that this looks like it's going to pass I think it might really help with People who want to build accessory dwelling units because it's so expensive to do it This would be a real boon and I thank you for your consideration And I want to invite everybody when my unit is done to come over and see it I'm very proud of it. Maybe in another month or so it'll be finished I'll let everybody know so just wanted to say that. Thank you everybody Thank you Unless there are any other additional members of the public who would like to address this on Second reading of the adu ordinance We'll be given two minutes. My name is Dave Willis. I just want to say Thanks a lot for all of y'all's work on all of these issues, especially this one right here also So thanks a lot and um Good work Okay, thank you Okay, so we'll go ahead and close public comment and return back for action into liberation I'll move to the second reading and adoption of the ordinances before us I'll second that any further discussion All the motion by council member matthew seconded by myself all those in favor, please say I I any opposed Okay, that passes unanimously Okay, so we have one more item and that's the meeting calendar And at clerk are there any updates to the meeting calendar? No nothing council member or lover Yeah, so some of us may be aware there was a raid by dhs homeland security ice here in santa cruz last week Or week and a half ago. There has been very little Community engagement around it, especially from the side of the city and I as well as some of the fellow council members Were able to go and meet with the neighbors that were impacted by the raid as well as the member of the family who Was detained and in my personal opinion terrorized by the Federal agents that came into our community So I think it's important that we really assess where we're coming from as a sanctuary city policies that we may need to put in place statements that we might need to write and also The structuring of a community conversation that includes not just the city council, but also Representative from the police chief the sheriff's department the sanctuary movement immigration and attorneys as well as other members of the community Like the neighbors, so I'd like to see that on the next agenda on march 12 I make that motion to have all that So there's a motion by council member lovers seconded by council member brown brown any further discussion Just what's the nature of the motion? to agenda to agendize the topic of the ice raid and Potential actions in response not limited to but including potential policies community conversations and letters slash responses to the federal government If I could just with respect because I think there are two Kind of tracks here one of them would be action that the council will take might take with respect to Recommendations or expressions of concern to Other jurisdictions and representatives As well as potential policy options and then the community conversation and and so We have it as one motion, but I think that that that's a discussion We just want to clarify that that is the discussion we'd like to That I certainly would like to have agendize so that we can set Um The date for some kind of community conversation in addition to the other I just have a question Are you anticipating that you would you're you're asking or you're asking the motion to have it on the agenda But you would write the agenda report. Is that what you're anticipating or you would have staff write the agenda report We can write the agenda report and my staff wants so we could all write it together Yeah, yeah council member There have been community conversations In the somewhat recent past involving a great number of community groups Do you know if there's anything else going on that would be not just the city of santa cruz But a broader community conversation that we might plug into So i'm not sure about anything that might be actively happening anywhere else in the county to address this because it happened specifically in the city of santa cruz I do know that the sheriff's department was in direct cooperation with the raid and um According to testimony Uh Provided the interrogation rooms So there's the question of the sheriff's county wide involvement as well as the county's participation with ice But I don't So but I think that we need to move forward as a city expeditiously to have the conversation with our residents and community And then if representatives from the county or the sheriff want to join in on that then that's great But I don't think we should be waiting for other people to lead the charge I'll just say add and then I'll acknowledge you there's there is a group that meets on an as needed basis to address any types of issues related to Immigration and that's being facilitated out of the city of watsonville and we've connected with them in the past So if anything I think that would be the place to check I think that's in the whole sanctuary community group Okay, councilmember brown I'm trying to be careful here of not getting too far into the substance of a discussion about this because this is not an Actual agenda item. Thank you But, you know, we had a conversation with neighbors and and there are Folks who are really, you know anxious for the city to take a leadership role here I certainly we can partner with other Groups, but I think that's a conversation that we need to have when this is agendized and it's it's it's notified So I'll just if I could reiterate there's a motion to modify or to make a specific attachment for the meeting calendar to agendize on march 12 This topic is that correct? Yeah with the with the actionable item of council action to write letters or send statements to bodies discussion of potential policies locally and also The establishment of a community conversation Correct, great, and I'd like to call that to questions so that we can move forward Okay, so there's a motion It's been called all those in favor. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No If I could make a follow-up comment, I would like to ask that as the Any material being prepared for this be given to appropriate staff whether it's city attorney Police department, whatever that they have time to give it a legitimate review. I mean, it's a short turnaround time already to get on the agenda so And that maybe some things could be anticipated for action at that meeting and others deferred for more thought So that will conclude the uh afternoon session Just wanted to bring back Vice mayor coming. Well, I'll bring back later Okay, so that then concludes the afternoon session and we will adjourn and tell our 7 p.m. Oral communications Should I know my best behavior? Yeah, I think so Bonnie, are we good? Okay Okay, good evening everybody Good evening. Good evening. If I could get your attention, we're going to go ahead and get started Okay, thank you. Good evening everybody. Thank you I realize we have a very large crowd this evening and I appreciate your patience as we get started At this time, I'd like to welcome you to our 7 p.m. Session of the february 26 2019 meeting of city council and I'd like to ask our clerk to please call the roll Thank you mayor council member crone Here lever here my ears Here brown here Matthews here vice mayor coming here and mayor Watkins here Before we get started I want to announce that we have set aside overflow seating capacity in the civic and the tony hill room So right now we're about to begin our oral communications And then after oral communications concludes we'll move on to our 7 30 item And for those who are outside or unable to get a seat. We do have room at the tony hill room Before we also get started. I'd like to briefly go over our council principles and And ask that as we all are here to Participate in this process that we respect one another That we engage in open and honest communication That we be truthful and honest and address difficult issues We seek to find areas of common ground be open to different perspectives Give the benefit of the doubt to role model good leadership and to be considered of each other's time So I will now Ask our fire chief to please as maybe say a few things about some of the considerations for capacity here Thank you mayor and council So for everyone who's here inside the chambers. We have an occupant load of 114 people I think we may be at that or a little bit above that and I'd ask that everyone who's outside to please respect the The orders of the fire marshal that we have the deputy fire marshal and the police officers We're not trying to limit anyone's speech. We just want to make sure that we don't have an incident where people are crushed or pushed Because we have too many people here Like the mayor said, we do have overflow at the tony hill room And we will line up people for comments when we get to that part of the meeting So I would ask that we all respect each other and that we get through this night together And that we do have a lot of people here. So um, thank you. Thank you Okay so it's my job to Ensure that decorum is met while in the chambers and to ensure that we're respectful for one another and that we Follow the processes To ensure that the night and the process can can can continue in a way that has Some order and and folks can feel safe to come and speak to us So that said I want to just let you know that if there's disruption and I and I am able to identify Who is disruptive in the audience? You will be given one morning if there's continued disruption Then I will ask that you leave the council chambers Everyone has a right to speak to us whether or not we agree with each other's opinions They have a right to without fear or intimidation to express their feelings to us So at this point as mentioned, we're now Going to begin our oral communications and oral communications is an opportunity for members of the community To speak to us on items that are not listed on today's agenda Are there the members any members of the public who are here to speak to us? For oral communications and if so, could you please try to make your way to my left? And I want to let you know you'll have two minutes to speak and You are not required to say your name and as mentioned, please out of respect for other members in the in the public Many who aren't necessarily used to coming to speak before the council Please refrain from disruptive behavior that might discourage all of our members of the public from stepping to the microphone to have their voices heard I want to first invite up Representative from seiu who reached out to me in advance for four minutes Good evening mayor Watkins and members of the city council My name is lily and lane and I work in the public works department for the city and i'm here as a member of seiu 521 to speak on behalf of our frontline employees Do you know who our city service employees are? These are the people who keep the city running If a water pipe breaks, they fix it If a tree falls in the middle of the road, they clear it If a road closure is needed to assist in emergency situations, they do it They keep the parks clean and beautiful They keep the water running They keep the streets clear of debris and garbage and they are the first responders Without the city's service employees the city would have no running water no functioning roads run-down parks And the administration of the city would be in complete disarray The recent city compensation steady shows that our workers are substantially Underpaid which has resulted in 55 percent of our workers Being unable unable to afford to live in the city of santa cruse We are currently seeing departments across our city struggle To be able to retain enough employees to provide the services that our residents deserve The city has an employee retention crisis We are unable to keep many city department staffed and the community suffers for it Our workers need to be able to keep up with the cost of living We also need to have a clear commitment and plan for how to close the wage gap so that we can retain competent and knowledgeable employees and continue To offer the excellent services we currently provide this community We have proposed at the bargaining table a path towards having the city commit addressing the issue But we but we need to have your support In being able to make it happen We hope that we can count on your support Thank you Thank you Hi folks. I'm louise garza. I live at the tannery here on behalf of my household today discuss a matter of the roscamp in relation to security I'm gonna kind of go ahead and pause you for a second. I apologize I realize that this could be a little bit confusing right now oral communications is a time for items that are not on tonight's agenda We will be discussing that item after we conclude oral communications at 7 30 at which time you can address us on that item After our staff presentation. Do I line up back over here again? You won't necessarily need to line up at this time because right now We're opening it up to oral communications for folks who want to address the council on items that are not on the agenda Thank you. I can I can understand that that could be confusing with the Thank you very much. So again, this is a time for us Not we you will have an opportunity to address us in terms of any of the homeless related items that will be coming Before us at 7 30. So now is the time to address us on anything else that was not on today's agenda Okay, good evening council people Short I I'm speaking in support of drew clever and chris crone I've known chris for almost 25 years and drew for almost four years In their actions deeds and writings They have both proven to be staunch supporters of women And the empowerment of women They are proven phenomenists and civil rights activists In that they treat everyone regardless of race or gender Or economic status equally and with respect and kindness On the other hand they in turn have not been treated this way on this council drew and drew and chris were publicly called bullies and sexists at the last meeting But they were not allowed to answer accusations then and there Then let letters repeating these words began to appear in the local paper Drew has been denied by the mayor a seat on several advisory bodies. He's specially sought because of his expertise He proposed agenda items addressing homelessness Oh, sorry his proposed agenda items addressing homelessness were not accepted by the mayor who changed the submission deadlines without notice So he had to force a vote to get them on the agenda For 17 years our council has been totally controlled by conservative spend thrift majority Now there has been a shift to a more liberal majority with a humanitarian agenda I see these criticisms of chris and especially drew As a denial by the old guard to respect the will of the voters And a desperate attempt at regaining the majority To me this is bullying and reverse sexism This new majority hopes to use our city monies to address the homeless situation With concrete creative and compassionate ideas Instead of wasting 17 million dollars of taxpayer money on a failed desalination plant or millions on a golf course I hope they will enforce measured. Thank you. Yeah, your time is up. Thank you Okay, don't throw away this opportunity by being divisive. Please your time is up. Thank you So every member of the public will have two minutes to address the council And when your time is up, then I will go ahead and ask that you conclude your comments So our next speaker can address the council Good evening My name is Sadak Shakib. I live on the 222 Atlantic Avenue In the building and it has one size on the first avenue And the other side on the left And the third side on the the second avenue On sunday we wake up and we saw some Colors put by the management To ask some people to come and to cut the trees And I wasn't informed nobody was informed and the trees they were you know They have the trunk big enough that they were required by the law to be saved So on monday I called the city And on tuesday one member of the city she came and she faced that People that you were coming to cut trees and she told them by the by the law and the rules They cannot touch those but they can touch those things The one on the first avenue. They are you know, their trunk is big The one on the second avenue They are as old as the other but they are divided Are divided I have some pictures here And they are as the same size But I don't understand why they allow them to be cut For for two reasons they have the same size like the first avenue And and and the personal came from the city. She was very kind very nice She explained to that You know to the people that they come to the east they can do that But the the management insists they will come and cut the one that they're on the first avenue Because they have just you know those branches, but but but but the bottom is as as as big as the other one So I want to ask you kindly and remind you if I may the trees have a life like us The trees they pray. Thank you. Thank you I just want to let you know, you're welcome to submit that and your information and we could go ahead and follow up with you So what should they do? You could leave that with our our city clerk here and you're welcome to leave your information We could also follow up with you in terms of what happened Okay My name is Maureen Davidson and I'm here to talk about the ice raid on friday morning the 15th I received a wake-up call from a neighbor and friend and seabright And she asked me if I knew what was going on and if I knew anything about an ice raid And indeed she was almost crying and there were grenades. There were explosions. There were people shouting What's happening in Santa Cruz? That's my message. That's my question to you This was supposed to be Well, there were claims made about what this was, but this was not business as usual It was a brutal raid Whose every aspect was calculated to inflict terror trauma on the impacted family DHS says that the two people sought in the raid were onto it only for questioning They are not suspects and they were not named in the war And if that's the case then why bring two armored personnel carriers? Why block off the street why knock down the door and throw flash grenades the city council we do request Please and implore and demand that you take a stand against these violent unnecessary raids The city council needs to put this item on the next agenda Please there must be official communication from the city to our elected Representatives in congress to pressure for an investigation and ensure that this type of militaristic Over the top raid is not repeated Please What is happening to Santa Cruz? We have to stand up to this Thank you I'll invite our next speaker up before before you speak if you can if you're holding a sign Please hold it down so that you're not blocking anyone behind you If you're in the back, you know, that's one thing, but if you're sitting down you're blocking or Not Abstracting people's view behind you. Please hold your sign down. Okay And I'll just also let you know that This item was agendized earlier in today's meeting for the for the february 12th. I mean for the march 12th meeting Okay, okay. Go ahead. He'll be given two minutes Hello, good evening everyone. I am here representing the undocumented community here in santa cruz My name is gabriella cruz. I am a woman of color I am an immigrant myself and someone who is personally affected by this raid That took place on February 15th I come asking for questions I have lots of questions And one of them is if our sanctuary policies were violated with this raid I want to know if The militarized action that took place Was necessary I want to know if the trauma that my 10 year old Goddaughter will forever have to live with was necessary I want to have Answers to these questions and I also want to know if Immigrants like myself should be treated as second-class citizens here in santa cruz county and santa cruz city more specifically I've lived here for 29 years And in my entire life, I can count the many times Where ice has been allowed to enter our county in our city and terrorize our community And the lasting impacts that that has on our community Not just as a person who's personally affected by this but also families of mixed status Who have to hide their children under their beds because they don't know if they should go to school Or if they're going to be coming down and knocking on their door as well What happened On friday the 15th Was a horrible action It should have never happened I felt as though Even though we have these sanctuary policies in place that they were not respected And I don't know if There's a conversation to be had with the sheriff's department On their cooperation In this incident Thank you. Thank you I'm mary reynolds um I'm also here to talk about the raid that was on the 15th And just to say that this seems like a war against sanctuary cities The administration and dhs has made no secret of their contempt and outright hostility To sanctuary cities like ours These people who are targeted are obviously intended To send a message to the rest of santa cruz and other sanctuary cities saying We will come into your town and we will do what we want and there's nothing you can do about it So i am pleading to you as our representatives Is there something that we can do about it and will we do it because We can call ourselves a sanctuary city, but if this keeps happening We're just bowing to the fascists. Thank you Hello, thank you. Um, and I want to thank um council members druglever and chris crone and sandi brown for coming out to a Meeting with neighbors um yesterday um, I really appreciate that and I appreciate that um This item will be on the agenda apparently for the next council meeting I just want to make clear That the city needs to make a strong statement that we absolutely do not trust the department of homeland security Remember, this is the agency who lost thousands of children and it was too much work for them to document What happened to these children? They have a clear record of misleading and lying about what they are doing. There is no transparency um And remember that the department of homeland security was it's a new agency. It was set up in 2001 specifically to target Immigrants people who do not have the same rights to council that we do They may have a lawyer. Um if the lawyer can find them And the local law enforcement is clear about where they are But they they do not have the right to uh, you know public defender like we do citizens do And the city needs to say loud and clear that that there's no gray area for civil liberties That the people who live and work and go to school alongside us should have the same rights And the city council needs to take a stand I urge you to reach out to your congressional representatives to our congressional representatives in an official statement Or resolution calling for an end to these kind of violations of our civil rights with militaristic And over-the-top terrorizing tactics. Thank you very much Mayor Watkins and council. Thank you for allowing me to address you. My name is ray Mendoza I'm a neighbor of the house that was raided in this raid I've been a seabright resident for 18 years in that spot. I've been before I've been here for years With these wonderful neighbors where this happened Um, I am a supporter of the police My brother's a highway patrolman in riverside And I'm very cognizant of the fact that that these people have to put on a bulletproof vest to do their job I'm very aware of that. I support law enforcement Uh, however in this situation, I could not see the reason why hsi a division of ice would have to use these military tactics military vehicles unmarked vehicles plain clothesmen and Full tactical gear Officers also I don't understand why that was used I appreciate the fact that you've just put this on the agenda and I thank you very much for that So this will be dealt with further There are some very Pressing questions to to be answered and I hope that the council can get to the to the answer of these Why were flashbang grenades used? Why was the door smashed in the the fellow who lives there was Was in the act of opening the door when they came through with the ram and smashed into him and then through a grenade at his feet Why did that have to happen? Why were the people who were arrested for questioning questioning not suspects? Why were black hoods put over their heads and they were taken to questioning? Uh, why was no warrant shown at the entrance and at the beginning when the people asked for a warrant No warrant was shown only at the end when they left they left the warrant with them also a violation Why was the gun put to the head of a 10-year-old girl? Why was that? These are these are I think I hope that these are questions that you can help us understand as a community And it has an impact on our whole neighborhood our whole. Thank you very much. Thank you Hello, my name is Samantha. I'm here in support of sanctuary santa cruz And also as a representative for kosetcha santa cruz, which is a movement that is completely devoted to providing and winning permanent protection for undocumented people in the u.s And so first and foremost This recent raid was a racist attack Ask yourself if they would ever come for a white family at four in the morning Put them in handcuffs along with everyone else in their house March them out of the house with hoods on and deny them food or water for eight hours of interrogation All because they might know something about a crime that happened in another county It doesn't work that way and it shouldn't um, so I would really really um consider As a goal for the next meeting to really establish a way for us to React to have an action play Action plan in place for the next raid that happens because this is not the first and it won't be the last right, and so our neighbors are going to be continuously attacked and degraded And traumatized by the events that are happening um And when we allow this to go without any kind of public outcry without any public action It says to our community members that if you're not white and if you're not a full Legal citizenship Then this is okay that the way they treat you is normal and it's not and if we're a sanctuary city as we like to You know identify as as a community that is safe for individuals of any status of any color Then we need to you know do the work and I really hope that the city council will be able to Respond to this in appropriate manner because I have not seen that and this was an event that happened a week ago And we need something to happen Thank you Hi, good evening. My name is vicky and I'm also here supporting sanctuary santa Cruz and as a participant in movimiento cosetra Which is a national movement Looking to win permanent protection dignity and respect for all undocumented people in this country I'm also here regarding the raid that happened on february 15th at 4 30 in the morning to a family in seabright We know that this was obviously an immigration raid We know that beforehand dhs contacted the santa Cruz police department And identified this as a criminal matter And we also know that after the raid dhs also told the santa Cruz sentinel that this was a criminal matter Then the question becomes Why when this family was detained and taken into questioning for hours were most of the questions immigration related? Why were when their house was raided? Why was immigration related paperwork? Seized these are questions that we absolutely have to find answers to And i'm here with all the other members of the community Um Asking the the city council to really take a stand on this. It's good to know that this is on the next agenda But we need to take a stand and we need to need to take a clear stand and council members need to educate themselves about the brutal tactics that are being used that are being Being employed against the immigrant community. Um as well as educate other staff members Thank you Good evening. I agree with all the previous comments about the heavy-handed ice raid and I want to comment about a different Travesty of democracy that's been experienced recently Starts at the top our president apparently believes he is Perhaps above criticism or he's too thin skin to deal with it in a constructive way as far as Dealing with the democratic process of discussing issues and evolving opinions He chooses to do personal attacks and character assassination instead Apparently that is unfortunately using the term trickled down to our local government here I'm referring to the last council meeting where a Councilman Glover Tried to raise a political issue as far as agenda manipulation by the mayor where the goalpost was apparently moved Where people couldn't get things on the agenda when they expected to and they weren't even notified in advance I think councilman Glover Totally legitimately complained about that and the response from the mayor was to get on personal level not to deal with the issue to accuse him of Sexism and bullying for standing up for his rights as a public representative So my question is Are any of you immune to criticism should I leave if I am I going to say the wrong thing here? Will I be removed for for criticizing an elected official or will I be called names? You know harry truman put it pretty well If you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen If any of you got elected thinking that the public or any council member cannot come up and give their opinion about your activities You need to leave. This is the process. This is called democracy People have a right to discuss issues and if someone doesn't like it. They have a right to respond Okay, so if any of you and particularly, you know, I'm talking about can't handle criticism What are you doing here resign? Hi My name is pedro. I live on uh, felka street and i'm here to ask your help Our our street is being known as the harrowing highway Um, so i'm here to ask for your help to Change that we'll go ahead and pause it really quick We're still on oral communications Which is the time to address the council on items that are not on tonight's agenda We'll be discussing the ross Yeah, I believe that not on the agenda. That's that's totally separate from the ross and campman Okay, is that okay? Is that going to be addressed? My understanding is we work in a discuss. We're going to be talking about um Council direction as it relates to security at the encampment and there is some carryover to the tannery in felker street I'm not sure if that fully intersects with pedros comments, so i'm not This is this is uh way before that The issue that we that we have going on so what I want to say is the uh A few years ago the uh pedestrian Bridge over crossing was built and I believe that the intention was to communicate the levy and to make it usable for you know for Communities to use the levy and then I think now it doesn't serve this purpose anymore Years ago we've been Having this issue where we get a lot of food traffic to our street So um what we're asking is if there's any way we can deviate the traffic in the food traffic To be along the uh rams that way we don't have to go through through our street We've been so patient for so many years having say anything With that and nothing can be done, but uh, I believe that you know with the city approval and the city work Things can be done. Um, so anyway, so that's the one thing that I want to say thank you Our next speaker Good evening. My name is Regina Langhout and in addition to um living and Voting in santa cruz. I'm also a professor at uc santa cruz and in that capacity I am the lead author on a policy brief from the society for community research and action This policy brief is a policy about a policy brief about deportation And the effects of force family separation on individuals families and communities So i'm here today to thank you for agendizing The raid that happened about two weeks ago And I hope in terms of what we will discuss when that comes up and when we talk about it publicly Is that we will find out more about who knew what before the raid happened That we can also learn more about the police and the sheriff's department participation in that raid And that we can talk about the policies that we have here in santa cruz in terms of our sanctuary ordinance And if we need to put any additional policies and practices into place so that we are living up to that particular ordinance I hope that we can talk about the effects not only on the family That lived in the home that was um where the door was busted down and where the flash grenades were thrown But also on the effects on our broader community and with that I hope that I can get to you the deportation policy brief Although it focuses mostly on force family separation There's also information in it about what happens when we and when when a community Experiences such violent raids such as these and what local governments can do to help protect Our entire community because this does affect all of us. So thank you Good evening. My name is peter klotz chamberlain And I want to add to many articulate statements that have been made already about that horrendous terror attack On a residence and a neighborhood in our community that as professor langhout just said not only Traumatizes the family but really traumatizes the whole community, especially those who are our neighbors without papers It seems to me in addition to I hope that all of the great suggestions are recorded and will be brought back When it's on the agenda, I think investigation into as I understand it both the chief of police and the sheriff Knew about the raid ahead of time Did any civilian elected officials or appointed officials know about it and How can we strengthen our status as a sanctuary city to not only Have a small circle know about something like this but enable Yarr and other citizen responses who want to be right there in support of a family and be able to document When something like this happens Everybody should know about it right away And I hope that the city can play a role in that and also In addition to that event the aftermath for the family can the city Either push for through our member of congress or the city itself Devote any reparations to the suffering that the family endured. Thank you So before we get before we move on to the next speaker for oral communications I want to let the community know that from 7 to 7 30 is the time for oral communications I realize that there's still folks who like to address the council I will extend it just a little bit because we got started a touch late But unfortunately, I will have to cut it off and we'll have to move on to our 7 30 general business item If you are interested in reaching out to the city council, you're welcome to email us We'd be happy to also we take meetings. So we'd be happy to connect with you other than just tonight You're also welcome to stay and if we want to reopen oral communications after our Conclusion of our evening item we could do that as well. I realize that could likely be late, but In the interest of my role in maintaining the meeting going I will unfortunately have to cut off the oral communication. So we'll have about Maybe about five more two more speakers and then we'll go ahead and end in the oral communications are about five more minutes Excuse me. Were you in line for oral communications? I I had Okay Okay, we can have you as our last if for an item that's not on tonight's agenda. Okay, go ahead. Thank you Good evening mayor council members. My name is Damon Bruder concerned citizen I'm here to speak about the the events of the last meeting Where you stood up for yourself miss mayor you stood up for yourself in your position and put it on record how you feel And how you feel you've been treated and I very much applaud you for that I feel that the mayor is in charge of the show She gets to set the agenda When the next mayor comes along they get to set the agenda If you want a wine and cry about it. Don't do it in public. It's not the sweetie muffin top show We deserve better grow up be mature All of you and treat your city the way it needs to be treated Go ahead. You'll have to hi. My name is melissa free baron. I saw you guys last time about needles I just want to say thank you for putting a sharps container down on the levy and acknowledging that over 60% of the people That are currently there are actually Using drugs and those maybe those needles will not flow onto our beaches I'd like to extend that symbolism now to actually our parks and beaches Which you guys are actually in control of making sure those sharps kiosks get in there Even though the county runs this syringe program I've already heard from the county point the finger at you guys that the reason we don't have sharps kiosks Is because of the symbolism we're way past that here We have a lot of addiction issues in this community if you've grown up in this community you understand that And I'd like to see this money spent towards actual meaningful rehab beds Not 10 beds for a sobering center. That doesn't help people Okay, not a for-profit corporation that does our medical care in the jail That doesn't actually help people not county mental health services that are splintered not actually connected with city services The city and the county need to stop pointing fingers at each other and do their job. It's our money. Okay We've already spent 25 million dollars for 64 beds at roundtree that have stayed empty Since we've built them half of those beds have been empty. Where's the meaningful change? Okay Now we're doing the fit program 30 beds. So for 30 people you're going to spend a million dollars Okay, we need you to do your homework. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. These policies are out there And also as a mother who lives in the sea bright community and whose child goes to galt I'm extremely offended at the way we treat our neighbors My neighbors who live here with their children who are maybe undocumented I don't need the department of homeland security coming in and unmarked vehicles terrorizing our children. It's unacceptable We won't stand for it. Thank you We'll conclude oral communications after our last speaker, which I didn't realize you I'll make this really short I would like also as far as you asking The people here the public to have some respect Is that if you could treat us with respect? And that means letting us finish a sentence if the two minute bell maybe even One more sentence to cut us off in the middle of a sentence seems extremely rude The other thing is you knew this was going to be a very large attended city council meeting Why Are over a hundred people outside? Why can't it be at the civic? It's been requested many many times. You knew about this to divide us up And so and and for the right-wing people in our city the nimbies that are in the city to line up and get here first So they can they can look like they're the loudest And they have and that that represents the people it does not represent the city of santa cruz It represents a very loud Uncompassionate group of people that are basically in this room because you would not have it in this civic Where all of us could be there at the same time? So I request in the future you have this at the civic and i'm glad you're agenda agendasizing The ice raid and even though it wasn't ice As you've heard They were asking questions about immigration when they were detained. So I'm glad that's taken care of that you're going to agendasizes But please Next time can you please have it at the civic? Thank you At this time, um, I realized there's other members of the public who would like to address this during oral communications I have to conclude oral communications Um, and we'll have to move on to our general business at this point and um, and again Please feel free to reach out to the council You can reach out to us by email or set up appointments and or if you're inclined you're welcome to speak to us at the end of the Evening session. I'll just for the for the community to know the the civic was unavailable this evening So just sort of as an as an fyi We do um have the overflow room at the tony hill room And I recognize that that were at a very full capacity So at this point, we'll go ahead and conclude oral communications and we'll move on to our general business item And just um, can we get a report back on the trees at first in atlantic? I assume that they were referring to lezlie kitty. I just wanted to hear what happened out there Okay, um, so we'll go ahead and begin our evening session And the evening session is the sole item on our agenda Which is the item of the homeless state of emergency The overnight parking restrictions on portions of delaware avenue And the status of the joint plan for emergency shelter provision and encampment management and council actions on homelessness Um, before we go ahead and get started I will uh, again just remind the community that this is an opportunity for us to Hear from our staff for the council then to ask questions of our staff and For more clarifying questions in terms of the topic at which time, uh, we're able to conclude those questioning We will open it up to the community for public comment Once public comment is complete then we'll return back to the council for action and deliberation So just sort of a summary of what to expect. We will have an opportunity for you to hear from you And we also ask that you respect us while we have an opportunity from our to hear from our staff to ask questions And to respect the process. So at this time, I'll go ahead and um, ask our staff to uh, take it Martin just a quick question. Just in terms of process. So, uh, after the staff report Are you intending to have public comment on all three items? At once and then bring it back and then could we take the items one at a time? Yeah, so after the staff report, we'll actually have a brief, uh, uh, report at the request of councilmember clever And then opportunity for questions then and then, uh, we'll return back for deliberation on all at a time On some vice mayor comings After the staff report is there opportunity to give provide direction to staff for future Actions that would be during um after we hear from public comment. We'll take action and deliberation Okay, all right. Good evening mayor Watkins council members I'm tina shul assistant city manager And i'm sitting to my right when she returns as susie o'hara the assistant to the city manager And we have a very comprehensive agenda item for you this afternoon and we actually have a presentation team So in addition to myself and susie We also have fire chief jason hydu planning director lee butler and parks recreation director tony elliott chipping in as well Um at your last meeting on february 12th when you discussed homelessness You had a very extensive discussion a lot of public comment and gave multifaceted direction to staff and after Um Toward the end of that discussion it was clarified that there were two items that were requested to be brought back for action As well as updates on the remainder of some items So just to go through um an agenda of today tonight's discussion We are first going to review the motions briefly from february 12th because there's been a lot of confusion and some questions around What was taken it was a long discussion We are then going to move into an update on the city county joint action plan operations Talking about the outreach shelter provision and security and encampment footprint. This is all responsive to council direction From there we'll move into a multi-part report out on The one of the the fourth major motion that had about 10 or so sub parts So we'll get into each of those and we did not have time to provide full updates in the staff report because that was due Last thursday and we had to move really quickly between the 12th meeting to be prepared for today But we're delighted that we can provide more information for you tonight And then at the end of that we can give you a summary and set forth where we were asking for council direction or suggested action Okay, so first just going through the motions. There were four major motions or four motions passed by the city council on the 12th and If everyone can look on the left side of this chart You see the number one motion and that was the one that was the city county joint action plan to address the encampment at the gateway center and there was some changes to it, but that was adopted by a majority vote to To do three things the first is to work on Alternate sheltering options through outreach and navigation to begin the day after the council meeting The second was to fully evaluate other Sheltering options and you can see a list in there under sub item b And then the third was to do noticing and work toward a closure of the camp by march 15th Another aspect of that motion was to provide $5,000 from the warming center to help us some supplies and bedding The second motion and this happened later in the evening was to clarify some direction around security around neighborhood impact at the encampment To move the fencing back along the encampment to be further away from the riverwalk pathway And in the future to develop proactive neighborhood outreach when shelter ideas are being suggested And also to do more extensive data collection So the city and the county have a better sense of who's being served and the various needs and and demographics of the population The third motion hall just cover Directed us to also explore the national guard armory as a possible I'm sheltering option and as a quick reminder on that that had been a choice of the council to explore The city and county had been told it was unavailable for renovation, but that renovation never occurred So similar to other communities down in southern california who are using armories for sheltering purposes The council said please go back and look and see if that's a location that can be considered We have a report on that and then the second part of this motion was to reach out to UCSC about reports that their students who are sleeping their vehicles on campus We're Being asked to go elsewhere and could the university provide a place for safe parking and then An extensive motion we receive that we will go into these subparts is is the fourth motion That has subparts a through j and we are going to be walking through A through h i and j this was looking at ordinances and some data collection around some municipal code Provisions was to come back within 90 days. So that will not be presented tonight, but we have reports on everything else Okay, so it's a lot to cover We wanted to have that in there for you so you could refresh your recollection because it was a very busy evening on the 12th And so at this point I will turn it over to the assistant to the city manager suzio hara As well as fire chief jason hyduk and they are going to walk through the first portion of our agenda Which is number two here on the screen and update on the city county joint action plan operations related to the gateway encampment All right. Good evening Mayor and councilmember suzio hara. I'm the assistant to the city manager Excuse me getting over a cold as usual So i'm going to be going over this slide and i'm going to turn it over to fire chief hyduk to talk about Outreach and engagement and really trying to get a better understanding as to The number of individuals that are currently at the gate winning encampment and their needs So the day after our last meeting we did develop an outreach strategy This is between the city and the county To ensure that we are engaging with every individual that currently resides at the gateway encampments About alternative shelter options as you can imagine. There is quite a number of people out there There is a distinction I believe between the number of people that are sleeping out there And those that are using the the area during the day We're going to talk a little bit about that as well But that first week of outreach started last week and i'm going to talk a little bit about outcomes of that So as I mentioned the weekly shelter outreach team Which is comprised of city county salvation army staff and volunteers Last week we focused on women Predominantly and we also did outreach to a number of men and other non-binary individuals Our commission for the prevention of violence against women Did come out and provide volunteers for this outreach efforts because we They are very focused on engaging with vulnerable populations in our community, especially women as well as We also are engaging with those that are doing harm reduction on thursday So that's denise ellarick and and steve pleich who have been out helping as well So I wanted to express my appreciation for that Last week on wednesday, we contacted about 40 individuals Um, we we passed out 17 vouchers And on friday, we provided um a transition with our pool van here to Folks at the vfw and at the laurel streets Shelter site only six people ended up transitioning over I think for the first week, um, we were optimistic about getting as many people as we can but it was You know a pretty significant endeavor for our volunteers and city staff and something that we had to put together pretty quickly So, um, and I also want to express my appreciation. I don't know if he's in here I suspect he is to brent adams of the warming center. He did come out on friday and provide provided a A tote For the storage center and really did facilitate folks who are paring down their items To provide storage for folks that were transitioning to other shelters In our um look at the population last wednesday There are anywhere from 150 to 200 people there during the day We were also there coinciding with county health and human services There is a lot of foot traffic. It is very hard To to to discern who is spending the night there and who is there during the day There is also from my perspective and I think my my perspective is shared amongst the volunteers and staff that are out there significant health and safety concerns A lot of what I would characterize as medically vulnerable folks out there A lot of really high dense density in terms of population You know potential for a lot of risk associated with this population So i'm going to have the fire chief talk about that more In addition to the outreach we are still steadfastly working on shelter provision So the lower street salvation army opened the day after your council meeting our last council meeting with 40 beds For women families and mobility impaired adults The program at 12 20 river street We're in the final process of developing the infrastructure and operator plans And we are poised to enter into a nonprofit contract to operate that program So we're very optimistic that we're going to be able to open that up with a 60 bed capacity The use of the armory we are in talks with the county about this and they are shepherding that process Working with the department of the military to understand the cost and feasibility of using that facility And then we also excuse me. We are also Expecting the outcome of the letter of interest for emergency shelter provision To be this week and that will likely include alternative shelter options as well Also safe parking and other things that we've been talking about over the last number of weeks In addition to shelter provision and gateway encampment outreach We're also I wanted to give an update on encampment and neighborhood management We did secure 24 7 gateway encampment security that started this week a few days ago The footprint to the encampment was set back. I believe that was last week The downtown streets team did move their levy team over to falker street and they are cleaning falker street Five to seven days per week, which is a wonderful addition to the work that we were hoping to have happen out there The mobile command unit has been placed at the Ross Parking lot and the syringe kiosk has been installed So a lot of the things that we talked about at the last meeting have have taken place I'm going to turn it over to the fire chief to talk a little bit about Outreach and engagement on behalf of the fire department Mayor counsels So this has been a very challenging Demographic to kind of engage with and so I reached out to the county to the ems medical director as well as the county health Trying to get some numbers in a sense of what was occurring there So far And these numbers you see up here at ems calls for service 65 total year to date with 42 being between november and february May not seem like a large number But any single address that gets more than 100 calls in a year would be a significant address And some of those would be ones that you would expect a health care facility or a skilled nursing facility Where you've got a population that would have medical conditions that we would respond to on a more regular basis Um We also were asked to try and get a sense of who was in this camp and like susie was saying There's a daytime population, but we were kind of curious about what the nighttime population was for people who were actually sleeping So we modeled it after the point time count that I participated in a few weeks ago We went out early in the morning before people were mobile We went out on the 23rd at six o'clock in the morning as the sun was coming up And and talking to a number of the occupants And looking at the tents And some of the tents it's kind of hard to tell which is a single tent and which one are kind of joined together I would say that between 60 and 70 of the tents on that morning were occupied And in talking to two different residents there They had a sense that there was approximately a hundred people or so sleeping at the camp in the evening Which is different than the daytime population. It's a very porous border as far as people coming in out It's not a single gate. It's not a single door Um and that daytime occupant use, uh, there's a lot of drug activity occurring In addition to the shelter needs that we're trying to address From a fire department aspect And I share this with the the county is we have access issues into that Camp for medical calls and one of the things we've been doing with the outreach team with the county And also with some of the volunteers there of the idea of self extrication AMR or county ambulance provider They have concerns for their Worker safety and they do not want to go into the camp at night for a number of reasons one because it's not lit And they don't feel safe there, but also because it's not a hard surface It's not an engineered site where you can roll a gurney. You can get someone in and out They're having significant decon issues with their equipment And so they from a county perspective have asked that people come to the parking lot When we come there The other thing with this with the with the numbers that's a little bit challenging is that it's not a fixed address when someone calls It comes in as a lot of different names. It doesn't just come in 650 river street or ross camp or the bridge at highway one or You know the pedestrian footpath. So these numbers are These are specific to that address But my gut feeling is that these numbers are a little bit low, but I'd rather report what we have on factual, you know data for that address And then the concerns and the county shares this as well Is it because this is a non sanctioned and non conforming camp? There's issues with that that we've always had in our community But because of the aggregate number of people within that space, uh, they're concerned about the transmission of disease We're concerned about the ability to access. We're concerned about uh fire As you know, it's been cold We have a lot of people that are using equipment to stay warm, which I recognize as a human need But because we don't have the normal standards that we would have in place for a building or a campsite The spread of fire from one tent to the other is a significant concern as well as the spread of disease There's the county vector control is going to be doing outreach there We're trying to remove refuse from that area as regularly as we can but they're worried about disease being transferred because of animals that are there and because of the living conditions The use of heating and cooking equipment is a concern. There are propane tanks there We've been fairly rigid about the use of fire Not having open firepets open flame Just because of the proximity of the tents and the number of tents But we also have concerns with people using heating devices in an enclosed space for carbon monoxide And so there's a lot of concerns besides just the The human outreach for shelter. We also want to have shelter that is functional for those people And this group has been very reluctant to engage with us on enacting any kind of standards Even with the outreach we did last week where we were down there for hours With volunteers with people who are familiar with the community I got very limited interaction for the number of people who wanted to come and engage with other shelter services We had 17 people that said yes, I want to change I want to go somewhere else and at the end of the day in the evening We were able to transport six people. So we have a large population that is there I don't know that they want to transition to another place and where they're living has some concerns from a health health and safety consideration Thank you Susie and Jason So that concludes that portion of the update on the encampment So to recap some of the major themes is we are going out and connecting the outreach as directed by staff And the board of supervisors as well to their staff working with the city the county Salvation army and other volunteers and thank you to them trying to really ascertain What is the sleeping occupant population because that's the cohort? Those are the set of people that we need to find shelter alternatives for So knowing that number is really crucial to us coming up with the final shelter products You've also heard a good update on on having hopefully about 100 beds online with In total within the next few weeks and we also are Through our outreach talking to folks and getting a better sense of what are barriers to shelter that we need to be aware of What are maybe different alternatives? We might need to explore to meet some needs So these are all part of the conversations that are going on Yes, so finding that accurate count and we will pretty soon have to shift into getting an actual by name list We're going to have to know with some specificity Exactly who's there? Where are you? What tent are you in so we can know you and know your circumstances and know what help we might need to help connect you with We as you heard the health and safety is still a very significant concern from us from many angles And you heard some stories and many of you have been out there and experienced Some of the graphic things that we're just touched a bit on tonight And and finally again just that outreach really will help us understand our barriers So we're going to continue that we're going to continue on with the council direction We will be coming back to you at your next council meeting on the 12th As well to give you, you know, sort of the final update on on that So, um, thank you again to jason and susie So then shifting into the next part of the agenda and I can reorient you But this was part three of the overall discussion agenda where we start marching through the the more lengthy emotion and talking about All of the various sub parts that the city council asked us to work on and specifically again We were asked to bring back two action items and reports on the rest. So this first one is an action item and this was to bring back and Resolution declaring the state of emergency a state of homeless emergency And so we did not have that prepared in time for the agenda packet as you may have seen But we do have an instrument that we can hand out tonight But I'm also helping hoping to have a discussion about Different instruments under the law under the california government code that are sometimes talked about as a state of emergency Um, and and there's so there's a few different pathways. So I like to have that discussion with the council Talk about different pathways and ultimately you'll provide the direction on what you're seeking to achieve through various things so the first um, the first creature under California law and in the california government code is something called a declaration of a shelter crisis And the council actually has a declared shelter crisis and I'll this was in your packet and I'll also pass around A copy in case it's helpful for you to have the hard copy to your fingertips um But what the shelter crisis does a council may declare it if it finds that a significant number of persons Are without the ability to obtain shelter resulting in a threat to their life and safety And by doing this a few things are opened up for cities And when the city did this back in january of 2018 It was contemplated. Does it make more sense to go with a local emergency declaration or to go with the shelter crisis declaration? And at the time thinking about what the city was trying to accomplish This was the path the council ultimately chose And the reason we did that is that we were trying to stand up shelters And we thought that we would like something that would help reduce barriers To to build things to have flexibility with health and safety codes You're knowing that this is an actual crisis We need to be able to move more quickly more rapidly to providing shelter provision for people in need Another important part of the shelter crisis is that it provides immunity from ordinary negligence So again, you're moving quickly. You're trying to really respond to a crisis situation You know, we do our best to maintain everything But if there's just some some very basic minimal liability then we would be immune from that Gross negligence things like that would of course not be covered But of course we would not engage in those sorts of things. So you can see here on the slide I mentioned the immunity allows suspension of any state or local regulatory statute etc And allows for alternate health and safety standards So the the version I sent around you can see is fairly simple And it is somewhat tailored for the circumstances we were in in early 2018 that is Moving into the river street camp That was about that time where that transition was happening And we weren't exactly sure what was ahead of us in terms of shelter or options And so in looking at this again and conferring with the city attorney There's a sense that this instrument itself the shelter crisis declaration could be improved It could be expanded to have maybe perhaps more general application It also could include more specifically Other land use regulations such as the california coastal act in sequa Just to be very clear that we want to maximize our flexibility So an option for the council could be to have us go back and provide a revised Shelter crisis declaration that has these other features the city attorney said could be useful And it very well could be useful as we were trying to be very flexible and creative with our shelter options Now the the second Possible vehicle under State laws a declaration of a local emergency and that's what we were directed to bring back tonight And I'll send round a draft of that in a moment and declaring a local emergency first of all there is no Specific homeless like a state of homeless emergency that's used but there is no specific legal creature That aligns with that so it would just be declaring a local emergency But the basis for that would be a homeless emergency so that would be and i'm having that interpretation is allowable under state code Because as you can see here on the slide they may declare local emergency if it finds existence of conditions of disaster or extreme Peril to safety of persons and property and the council can interpret that that caught the genesis of that extreme peril to persons and property So a declaration of a local emergency Does allow the city to call upon mutual aid and potentially financial support if the governor of the state would recognize The declaration and send funds down to the city We have used it twice before for the winter storms in 2017 So we had I think a couple of declarations in january and february of 2017 And then also with the 2011 tsunami surge that we would mostly hit in the harbor Shelter emergent or local emergencies have to be renewed every 60 days So the council would have to take up a resolution to continue the state of emergency every 60 days It used to be 30 days. It just changed in state law in january of this year So with this And there's there's maybe varying uses i've seen a few cities around the state that have declared an emergency And to my research, although it hasn't been completely extensive I don't know if the governor has accepted any of these declared A state of local homeless emergency and actually sent funds down to localities So you see communities using it as maybe a call for action as well Or to heighten the sense of awareness in the community or the sense of the depth of the crisis So anyway, that that's just a couple of things that the council can consider and I do want to pass around then a draft of a Local homeless emergency declaration there are copies in the back window As well for people to read and I can pull it up here on the screen if you would like would that be Somebody you'd like to see Okay, so let's see if I can zoom All right, so hopefully this is viewable It looks pretty big back there So the first few recitals just talk about the fact that we have nearly half the county's homeless population here in the city of Santa Cruz 1200 and four people out of 2249 counted in 2017 the last point in time homeless count I'll say I mentioned this last time, but the 2019 count just occurred on january 31st But we won't have that data available until perhaps june or july because there's a lot of um, there's a follow-up Survey that has to be administered and all the data compiled and report written So we we don't know where we are now the data are two years old, but this is the best we have Um, the next recital just talks about the the homeless populations being a variety of individuals Many with co-occurring disabilities and conditions. There are inadequate homeless services and shelter supply countywide Resulting in a significant number of people Remaining without the ability to obtain shelter Often when you're unsheltered you're without adequate sanitary facilities and are at risk of theft crime and weather conditions And these conditions result in an extreme threat to the physical and mental Um health and safety those experiencing homelessness in addition to such conditions also results In a critical threat to the natural environment and the public health safety and well-being of the surrounding community So those are the the recitals. They're very basic They're similar to the recitals that you'll see in the shelter crisis declaration You've already adopted and then the remainder of the clauses just cite the government code sections 86 30 through 86 34 which cites the authority for you to take this action The requirement that it be renewed by your body every 60 days And then there are the resolution clauses resolving that you've you're making the finding that these conditions exist within the city And that you resolve that you're proclaiming a state of local homeless emergency within the city and then calling on the governor To declare and proclaim an emergency in Santa Cruz and provide support and resources So this is just a draft we put forward for your potential consideration When it comes time to that later in your agenda item So then to wrap up this aspect of the report out There's a few options in front of the council one is that you can Direct staff to go back and do some revisions and expansion of the shelter crisis declaration You could adopt this instrument this evening or ask staff to go back or revise it here Or ask staff to go back and revise it and bring it back You could do a blend of the two, but we just want to present the full options for you knowing the history That the city has already taken All right, so if that's all right, I think we'll move on to the next one. Okay Have some head nods. Okay Okay, thank you. So now we are shifting on to the next element of the motion Let's just shuffle my papers And um, and you'll see actually the top of these slides in the gold text in parentheses to the side You'll see reference to the sub parts of the motion we're responding to in that section So one a was the emergency declaration One b d e and g all had a commonality around they directed certain aspects of looking at transitional encampments So we merged all of those sub parts in because they all were different Different levers or mechanisms affecting the same issue So for this I will be inviting up lead butler the director of planning and community development But before I do I did want to orient the council To the project charter that he'll be referencing and I believe susie passed around a copy and this was an agenda item So I just want to walk through the structure of this document So you know for the public and the council so you know what you're looking at and why we do this So when the the city embarks upon a substantial policy effort or new project We like to put together a project charter and a project charter helps I outline in great specificity what you're trying to accomplish why you're doing it the steps you might take the considerations the risks And so you really have a full sense of the scope of the work before you leap into it You're making sure that you're carefully considering the implications Thinking about what I want to make sure I don't miss early on so you'll see that this is a Three and a quarter page document You can see the team members the the staff members that would participate in this work The mission the business case that is why do the thing? objectives The process scope the deliverables through the process the stakeholders that should be involved Roles and responsibilities of team members the resources need assumptions risks Boundaries etc. So it's an extensive document, but it really does help clarify thinking around it so that we are Very sure when we embark about something that we understand the work that we're doing So we're presenting this to the council today and director of planning and community development Lee Butler will walk through the substance of the document Thank you, Tina and good evening mayor and council members The as Tina mentioned the motion itself is listed up there in small text and I'll quickly paraphrase And the council was asking that we identify public and private sites that can serve as transitional encampments And to develop either an ordinance or a policy that facilitates the establishment of Transitional encampments for people experiencing homelessness And I'll just quickly Summarize what a transitional encampment is for the benefit of the public It's essentially a a camping site that would be located Throughout the community or multiple locations throughout the community that serve as a safe place for people experiencing homelessness To temporarily live while they find and or are assisted with finding permanent stable housing options And so in response as Tina indicated we developed a project charter and we identified four key items as the purpose of this exercise and the first would be Identifying public property locations that we vet with the community that could serve as Transitional encampments the second would be to identify locational characteristics that Would serve as Preferred locations for private properties that could accommodate Transitional encampments We also would want to establish operating criteria to ensure quality of life for all the stakeholders And finally we would come up with a process whereby public and private entities Can establish these transitional encampments So the the first step in this would certainly be researching similar models in other cities And looking at the locational criteria and operational criteria and best practices that they've used There are some examples that we've already looked at that Susie will speak to in just a few minutes In seattle and portland and Eugene and she's actually been up to visit some of those and so can speak firsthand to some of the operational characteristics that they have And that they developed through a community driven process to establish those camps And the next slide please. Thank you Certainly outreach will be a critical component of this process that councils aware We've got our community outreach policy and we would be engaging stakeholders both In small focus groups as well as Inclusive larger community meetings to really hear from a broad spectrum of the community And engage with as many people as possible We have a variety of objectives with the outreach We first would want to learn from nonprofit operators How their needs Can be facilitated through the process that we develop And how we can encourage them to pursue these transitional encampments second we would be learning from community members and All the stakeholders How the transitional encampments can be operated in a manner that best serves the camp residents And provides them with assistance in achieving improved living situations as well as Operating in a manner that is least impactful to the surrounding community the businesses and the environment So based on the materials that Were provided the last meeting we developed some Thoughts that serve as an initial step that we would want to Vet here first off with the council and of course, you know our recommendations could change Through the community outreach process, but just getting a good understanding of what the council sees as How these camps would function would be helpful in pointing us in the right direction for our initial conversations with the community and so um, we had a few things that we wanted to specify that we How we understand the direction and as part of the council's deliberation later in the meeting We'd hope to hear some Conversation on these and that may be helpful for us in embarking on this exercise. So first the nonprofit as the business operator they would be doing things like arranging for the any porta-potties or shower facilities and so forth We would have a common set of rules for the residents at the facilities There is the idea of self-regulation and enforcement Through the the camp and then We wanted to confirm that these would be temporary for private properties And we have some codes that allow for An initial one-year term And an extension of one year for areas outside of the coastal zone and then six months and 12 months for areas inside of the coastal zone and Whether or not the council sees that as an appropriate timeline for public properties and part of that is Is important because it helps to establish the process that we will need to To vet with the community whether that is a policy that we may be able to move forward Or if it would actually require ordinance changes. And so hearing the council's thoughts on that would be helpful for us So we have put together What I believe is an aggressive timeline. We recognize the the importance of this to the council and to the community and There is a substantial amount of effort that goes into this We would be coordinating this effort with at least seven different city departments as identified in your agenda report and We would start off by completing additional outreach Or excuse me additional research and analysis and that initial outreach in the next couple of months Followed by putting together some draft policy recommendations that we would vet with stakeholders Then we would be refining the ordinance and policy language depending on What type of Process we have to pursue whether that's a policy Issue or an ordinance issue And whether or not public parks are identified We may or may not need to go to The planning commission and or the parks and recreation commission. So this timeline builds in touch points with those commissions for Their recommendations and then we would be bringing the policy and or ordinance recommendations as well as the public site preferences or locational characteristics back to the council in august And with that I will turn it over to susie who can speak to you about some of the other models So I had the good fortune of having a scheduled family vacation to portland last weekend And so um, we got there on thursday evening and I opted out of a family Trip to pal's bookstore to go meet with the city of portland. So I will suggest that was a pretty Pretty, uh, they were bummed that I wasn't able to go and I will go next time So I did meet with the city of portland and the county As well to talk about the transitional encampments there We have talked about dignity village and other encampment models And I really wanted to have some firsthand experience as to What was the process for which the city of portland and other pacific northwest? cities came to The conclusion that transitional encampments were an appropriate Program in the continuum of shelter services for that those areas Understand about their genesis Why did they come to fruition? How are they functioning now? The benefits and potential drawbacks and then also in addition to that How are those cities experiencing unsanctioned encampments as well? as they continue to Shepherd transitional encampments and other other types of models that are really more of a An alternative shelter site that might be outdoors or in tiny homes, etc So the city of portland was infinitely helpful in thinking about how transitional encampments May fit into our community and I wanted to provide some perspective They also gave me a ton of information on the city of seattle As well as the city of eugine And I have reached out to a council member at the city of eugine and have gotten a point of contact from mr Sorry council member clever on other programs there. So we will continue that research as well So i'm going to kind of step through these different models because I think it's really important in my research Transitional encampment is just one model. There are many different models that we could be considering and they also Really cater to a specific type of population and as we contemplate Our process around the closure of the the gateway encampment and thinking about how to diversify Our sheltering options to meet the specific needs of our community members I think it's important to think about all these different models So i'll just briefly go through what each of these cities has in their portfolios So the city of seattle has currently nine city permitted villages The capacity is ranging from 16 beds to 60 beds And that's across a different type of structure some Tiny homes some kind of tough shed models some encampments and some of them Have all of those different types of structures in one place All are partially or i'm sorry all of the seattle programs are operated operated by a non-profit All are either partially or fully self-governed and i'll talk a little bit about how that process works All share very strict rules of conduct including zero tolerance policy for out drugs and alcohol Use and possession violence, etc All in in the city of seattle have community advisory committees Every single one of their meetings is online It is a wealth of information about the type of people that go to the type of structure around these community Advisory committees the city's involvement the neighborhood's involvement There is a lot of communication between the encampments and the neighbors to ensure that there's You know Issues are resolved quickly and there's good neighbor policies Unsanctioned can't however Unsanctioned encampments remain a significant challenge for seattle even with these nine city permitted villages Currently this Currently the city of seattle has and this is A kind of a point in time count right now since january 900 locations within the city where people are sleeping outdoors So 900 encampments And if you compare that to the nine City permitted villages, obviously they're serving a very small population of those in need in seattle Seattle's navigation team of 30 staff members Outreaches on the sanction encampment residents for impact assessment So they go in and they do an impact assessment to see about Impacts on residents and impacts in the general vicinity neighbors business Businesses and they make decisions about what to do in terms of prioritizing cleanup and moving folks into other shelter options And they also obviously navigate folks to those other services So the city of portland has three different programs The kenten's women's village is um a proactively Piloted um in sanction encampment or village. It's very small. It's only 15 beds But it is the one encampment in portland that was that was proactively developed and not reactive to an unsanctioned encampment I think that's an interesting point to make capacity ranging from 15 to 70 beds Kenton is the one that is exclusively operated by a professional nonprofit Dignity village is completely self-governed, but there is non-profit assistance with services And then the right to dream which is an overnight program or a rest area is self-governed as well In addition to seattle Unsanctioned encampments in portland remain a significant challenge Last fiscal year. There were 25,460 encampments that were brought to the city's attention for mitigation I believe that they cleared out about 4,000 of those last year And are continuing on that pace for this year. And so the point of that really is is thinking about kind of this this um duality of How do we provide services to our homeless population In a in a way that is meeting Individualized needs and understanding barriers, but also having a lot of pragmatism about what what kind of solutions will actually make a difference And i'm not suggesting that encampment and sanctioned encampments won't I believe they will But I do believe that they need to be part of a continuum of services And i'll talk a little bit more about that in the next slide um And so with those 25,460 encampments in the city of portland they spent about 1.6 million dollars to clean up those camp encampments last year So the city of Eugene Has three different programs a car camping program much like a safe parking program that we have talked about here rest stops which are an overnight program which is distinct distinctive from a sanctioned encampment or a transitional encampment and then on Excuse me a desk to dawn program, which is similar. It's an overnight program as well I think it operates from 4 30 p.m. To about 6 30 a.m The capacity of the city of Eugene's programs is anywhere from 20 to 125 beds They're all operated by professional nonprofits. Some of them have Clients or residents that provide security or do other jobs, but most of them Um are operated by or all of them are operated by professional nonprofits In addition to the two other cities the city of Eugene still struggles with encampment unsanctioned encampment issues Ironically in my research just last month They were managing a very similar process to what you're you're managing now And because of an uptick in unsanctioned encampments in their downtown area I've recently gone through a process of Having a consultant do a shelter feasibility study and All of these cities have been really focused on emergency shelter much like the city is key takeaways from the pacific northwest research There's a lot of similarities to what we're experiencing down here All of all of the cities provide these alternatives sleeping and camping camping options But they're all in very structured environments and I want to talk a little bit about how that might Be distinctive with from the population that is currently at the gateway encampment As I mentioned all of the cities continue to have significant challenges with unsanctioned encampments And they have developed very specific mitigation plans for those that really think about community impact within the resonance of the of the encampment and then the adjacent Properties as well and how to prioritize that and I think that's something that this council should consider Moving forward as well. They are all developing emergency shelter programs with the utmost urgency In addition to supporting these sanction encampments The sanction encampments are part of a continuum of homeless response programs and not considered a solution They appeal to and serve a very specific demographic that may not be consistent with our currently The demographic concern currently residing at the gateway encampment and I just want to draw your attention to We had some public comment on this and the fire chief spoke to this as well and There are a lot of harm reduction services going on at the gateway encampment because there is a lot Of drug use at the gateway encampment So in thinking about the numbers of folks that we have there their potential to be able to be transition to a transitional encampment with these types of restrictions on Substance use disorder. It's something that we should be considering Emergency shelter navigation Safe parking transitional camp encampments Safe sleeping, etc They all provide different types of programming and different barriers to entry and it's something that we should be thinking about this entire continuum and I think We should really be focused on the specific needs in our community and what types of programs will meet those needs Homelessness sheltering must provide a diverse set of models. I just said that And then so in bold here I do believe transitional encampment models should be studied and including safe parking rest stops tiny home villages dusted on programs, etc The distinction is we need to make sure they meet the needs of our community All provide a dignified place space to sleep Crisis stabilization and a first step out of homelessness But don't necessarily meet the needs of our gateway a current gateway encampment occupants And I'm quite frankly our greater homeless unsheltered population. We have a high population of folks experiencing co-occurring disorders My perspective based on the research is folks in these pacific northwest transitional encampments are pretty stable population And so thinking about moving forward with transitional encampments and kind of going through the study that Lee talked about really getting to our own and the needs in our community and how best to serve folks That are currently unsheltered is will be of the utmost importance All right. Okay. Thank you Lee and Susie for that very in-depth report and for taking your time to go to portland It's great to have that firsthand information So there are three more parts to the staff presentation if you're tracking Um, so I will cover the next two parts and then we'll hear from tony ellie at the director of parks and recreation So the two parts i'm going to cover now were motion parts one c and one f One c this was a direction to bring back an action item for the council One f was exploration with ucsc. So first one c This was about overnight parking restrictions on delaware avenue from swift street to schaefer road So you saw there was a map in the staff report that just showed the the length of that And um, we explored what would it would take if the council would choose to remove the restrictions And it could be done by council motion direction to the city manager to not enforce the parking restrictions And um, there are signs that all along there that have been in place since I believe 2004 And the council could direct those to be covered or just removed whatever council wishes to do on that one Um, and then so the next part Is with um, ucsc. So there were two aspects of the council Direction on the 12th dealing with ucsc. The the first was asking staff to um To actually reach out to ucsc about could they let students park and sleep in their cars on their In some parking lots up on campus. The second was a more formal approach to could the city actually Parking lot at their 2,300 delaware avenue for a safe safe parking program So we reached out to thank you to bonnie libscomb for doing the outreach on this Reached out to ucsc on both of these points and they provided an official statement, which was part of your packet I'm sending it around again in case you like having a hard cup in front of you But I will read um first they have a statement So we'll read that and then just a touch on these two points So ucsc states first we want to address our commitment to providing housing support on campus for homeless students The issue of housing supply is first and foremost a priority for us We are focused on bringing online over 2,000 beds of additional on campus student housing In the next few years to help address the long-term affordable housing needs of our students In addition the university has made and will continue to make available transitional housing for any student who is in need of housing support As each student's situation and needs are different Students are asked to contact our slug support office And there's a link here if you see the document online to obtain these support services These accommodations include temporary hotel accommodations Temporary or permanent on-campus housing and or adjustments to financial aid We can work with the student to ensure they have a safe place to live and will take into account their ability to pay We will not turn away any student in need who seeks assistance As you know the university can't require students to live on campus Nor do we restrict students from obtaining services that they are eligible for through off-campus providers However, we offer services and resources to any student who comes to us in need But we can't require them to take the assistance offered. So that's a statement I just wanted to read that in case people hadn't seen that So then they provided answers to the two questions we posed to them First with respect to evaluating proposals for student overnight sleeping in cars on campus. They said that They are currently evaluating and analyzing different proposals. So they're actively looking into this They're they're assessing things like risk considerations cost locations, etc So we don't have a definitive answer on this yet But we expect to hear back from them in the future and we will stay in touch with them and make sure to report back as soon As we hear something on this Secondarily with respect to our request to lease The 2,300 Delaware's north parking lot for a safe parking program They declined that opportunity They said that they actually have some short term and your term plans for use of the lot for academic and research purposes So they're not willing to enter into lease negotiations with us on that at this time So you can have the answer also appended to their statement is there are attachment a and b which list Their uc and ucse codes related to camping as well as the ucse parking and program rules Transportation and parking services general information. So that's all the resource and it is attached to the agenda item for those who haven't seen it online Okay, so with that that now covers motion sub parts 1c and 1f which leaves just one more And this is Motion sub part 1h. And so with that I will invite up parks recreation director Tony Elliott He will walk through the charter for hours of public facilities And and I've already done a preview of what a charter so I won't do that So we'll just invite Tony up to go over that. Thank you Thank you, Tina. Good evening mayor and city council members. Um, yeah, I think tina framed it really well This is item 1h report from the parks rec department Regarding reopening of public facilities and bathrooms This item again, we created a project charter that we shared with the council before this evening And really there were I think in the in the recommendation it referenced the materials submitted this evening There were several documents tied to this in the motion like two weeks ago In that there are really three main parts to this motion. So I just want to kind of cover those three Aspects to this item and then briefly talk about the process very similar to the planning director Lee Butler what he covered with you just a little while ago. So The summary of the action items And really again, this is explained in great detail In the project charter the first is to develop recommendations For changes to the municipal code And this is regarding the city ordinance That essentially grants the parks and recs Department authority to limit hours effectively closing parks If need be when need be And in the city ordinance it really explains that the two items that could lead to that are related to public safety and preservation of assets In the parks That language is included in the project charter specifically as well. So the recommendation was for Essentially adding language in that considering adding language for a Essentially necessitating council approval for any closures extending More than 14 days. So we'll review that I'll talk about that process here in just a little while In terms of I think one of the underlying pieces of that ordinance in the process Is really a need for greater transparency and consistency when we change the hours Of a park facility of a restroom if we were to close anything I think part of the the challenge there And part of the opportunity that we have through this motion is to is to lend a greater transparency and consistency through that process So what we may do to sort of supplement those changes to the municipal code would to bring Potentially a recommended administrative policy or procedure something internally that would lend to greater communication Lend to that process of both council review, but also Internal review and then also engagement with external stakeholders. For example county parks state parks Things like that. So we may bring kind of a supplemental administrative policy order as well with that the second piece of the Of the recommendation is to provide a response to city council regarding facilities and properties currently closed A big piece of that is including data operational data. What is currently closed? Why is it closed? What's the history on that and that really lends to These recommended changes that we'll get to with the municipal code. So what are those thresholds? What are the reasons why we have limited hours or closed things in the past? And what can that do to inform us on developing this amendment to the municipal code? Or policy changes moving forward. So we'll bring that As well number three is to submit a detailed funding request to support operations necessary To keep parks and facilities open So this could be a range of things and this will be This will be a very broad exercise that we'll go through but considering personnel considering changes to our infrastructure considering different type of materials or You know different type of strategies for facilities for parks the environmental design and so forth What are some of the funding needs? That we could request or submit to council to be considered as an additional appropriation To allow us to keep parks and facilities both open but also safe for all users as well So on the next slide in terms of the the process that we'll go through really a lot of this is going to be focused Internally to sort of craft some some different concepts with the city attorney with city staff city manager's office But really to work with the community partners as well So on number one the municipal code Really kind of crafting some ideas on functionally. How could this work? How would we change? This language But then engaging groups like the coastal commission the county state parks so on and so forth So I'm thinking about what that impact would be and operationally How that would function We would take that through the parks and recreation commission as well and then eventually get that back to city council On number two the parks and facilities closure again very similar what What is closed? Why is it closed? What's the rationale? What's the documentation? What's the data? Behind that again, what are those thresholds that we've hit? In the past that have caused us to To act on the current city ordinance to close or limit access to to certain lands or facilities We want to do some research on how other California communities are managing similar ordinances or policies But again, I think similar to some of the topics we discussed this evening You know those don't necessarily dictate what we do here in Santa Cruz. I think we are Unique and I think the solutions that we come up with need to be unique to to our community Again community engagement. I think this is going to be a big piece of it We have new adoptive park groups forming a variety of park and facility users from activity partners program partners From youth to seniors. We want to engage our community In parks and facility users As well and then again reviewing that with the parks and recreation commission on the budget piece of it Again very similar. We want to review past present and then upcoming sort of anticipated operational Impacts that we may have we want to talk with our finance department too about where funds could come from If we are asking for an additional appropriation having that background ready for city council to say well Here's where funds can come from. Here's what that impact would be In the sustainability of utilizing different funds for those needs So creating a proposed budget and then again similar review with parks commission internal city staff and stakeholders To get that back to city council in terms of our timeline. We are going to aim to do this work and get a At least some draft proposals to the parks and recreation commission on may 6th That that's our target. But if that moves back until uh, july You know, it's going to be somewhere in that time range very similar to what uh, Planning director lee butler outlined as well. So may to july for review at the parks and recreation commission And then bringing these items back For the city council shortly after that Okay, thank you so much tony okay, so that is Going through all the sub parts now. We have a summary for you because I know it's probably a lot in a very wide ranging scope So a summary of the council direction or feedback We could request from you or you could take and you can see the green bars So the various sub parts that we covered in our discussion this evening So the first on the city county joint action plan As we stated we are continuing shelter outreach to provide alternatives and better understand the basic needs and barriers To um for shelter for the encampment sleeping occupants um finalizing plans for 12 20 river street program as um was stated We believe we're very close to that. We're not in a place where we we have anything finalized But we're very close to that I'm considering other sheltering options to meet the needs of the encampment Occupants and the intention is for the gateway encampment closure to be contingent on every overnight sleeping Occupant provided suitable shelter alternatives This was a clear discussion point with the council at your last meeting and something that we are working to achieve And we feel is attainable by our timeline Second on the emergency resolution. There were a couple of options we outlined with respect to Either enhancing or revising the existing shelter Shelter crisis declaration you have on the books and have had for about a year Taking action on an emergency declaration so declaring a local homeless emergency either today or at a future meeting Next on the transitional encampments you heard the in-depth project charter and read that so a sense from the council on direction Is did we capture what you would like us to do? We put a lot of thought into that as you can see Involving a lot of people working very quickly and thanks to all the staff that were part of that But are we on the right track to meet your needs? Fourth on the Delaware parking We were asked to bring back an action item on that So if council wishes to direct the city manager to remove or to not enforce the overnight parking restrictions on Delaware between Swift and Schaefer Fifth on the public facilities and bathrooms. You just heard the report from tony elliott There similar to the transitional encampments. Does that charter sound right? Do we have a good work plan? We think meets your needs and meets your expectations Sixth for ucsc safe parking There is one element we'll continue with updates on that is for their ability to house Students in their cars up on campus somewhere So we'll continue that dialogue and then finally just to close the loop on sub parts one i and one j We did not bring that today the council direction from the 12th was to return that within 90 days Um, so that's a summary if you have a sign up and it's blocking someone behind you Can you please lower your sign so everybody can see? Thank you Okay, please okay, and with that. Thank you very much for your attention and that concludes our presentation And we're happy any of us to field any of your questions. Thanks. Well. Thank you That was a lot to cover in a short period of time um, I want to thank all the staff that Would and you put together this comprehensive summary given the short period of time and um Magnitude of direction so many many thanks to you for being here and presenting it At this time it'd be an opportunity for the council to ask any clarifying questions of our staff And and that that after that is concluded. Then we'll uh go ahead and have a council for gloveers presentation And as we're Matthews um in terms of the encampments the structured encampments that you got information on Seattle Portland and Eugene um It was a relatively small number of encampments Serving as it appeared a relatively small percentage of the overall camping And um, I'm just I think read Yes, I Reiterating the impression I got that uh, there was a certain demographic that was appropriate for those and that um A great number of others were not and particularly that the um Demographics at the gateway encampment. Oh really? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry um that the campers at the gateway camp uh have a high percentage of um drug drug users substance of users That may not be suitable for the kind of structured encampments So we should be realistic about our expectations for that. Is that a fair Recap yeah, so um, sorry So yes, that is a fair assessment based on my research and based on the discussion with the city of Portland um And you know, we also city and county staff will be meeting with brun adam's on transitional encampments this friday as well To hear about his perspectives about that My understanding and I have also heard from mr. Adams about this as well Is that um these self-governed encampments? To be harmonious with their neighborhoods that they are placed in and to have that good neighbor policy It is somewhat of a self-selecting group of individuals In my research through the city of seattle as I mentioned those Committees that they have that oversee the um villages Each one of those minutes that I looked at does talk about folks being discharged for drug and alcohol possession Having zero tolerance policy about drug and alcohol use and possession as well as you know bringing in paraphernalia I believe in large parts Those types of transitional encampments as well as you know, the right to sleep Right to dream sorry program in portland and the rest stops and dusk to dawn and Eugene Do you have that barrier to entry around substance use disorder? And then have also just a very high set of expectations around behaviors and issues that might not be conducive to folks living in a smaller more A denser environment with more people living in a small space. So yes, that is a fair characterization And then there's just a whole lot of other people out there camping In the pacific northwest cities. Yeah, I mean they they are I think it's across The western united states. I I don't think we are different than any other city coastal city across from san diego all the way to seattle I think unsanctioned encampments And issues around unsanctioned encampments from the perspective of health and safety within the encampment And then there are also their impacts on neighborhoods are being experienced across the western united states Okay, councilmember mires then councilmember gliver and then vice mayor coming I just had a question about the transitional encampments Did you get a sense of whether these were Places where people were then transitioning either back to their family homes or into regular housing and Just curious sort of what the continuum of care kind of Of condition was for for folks who are in these So ironically I did not get that feeling from the city of portland and their staff The feeling that I got or the information I got from the city of portland staff is that They really considered those three different program models more as an alternative to housing and not necessarily a sheltering through the continuum of care process However, I did look At the city of seattle and as I mentioned those minutes that they have from their their monthly meetings There are people exiting to permanent supportive housing to back to families Each one that I opened up and looked at there are people exiting out of those programs and they're relatively small programs So having one or two exits Per month is is you know out of 30 is a pretty high rate actually So I think it it remains to be seen in terms of the number of people that are transitioning to better living conditions, but in large part These are programs where people are spending a lot of time So I would say dignity village It is it is online that The expected stay is up to two years my perspective people stay much longer than that potentially But there are there are there is evidence that people are transitioning to is better living conditions and just one more question the so Looks like yeah Two of them are in oregon one of them's in washington state. Is there State money that's helping fund you we know that Non-profits are largely operating these but is what what are the where's the funding or the funding coming for supporting Supporting some of these. I don't believe there's any state funding going to these programs. So there is the city of seattle Does support the nine per nine permitted villages? I don't know at what level but I know that based on my research that there is city involvement and city staff That's part of their operating structure With with regard to portland and eugen I believe ketten's women's village is supported financially the other two through provision of infrastructure so fencing trash removal Hygiene facilities with regard to the city of eugen I believe that Actually, I don't know. I don't know if they're funded or not, but I don't believe any of them are funded through state funding Thank you Thank you Thank you for putting this together susie and for the rest of the staff It's really wonderful to see this presentation and how just all of the information you've been able to gather So thank you to you and all of the department heads that have been working on it Just on that topic of access and people being able to get into or use the facilities. I know that We have heard the statements of the Percentage of people being observed using either over at the camp or using drugs or alcohol And that may be a barrier for them to be able to get into the transitional encampments But we know that that population of people using drugs and Alcohol are not the Or not all of the population, right? So we want to also be able to offer those opportunities for people to move into Space is so in your opinion even though there is a percentage of people in the camp using drugs Do you feel that transitional encampments from your research would be an appropriate beneficial option for the people in Santa Cruz who are not using drugs or alcohol? I think they should be considered along with all of the other types of programs that um, I've looked into I do think that Seattle and Portland and Eugene have put a great deal of thought into Those myriad of options and seem to have Some type of either rest stop or transitional encampments So I think it really would make sense for us to consider all of those as we come up with different strategies. Thank you Vice mayor coming I said this this is kind of going back to just some of the experiences I know that you all had down to the camps and I know that initially when there's a census done People were asked if they were from Santa Cruz if they've been long-term residents What percentage of those people at that time? Do you remember? Are from Santa Cruz or we're I've been here for a long time So I don't think we asked so the county um, did a census and did kind of a Preliminary census and this was probably six weeks ago or four to six weeks To go ago. Um, I don't believe they asked specifically where you were where you are from or what part of the county you were from I think in large part. This is an anecdotal that I think there have been a number of different outreach Operations out there from the perspective of the County and now the city is part of those outreach processes as well in large part when the encampment formed in late October November The the folks that were outreached Through hphp and the homeless services center, etc Were in large part of familiar population. I would say now Based on what i'm hearing from county services what we're seeing as well Through my unique experience as one of the city's staffers who has had A lot of contact through my work on pact and with the river street camp I would say that the population is very diverse now and not necessarily our Exclusively local Santa Cruz community. I think we have a lot of south county folks there Potentially even northern Monterey county folks there So I do think that as the camp grew in size and structure It became attractive to a more diverse population than just our localized community I have a follow-up question and I was just curious about how often so like Number of hours per day days per week our county and city staff down at the encampment currently Yeah, so the county is there monday wednesday friday and I believe multiple hours on monday wednesday friday And they are providing health and human service support. So that's hphp You know providing medical support There's smart path assessments that are being done There are also getting people You know people that are eligible for benefits benefits signed up for general assistance food stamps You know whatever people are eligible for so that's happening monday wednesday friday In addition to that starting last week The city county salvation army Volunteer group is going out wednesday thursday friday. So and that's for multiple hours on those days I failed to mention that we hired a temporary employee to help work on this Her name is Megan bunch and she has been a phenomenal asset to the cities thus far and helping to Shepherd this process in addition to that We're really trying to capitalize on the existing outreach sources our services that are out there those days So a harm reduction team is out there on thursday. We're really trying to be out at the same time Because there's folks that have been out there for many many weeks that are familiar with the population Who have connections with folks? I'm really trying to capitalize on that so we can have deeper conversations about what people's barriers are What their needs are what do they need help in? Achieving a transition to a better living situation. And so, you know, I suspect that we will continue to evolve that process But you know, it's on order of 20 hours a week that people are out there That's a follow-up question I know that you all are working really hard and I also want to I probably didn't say this earlier but I want to thank you all for the work that you've done to bring all this information to us because I think it's really beneficial for us to, you know, have this information and I know that there was a lot that was Put on your plate last week. So it's pretty phenomenal what you all have been able to do in this time or two weeks ago. Sorry I know that 12 20 is moving forward and I'm just curious Given what you all presented on transitional camps Would 12 20 be a low barrier shelter and or transition camp, I guess and Yeah, so I'll just start with that Yeah, so, um, I can provide some context to what we had out there before and the benefits of the river street camp You know Understanding it was in, you know a relatively expensive model is actually the same cost if not a lower cost than our overnight Shelter option. So I just wanted to be really clear that Shelter is expensive. Um, that's just what The fact is As it relates to low barrier visa v Substance use disorder the river street camp. I believe was the exclusive program that did not search folks when they came in We really monitored behavior and the actions of our campers around their Their relationships with the community with staff and clients We don't have any other shelter options at this point that have that level of I guess that low barrier as it relates to substance use disorder moving forward With regard to 12 20 and it's potential for a transitional encampment as I understand The transitional campments to be functioning in these these other cities that I talked about Um, I don't believe it's a good candidate for that for one for a couple reasons All of these cities piloted programs first. They didn't just start with You know, we're going to decide to do a transitional encampment And move forward with a piece of property and just move forward They piloted based on conditions that neighborhoods came up with in terms of what would be an appropriate level of um What's the right word? Compatibility with the neighborhood They also piloted for a year six months to a year as to what outcomes were they expecting From kind of that neighborhood impact perspective as well as client perspective So in terms of pilots, um, you really need a stable Site for that the fact that our site is adjacent to our water intake. There's a significant amount of environmental Considerations, um, I think it's pretend, you know, we should consider piloting a transitional encampment If that's the will of the council, I don't believe it should be at 12 20 And just just to follow up on that, um with regards to the low barrier because I know that um, one of the issues that having gone down the camp multiple times and spoken with people one of the barriers outside of Substance abuse is like couples and people who have pets Is that something that would be a barrier 12 20 because I think that that would you know also Warrant wanted to have a different style of camp for those types of people as well Yeah, so I've put a lot of thought into this and um have gone and back and forth about what would be an appropriate type of program at 12 20 Um, we have considered tough a tough shed program We have considered doing a sprung tent structure out there We have landed on doing individual tents again for the purpose of maintaining folks privacy. I mean, that's something that I believe The gateway encampment residents That's a strong need that they have out there. And so I think moving into 12 20 We really do want to maintain that level of privacy for folks I think we'll be more successful in transitioning folks from the gateway encampment to an individual tent model So we will be moving forward with that and yes pets will be allowed pets are allowed at the salvation army programs as well I mean, you can't have a You know animal that's a biter or violent, but pets are allowed. So um much similar to the river street camp model We would be providing storage allowing for cohabitation with partners and allowing for pets I just have one quick question In terms of being able to think of the continuum of care and I know you referenced that several times how do you feel about some of the kind of concepts presented Fitting into existing partnerships. I know you've worked regularly with the county. There's been existing plans in place There's been interim strategies identified in long-term sort of goals and vision Um Outlined how do you feel sort of some of this stuff fits within that because I know some of these things have come up in the past as well So we are embarking on a systems analysis for our homelessness Response systems within the county. I think we'll be more informed about that continuum and where shelters fit into that continuum over the coming months I do think that our Homeless population and this is true for any city is You know, it's not homogeneous people have different needs And I think as we think about shelter programs, whether it's safe parking Or a transitional encampment or an emergency indoor shelter. We need to be engaging with Folks with living lived experience about what those needs are And building programs in a cost-effective way, hopefully to meet those various needs And so moving forward we're really in this urgent emergency response and providing as many shelter beds as we possibly can to meet our current needs Moving forward it will be incumbent upon the city in the county to think about how best to meet Our greater populations needs in a sustainable fashion And if I could add to that a bit, um, we also are operating under that joint action plan of the city in the county That grew out of the two by two committee which sets forth a medium term vision at least that We're going to be reporting back to the board and to the council by April 1st about plans to open a transitional shelter By july 1 utilizing the heat funds And as a reminder on the heat funds, this is the 10.6 million dollars or heaping cash together 10.6 million dollars That the state gave to our county to be used countywide for emergency homeless Use and last friday the 22nd was the deadline for grant proposals to come in And so now there's going to be An evaluation process with that with decisions made i think in march and maybe money hitting the street in april So this is like the immediate piece we're talking about tonight, but we are we've got some longer range looking at Where can we put a longer term multi-year period transitional shelter? Either exploration of the armory as you heard earlier or maybe other sites so that's also what we had what we're working on and also to this point of Really having to be creative and think about different solutions, you know There's you know talk about safe parking possibly across the county That's come up with your council before too, but we really are looking at what are What are unique and different models we can explore and the county is right with us in those conversations So this is it really is an exciting time We've been saying that the past few reports to the council But to have this level of partnership and focus Toward a joint path really is different and and so I think it does fit in quite well Are there other questions for staff at this time? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and transition the presentation portion to councilmember Glover And then open it up for questions and then we'll get on to public comment Thank you mayor Good evening everyone Before I begin I know there's a lot of emotion around this topic and some of us feel certain ways about different things And we're here to talk and share those opinions. So I really appreciate everyone coming out But if you feel like joining me in it, I would encourage us to just all take a deep breath We're all together So I want to start the presentation by letting you know about a woman that I met Who has three young children one of whom is an eight-year-old girl And they live in their van They live in their van because they can't afford rent in Santa Cruz And the eight-year-old girl is facing the reality Who had a conversation with me and a group of other people about how she has talents that she thinks that she should use to get a job So that she can help to support her family in paying for gas and food Now that to me, and I think we can all agree Is really heartbreaking that the reality that an eight-year-old girl living in a van with her mom and her two siblings Needs to think about getting a job to help with family finances So I take I want to just present that experience as well as the experiences I've had going down and working with and talking to the people in the camp both when I'm down there distributing stuff And when I'm meeting with them in meetings asking them what it is that they need to survive and to exist in Santa Cruz So with that I'm going to lead us into My multi-point plan About making moves on homelessness because I think there's been some miscommunication or misunderstanding around my drive my reason and my Approach to addressing the issue of homelessness. So with that I'll just provide some background. Thank you to the staff again for that amazing presentation In Santa Cruz, we've gone from two completely different kind of Thesis and antithesis, right? We have the Ross camp which was really successful in the sense that it provided 50 to 60 beds or things spaces for people It also provided hygiene hot meals and supplies also a safe environment The issue was the cost that was associated with it though for many of the people in the community have it being $75,000 a month Getting up as high as $90,000 a month to implement But then it was closed with any alternative plan or location where individuals could be moved or relocated So that's what birthed the what's now known as the Ross camp because people Congregated somewhere. There was also the San Lorenzo River park or park before that But the difference with the Ross camp is that In opposition or difference to the river street camp which was heavily Monitored with lots of oversight and police protection There is no oversight and supervision at the Ross camp It has very limited access to the things that they need to be able to survive parks and rec has become the de facto department that's responsible for providing materials It has had terrible impacts on surrounding neighborhoods and businesses with increased crime rates and feelings of not being safe And now because of the decisions that we're moving on and what we'll discuss tonight Is that there's the potential that that camp will be closed by the 15th of march with limited shelter So understanding that background it's important for us to emphasize that in the year of 2017 55 people died in the city or the county of Santa Cruz that we're experiencing homelessness 55 people That's a huge number of people to be dying outside in the street And while they're suffering So I want to give you a perspective as to the different points of the plan some of them or all of them I think were touched on tonight, which was great because Move going into this I didn't think we're going to get a chance to hear a report on all of those things So thank you so much for all of those things It incorporates the declaration of homeless emergency the permitting of transitional encampments and safe parking areas As well as the reopening of public facilities so that people can have access to hygiene and bathrooms Now first is the declaration of homeless emergency It's part of advocacy strategies to advance permanent solutions To give us some opportunity to move forward more expeditiously Now from the document that talks about it that was included in our agenda packet as well as some of the different research It's generally intended to ease restrictions on the use of local resources And as was pointed out by the staff the declaration can take a variety of different forms based off of the community To meet the needs that are required for it These are a list of cities that have enacted a state of local emergency around the issue of homelessness So it's not something that's unheard of or far-fetched or something that's done that hasn't been implemented by other municipalities and a place is like a Last list as close as San Jose used the state of homeless emergency to waive requirements related to the use of public lands For the purpose of establishing emergency shelters such as community centers libraries and other facilities As well as places of worship for being able to be used as shelters I was at a church as a guest speaker this morning talking about this with them and the possibility of Using a different church space. There are other opportunities that are associated with it also It reduces bureaucratic barriers so we can move faster It helps to potentially redirect funds so that we can offer more services or use money more effectively It also highlights the urgent need for additional permanent housing So this will open up the conversation of how we can move forward on developing more Affordable housing and Santa Cruz which we direly need And also it provides a quicker ability to use city-owned property to open and maintain these kinds of transitional shelters So that gets us into transitional encampments and the safe sleeping programs Which I can see by some of the signs here tonight and by some of the correspondence I've received Many of you are here to talk about the proposition of the safe parking space on Delaware One of the things that was very common because I received emails that were very very similar to almost verbatim which were Copied from other letters or just a group letter that came out was Concerns the first of which they called it a half-baked idea both the sleeping Locations as well as the transitional encampments I just want to stress that everything that has been suggested by myself council members crown and brown Are objectively data driven to show that they have had positive impacts in addressing the issue of homelessness Not end all be all solutions But they do provide additional tools and opportunities for municipalities to address the issues Of homelessness and the suffering that's taking place of people having to live on the street That we have the three areas that were listed by the staff and as well as looking at the issue of crime now Like I mentioned there were lots of similarities in the emails that I received And there were three primary areas of concern that y'all communicated to me specifically that you were concerned about the first was services And specifically it would prevent the the establishment of camps and parking places Would prevent the efficient and effective delivery of mental health and addiction support and services to the most need The second is safety making sure that neighborhoods and families are safe or don't become less safe without a dramatic increase In law enforcement resources, which we know costs a tremendous amount of money to the city As well as sustainability and that was specifically around damage to the environment and further unregulated waste and disposal So I want to address each one of these concerns really quickly just so that we can make sure we're on the same page And so you can understand what's going on with regards to services in seattle and portland. They have shown Uh objectively that there have been people that have been able to meet their immediate shelter needs and transition out into permanent or supportive transitional housing so there is a If you can imagine 45 people in a year getting off of the street in santa cruz and being moved into supportive and transitional housing That's a huge impact on our population as well as being able to provide at least 125 Unduplicated people throughout the year to have a place to sleep and then in portland. I want to emphasize that they have access to a a and n a services at the Dignity village as well as some of the other locations that are in collaboration with police and other precincts so Really a focus on service the goal is for people to get into the camps have a play safe place to sleep And then have the opportunity to move their way into services and transitional housing So next is safety now the issue that we have with the camp over at ross is that there's no Structure to it and that's the difference between that camp and the transitional encampments and safe parking programs That i'm suggesting is because as susie laid out and tina in that amazing presentation Is that there are very specific guidelines and rules that must be adhered to by anyone participating in or living in the facility to be able to maximize the safety of the community and Because of the way that the system is set up People have ownership within the community people can cook together and share meals people volunteer As a requirement to be able to be a part of the community So there's a sense of ownership and the ability to want to protect what you built together as a community I think we can all i'm sure that's why a lot of you are here right now You want to protect the community that you built together? And that's the same kind of thing that we want to foster with regards to the people that are living in camps again here you can see the percentages of people feeling safe the no increase in reported activity by police departments And this is all objective facts so you can see the sources down at the bottom of the presentation next is sustainability The concern about dumping in all kinds of places the reason why there are issues with cars parking and then you resulting in trash and Garbage and waste in your neighborhoods is because there is no sanctioned location for people to sleep with the ability to adequately and sustainably Remove their trash and waste in important places So if we establish a space where people are going to sleep then along with those locations Come the ability for us to establish infrastructure around the sites that will alleviate the issues of potential dumping in neighborhoods and Trashing natural bridges as some of the signs say I also want to point some other noteworthy things really quickly. They're considerably less expensive So I'm one of the quotes from a model that was trying to be established here in Santa Cruz It was like as little as $2,000 a month to be able to run on a camp on a camp area Um, it could even you know, let's say it costs $200,000 a year to run one of these camps That's still significantly less than what we're paying right now to shelter a significant similar amounts of people Um, so then we'll touch on reopening public facilities, especially because everybody poops And I think there's a book that we read to our kids about the reality that everyone has bodily functions and the issue of dehumanization that goes into not allowing people to use restrooms So the proposition to open the facilities is not to make our parks unsafe It's not to make our bathrooms a totally open free-for-all for people to go do whatever they want with It's to be able to make it so that your children families and pets Your and yourself are safe. So when you're walking around the city, you're not having to dodge and weave through human excrement Because there's no open bathrooms for people to live or to go So, uh, this is just a quote from one of the staff reflecting on the camps going on. Um, and this is from Seattle Uh, quote the people in the encampments are very proud of what they have accomplished in creating the encampment one man said that Said at the low barrier encampments that this place was the last chance for many people And we want to be able to offer those chances for the people that are not focused on just drugs and alcohol But are literally struggling or working homeless Which do exist in our community that are working every day have families and still can't afford the cost of our rental market So i'll close just really quickly with this quote In justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are all here because we care Now the question is How are we going to move through this conversation and identify the conflict with each other? But do it in a way that moves away from talking about what we don't want to see And moves into a solution oriented conversation of what we do want to see. Where do we want to go? I know a lot of you will come and say don't put it Open up the regulations on Delaware I hear you so where should we put them? And i'm going to be hopefully hearing a lot of solution oriented statements tonight from people because I want to hear about your solutions And what we can do to implement them together So I made these recommendations before I was informed by staff that they would be doing certain reports on Items or providing language for stuff So one and four are irrelevant because they were already taken care of this evening So thank you to the staff for working diligently and making sure that those are possible Now these are recommendations that i'm making to my colleagues and i'm sure we can discuss them Uh in depth But specifically two and three is coming back by the twelfth with a comprehensive list from the staff of publicly Or city-owned properties where we can potentially put encampments and safe parking programs And then also coming back on march 12th with language for first reading of both the potential permitting ordinances for the Transitional encampments and the safe parking programs for the ordinances so that only can start moving into the public hearing process In hearing from the community There are other Recommendations that I had that came through the rest of the meeting but just in the interest of the Presentation at hand and what we're talking about. I will end there. So thank you for listening Okay All right, uh, thank you. So at this time I want to um Acknowledge the uh number of folks who reached out to me in advance requesting extra time We have uh a lot of um public comment. And so we have uh one two three seven Uh organizations who are uh requesting extra time that I've granted Um while we make the transition to getting those organizations Lined up we'll go ahead and take maybe a short break But if those of you who reached out in advance could find your way towards the front we'll start with your Your presentations on behalf of the organizations you represent Okay, can you go true? Can you go back? I was written down. Oh, yeah In sanctioned camps people with uh untreated an under treated mental mental illness Open drug use public defecation urination and genuine concerns about the use of our public and private spaces These present conditions combined with the one-time funding from the state warrant a thorough and complete response That is supported by evidence and implemented through broad collaboration Without i'd like to turn over to migie ivy to represent visit santa cribs Good evening mayor watkins council members. Um, thank you First I want to say I don't think there's anybody in the council chambers that would not prioritize the needs of a mother and Children living in a van that is not in question I think that the presentation by the staff really highlights though one of our biggest concerns in the business community Which is zero tolerance for any encampment that's going to be placed in our community The business community is extremely concerned about the current impacts homelessness is having on the health of our local economy Businesses are struggling with increased costs as a result of dealing with vandalism public intoxication theft and aggressive individuals harassing employees It's not rare for a hotel or shop manager To be told that a customer will not be returning because they have witnessed disorderly and hostile behavior playing out in our public spaces This is a portion of our homeless community and we realize that but they are costing this community dearly As you are surely aware over 40 of the city's general fund is dependent on the taxes generated by these very businesses And in fact 19 of the general fund is provided by your tourism industry Support of a vibrant local economy is a quality of life life issue for all residents The conditions that I have pointed out are not conducive to sustaining a vibrant local economy I'd like to introduce kasey with the santa cruz area chamber of commerce Thank you maggie and robert Mayor walkins and city council Thank you for the excellent presentation by your city staff and for the what i'll call the decorum that you presented tonight I appreciate it I represent the santa cruz area business chamber of commerce. We represent over 600 member companies We employ over 20,000 people in the county Those are jobs well-paying jobs some of them low-paying jobs Addressing homeless is an all-in challenge all in i mean it's all in you the business community and the people in the community at large We must work together to find solutions We have a shelter problem Permanent and temporary housing is necessary A need that we should look at we need to look at wraparound services for those people that want those services There are people in those encampments that simply don't want help We should focus on the people that do we need help As robert and maggie pointed out local sources are limited. They're finite We have one time funds from the state coming here. You should use them wisely Judiciously and make sure you're you're using it for the best benefit of the entire community One second. Thank you. I'm proud of the city staff and I appreciate the comments Thank you, and you can feel free if you want to submit your comments. Okay So we have one last presentation And that's brad angel from the grant park neighbors And you'll get four minutes as well. It won't take that long. Okay Good evening council. I appreciate your hearing us. My name is brad angel and I live on cullson avenue I'm a founding member of the grant park neighbors. There's a few of us here We meet every other week and we care about our neighborhood and we are concerned about how the city's decisions impact us And that is why we are here On december 9th 2018 11 of us met at the park to discuss how to manage the impacts of the park reopening full time again This was because after the closure of the river park camp or the san lorenzo park camp The grant park was extremely impacted and it was basically closed down for for quite a while And then it was open again for the weekends, etc So much so that it had to be yeah closed Please do not make this mistake again The grant park neighbors lie in the pedestrian path between the county's the county's services downtown and the city's homeless services There's a direct causal link between Your actions here and our day-to-day life directly Your actions impact our safety our personal security and the potential from our The potential for our children grandchildren pets and our own bodies to encounter encounter real hazards to our health Safety and the quiet enjoyment of our neighborhood is Of our utmost concern I wish to thank the neighbors especially the parks and rec department the santa cruz police department and Generally the city administration For listening to our concerns so far and working with us Thank you in addition. I applaud the efforts to Seriously coordinate with the county. I think that's great and And I hope you guys can find a joint solution to this emergency. Thank you So that concludes the group presentations that reached out in advance to request the additional time I would now ask that urnistina Um Please have two minutes and we'll have public comment for two minutes And then we have altera who will then go next and then we'll open it up to the line Good evening. No good night Mayor and members of the council I want to start by saying That I hear a lot of the stereotypes with which the people who came before me are Describing homeless people Many of you know because I have told these stories several times in these chambers I was homeless. I have been homeless twice In nevertheless, I am here. I am clean. I'm sober. I have never been in any use of drugs therefore Thinking that all people who are homeless has a mental disability or are drug users. It's a stereotype It's a stereotype of the people who have the Blessing of having a place where they can be and probably doing the same that people in the tents are doing Um, urnistina, I'm sorry to I'm sorry to interrupt you. I just want to make sure okay Go ahead. Yeah, okay We are talking in here about having um A place for people to live in a permanent Way is very important because as a person who live in shelters and have to live there at six o'clock in the morning Raining or shining didn't matter I had to live by six o'clock in the morning And I had to stay out of the shelter until five o'clock where I could be back on there So I had to find a place where I could eat I have to find a place where I could eat something warm Because I did not have a place to cook And also I had to find a place to go to the bathroom because We poop okay, so that's very clear So I want to make the the point that You need to take that into account because if you are going to have to live by six o'clock of the The morning in in a ship from the shelter that you are planning to have it's not going to work It's not going to work because I'm going to try to prefer to stay in another place And because I see that my time is leaving Is ending so I just want to say that For all those people who say that all people in the shelters In the camping are using drugs come and visit my home You know as soon as I get into my apartment complex, you can smell marijuana everywhere So what else they are doing in there? Who knows? So and I'm really pretty sure that many of the people who are here are also doing the same. Thank you Thank you. Thank you everyone for taking this issue of homelessness so seriously I really appreciate your work and the suggestions that you've made tonight I am hearing however a problem solution model and the main aspect of that is I'm hearing a Problem of the current residents of frost camp and our current homeless as the population And this is an ongoing problem. This is an ongoing issue. This is kind of our new reality We're going to have homelessness going forward every major city in the u.s. Has it we have amazing economic disparity Maybe since the Great Depression maybe since the French Revolution. I'm not sure But this is our new reality. So we need to meet the needs of the future homeless populations of Santa Cruz I want us to think about that as we're going forward and how to meet the needs of our future homeless issues. Thank you so much Thank you Okay, so now we'll go ahead and start to my left and you'll be given two minutes. So please Madam mayor councilman and women I'm going uh, I'm michael sweat Um, I live at the encampment over there reason why I live there is because I have Friends that are homeless and uh I've been homeless ever since I moved here 23 years ago legally. I've never rented an apartment because The rent's too high. That's your number one problem. You don't have affordable housing um number two is that you keep depending on Uh research from people who are going out there After the fact these people never come and talk to us or ask us questions or talk to me I've never seen them once down there and I live there. I'm there every day. I know everybody there I come here to talk for them These people are telling you oh, yeah, we went and did this and did that no they did They came after the fact and did this and that which you don't count half the people you were talking to Didn't even live there. You don't know that But if you come and talk to somebody who can tell you what goes on you could what these people need I'm gonna end up just for just a second. You could direct the council at this time. Okay. Thank you What these people need you can come to me you can come to the there's people there that will talk to you uh Justin came out the other day and talked to several people and had they had ideas on what to do about the camp and everything and It just it amazes me how people can convince you so much that they know so much about people But they never go to them. That's the problem. You never come to the homeless and ask what do you need? What do you want? How can you help us? Because you're not trying to help us You're just trying to do what you do with that money and push us to the side And it's not going to happen. We're not leaving on the 15th because Nathan versus boys. The Idaho says we don't have to Hey folks I'm louise gars. I live at the tannery and i'm here on behalf of my household To discuss the matter of the ross camp in relation to security at the tannery The tannery is in serious trouble right now Crime in my neighborhood has skyrocketed since the city county and police have abdicated their responsibility and the protection of our neighborhood And we've had increase in uh in reported crime upwards of 30 percent A short list of crimes include theft vandalism prostitution Violence against women amugging two of my neighbors had all their tools stolen from their trucks A guy was shooting up in broad daylight outside of the 10 30 building in plain sight of where our kids Play and ride their bikes. Um the worst of the matters that our kids cannot ride their bikes on the levy path to get to school anymore It has been reported that our children have taken to riding down river street and crossing the highway to get to school Our children are crossing the freeway at river street Okay, because it's safer to brave traffic than it is to bike past the ross camp I say this now in front of all you folks so that you won't so that you won't say that you didn't know And then heaven forbid that one of our kids gets hit by car What we need we need you guys to move the sand Just move the camp put put it over at san lorenzo park You didn't need 200 beds to move those people there to that mud pit. It's horrible And you don't you shouldn't need 200 beds now to move them back to the park We also need police protection, especially after dark We need a car blocking ingress to our property after dark one first alarm guy sitting in his car Just checking his phone all night long. It's not going to cut it. You guys know that Um Where people we pay taxes we're business owners and yet for some reason we don't merit the same security as the west side nor Nor the golf course nor the downtown area And we're completely undefended by our city or county and most egregiously by our police department Okay, so we've lost faith in you folks, but we're really really asking you guys for help move the camp now Station some police on our site. Help us out, please. Thank you Hi, my name is linda cover. Um, I also live and work at the tannery I'm here to speak on behalf of myself. Um, I'm I have trouble myself going to town on the levee um, the porta potties the porta potty trucks the The garbage The people that are gathering make it really difficult To get by on the levee. That's just me The children aren't our tannery can't get by either Women are uncomfortable because they've had issues with people Because they're so close to the levee and the levee is public That should be it belong to all of us and we should all feel safe Walking on the levee and I know of course you don't always feel safe everywhere, but this is so intense That everyone is choosing alternative routes and it's really not fair for the kids To not have the safest possible route to go to school Or to go downtown or meet their buddies And much less have issues when they go by which has happened Um, I know you having you're working on getting beds. That's great Could you also work on taking care of what is already there? Just do do what you have to do to take care of what's there and and and because the beds will come But it's not going to come like tomorrow So you need to pay attention To the impact the footprint that that has right there. It's just the camp needs to be Made in such a way that we can still use the walkway and feel relatively safe. That's all. Thank you so much Hi, my name is gary ingram. I live at the tannery also and All I can give you is my perspective Because everybody seems to have studied this issue really well The other day I was walking back from bay federal And as I was getting it back up onto the river walk, uh, there were three of Three young teenagers Who walked by me who I knew lived there And I said hi and they walked in front of me and I Was walking behind them And no less than six old men Cat called them the whole way in this little four foot narrow path I can't imagine how they felt Being treated that way on the way home I'm sorry. I can't continue. Hi. Um, i'm carol paul hamas and first I want to Acknowledge mayor wackens and vice mayor commons for their work on the two by two committee Which I learned a lot about from councilmember mires the other night. I think that's the way to go I encourage you to keep keep doing that And I apologize for reading the rest. I'm exhausted. Um In november 2017 a teacher was in the middle of a lesson in his high school class on swift street When a mentally ill man carrying a large machete entered his classroom The teacher got between the man and his students back the man out the door and called 911 The campus and three adjoining schools were locked down until the subject was eventually apprehended That teacher was my son and that day might have turned out very differently if he hadn't acted the way he did to stop What happened? We were told that the man had been arrested previous times for assault Including assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer and was homeless and camping nearby with others in the park You may think school lockdowns are just a way of modern life But you need to know that a school lockdown is a frightening and traumatizing experience for students Especially young ones and their parents and often has a lasting negative effect and makes students fearful of coming to school There have been three other lockdowns since then at that school Under similar circumstances within four blocks of Delaware four blocks There are six schools two high schools two preschools a head start program a special ed program and soon gateway Which will be a combined 1000 k12 students in that four block area near Delaware Those kids deserve to be able to bike and walk to school safely and be in school safely And we need to do everything we can to protect them Please do everything that you can to keep our schools safe for these kids and their teachers. Thank you Good evening Hello council It's been a long time since i've been here. My name is jenny mitchell jenny mitchell collins to many of you who knew my husband marty collins of the digital media factory Passed away a few years ago. I'm a fourth generation santa cruzan and I say that Not to boast. I say that because I've seen the changes in this city I've seen the changes from when we used to like dance around hippie-dippy in front of the cooper house And it was all nice and fun and games times have changed The homeless that are here now are different We are talking about safety issues. I live on the west side of santa cruz We had our business on the west side of santa cruz I am not talking tonight about tents Okay, i'm not talking about the homeless in tents and I do have compassion I do have compassion. I feed the homeless. I help the homeless I'm talking about those people who have been forced to live in their cars and in their rvs. That's what i'm talking about tonight I'm not opposed to them having a safe place to park overnight They need a safe place to park overnight. All i'm saying is please don't let it be delaware we've got long We have longs we have longs marine lab, which is a sensitive environmental place We finally got the pond antinelli's pond to the place where people feel safe walking around We want a place. I think parking I would say for ucsc if they have said no go back to the table They need to be um accountable to being in this area and that parking lot Could have a lot of safe people. I think it should be a program where people are held accountable And they can be you know, I know that it works in san diego I know that it works in other cities. We are no different But I i'm not talking about those folks who are on drugs Thank you very much. Thank you One second, sorry Hi, i'm abby Um the staff states that they want to close the camp due to health and safety So all of a sudden you care about our homeless residents. Where were you when my House list friend bob had just gotten out of the hospital after having a stroke Had nowhere to stay. It was raining outside. He's decided to stay underneath an awning At loudon nelson center where he stayed before and the police came and kicked him out. He explained he had a stroke Please let me stay here out of the rain. They would not let him Where were you when you cared about the health and safety of our homeless friends when at city hall There was a man a houseless man who was so sick. He was Really sick. He didn't want to go to the hospital And he was kicked out. We begged him to let him finally sleep and they wouldn't let him sleep Under the overhang at city hall. He was kicked out into the street And the next day he was found dead right at the corner of city hall So where were you when you cared about the people? All of a sudden you care about the people at the camp and you say it's overcrowded But you keep on putting the fence further and further in so there's less room to have tents Now a point in time of first of all On the report low barrier housing. There's something called the four p's which i'm sure you've heard about about people possessions and pets and problems people with substance abuse mental disorders navigation centers Seattle has one portland has them that is incorrect information the point in time Count what do you mean? You just go up to i did point in time count You don't go up to someone and you ask them how many people are there? There's 198 tents one to two people in each tent three to four in the bigger tents. It's over 200 people I don't know what the fire chief was doing and transitional encampments There's no no one wants it in their neighborhood. You really think that we're going to find one safe parking What about a city lot what's unique about santa cruz? It's a level of nimby is an uncompassionate people here how people get treated as homeless people They get drinks thrown on them. They get and that and then you think that they don't that they're not upset and they won't go crazy My name is kurtis relafort and i'm with the follow your heart action network And can i have permission to speak? Go ahead. We'll we have your time on the okay. I uh I'm just coming from the heart And to my heart is telling me There's kkk blood up in here right now and that energy is running strong Anybody who sat down and wrote all them fancy letters the fancy cards. Did you have any love? Writing that out Did you have any empathy writing that out when you were sitting there? These are human beings? Ask me what? Go ahead. If possible, please address the council These are human beings that we are talking about We wasn't put here on this earth to control nobody We have us a problem. The problem is a human having some struggling problems We got this illusion. We wrote all them cards. You don't wrote all them fancy letters You got polis. You got councillors. You got these folks and did all that research Damn man. You got the that's the solution. You want another solution called kurtis? He'll tell you what to do and all you park that in front of my house Don't do this in front of my land. This ain't your land. You're first You already asked permission from the hopes the nation that was here before This is black history month. I'm speaking up for the people who are poor Years poor and then there's poor poor You ain't never been poor on drugs when you go there and feel that You know that these people are crying out for help. They're suffering. They didn't have a mommy and a dad like you doing up here control issues Back it up, man. Come up here with empathy and love and the solution that this guy's talking about Good evening and thanks very much for the opportunity to speak here tonight I'm a resident of deans of santa cruz And I live just inside a fence from del or avenue where we've recently had overnight parking Since been banned. I personally don't have a problem with it I can tell that a lot of people do because what was it new leap market this This meeting is well attended When I was at new leap market on saturday, someone saw fit to go around to every car in the parking lot And put a sticker on it advertising this meeting Encouraging everyone to come out against this proposal because of all the issues I didn't have the money or resources to make up Signs to tell people to come out in support of the Resolution I did the next best thing. I walked the whole parking lot picked up every banner that was put on every single car So all that time and money you spent made it into the recycling bin. That's number one number two people compare A complaint about crime. I'm empathetic to that. I was once knifed I was once held up at knife point with a knife to my neck. I've had my car stolen My car has been broken into many times I can't say that any of those instances the perpetrator was a homeless person I'm not saying that that doesn't happen, but crime is crime. It's going to happen everywhere And for us to turn our back on other crime going on in town And saying we got to kick these homeless people out of here to me. It sounds like NIMBY as far as trash I have a service animal that I walk every morning and we go out on the cliff over natural bridges I'd like to see the people that everyone's complaining about that are trashing natural bridges because I don't see anyone out there Early in the morning the parking lot is locked down at night. So people are not going in there at night So I I don't see it to be that big an issue. I respect people to say it is to me. I don't see that The smell. Thank you. Thank you very much Hi, my name is kelly bloom and I too am a resident of deans of santa cruz Um, I live there a relatively short time and I do have to say that I'm a little nervous coming up here and speaking Because many of my neighbors are here and they very strongly disagree with my personal opinion. Um, that being said I'm in favor of allowing overnight parking on a temporary basis On on Delaware at the end of santa cruz or the in front of our neighborhood. I'm not very articulate today Yes, there's trash. Yes, there are some issues, but there are some mountable issues instead of coming and saying no Don't let them go there. How about offering some solutions pump trunks that can pump out septic tanks Garbage dumpsters volunteers to go clean up garbage increase patrol and security I'm willing to go pick up garbage and I'm sure I can find other people who would be just as willing to go pick up garbage Um, I also am empathetic to the concerns over natural bridges I have a doctorate in natural resource land management And so I completely understand how fragile our environment is But again, there are ways to mitigate that that I think people aren't willing to discuss Because they're so Prejudiced against what they see as being someone who is less than them Hi, my name is Jennifer. I am the manager of dianza santa cruz I'm also a resident. I've worked and lived at dianza santa cruz for 10 years I've witnessed the evolution of growth in the community of santa cruz and the community of dianza I'm here today because I'm opposed to the lifting of the restriction on Delaware for overnight parking As the manager of dianza, I'm responsible to ensure that my residents have a peaceful and quiet enjoyment That they follow the rules that I enforce the rules and that they follow the rules of the community That includes individual sites for cleanliness Um, fortunately, I have a great community. They're very proud homeowners and they respect their home sites and their neighbors They make my job pretty easy Also as manager and representative for the landowners We have worked diligently With the city coastal commission and the state to ensure that we are compliant as well as respectful to the sensitive environment What you propose contradicts what you require from us As a resident it has been a few years since I felt safe walking along delaware avenue Currently there is the pengeance smell of urine and sewer There are needles and trash left without regard It is a health and safety issue as well as an obscenity upon the environment Since the increase in rvs, we have installed cameras and gates while this has significantly decreased the vehicle activity We still suffer from noise pollution vandalism gas siphoning bicycle theft Use of our spa or facilities for bathing and drug use While we manage to maintain a desirable community your proposal to increase the rv population on delaware Severely undermines our efforts while i'm sympathetic to those hardworking families that cannot afford housing I am not sympathetic to the majority that are looking to live in our neighborhoods for free without conscience or respect If you allow this to happen you will be contributing not only to the degradation of our community and environment And please do feel free to leave if you want your comments, okay council members staff I'm a local physician at palo Alto medical foundation in santa Cruz I'm also a former ucsc student who was unfortunately homeless for the better part of a year due to lack of affordable housing This is a complex issue and I do not at all pretend to have the answers But what I see in caring for our homeless community at the hospital Is that they need real solutions such as short and long-term housing mental health and addiction surfaces And that this should be a comprehensive plan that is well thought out The average weight for an inpatient bed at janis, which is a perinatal drug treatment Or a drug treatment, but I take care of pregnant women for a woman who's ready to get clean The average weight for a bed is 10 to 14 days This band-aid proposal I fear is not the right solution I'm particularly concerned with its location near our schools a senior citizen community As well as some of our community's most precious natural treasures Illegal campfires could have a devastating impact on migratory monarchs Human feces would certainly infect natural bridges tide pools And I foresee the real possibility of a hepatitis a outbreak as well as the increase in crime, which has already been mentioned What we need is real creative solutions councilman. Glover you appropriately asked for us to provide solutions Um, and again, I don't pretend to have the answers But I hope that the answers would provide our homeless community with safety and dignity This should be done in a flat area for ems to easily access Patients in the case of emergency one with services available such as adequate lighting to improve visibility and safety for all homeless People in particular women and children a dump station for sewage Sharp containers for needles and on-site counselors to provide resources for those that are willing and able to get treatment We are a compassionate community And yet we unfortunately have compassion fatigue What we need real solutions, but we cannot do this at the expense of our housed community And the safety of our environment Mayor council and everyone else. Thank you My name is steve denies and i'm a board member of the non-profit santa cruz triathlon formerly known as the sentinel We are in our 37th year of running this triathlon event here in uh in september Last year we granted $75,000 back into the community nearly $15,000 of that to the three santa cruz city school organizations and sports programs Our permit states that the race morning delaware avenue is to be clear for the racer safety I see the ability for unrestricted overnight parking on delaware avenue to potentially cause delays to the start of the race As we would have to utilize police to move them to adhere to our permit or the towing service to tow them If the start of the race is delayed or the racer's safety is compromised That leads uh towards less racers coming up for the race That is a direct impact on the children. So We pride ourselves in running a clean and safe race And please allow us to continue to do so Hi, my name is jennifer landford brown and i'm here to talk about um some of the things that you guys mentioned But I think we're forgetting homeless prevention. One of the ladies said she'd been homeless twice I actually had owned my own home owned home or lived in military housing And came here and became homeless for seven months Landlords like mine put people on month-to-month leases. We've got to remember that We have to stick To making sure especially disabled people people with substance use disorders People um who are seniors people with children They have vouchers. They will not get into another house or be able to have the credit to get housing So then i'm going to go back to the ross camp. I go there um three times a week I know just about everybody camping there if you ask them who jennifer is they can tell you they know me um So we forget the cdc has We have harm reductionists that date back to The 80s because of aids um elizabeth taylor She made a commitment to life And she was one of the first harm reductionists because we forget about aids what if We don't take care of the people. What if we don't have a commitment to life? We should instead of just opening a safe camp or safe parking Why don't we have a camp where everybody who has a substance use disorder can go? How many people ask me a day How can I get into janice? How can I get help? I don't want to be addicted to drugs anymore. I can't help them Please help all these people. My son is 25 on the east coast can't come visit. Why? Because there's too many drugs on the street Those people need to be inside. Thank you I'm major in uh city council um The one thing I can see you know by coming these meetings. Um, I Is like second or third time that I come and what I notice is that the you are very Compassion and I see the community is very compassionate about the situation And then it's a really complex situation and I see you know, it's a lot of controversy How we can find the best solution What I am here is to add the city council is to support that the uh the city manager To do their work and then don't keep putting more Like delays, you know to get the work done. Um, I know that everybody we had the best Intention in mind but I think We have to be clear that you know, we can be compassionate But um, we don't have to be so permissive You know, there is there is rules that can be put on I think you know, why does it, you know, we put a A stop sign because people run the stop sign we have to enforce it. So that would be an accident removing Um overnight parking on a street that they for years they were to get overnight parking and removing it, you know, I don't think that's that's a good option Last time I came and I was asking to get An overnight parking on my street because we have an issue. So if we don't have a problem I don't think we need a solution and then and then right now we have an you know, a problem with people now finding On the street so that the the city money that they're doing it the better they can and then and the the um The as the virus is working on trying to find solutions. So I ask asking, you know to Support each other and then we can try to solve this problem all you know all together. Thank you I'm here at philip. I uh Hope I don't ramble too much. I like what the mayor is doing by the way. I think she's doing a good job I um, I kind of don't get the uh Emergency ordinance the whole idea of it because when I look at the data as I'm sure you have for the census in 2017 and 15 13 of homeless The percentage of unhoused homeless has always been about 75 80 percent That's not An emergency that's like normal almost even I'm not saying it's a good thing I'm just saying if you look at the county of santa claire, they have records go back 10 years I mean it's been 25 percent housed forever and so I don't know if it's a good thing bad thing, but calling that an emergency is is weird Uh, it may be in your mind and and maybe it is personally for the homeless um If you look at just for perspective, I I don't think Everybody realizes uh that santa cruz The emergency is the percentage Of homeless for such a small city And you know in the united states 17 out of 10,000 people are homeless In california. It's like double that um In santa cruz. It's about six or seven times that We should have 215 homeless if we were a Typical california city We have about a thousand too many homeless Uh, I think uh, I mean we need to we need to lose about a thousand homeless. I kind of think That's that's really rough to say that but There's that is the emergency and we need to answer the question why Why does santa cruz this city have six seven hundred percent more homeless? And I don't have the answer and it would have been nice to ask those people Thank you to find that out Good evening. My name is michael dealy. I'm a Part of the neighborhood of grants grant grant street neighborhood Thank you curtis for mentioning this earlier that i'm a mootson Tribal band are the living descendants of mootson and awasua speaking peoples who have continually occupied the greater monoray bay region Thriving for thousands of years and countless generations prior to european contact So i'm glad i got to follow this gentleman here because uh, he's talking about normalizing a certain percentage of homelessness This is a moral low Okay, uh now when we talk about this land just 200 years ago or before european contact I'm quoting howards in here in the villages and i'm quoting The the franciscan priest who visited Who saw the eriqui in the villages of the eriqui land was owned in common and worked in common Hunting was done together and the catch was divided among the members of the village houses were considered Common property and were shared by several families the concept of private ownership Of land and homes was foreign to the eriqui A french jesuit priest who encountered the eriqui in the 1650s wrote back to the crown Quote no poor houses are needed among them because they are neither mendicants nor paupers Their kindness humanity and courtesy not only makes them liberal with what they have But causes them to possess hardly anything except in common Can we be that town can we regain that spirit for each other? I hear you generation x no Generation baby boomers no i hear you when you voted for trump i hear you but we are coming We're a millennial generation that cares for each other that will stand with the homeless I know the homeowners stood against the renters this past year But I promise you homeless people renters will always stand with you forever I'm just going to go ahead and pause Can I get a sense of how many folks still are interested in speaking to the council on this item? Raise your hands and keep them up. Okay Deliberation is starting to midnight I'd like to um reduce the time to 90 seconds just in the interest of the council having adequate time to uh To deliberate over the very robust conversations that we have in proposals before us So we'll go ahead and reduce the time to 90 seconds at this point. Thank you. I'll do my best. Thank you for understanding Okay, uh, so my name is jeb and I'm one of the owners of the tabby cat cafe that just opened up Right around the corner here. It used to be cafe bene And a few days ago I got an email from the downtown association asking downtown businesses to come and weigh in on this issue Someone I guess thought that the council should hear from downtown businesses As supposedly I guess one of the important stakeholders in this conversation So I am here to do that and in what follows I will be speaking for the entire business community of Santa Cruz So listen So the first thing that I want to say and and frankly I think it's pretty disgusting how how this fact tends to drop out of the conversation on houselessness when we start Thinking about this as a matter of balancing different stakeholder interests Is that the people that we're talking about are our neighbors They're not a problem in our community to solve. They are they are our community We hopefully interact with them every single day And would be wise not to forget that every single one of them is an expert in the real problem facing our community Which is one of its profound inequality and the callous indifference this city has towards the immense suffering that this inequality creates At the cafe every day. I see this this misery I see people who are starving on the streets people afraid that they're going to get shoot away for like dogs If they stay put in one place for too long without paying People battling serious drug addictions unable to get methadone due to unexpected clinic closures And it would be staggeringly narcissistic for a business owner to imagine themselves to somehow be the ones wronged in this situation To even imagine that their interests and and their problems. Thank you. Thank you your time is up Thank you. And please are on the same scale as as those that we're talking about Do I have 90 seconds 90 seconds Hello council members staff community. My name is christie bitner. Um, I've been in santa cruz. So going on almost 30 years I'm not an expert in the homeless situation and I wasn't able to make it to the last meeting But I've been reading some of the stuff and and the presentations tonight And it looks pretty exciting the things about Okay, um, you know There are homeless that that don't want to be there. They want to get out of it Some of these programs and proposals sound like They could they could do that. I'm I'm in support of that. I also love that. Um, I know the ross Camp is not the way anybody wants it But I love that they put up bathrooms there because you know, that's that's it I am very against The Delaware proposal as stated It's flawed. You're rushing it. You're making some of them same mistakes Um in in mr. Glover's uh presentation talked about the ross one of the problems was there's it wasn't set up Well, there's no monitoring. Uh, originally it didn't have sanitation. That's what you're doing out of Delaware Safe parking is three parts I've done some surveys. I've read some of the surveys It's safety from police harassment, but it's also safety from harm from other people and safe sanitation If you're gonna do a safe parking Do it right mayor Council vice mayor Um, uh, so I really want to speak to people who uh, uh, maybe not not knowing who they're gonna vote on this The difference so the distinction between ross camp in camp campant and the the sort of transitional encampment is key I think you asked the question, uh, justin Uh, mainly the ross encampment has these three layers of security So it just successful on the basis. It can't go wrong in that regard It's the neighborhood is safe, but a transitional encampment the hallmarks are we didn't speak to Many of the hallmarks because it's mainly the the the city Aspects that we're discussing but in these encampments some of the guidelines are people have to do 10 hours of volunteer service That creates safety from the inside out. In fact, it's like a Built-in downtown streets team of residents who who live there So you end up seeing crime go down wherever transitional encampments are located They're much uh more cost effective than than, uh, almost any other type of program Definitely when measured against the ross encampment people move out of They're called transitional encampments because people transition to something better than than any other shelter model anything like that So, uh, so I strongly advocate I've been researching these for a very long time Uh, and I'm just trying to say when we're Considering the ross encampment or as a transitional encampment. I think it's actually well cited Especially when you look at Eugene all of these places are in light industrial areas You can measure almost every aspect Similarly perfect for transitional encampment ross Hi, my name is Stacy falls and i'm a resident of the west side And I have been paying attention to homeless issues for a while I think it was maybe five years ago that I stood up here with mr. Adams And we presented our idea for a santa cruz sanctuary camp Safe camping places sort of modeled after some of the camps that susie described in her presentation dignity village Some of the places in uh, seattle, etc And the reason that we were advocating for that is because we were responding to the fact that You know Solutions based on the idea that if we're just mean enough to homeless people they'll go away That somehow we're gonna lose a thousand homeless people just that's unrealistic. I've been paying attention to homeless issues for a while People are still here. They're not going anywhere and just by pushing them around. We're actually making things worse We're not giving them a chance to rebuild their lives and what we found with these Transitional camps is that people actually have a chance to get out of homelessness clean themselves up and move on to bigger Better things the the problem with homelessness is that it exacerbates the problem with homelessness So you have people who are afraid of engaging with the law and so they start doing methamphetamines You have people who are afraid of other homeless people And so, you know, they start to kind of become violent and edgy themselves And so we're not doing ourselves any favors by just continuing to ignore homeless people and hoping that they'll just go away And in fact because of the decision and martin v. Boise We're not legally allowed to do that. We have to do something effective to address people's situation That means transitional camps and safe parking places Hi, i'm nancy cruzo and I wanted to say much of what stacy said. So let me just add this I joined with reading about sanctuary camps now called Transitional encampments five or six years ago and was so sold on the idea that I committed all my time to Trying to find a way to help meet the needs of people who live outside in our city and I'm excited that it's on the agenda. That's great I want to say about the fear item All the data that we have and it's ample Is that these camps actually Please neighborhoods Neighbors do not want them to leave after they've been there for a few months The quality of life does get better if you give people a place that they can call home A tent is better a tent with people you know is better than being on the street and kicked out in every night It creates coherence. It creates a sense of community and a possibility of getting Of healing and it also creates neighbors And if that's what we want good neighbors, I think these camps Certainly create them So Hello, my name is Eric Harris and I'm also with the grant park neighbors Brad angel spoke on our neighborhood behalf earlier. Thank you for that opportunity I'm here with a slightly different take perhaps than what I've heard a little bit this evening And that is a take of accountability Not only for the homeless to try and get their own House in order so to speak but also for you folks as elected council members to represent the interest of housed and unhoused citizens accordingly as well as Taxpayers we need to be accountable for the taxpayers money and the business taxes money and how we pursue solving these problems Councilmember Glover you had provided these stats and I'll be off a little bit here But I think I saw in seattle was like 45 people ended up being housed out of a population I forget whether 1200 or 2200 but in any case Whatever that number is it was a very small percentage of people that were helped for the millions of dollars that were spent And so I would advocate that that there's probably not enough money being put towards those people that want to Opt themselves out of their homeless situation And probably too much money spent on those that are chronically homeless and it would spend years Not being housed and probably have not a lot of issue with it despite how they're living So I guess I put forth to all of you as well as to everybody out here Whether you're housed or unhoused it takes accountability to yourself and to our collective to make the situation work and We are out of there's a finite amount of both housing cash and compassion on this issue. So thank you My name is Megan and I have been a resident of this county since I was seven years old Um, I'm actually seven months pregnant and living on the streets because there is no room in any of the shelters for me There is no room. I'm seven months pregnant I have been homeless since January 1st of 2018 because my landlord raised my rent from $2,000 a month to $2,400 a month Overnight I had section eight. I lost it because no one would accept it I managed to raise a 20 year old who's about to graduate from cabrillo as a member of the honor society She was a valedictorian of her high school. I am not a drug addict I've never been an alcoholic. I am poor I am disabled because people have repeatedly victimized me and not stood up for my rights that I Am entitled to because it was easier to push me off to the side. I also aged out of foster care I don't have anyone to speak for me. This needs to be solved and it's a mental health thing by and large This is not okay for everybody to sit around and be like, oh, well, this is something this is It's ridiculous that we have people That are on the city council that are renting out 80 us in their backyard For $2,500 a month When homeless people can't make more than 800 Thank you staff mayor the city council members Um, your report was amazing and comprehensive and it shows just how complex this issue is I'm going to throw out some ideas. Uh, I would suggest a town hall style meeting for Just the homeless with you Keeping the rest of us out so that you can actually have time to really Dissern what their needs are what the categories are There's people that are using drugs. There's people that are not there's people with children There's people with pets all those have different needs So I think it would be faster and more efficient to meet with them in person in closed chambers I'm only hearing about short-term solutions and I'd like to see some more attention paid to long-term options High-density housing and neighborhoods What would be the cost benefit of creating a tiny house community? What city-owned land could be appropriated for this use long term? Can some of that 10 million dollars go to building a high-density apartment complex strictly? To designated for homeless women family children To and who would adhere to the behavior conditions required? How much would a large apartment building cost to build? And how does that compare to spending 70 to 90 thousand per month on a parking lot tent city? Rather than open up parking in neighborhood city on property could be reworked to accommodate safe parking i.e move city storage of work vehicles from behind The train tracks down by cosco the dump trucks the old buses etc. They could be stored somewhere else and the safe parking place could be instituted. Thank you Good evening council. I'm Cynthia burger with Santa Cruz tenant association. I would like to see More concrete list of places. I would love it if you could present that at your next meeting I mean actual places that could be considered um You know, there's a map of city land, but I don't know what's on every piece of it And that would feel like there was some concrete action happening I do think that having a thousand more than someone thinks we should have probably is an emergency And since we have such a high ratio I think that we should be getting a lot more money from the state because if we have the highest ratio in the state And we're the poorest county in the state next to la then the state should be giving you more money For this particular issue and it is an emergency. It seems really patently You know obvious that it's an emergency if If we have the highest ratio for a city our size, so thank you Hi, my name is Dave Allen ball and first of all, I'd like to put Chairperson Donna Myers at ease. I'm out here to talk about pickleball So anyway, um, I live in de Anza mobile home park and Delaware. So you obviously know where I'm coming from Um, we have about 80 85 percent of our people are over 60 65 a lot of them over 80 We have some over 90 Most of us can't hear very well a lot of us can't see very well We're very vulnerable to thefts burglary violence, whatever helps Now about four or five years ago before we had a lot of security We did have a lot of homeless problems. They go in our hot tub. They go in her swimming pool We got a great swimming pool and a hot tub in a sauna and we got a fitness center And you know, we got a barbecue pit. We got all that stuff there And it won't take long to discover that we have all that stuff there. That's what I'm worried about Now I understand that homeless is a problem is a problem in this city and it's not just your problem It's our problem and there's no doubt about that. It's our problem So we got to figure it out together and I understand that but I think it's extremely dangerous to maybe put a bunch of RVs on Delaware, especially when we walk And uh councilman, you know, Glover, I don't ever remember you coming to De Anza and talking to us I don't remember any council member coming to Delaware or coming to De Anza and talking to us and say, hey, you know what? We got a proposal. We're thinking about it. Let's talk about it I invite any one of you are all you to come to De Anza I will set up a meeting at the clubhouse and you're all invited. Thank you Good evening council, um, i'm greg banks and i'm a uh resident of the ross camp resident of santa cruz I'd like to thank i saw chief was here earlier chief Mills was here He's one that invited me to go there or asked a bunch of us to go there from the beach several months ago And I've met incredible people there had awesome experiences Um, also had terrible infections all sorts of stuff The people that are there, I've gotten to know a lot of them I love every single one of them even though they're they're near de wells perhaps, but um, they um Each and every one of them have stories and a lot of them are have been chewed up and spit out by society before And they're going to make it through this whatever happens again. Um, keep that in mind that uh Have from a young age a lot of these people had bad things I'd like to thank uh council members crone and gliver working with them on some stuff and talking to um Justin Cummings as well I'm going to go home and have a Good sleep and my home is Ross camp. Whatever happens there. Um, I've been to 52 countries traveling and I totally feel safe there. Um, and um Cops never hassle us. I do appreciate, you know, I'll get beat up like this I've for talking about like this, but I do appreciate the the good things that do happen here. It's a complicated issue. Um, It's not going to go away, but we can work with it Thank you Issue that I want to deal with on this is Oh, thank you, please. The issue I want to deal with doesn't on this or bring the light on this is toxic waste dumping in our area And this is something that has affected the homeless over five of the last eight years that I live here Okay on the street on the west side mostly by the safeway area It was dumped in the safeway parking lot into the groundwater right there They have recently capped off one of two areas that they can do that Okay, and they did this and I am witness and my name is Gregory Lee Smith And I'm saying that I would testify in federal court and this is an issue I know it's coming to hand and it's about human waste such as liposuction waste That was held in a containment area across the street from our homeless shelter That has people that are that are grown men that should not be near children And a homeless shelter for families and won't address the issue of feeding homeless people that they just quit one day Because there were too many they advertised for them to come here All right, and that toxic waste was very bad They had to claim that there was a leak in the freon at safeway when this happened in order to explain What was going on in the area to anybody that might ask a question Okay, it was most of the people that were indoors didn't understand why the people were coming home acting like they were Okay, you said meningitis kids You can get a few ways from black mold and you can get it from a brain injury Which you do not get rid of the blood that's on the brain and you can I I I know what I'm saying and I just Need to say that I'd like to address it with anybody who wants to be Thank you Hi, my name is Elise Kazby and I'm a homeless advocate and activist. I have been investigating homelessness since 2009 Every single one of those years has been vital in terms of me trying to come to terms with the issue of homelessness Who are the homeless? Why is there homelessness? No one it no one can do justice to this issue no matter how well meaning By visiting a camp and suddenly becoming sympathetic and the reason I say that is the city has a history of being tremendously duplicitous and and cynical and Unsympathetic to homeless people having said that I agree with Tina. I do think this is a new day I think we have some opportunities here. I also really resent that my time was reduced I feel if you take this job to be a city council member be prepared to pretty much sign away your life in for the public good So I just want to say, um, you you know cutting my time off is not right The stakeholders in this issue are the homeless people That's who the stakeholder is. I'm really disturbed when I see the stakeholder list top with nonprofit operators One of the best and well-meaning nonprofit operators the faith community shelter Forced the homeless to go to a different church every single night That's extremely hard on the homeless people. We haven't begun to even begun this dialogue with homeless people We need to really come to terms with that. I like some of the plans up here, but we need to shelter homeless people They are all people Thank you all for your time tonight. My name is Caleb Baskin. I want to speak to the Delaware parking issue specifically What assistant to the city manager o'hara said earlier about the need to match Services with the population need really resonated and I think on the safe parking issue That is particularly important. Unfortunately in a lot of this discussion tonight and in some of the correspondence with the community There's been a pretty heavy conflation of the data supporting transitional encampments in the northwest With trying to use the same data to support safe parking as a solution Safe parking is different and it may well belong in the continuum of services that the city decides belong there But if it does it should be able to survive a deliberative process And choosing of those sightings and I would be surprised if given the intellectual capacity arrayed in front of us tonight We can't come up with a location that doesn't contain 1100 k through 12 students As well as ecological preserves within the four block radius around which the proposed location would be put As much scrutiny should be given to those locations as any regular development if not more given the potential impact With my remaining time. I wanted to just finish up what mr. Prado wanted to say What he didn't get a chance to tell you was that the reason he was here Was because of those roughly 1100 children that go to school and live in that four block area Around the proposed parking location. They don't get to vote But they're heavily impacted on whether or not that's there and it deserves appropriate deliberation Environmental review and public safety review before you open it. Thank you very much Mayor council members, my name is Clayton Markle To follow up on what the previous gentleman said Since my time has been reduced I'd like to speak primarily to the Delaware issue councilman Glover you talked about The issues the common issues people had writing into uh opposing specifically opening Delaware I haven't heard those issues addressed so far in this proposal and Again, I've lived here for 45 years since I was 12 years old grew up here on the west side still live here And yes in a house And I'm lucky to have that house. I realized that I worked as a firefighter for 30 years I've been in and out of homeless encampments. It's a hard life All of you That are homeless you're working really hard just to stay alive. I don't know how you do it It's a really complex issue that's been revealed. I'd love to see what the what else the working group comes up with I think mayor as you put it This is an important issue. We cannot rush to judgment. You've cut my time down so you can have enough time to deliberate I'm with the previous Speaker this is an important issue that has been brought before the community We all deserve a chance to speak and have our say If it's not that important if we can't speak out loud, let's not rush to it I look forward to hearing what you what you guys come up with. Thank you for your time Good evening. Uh, my name is Amy Liebichuk. I'm a social worker with the county and first I'd like to say thanks for the wonderful comprehensive presentation that was presented by city staff Um, secondly, I'm really disturbed to see the two polarizing camps that I've heard about in Santa Cruz And honestly, this is the first time I've really started to get active this year of coming to city council meetings I see folks that are concerned about safety in the community And then I see folks that are really concerned about social justice and human rights issues Um, I don't think I think we all want the same things. We want kids to feel safe as a woman I want to feel safe walking around town at night. I don't but I don't feel that way in san francisco or Any other city maybe in foreign countries. I do feel safer to be honest So I what I want to ask is that folks on the left we have to be patient. We're not going to see progress overnight. Um That's going to be hard But I think we have to be patient and then I asked for folks further on the right or more moderate folks So let's try out some of these programs. There's already people Parking on Delaware acquiring hundreds of dollars of tickets. They can't pay them Um, and they're just going through this cycle of where am I going to park tonight? Um So let's try these things out if they don't work then There's always a chance to try something new but if we just say no no no Then what's going to get done? Thank you First of all, I just wanted to say that I keep hearing how we are not Compassionate because we have a problem with some of the things that are happening in town and that's not true It's just that our compassion is not unlimited. It has limits I live on the west side. I've lived there for 25 years. We've had in the last 10 years a lot of increased crime I have to bolt everything down lawn ornaments Lights on my lawn everything anytime you move an encampment around you're going to have increased theft and increased crime Pollution toxic waste garbage is all going to come with it. So you have the Ross encampment which has exploded And it's disgusting looking and I'm sure it's very difficult to live there So now you want to now take rvs put them on the west side and have the same thing happen over there Except potentially worse because they all have places to go to the bathroom their rvs and I've seen them dump it I have pictures in my wallet It's just going to cause an environmental catastrophe as well as Safety issues obviously for the children with the schools and the preschools that are around there People walk their dogs. It's a pretty place tourists come It's a state park And let's leave it nice. Let's have one side of town at least that people can have a respite from what's going on here and figure out from um from From facts from data What's working because the numbers that you stated? 63 percent don't want to be thank you Um Hello, I'm tom powell. I live near natural bridges park and I am Not wanting to see the parking restrictions lifted for a few reasons Um when I was in better health, I rode my bicycle around town a lot one of my Most frequent rides was the san lorenzo river trail I have I it's I called myself three or four times of people that had odied and driving through there the um emergency response vehicles Were it was they were out there time and time again Our children don't need to be walking by with a body somebody dead in an rv or laying on the side of the road um So that that's one of the reasons and I uh the park itself The last year and the year before Fires were intentionally set in the park I on two years ago I was I had an outing planned with friends. I walked out of my house smoke was roiling Right in my direction All the homes over there are in the direction of the air current air current The fireman that morning Told me that we were very lucky if there had been Less humidity Thank you. Thank you You could you could feel free to leave your comments or email them for us. Thank you You could you could either leave your comments or you're welcome to uh to um Email them to us as well, but your time is complete for tonight. Thank you Hi pat mello, um I've been lucky enough to live in a house in santa cruz for my entire life And i'm trying every day to keep it that way just like everyone in the room. I'm sure I just want to thank the council and especially staff for coming back so quickly with the detailed report I know that's a lot of work and it's appreciated You know, I want to add something to the conversation when I was growing up You know When I was 19 or 20, you know, my dad worked full time but temporary worker at the university And was able to live out of a pickup truck in nising marks Park for a year and a half until he got cancer and moved into somebody who you know let him live Rent free and uh, you know what I gained from that lesson is a lot of the time as policymakers I think that in public we think about what can we do and I think sometimes we need to think about what can we stop doing And I think the first thing we can stop doing is stop criminalizing survival behavior You know and And that shouldn't be a controversial partisan thing and I think I've seen presentations in this very room Maybe a year ago about how much law enforcement Resources are put forward on this and how much it doesn't work and I've also seen presentations in the county building About you know, specifically women in jails and the county population and how almost to every single person There's a history of trauma and we don't want to repeat that trauma And you know, I don't know if solutions are here in front of us right now But I know that getting money from the state with the county is a good thing And I think that you know the some of these extra ideas are really good things we should explore. Thank you All right, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight. I live in dianza bubble home park I've been there for 20 years my back fence But's up to delaware avenue and I've seen I've seen everything there In the last three years. I've been forced to call the police three times two over meth cooking operations that the police did show up the people were apprehended arrested bail And we're back two weeks later One was a bicycle theft ring Somebody and these are all the motor homes that are always parked there same guys that I walk by and ride my bike by every day He unloads 15 bikes and I ride by on my bike and says Do I want to buy some bikes cheap and I know exactly what he's got and I call the police They arrested him got rid of him countless times people Dumping their holding tanks right on the street and it's not just gray water. It's the black water and and the rest of it The most recent instance was riding my bike with my wife and my granddaughter and And we're kind of an adult group But somebody reaches up through the window of his motor home and says hey you want to fuck in front of my wife and my granddaughter And you know except for fear for getting shot or something like that. I rode on I did I did let the Thank you. That's quick Thank you I would ask of you tonight to please look at all aspects of what is before you today Your staff has given you some very good information and there's a large sum of money involved I hope that you're going to look at what is sustainable And I would ask you at this time to stop name calling This is someone's son or someone's daughter It is you and I one incident away This is someone who is dealing with homelessness not labeled as homeless I will ask that you think about a few things Safety for all as I have gone down into the encampments as I have gone out in the street as a health care provider I hope that you are looking at People being the priority keeping the people in our community safe Including those dealing with homelessness And that you will look at our police officers and how important it is to keep them safe and in a healthy environment And creating that environment means not just moving an encampment, but finding a long-term solution I hope that you realize That access to care Is a right not a privilege and that includes essential things that I am not finding as I go do my toothbrush exchange program That includes water and a toilet health care and a bed A right not a privilege. I hope that's going to be on your mind tonight because you can be the difference. Thank you Hi, l. West wise leanest resident president as leanest monterey county homeless union Also on this california homeless union as well So we're we're branching out and getting bigger Martin vs. Boise is one of those things that you're really going to have to worry about You're going to have to open as many spaces as a thousand people will take in Intents and and it's going to have to you're going to have to open up more streets and only Delaware You're actually going to have to Bow down to this because it's it's like raising a kid You know, you can not pay attention to him and he's going to end up being a brat Or you can scaffold this person and and raise him up to be a child You know, um, we really got to look at this As homelessness issues and homelessness problems not homeless problems, but the people the homelessness problems And and that's the way that it's supposed to be approached. Supposedly that's what we're going to do But you don't have enough space available for everybody right now So so you got to count for 20 I'm thinking, you know 400 400 square feet in a tent, you know, instead of 400 400 acres in a mule or whatever 40 acres You know 20 by 20 And and you said as as a standard, you know That's still a really small area And it doesn't allow much privacy But it is it is a venue you're gonna have to have wet camps. You can have dry camps You can have zero You know zero tolerance, but you still have to take care of these people. They have to go somewhere If they're on the sidewalk, you don't want them on the sidewalk. Well, then open up a lot Hi everybody, um another long night. Um, I'm danny. Uh, I grew up in santa cruz Naptal specifically And I grew up struggling with addiction really heavily and I'm not going to get super into that tonight I'm sure I'll have a chance to do that in the future But I really resonated with what the earlier person said about being one incident away from being homeless I was like one fight away from my parents one serious incident away from just being ostracized, you know and I lost, you know, there's a lot of friends I can't speak to anymore because they're still struggling with addiction that I only hear from when there's an overdose or something There's friends of mine that live on the street And because of all these like experiences that I've had I support a few things that I'll get into quick tonight transitional encampments As an evidence-based approach that will work And we'll address the problem that I haven't heard mentioned a lot tonight that a lot of people that are living in the ross camp right now Are not going to be able to sleep in a shelter for reasons of trauma For reasons of criminal record for lots of reasons They won't be able to go into a county or city shelter program and we need to have camping options available for them I also support an extension of the eviction deadline for the ross camp. I think march 15th There's not going to be those beds available even though people won't take them I really hope that can be pulled out and voted on And lastly, I look forward to a future Conversation on harm reduction because it's something very close to my heart. Thanks And before before you begin I want to get a sense of if there's other additional speakers okay So if you could please line up to my left And uh, well you do you want to go last? Okay Okay Ready you ready. Hi. Um, my name is alisha cool. I've sat here and listened to a lot this evening I'm here because I am an rv dwelling drug-free technically homeless person I'm not scary. I'm not going to dump sewage all over Delaware. I'm urging you and supporting you to ignore fear-based Comments and complaints you've heard a lot of those tonight About needles and sewage. That's not a common thing. That's a minority of the homeless population Not a majority I feel like if you gave this program a shot and let us park on Delaware you can address that small percent make an example out of them Um, but don't just take that off of the table because people are scared of it It's time for some radical changes. Um, obviously people are going to be scared, but There are and there are children and preschools in that area. I heard a lot of that. Um, I have kids too My kids count as well, you know, we need a safe place to sleep at night We were attacked rrv was attacked at night by people who didn't want us in their neighborhood for no reason at all This evening. I had somebody tell me get in my rv and go to a different neighborhood I feel like we need to have compassion over this issue I'm also against closing the ross camp unless low barrier options are available for every resident there And we're having a workshop tomorrow at two There Hi, i'm gary garcia. Thanks for the great work you guys did in pulling all that data together. It's really helpful I have three things I want you to know. Um, or hope you'll consider First, uh, santa cruz is a very given community, but we can't do it by ourselves In many respects, uh, this the data driven, uh, analysis about transitional camps It is compelling In its microcosm The problem is is that and it's been said before we have a greater Population of homeless relative to our resident community Then most other communities So that tells us that we have to work with the rest of the county and our neighborhood cities to have programs that span Across multiple cities second point. I'd like you to consider is if we do have transitional, uh, camps There has to be something to transition to that has to be part of the plan and I haven't heard What happens next? And the third thing I'd like you to consider is, uh, there has to be, uh, services for any transitional camp. There has to be A plan for paying for a sewage treatment fresh water bring brought in Or don't do it don't do it badly doing it badly is worse than not doing it It's better to to have a measured approach and do it right the first time. Thanks a lot Let's go ahead and freeze Hello, my name is joy karegalyano, and I live in Dela Cruz on op Delaware And I I have so much that I would like to say but I I feel that we've gone homeless But we are really forgetting the people who live in the neighborhood And who have worked all their life from the time they were children themselves have gone through burned homes have gone through Parents and hospitals have gone through wars And I just want you to know that I've worked hard all my life. I've fed many many people I had a deli fed the fire department fed the police department during our disaster in the 80s Beyond that my husband was walking down Delaware. He fell down. He broke his nose. He has Alzheimer's And we had three lovely ladies who stopped If we put these Mobile homes on Delaware because we've already gotten stuck with a couple that are there all the time and they have feces And they do all these things that we've been hearing about just a few of them if we have these Do you really think our people are going to be walking down and one of my husband fell down and no one was there to help him We live in this community. I've lived in this community for years. I've lived in scott's valley I've lived all over here for at least 45 years. My children went to school here. I paid for that. I worked hard They worked hard Please take into consideration our homeless people Please take into consideration The people who've worked all their damn lives and raised good kids. Thank you very much. Your time is now This is so important. I hear you. I haven't heard it tonight. I thank you very much. Okay My name is Sarah and I I have Asperger's A form of autism and I've been homeless and Santa Cruz four times since 2003 But I don't use any hard drugs and I have zero criminal history It's because I can't find supportive services to help me. I have no intentions of Doing any crimes or thrashing out anybody's neighborhoods and I live in fear that if I ever lose my housing right now that Because my income is half of what an average studio would go for or even less than a room share that I have no Future with housing. Um, there's no social services for me. I don't qualify for mental health services I don't qualify for drug rehab And also I was pregnant and I spent Six months of my pregnancy In Santa Cruz on the streets and the only people who helped me as a catholic mission that told me I had to sign the baby over But I didn't do that. I kept her. She's eight years old. She's top of her class in school But what will happen if I ever lose my place? What will be her fate? Thank you Summer rose and I'm speaking from a personal place where I have been homeless also in this town and You know safety was an issue for me being homeless Being in houses you are not necessarily safe. I've lived in houses where I wasn't safe So the idea of safety seems to be number one for every everyone and it does seem like there's money in this council in this city where we can have Police officers other people go down and stay at Ross camp and be there 24 7 There's no reason why they can't since the money is there until we find a solution If it does seem like the number one issue is safety and that kind of seems like a simple solution I mean the money's there. Let's just get people there now and Have cops show up and just be patrolling and neighborhood watches people in the neighborhood who want to be there Until we find a good place for people to be because it's important I know these people can't It's really hard to get off your feet and get on with your life if you don't have a home. It's really really serious That's the biggest safety issue you have your home. You can keep your kids in your home for right now I guess that would be you know a solution if you don't feel safe You know at Ross camp or whatever drive your kids figure out another solution But you know have have groups of people walk your children to school with a cop I mean, I don't really see that there is an issue here other than a lack of people Spending the money today that we have today to address the safety issue. So that's number one and I guess the only one. Thanks Before you speak, I just want to confirm that you'll be the last speaker unless there's any I have no idea Okay, so you'll be our last speaker because I'm seeing nobody else. Go ahead. Good evening. I'm scott graham and I think that you should declare a homeless crisis and We had another crisis in this town years ago. It was called an earthquake and Right across the street here at the civic center that became a shelter after the earthquake for months There was people living in there Why can't we do that again? you know And as far as uh car parking goes who's got the biggest parking lots in town I would say the county does They got the parking lots over at amaline. They got ones over there on ocean street And then the boardwalks got some giant parking lots too that they don't use in the winter time And then there's a bunch of streets over there in the harvey west area that used to be Where people could park but they made that no overnight parking And so those those could be lifted also And as long as there's some accommodation for you know Some kind of trash refuse pick up and you know, maybe porta potties I don't see why there'd be a problem And uh, I hope that you guys can do something to really help these people because they are people. Thank you Okay, so at this time, I'll uh go ahead and close public comment I want to thank all of those who Are still here with us this evening who are no longer here but showed up Or had contacted us in advance We um all share Commitment to addressing this this topic this issue this very complex issue And I appreciate the decorum and ability and willingness to allow everyone to have their voice heard And appreciate you coming out to express your your opinions with us this evening Before we return for action deliberation. I'll just make a few brief comments One of one of which that comes to mind quite frequently for me when thinking about the complexity of balancing this type of issue Is my experience working in restorative justice and restorative practices and one of the things that we always approach that through a lens of Of accountability through a lens of a community and through a lens of competency development Which is essentially looking at everybody's individual circumstances and how do we balance those? So it is truly recognition of just there are very very many there are many aspects that are Considered and impacted when we're thinking about how we do our work in our balancing of the very complex issues the other that comes to mind is My experience in my master's program where Secretary Pineda often said we either find ourselves governing from a place of crisis or from a place of leadership And we see a governance at this time from a place of crisis if we think about some of the things that we're experiencing In terms of the federal level and relationship to the immigration approach and I hope that No matter what even as we experience crisis that we are able to think of solutions and come up with solutions through a commitment to leading and seeing aspects of Accountability and results along the way that said I asked that given the complexity of the topic and The experience from the previous meeting that if the council members are interested in being Recognized that they go through myself and I will do my best to acknowledge both sides of my body and Seeking recognition of council members who wish to be to wish to speak on the topic As I also know that we want to have real clear understanding of how to move forward and where we want to go So at this point I will open it up to The council for action and deliberation Is there any council member who wishes to speak at this time? Never mind Try to make this brief Well, thank you everyone for came who came out tonight and is still here at 11 30 at night It's always hard to talk about this Gravity of a situation at 11 30 at night and so I apologize that We're doing this kind of discussion right here right now, but We are going to keep at it and I've been here a long time and Santa Cruz has been keeping out this problem for a long time You know, we talked about data tonight and I I do want to reflect on some What I perceive as some movement in the right direction I was looking back at some of the reports we've received recently As well as the letter we received this week from the homeless services center And between those, uh, you know within about a six within about a nine to 12 month period unless i'm Misunderstanding these reports It looks like we were able to transition about over about 400 people into either transitional housing or permanent You know supportive housing In this nine to 12 months. So so we are doing this And again, I don't know what that number compares to maybe Other people who are coming I don't or or aren't being our part of the system So one one thing I think we need to understand is a little bit more about How people are being um, you know being, um, I guess, uh How our programs are working and whether or not we can pile numbers from different programs That would be very helpful for me to understand Is the number always 12 or is it moving at various times of the year? Um, so it's hard to be to to make policy and progress when I'm not exactly clear How these numbers are fitting together so I can give the staff the numbers that I used So it could be incorrect, but these are numbers that I'm seeing Um in terms of the in terms of the actual, um, proposal tonight I'm I'm supportive just for a second if you could we've we've had a chance to hear from the public at this time It's now our opportunity for deliberation. So please Please keep your voices down go ahead. So I'll make this quick. Um, there's a couple things. I I'm a little bit confused about so We're talking about transitional encampments. I don't know if the river street camp qualifies as that I think we're thinking of it more as a shelter, but I don't know that we're that far off in terms of the facilities that we're talking about and it may be that We're talking about the same thing, but the the model has not been completely identified yet. So Uh, I think we have an emergency resolution that is Currently working. Uh, it's defining the types of things that we need for the state. It's defining the things that Um Are outlining the shortages in our community and finally It's helped us receive some of the money from the state already Uh, I think the safe parking program also I don't think that we're ready to do it anywhere quite yet I saw on the staff report two weeks ago that there was a mention of trying to do a pilot program I think several people mentioned that today. Let's make sure we if we do something like this Let's make sure we know how to do it Um, let's not put it in the Delaware neighborhood. It's it's not I haven't heard anything that is Makes me want to say yes go and do that and open that area Um, there's no services there There's distance from it just doesn't make any sense to go to put that over in that neighborhood Um So I'm supportive of trying to continue to work forward. I think we have some solid plans I'm not seeing I'm I'm confused by what we're talking about because I feel like we have some plans and some solid ideas And we are making some progress and we have done some demonstrations and we've done pilots Let's keep trying to figure this out keep moving forward with some of these things Um, but I won't be supporting. Um, I'm sorry, but I won't be supporting the emergency resolution only because I feel like we have one in place And I'm not ready to support anything over on Delaware avenue until we really have a safe parking program And a a nonprofit partner and some other things that we've learned from looking at other jurisdictions I just want to make sure that we have those things in place before we do anything Mr. Norris if we could please allow us to have this conversation I'll consider that a warning and then at this point we'll go ahead and have our council deliberations We had an opportunity to hear from the committee. Thank you Okay Thank you Yeah, really wonderful to have so many people come out and share their perspectives. It's great to uh See the discourse in action as well as I really appreciate those of you that did provide Some form of tangible solution or input as to what it is that You'd like to see Some potential solutions. I again want to appreciate the staff for uh being able to produce this initial language of the resolution for the declaration Of the existence of a local homeless emergency So just to move forward on the process so we can start Whittling down the things that are in front of us I'm going to make the motion that we adopt the existing language as provided by the staff for the declaration of homeless emergency to be able to create a Statement not just about shelter, but about homelessness because of the ways that it's stipulated here in the different areas outlining the importance of Looking at not just the shelter issues, but also the humanitarian and human needs of people So moving on to the next in that motion in addition to the declaration of local emergency Requesting the staff to return back on march 12th with a comprehensive list of all possible city-owned locations For both encampments and safe parking programs so that we can begin discussing potential locations And then also on march 20 or excuse me to return on march 12th with language for the first reading for both A transitional and cam and permitting ordinance so we can begin the community outreach process as well as a safe parking program permitting process Based off of the previously submitted materials Okay, there's a motion by council member clever I'm just going to ask yeah, so we're we're taking off the table the delaware RV parking right In your motion. I yeah, I haven't that's not included in that motion. We can discuss delaware later I just want to get moving on some of these things because it's okay. I'll second that because I don't I don't support necessarily parking in delaware So I'm just going to say that And I second your motion Okay, so we have a motion by council member clever seconded by council member crone I just have a quick question and I want to again Think the staff for the short turnaround in terms of the research and work And I also haven't been on the council for a couple of years No, but there's been a lot of commitment and work given. I think what I see is a real consistency in terms of Intention behind the recommendations tonight as well as some of the movement existing Do you have recommendations and to what you're seeing is already kind of unfolding in terms of our continuum of care ongoing efforts in terms of the two by two and work with the partnerships in the county and such that would Encompass that as well Thank you I need to think a bit as I answer We referenced earlier. I know it was a couple of hours ago that there are This conversation tonight has been about the immediate Income and the immediate crisis and what we can do to address it the the suffering the public health the public safety issues At the same time we are working very diligently on Other plans to deal with homelessness in our county from the midterm sheltering plan Can we come up with an area? In fact, we have a joint city county adopted plan to try to identify Additional shelters spaces that would come online July 1 And we'll be reporting back to you by April 1st with the report on how we're doing We have the heat money that's out there as an opportunity And in addition, we also have in and susie reference this This eye of looking at a system-wide view Of how What homeless services are out there an assessment and evaluation of what's available? What is the system of care? What does that continuum look like? How does one navigate through the homeless? Homeless services system the entire spectrum across the county So there are many levels of work that are kind of ongoing on a concurrent way and they all braid together in I think in a productive way that as I've said several times I really do feel we're in a different space and time than we have been in the past In terms of our recommendations tonight You know, we are trying to balance this urgency of action Which is very clearly communicated by the city council and by the community in which we share To come up with good solutions and we're trying to balance that with also making sure we have a solid process And that i'm community engagement is also a strong value of this council Of staff of the community. So that's why we came up with the charter The project charters all around the transitional encampments and the public facilities So these are things that we are in agreement Our worthy of exploration and and this was our Best shot our best thought at like this is a thoughtful way that we think we can balance all those needs for urgency and action But also inclusive conversation Involving a variety of people including, you know, the topic comes out a lot around Including also people lived experience as well in it. So what we would recommend I mean, we've put this forward as our recommendation for action around around the transitional encampments in the public facilities As for the other two items here that was really a council's discretion or whatever the council wished to do So that's what we put forward is thinking we think that this can harmonize with council action What we're trying to do on the ground immediately the midterm plans And then a final question you had mayor Watkins or an aspect of it was a two by two committee And I think a really essential part of this is that the city is not going at it alone We have a very strong partnership in the county and Mayor Watkins vice mayor Cummings you're exemplifying that partnership You're very committed the two supervisors are very committed and I think that joint planning that's I think a very Important and careful space to have those conversations So I would want us to make sure we're communicating really strongly with them and that we're planning in conjunction Because there is a sense and an acceptance from all the jurisdictions that this really is a countywide issue And we need to be thinking on that level as well. So that those are just some thoughts that come to my mind About you know the entire system short term midterm long term problems or Challenges opportunities funding is two by two county It's a lot yeah I'd like to add just based on today's discussion because I think it's important I think we might miss an opportunity with our evaluation of transitional encampments and moving forward with ordinances around these other types of programs That we see the rest the rest stops The dusted on programs tiny tiny house villages These are really different types of projects and programs that meet different needs in our community And so I do think that council support of that project charter process Should actually be inclusive of looking at different modalities of support for folks Transitional encampments may be where we end up thinking is the best approach But I would hate to rush that process and and discount these other approaches as well Thank you And if I'm sorry if I may make one more point I'm just a point of clarification around a process required and the planning director reminded me of this Depending, excuse me on the ordinance that comes back if that's council's wish If it's a title 24 a zoning code change Per our our rules that would have to go to the planning commission first So it could not be heard before you use the first reading but it could be brought back for discussion So just a technicality if there's something that interfaces was zoning It couldn't actually come back to you first reading it has to go through the planning commission first Just wanted to double check. I thought I saw a hand on this side I could have not I would like to know what the motion was councilmember clever So Was that to ask the question or to answer a question? I thought I saw a hand up over here But it sounds like there's a question and you had your hand up anyways If you want to make your comments and then respond to the question that would be a problem. Thank you I appreciate that I just want to clarify because What I heard from you Susie just a second ago was a kind of like a dichotomy of like either or Transitional encampments or the other ones in the original documentation that I submitted asking for Ordinance language it included all three of the things that you the dust tilt non program the safe parking spaces and the transitional encampments So I'd love to see an exploration of all of those Looking at the timelines associated with some of the things that were brought forward Which as I really appreciate the the estimation and the time Projection but I do think that there's a concern with the earliest that any of this could happen For the parking program if I have it correctly as may And then the transitional encampments is august I think that there I mean and you'll be meeting with brent and All of them to talk about implementation and all that kind of jazz But there's language that exists from the different municipalities And I think that's the logic that i'm getting out with the declaration of homeless emergency Is because what you mentioned tina about the need to take it to the planning commission and then have the planning commission Look at it and then come back for us to do a first reading It's my understanding that we can circumvent certain processes if need be so that we can move forward with the First draft reading and then we can open it up and members from the planning commission can come and speak at that meeting And share their perspective as to whether they agree with the stuff I want to clarify that with the city attorney as to if that is in fact something that is Able to be done underneath the declaration of homeless emergency and then the other thing just On the parking is I wanted to get clarification if y'all know if the Coastal commission ever gave us a permit to actually enforce No parking in the area on delaware or if we're just doing that on our own volition So I wanted to know if you have that information and then i'll also tell you with that response and then i'll tell you the Motion that the parking restrictions went in in 2004 on delaware avenue And I don't know of any enforcement action, but I don't know with certainty exactly what that Approval process was so I will find out and report back. Thank you So our our code provides that an amendment to the zoning code, which is title 24 of the municipal code Is first required to be reviewed for a recommendation by the planning commission before the council takes action on it That being said And and by the way just Going back to the motion that was adopted on february 12th There was language that referenced similar ordinances that were Put in place by I think eugenia and seattle and I looked at the seattle ordinance and it looked like it was a zoning amendment that Tracks pretty consistently with what the What the motion language was and so that could be adapted to a sanacris ordinance, but if it were to amend The zoning code Um Then that would have to require That would require planning commission approval. Um, the city council can adopt an interim Urgency ordinance without planning commission review that can be in place for a period of time I believe that requires five affirmative votes But that would be something that could be put in place while the planning commission was doing its work If that's the direction of the council And then to my answer yeah, and then to answer council member mathews The motion was to adopt the language presented by the City staff on the declaration of homeless emergency To return on march 12th of the next meeting with a comprehensive list of all city-owned locations for encampments and safe parking locations And then to also return to that meeting with language for review of The transitional encampment permitting ordinance and the safe parking programs based off of the previously submitted materials And if I could just follow up on that I I interpreted the previously submitted materials to include that packet of of seattle materials Yeah, and then also in the transitional encampment agenda item there was a sample ordinance language that was essentially a fusion of the Eugene and seattle ordinances so there was for the transitional encampment zoning conversation And then there was also rest stops and dust till dawn programs included in the packet and then in the parking program Transitional encampment ordinance agenda item. There's a list of very specific stipulations that govern trash safety And admittance into the camp as well Council member mires and then council member brown and then council member I just have a quick question for council member lover. Um, so with the Transitional encampment process The staff had sort of lined out sort of a number of of steps including community outreach So if we move so i'm just trying to understand the the parts of the motion and how it fits sort of into the staff charter process in terms of how we um, for example vet any of these things back to our community because um Some of this uh, Delaware is probably a good example of you know that being a location and obviously Brought brought our community out this evening. So i'm just curious if you could clarify I'm I just don't I can't quite follow where all of this Kind of gets put on the ground. So are we going to work off of this the charter? It's uh, the charter process as was presented Or i'm just trying to figure out how that works council member clever. Um So, um to clarify with regards to the staff recommendations compared to the motions that I made just currently Um, I really appreciate that the charter process that the staff put together I it was great to see all the different minds that are on it and I understand the process It's the timeline that uh worries me especially with the admittedly lacking Bed space that we currently have and the population that we Need to provide sleeping space for so my proposition is to either a Come back to the next meeting with a first draft for a first reading But after listening to what um attorney kandadi said that unless we do an emergency action That's not possible without going through the planning Planning department first or is there a way through this through this declaration? Uh, does that loosen up zoning Processes um the emergency declaration by itself Um provides a mechanism for Or loosening up Our existing regulations specifically i'll just read from the applicable statute um during a local emergency The governing body May promulgate orders and regulations necessary to provide for the protection of life and property including orders or regulations Imposing curfew within designated boundaries where necessary to preserve the public order and safety So it contemplates that um, this provides the legal foundation within which to promulgate regulations that implement emergency actions in response to the declaration So my understanding of that personally, and maybe i'm incorrect is that if we do adopt the declaration of homeless emergency Then there's a mechanism within It to allow us to move Expeditiously in the process now Through that first reading will be a time for community members to participate as we found out from the agenda items tonight People are very capable of writing emails and making phone calls about how they feel about specific agenda items And then also we'll have to come back for a second reading of the Ordinance so that's two public hearings and as much opportunity as they want to write their opinions into the governing body to decide Um, you know that transparency and community input are incredibly important to me But as is finding fast and proven solutions to the issue of homelessness Okay So, uh, thank you for the clarification just to confirm the motion is pretty much consistent as previously stated And that was seconded by you correct councilmember crown. Okay Councilmember brown matthews and then by smear comings and then back to council member Okay, I would um, I I really want to think i'm just going to say it again. Thanks staff for the the presentation of the clarity and all of the work that you've clearly put in Including a staff member Forgoing a trip to pal's books Family vacation to do that to actually have those conversations And so I really really appreciate all the work you've put into it. Um, um, I too um, uh, I I like the The um project charter idea and I appreciate all the work that went into Putting those together so we have a clear understanding of what it would take to kind of to pursue um those Um measures and I too am though concerned about the timeline in particular when I heard August I mean it in especially I mean one the urgency of the the issue the item I just think that's a long time to wait But it also Gets us into the next budget cycle and does not give us an opportunity to consider Should it be necessary any additional resources required to operationalize? any of these things If resources were needed from the city general fund in addition to the hat and and heat funding that's available So um, so that's a concern for me and then I have a question because I'm really still trying to wrap my mind around the The I mean I get the difference because I read through the the california at the state statutes related to the different kinds of emergency shelter emergency and um a local In this case homeless emergency But I'm just trying to figure out what um might not be enabled by the the Resolution that we have um And if we and or if we were to expand it or kind of revise it because it is really specific to It suggests one site One managed campground So I do think either way we would want to to do some revisions of that But I'm just trying to figure out what we can't do If we don't do the homeless emergency that we that so Clarification between the shelter crisis and emergency still not clear to me even with all the reading that I've done here My question is along that same line. So I ask it at the same time. We answer them both at once My reading of the state legislation on declaration of an emergency is is that it is very much Defined in the context of a an unexpected sudden emergency like a natural event Fire flood earthquake et cetera that has a a sharp beginning And has to be dealt with in a very immediate sense As opposed to what is really an endemic crisis and our staff mentioned that the existing declaration of shelter crisis That we have qualified the city for Funding that that was really useful to us in terms of Attracting resources, but that it could it was also developed for a specific Point in time and it could very well stand to be updated in view of the discussion that we're having now So my my take on it was that the declaration of homeless emergency Didn't really meet the Definitions or triggers defined by the state but that we could incorporate a great deal of that Into a revision of the declaration of we could call it shelter and homeless crisis So I would just put that out as an idea and see if If that makes sense or so I heard two questions one is the difference between the emergency and the shelter crisis and two if there's a way to Further understand whether or not the emergency declaration Constitutes what the state standard is if i'm interpreting the question correctly get the best of both and how to integrate maybe the two I guess the best way for me to just attempt to describe it is that the The declaration of a homeless state of emergency In my mind and and the declaration of a shelter crisis are sort of overlapping With regard to whether or not the circumstances presented here are adequate to to constitute an emergency I would just sort of harken back to the discussion we had about the emergency rent freeze ordinance that the council adopted Back in february of last year in which the council made emergency findings that That received some negative comments about whether or not the the rental housing market situation was was in fact an emergency and The way I read the law it contemplates That determination being in the nature of a quasi legislative determination for which if challenged courts are Required to give some deference to the city council's determination of what constitutes an emergency they're overlapping because of the emergency Declaration statute is intended first to enable the city to avail itself of emergency Funding should it be available from another source second to promulgate regulations that are necessary in order to address the circumstances constituting the emergency The shelter crisis declaration is similar in that it Um States that the provisions of any state or local regulatory statute regulation or ordinance prescribing standards of housing health or safety shall be suspended to the extent that strict compliance would prevent hinder or Delay the mitigation of the effects of the shelter crisis But then also that the city may in place of such standards enact municipal health and safety standards to be operated To be operative during the housing emergency consistent with ensuring minimal public health and safety. I look at the The attempt to come up with some regulations for transitional shelters as Sort of consistent with the second part of that statute that there There's relaxed standards that aren't strictly in adherence to the building code and the uniform housing code for instance But that are deemed adequate by the city In an emergency to provide some minimal shelter for people who are experiencing homelessness and then the other part of the Shelter crisis declaration is the Some protection to the city for from liability arising from Some incident that occurs due to the lack of adherence to State or local regulatory standards. So those are the different parts. They're overlapping as is The shelter the transitional shelter ordinance. It's really It's it's sort of a tapestry of attempts to move forward with some Some practical solutions And if I could add as well Ideas that the city attorney and I talked about to bolster The existing shelter crisis declaration is and and councilmember brown points out it was a bit tailored for Circumstances we're in in january of 18 For instance at the bottom of page two be it further resolved that the council directs the city manager or his designee To apply this declaration of a homeless crisis shelter to the city's proposal For temporary managed homeless campground and interim day services A navigation center building site and other subsequent actions to provide homeless shelter So while we do have that clause in there which has the door open Nonetheless, we think that we could strengthen it with some revision to generalize the language in maybe Having it be more open to have the flexibility depending on what our future course takes us Moreover, the city attorney also said that we could have a clear language about particular exemptions Siding things like um sequa and other things as well So just lay that out explicitly in a revision So it's much clearer if i'm characterizing that accurately So those are the things that we had talked about informally before this meeting as ways that we think that this could be a strengthened instrument for you Vice mayor Cummings and then council member miers I think we're in a very unique situation that we haven't seen Potentially in decades Where the county has received we declared a Shelter crisis the county has now received 10.6 million dollars And we're at the beginning of being able to utilize those funds to address many of the concerns that were mentioned tonight And I think that Given we haven't had an opportunity to move forward in any meaningful way to actually deal with these I mean we've I've I take that back staff has been moving forward to come up with ways in which that we can Utilize these funds to help in some of the suffering that's on the street We've partnered with the county and this is a regional pro This is a regional problem and I think that we need to start looking at Issues like homelessness as a regional problem because it's not for every individual city to be addressing It's for our counties To be partnering with our neighboring counties and the entire state I mean it's it's a problem that we're having all over the country We're not alone as we've heard tonight with The fact that this is something that's occurring in places like Eugene and portland in seattle We know it's happening in oakland and san francisco. It's happening here It's happening everywhere and this is the first time in a very long time That we've actually been able to begin working collaboratively on addressing these issues And I treat states of emergency very seriously I don't think it's something that we should be throwing around And I think what we should do initially Is begin working with the county and begin collaborating On ideas and ways that we can utilize these funds to begin addressing homelessness And if it turns out that we need more funding and we're able to demonstrate that we're able to use these dollars effectively Then we can move forward with this declaration of a state of emergency So I won't be supporting the declaration of a state of emergency at this time. However I would later move to If there's revisions that would strengthen our Our shelter ordinance, I would move staff later after this motion has been taken care of to do that Yeah So we have a motion and a second correct. I was going to call the question unless there's other Comments we can call the question in every visit and then yeah I just it's getting so late and I mean not that that matters, but So you're calling are you calling the question? I'm looking and seeing If if what's before us is to vote on the entire package of the motion on the floor Okay, so the question I mean if the question is called I believe that there's no There's no uh additional To be clear, I'm Calling the question requires a second Is is done by a motion so that would be a motion to call the question that the council can can vote on Okay, are you making that motion at this time? I'll withdraw the motion at this point. Okay Councilmember Glover and then did I see councilmember brown and No Okay, great. I'd like to separate my motion and have the First part be for the declaration of homeless emergency Uh, the second kind of do I can't do so I'll just start with the motion to the declaration of homeless emergency in Santa Cruz Okay, so if I Susie I'm just gonna recommend to bonnie to put up councilmember Glover's motion That was on his presentation. It might be helpful for the public to see that So we'll go ahead and maybe move through each of the components I think this is a little bit different potentially, but that's okay I think I don't think it's as complicated as it could as it was last time potentially So I think we can get through it if it's not possible to get up But if I'm understanding correctly, we're going to break the motion apart and vote on it as individual action, right? That's fine. I can understand the first one But honestly, I couldn't write fast enough to get the others So when the others come up, I would appreciate having them typed and put up on the on the screen So, um Okay, so we'll go ahead and vote on whether or not to declare a local Emerge uh, I'm sorry a declaration of a local emergency as opposed to a revision of the shelter crisis That's the motion by council member Glover seconded by council member crown. Okay. Can I can I ask for clarification on that? I'm I apologize for Bringing this up again The recommendation that was presented in the power plant was return to return on march 12th with a draft for first reading of the declaration Just for clarification. Is it to return with a resolution or to adopt the resolution that's been presented this evening So, uh, like I mentioned during the presentation, I made this before I knew that y'all were coming with a draft today because you had said you didn't have it before so One has changed to Adopting the existing language that you have and then there's two and three and striking four Okay, so we're adopting the resolution the motion on the floor is to adopt the resolution this evening Okay, all those in favor, please say aye Aye Any opposed no no Okay, so that fails with council member crown council member Glover In support and council member Myers council member brown council member matthews vice mayor coming to myself and myself against Okay, um, so the let's deal with the alternative Is that where you're going the alternatives? Okay. And I mean I will just say I would be supportive of revisiting the language for the shelter crisis that we already have in place and then also in in terms of the the project chart charter Outlines that have been provided by staff, which I think Offer a roadmap to get us in many ways in the same direction as we wanted to go So I'll just put that on on the floor Yeah, what movie It's really late. We're like getting Freckin Ralph at this point Okay, so we could do this Okay, council member, uh, actually vice mayor Cummings council member matthews Um I wanted to use this as an opportunity to make a few statements just given what the public had stated earlier um Around homelessness and the state that we're living in in Santa Cruz And the fact that we have so much homeless In our community and I think that it's important that everyone remember that we are Considered the fourth most expensive place to live in the world And that's given the fact that we have a tourism economy That is unable to keep up with paying their workers the amount it costs to Rent a place to live in this town and you know, I know that a lot of people Had things to say about people who live in their cars and in their RVs But these are also people who are working tax paying people in our community So I think that's really important that we remember that and for those people who maybe don't have jobs And live out of their vehicles There may be barriers that we're unaware of that's keeping them from working or you know Maybe they're receiving other things like social security that allows them, you know to live off very little And that's the only way that are they're able to survive in this community um I go down to the camp at least a couple times a week. Um, I've actually I bank at Bay Federal And um, and I talk to people who work down there and many of the people who work in that community Do have compassion for the folks who are at the camp and um, Many some people from that camp also go in and spend their money In those coffee shops and in those those businesses because they need things too and they also spend money in our community So I think that it's also very bad for people to you know Demonize the people who live in that camp and having gone down there Um, a number of the people who are here tonight They walked me through and said hey come on in if you want to meet people Who are in the camp and if you want to talk to them so Um, I don't like you know a lot of the language going around saying that um that everyone down there is a criminal And um because I'd also point out that they deal with these the same things that we deal with as well Um, there's a lot of people down there who as with people in our community feel A more secure sense of safety and they feel a sense of community there There are people who are there who are We're using drugs and there are people there who may be up to no good and stealing and you know Just because they don't have homes and these things are happening there Doesn't mean that there are people with homes who aren't doing the same things within our community So, you know the types of activities that we see happening there We also have with people who are in sheltered populations In our community as well With that being said, um I know that the staff is moving forward Expeditiously trying to get things on board and they're really trying to do it in a way that's very thoughtful Um, I do have some concerns and there's a a lot of people in the community with concerns Around the closure date and just the rate at which we're able to move people into shelters So, um, at this point, I want to make a motion to remove the closure date at the gateway camp And to provide signage at please please don't clap. Please don't clap Provide signage at the camp about alternatives Including the vfw hall the salvation army and information around the other alternatives that are going to be coming on board Um, and that we move to finding a site For a transitional camp and we continue to explore the idea of a transitional camp And just so people know a big reason why this is happening is because There's fear not only in the community of folks who are living there But also I've been hearing from people who live in the areas and people who live in other parts of Santa Cruz Who've actually expressed that While the camp isn't perfect. It's something for people right now It's we have to remember that it's winter We still have a lot of storms coming and this year has been exceptionally wet and cold and if people didn't have this type of Shelter since we're not able to provide shelter ourselves We may actually be we may have actually been dealing with more deaths associated to people getting hypothermia And we wouldn't know where the where these people are because we wouldn't have um, they wouldn't be concentrated in one area um And so I'm going to move forward with that motion at this point in time second So there Is that a substitute motion That was going to be my question. Okay, my question is also that I believe there were Have a motion on the Part of councilmember glover's motion is still on the floor separate Yeah, I believe there's a count there's the second part of the original motion which is to address the Additional considerations which included the ordinance language And moving forward with that and the safe parking language if I if I remember correctly the transitional encampment ordinance So if there's a substitute motion then the council has to vote on whether to accept the substitute motion Then if it is accepted then you can vote on the substitute motion And then if it's appropriate you may return to the main motion and vote on that. Okay So is that a substitute motion? Yes So your your your motion is to consider this And to not consider the Points two and three from councilmember glover's motion regarding transitional encampments and a list of Potential sites I thought that by separating the two motions that um, they hadn't been those have not been considered So you're you're recommending your your motion is to substitute the ross encampment extending the date which is a kind of a different issue for councilmember glover's motion or you are both May may I suggest that we potentially withdraw the motion for the time being We'll go ahead and vote on the original motion. Then you could revisit your second motion We could take action separately on that. Does that feel appropriate councilor matthews and then councilman Yes, I was going to say there's about three items in that substitute motion And also, um, I I believe we have not dealt with the idea of Directing a revision of the Crisis the I was going to make that motion after we get through the rest of this So why don't we do this? We've withdrawn the motion. We'll revisit that at another time Let's go ahead and move forward with the council weighing in on the second part of councilmember glover's motion And then move on to other subsequent potential action I would like to see the language Of the motion that's now on the floor Okay, happy to just say it again because I don't have a way to project it up here Okay, do you want to state it again? Really? I mean bonnie can't we type out the Or I believe it was items two and three of the recommendation that was uh, on the powerpoint Let's look at items two and three. Okay, so now I can all know because my internet doesn't work now because it's dead, but uh This is outdated like I mentioned before This is not the same things the first one that we can change it. Thank you to bonnie is uh the Uh Adoption of the language of the declaration of homeless emergency. I know that didn't pass But just for the record so that it's in the document Number two was for staff to come back at the march 12th meeting with a complete list of all city-owned properties with Potential locations for transitional encampments and safe parking programs And then the third one was to return by march 12th with first Uh language of the transitional encampments ordinance and the safe parking ordinance And after talking with attorney kandadi invoking the Expediting process But since that didn't pass That kind of becomes a moot point. Um Depending on whatever language is revised for the declaration of shelter emergency as we kind of anticipate to most likely here after this so, um Short answer is number two come back with a list of city-owned properties for transitional encampments and parking spaces Okay, so uh councilmember matthews. Yeah, and then councilmember round. Oh, yeah, so I'd like to comment on that um I believe this is consistent with the Direction of the joint resolution that was adopted by both the city and county which called for exploration of safe Parking programs. Is that correct? That was that's already incorporated in that jointly adopted action Did that refer to transitional? Locations as well well the the joint action plan does contemplate A full evaluation of all alternative shelter options So I would imagine if there's interest on behalf of the council to provide some specificity to that We would already have direction to to do that. This is consistent with our jointly adopted action and the one thing I would Request adding to this would be to Directed that Information be shared with the county encouraging Um Maximum collaboration for pursuit of those Opportunities of both the pursuit of the opportunity. Yeah Because what what we've found is that our staff has already done a great deal of research on both the safe parking and transitional encampments And that that as part of this direction returning with a list of possible city-owned locations We should also share our research with the two by two committee and urge their Their pursuit of these possibilities So It's not clear to me that We can't um also consider ordinance language for both transitional encampment Encampments and safe park up safe parking program strike three Count So, but it's so councilmember Glover said that that would is moot because we are not we um did not Vote majority did not vote for the declaring the existence of a local homeless emergency But that was my question with a shelter emergency I believe that we still could do those things So I don't I don't if I if I can what my interpretation was that it couldn't happen to the level of expediency That was originally anticipated or hoped for by councilmember Glover's original proposal that accompanied the emergency component of it But it still could go through General processes if that was interest of the council is that corrects We just go through the planning department. Yeah, so it's rather so that I'm confused The question is whether or not we could still move forward with the direction to have this ordinance language return to us And my understanding is yes It would just not it would go through our planning commission before it is able to What I what I would envision is that we would bring the ordinance back to the council on the 12th the draft for your review the council could Direct that we bring it forward as An urgency ordinance and if it obtains sufficient votes the council could put that in place on an interim basis Or you could Review it and either forward it to the planning commission for a recommendation or modify it and forward a modified version of the planning commission for a recommendation Neither of those actions would require as a prerequisite that you adopt The emergency resolution I would I would basically look at those as complementary actions. Not not one requires the other I would just add that if there is an opportunity for some of the ordinance language to fit in to A provision of the municipal code outside of the zoning ordinance then that process of The mandated process of going to the planning commission first could also be avoided I think we need to evaluate whether or not that's a possibility and whether it fits within other sections of the code But that may be Another approach that could get you to where you're trying to get to Thank you okay I'm sorry. Would you mind repeating? I mean, I'm just um, so Direct staff to return on march 12th with ordinance language for a transitional encampment permitting ordinance and safe parking programs permitting ordinance Based off of previously submitted materials with uh, recommendation about The process for adoption Okay, this process period the process. Yeah, does that work for you council member? I'll accept both of the friendly amendments Okay Okay, so that would be a friendly amendment to modify number three By council member brown and an additional friendly amendment by council member matthews to incorporate Number four for clarity. Okay Are we just speaking on the motion at this point? We can speak on the motion. We can start voting on the different components However I just want to make one comment based on the Some of the testimony that we heard that or I think it was the research that suzi was done that presented that Really transitional encampments Realistically are not necessarily transitional for some people. They are a supervised encampment that where they may live for A number of years couple years several years. So the transitional People have a concept and maybe it works out that that's a very temporary encampment until something more stable comes along but In a way, that's a misnomer. So I wonder if we want to just say transitional slash Supervised encampments or something. I just put that out to people as trying to be as realistic as possible about what we're talking about Okay, you can work on that when you bring that back. Yeah, I mean I I think What will be valuable for ongoing discussions around the ordinance is the intentionality of the intention Yeah, the intentionality of what we're trying to achieve with a transitional and encampment. I mean, I think that Um providing a safe place to sleep Providing a dignified and humane place to be Is something that we need to have a lot of clarity around because there are other different ways to meet those objectives And those different program models Require different siting considerations different operational considerations different financial considerations. So I think as council member Glever suggested, I do think We should consider ordinance language that kind of looks at that full spectrum of alternative shelter options and then give the council Implanting commission or whoever other stakeholders that might be involved an opportunity to do much like what seattle and others did which is really in intentional neighborhood engagement around what conditions would be considered effective In creating in our harmonious Kind of incompatible program within the neighborhoods that we are considering So, I mean that would be one one point of caution that I would suggest you contemplate as you think about this process is While and we all know, you know council meetings are a difficult place to provide public comment What alternative forms? Forms of engagement would be required to ensure that we're not only doing something quickly and urgently I'm getting tired. I'm sorry, but also that we will have success with we want to be successful I mean I staff wants this these programs to be successful too And I think that we need to take some little little bit of time to think about what that's going to look like So susie if i'm hearing you correctly, you're essentially outlining what was described in the charter Project plan. Yeah, and I mean we certainly can return to the question of urgency and timing I mean we we built these things in a matter of hours the broader few days But I'm really having a better idea as to what that stakeholder process would look like so we can build programs that are going to be sustainable Okay, well and I do excuse me, but I do and also comment that that's my concern with these With this motion is to say okay bring bring us back the list bring us back the ordinance. Bam. Let's go do it It needs structure. It needs thought on how it's going to be operated Okay, so much of that for success and um, I don't want this to sound like it's a blank check and All these things are going to open up partly for that reason because I think the thought behind the structure and operation Accountability, etc. Is absolutely critical to success and also history has shown us, you know, I can see the headline tomorrow Camping in Santa Cruz Green light going down. So I'm I'm concerned about our sending that message So if I could I think there's a so the in the interest of Moving our discussion along There is the motion on the floor as presented here before us in terms of the various components We voted on the first component that failed So now we're on if we want to go through them To the next component and vote on that we can do that or make modifications if Accepted by the maker of the motion and I'm open to other strategies But in the interest of trying to get us through this in terms of outcomes for this evening Early morning at this point Where where can we go? I think we can either vote on this and Decide where we want to be or come up with a different strategy. So If it pleases the mayor just one more point, I'm sorry I think it might be beneficial for the council to consider An additional direction to staff to return with Additional information on how this motion fits into the project charter Where there's opportunities to hasten the process How this might be a step to lead us in the direction that Staff articulated so we can continue to kind of think about that process framework every time we return to this So you can kind of understand how long Potentially different decisions might take and how to best engage with stakeholders and the council and the greater public along the way Okay, so I appreciate the suggestion And we still have this existing motion on the floor for deliberation for action Also, I think you should provide clarity on number three because I think you amended it a little bit And I don't recall whether this is the Precise slang was just I just want to make sure So let's go ahead and move down the motion and if it doesn't necessarily If it passes it passes if it doesn't pass then we can go ahead and amend and have a different potential outcome Does that work for the council? But I think you could incorporate if it's a friendly amendment direct staff to Provide information on how to integrate this direction with the charter and that's It's the maker and the second accept that If so, we can just sure so So you're accepting to Direct staff to provide additional information on how the of above the motion above Um Can be incorporated into the project charter charter for transitional encampments And and that would be in addition to voting on all of the above it just Yeah, just voice that my concern with the project charter is the timeline and I believe councilman brown Also mentioned that the concern was with the timeline. So I am a little concerned about the Like does that mean that how does the how do these motions work into the timeline associated with the project charter? Because that's not the goal the goal is to move forward quicker than the project charter Because we need to see these solutions and I'm also really confused about the conversation of structure and strategy because there are proven systems that have proven structures that work In areas with a much larger populations than we have So I don't understand why we're getting bogged down in this In the process Instead of just being able to move with proven models that work in a data driven Okay, so what i'm hearing is maybe that there isn't the acceptance of number five Potentially because it's feeling not consistent with what the intentions of one or two through four is yeah, no Okay, so let's go ahead and vote on the motion And we'll just take it piece by piece and if the majority of the council's supportive we can move forward Is that feel appropriate? I just sorry. Yeah, no go ahead. I'm just wondering if Number one and there is going to be a problem because we know number one is already voted. I've been voted So it's really two through five. Okay, so two through four two through four Could do we want to vote on that all in one? Okay, so all those in favor of the Items number two three and four. Please say I Any opposed No, I don't um, I feel that we need to have the charter personally. So I feel Can we make an additional motion? That motion passed I'm sorry. We wait this we voted on two through four. Yeah. Yeah, okay So that those passed. Yeah. Okay. So that passed. Can we just get a record of the votes? Sure. Was it unanimous? No, I voted against On on two through four because I feel personally that number five is probably the better approach And it feels that isn't really consistent for two through four for me. I lost track. I'm getting tired. I thought five was part of it The five was removed Then I'm going to be a no on this as well. Maybe we can clarify I believe the idea was with respect to five was that it would it would work in conjunction with three In other words, it just provided additional information as to how number three fits in with a project charter So they're they're not necessarily different things. It's just that We would go ahead and Ring bang the ordinance, but then we would just provide more information as to how the ordinance Fits into the project charter for your information And my understanding was that that was not accepted at this time. Yeah No, just because of the timeline associated with the project. I don't want it to come back I just want to qualify the purpose, right? I just don't want to come back. So so based on the Follow-up comment by councilmember mires. I'm Assuming that the record will reflect two no votes Mayor Watkins and councilmember mires and five votes in favor Two more motions are about to get made. That's my sense at least and which would include So number five is going to be coming to us, right? Yeah, that's right. I would like to which is okay All right, so three to four Yes, so two two four was five two go ahead. I'd like to um add a make a motion With the language acknowledging a sense of urgency We direct staff to provide additional information on how the Elements of this motion are incorporated in in the In to the project charter. I'll second that Motion, okay any further discussion all those knowledge Urgency acknowledging a sense of urgency direct staff to provide additional information on how the above motion is incorporated in the project charter Okay, so that was a motion by councilmember matthew seconded by myself all those in favor. Please say aye. Hi. Any opposed So that passes with uh council I'm I'm sure if I captured your vote captain councilmember In support and councilmember crone councilmember mires councilmember brown matthew spice merecomings and myself in support and councilmember gloves against Is there another additional motion? Oh, uh, sure Wait Okay All right So this motion, um Remove the closure date at the gateway camp um and to revisit that when we have a better sense of um How many beds are when the additional services are are online? Second I'm not done Could body right could body right Could we get this written out could she write it out? Is he saying it? I can rewrite it because it's like on a page with a bunch of other notes um So remove the closure date at the gateway camp and to revisit the state As services come online Revisit the date as alternatives come online provide signage at the camp about alternatives including the vfw hall Salvation army And any other shelter or warming facilities and then move to revise the um the shelter crisis Statement to strengthen it given our situation second Okay, so that was a motion by vice mayor Cummings seconded by uh councilmember Glover um any further discussion Could I just if I could um maybe try to ward smith the the shelter portion to direct staff to bring back uh recommendations regarding revisions to the Shelter emergency resolution Recommended revision To see we know what it means, but just to clarify that so they will We'll come back with some recommendations to Yeah, please few Points of clarification or questions so So with the joint action plan that's obviously a both a board approved and a council approved plan And there's a tremendous number of resources that are being put into Not only Outreaching folks at the encampment around their sheltering opportunities, but building those opportunities and developing Kind of that path to transition for folks I would recommend there is a two by two committee meeting this thursday ensuring that This direction is brought back to the two by two committee In case there is a need to Modify the joint action plan as it relates to the coordinated kind of relationship between the city and the county because there is a ton Of operational coordination that's around that and then two It would be good for staff who's Working through the operations of this to Have a sense of the intentionality the overall intentionality to close With appropriate Shelter options so we can continue to move towards that because what i'm hearing with Posting signs that there's alternative shelter opportunities does not necessarily evoke People must move So I think we we need to have a little bit more clarity around that or you can have those discussions at the two by two But I think it's important Sitting from where i'm sitting trying to develop Kind of this operational plan, which quite frankly day by day is a new task That we kind of still have marching orders to complete Elements of those tasks for instance with the idea that we would return on the 12th with a full update as to the potential of Providing those suitable alternatives for folks I'll just I'll just agree that I think that is definitely something that Came to mind for me in terms of this motion Knowing that also we were going to be receiving an update on the 12th and given Any type of update that didn't necessarily result in Meeting the intention of having Available space so that we felt comfortable closing the camp by the 15th and we can make that modification at that time but that would also be in Collaboration with the county as originally designed so I I share the same Concern and that's why I won't support the motion as it is I I Respect the concern. I think one of the things that's been coming out of the camp and I also I think that We should be moving forward towards You know getting enough beds and spaces online so that we can Close that location and I'll say that there are you know, there are issues with it being at that location including Risks to public safety. We've heard from the Fire chief about how it's hard to get Like safety services like emergency medical services in there. There's environmental health concerns and so I think that What we're hoping Is that we do find these other alternatives that come online? And I think that the fear that's been coming through the camp and Concerns within the community are around the fact that the language that's been used is geared towards only Really focusing on closing the camp and not Providing people with alternatives and as a result people are on people who are in the camp and people who are in the Surrounding communities have expressed concern because what they don't want to see happen is that The services don't come a lot online. We have a firm date and then We shut the camp down and people are kind of scattering all throughout the city and that there's Termo at the camp in terms of it being shut down. There's been Talk about acts of civil disobedience and then the potential for the lawsuit around Matthews versus Boise and so I feel like for myself and for and I feel like I speak for A demographic in the community That if we have alternatives and we can say okay, we have you know X number of beds and This is what the city and the county have committed to and we're gonna We're gonna now set a date and we're gonna be closing the site down And I think that at that like at that time it's it's better to have A firm date because otherwise People are just living in this constant state of fear and I think that in the community It's been stirring a lot of tension as well Okay, thank you. So, um Thank you for the clarification. So we have a motion by councilmember vice mayor coming seconded by a councilmember Glover Further discussion council. Can we separate the motion? How would you like to have that motion one is remove the closure date and Revisit the date as alternatives come online. I think that's one Motion and then providing signage about alternatives and revising the shelter crisis statement The second motion that's that that works for me. So let's go ahead and vote on the first motion I'll invite staff to include any language in that signage about like the closure of the camp So, okay So all those in favor of item number one Which is to remove the closure date of the camp and revisit the date as alternatives come online. Please say aye Opposed no no So that passes with councilmember crone, Glover, brown and vice mayor comings in support councilmember matthews councilmember mires and my and myself voting against I have a question on that action I am concerned about the fact that this is a departure from our jointly adopted agreement with the county And I'd like to get suggestions from staff on how we can send as strongly worded as possible Um indication to the county that we intend to move quickly. We intend to Prioritize the the projects that you're working on right now to get those additional sites online I don't want them to think santa cruz is bailing on you. So And we can go ahead language on that And just also as an fyi. I will be meeting with the two by two this later this week So we can go ahead and also express that but I think that official message has come from the council Okay, do you feel does the council feel comfortable with that? Yes, okay So we can work on language reiterating our interest in continuing to move in Concert with the county. Can I just make a motion that the council would vote upon? Can we let's vote on the second one? Okay Let's finish this. Okay. So all those in favor and items number two and three. Please say aye. I Any opposed could that passes unanimously? Okay, go ahead Um, I move that the council Send a clear message to our county partners that we are committed to prioritizing the elements of our joint agreement and Attempting to meet the uh target date For the uh camp closure I'll second that motion Any further discussion? Oh councilmember clever I'd add That in that statement to encourage the county to identify some potential safe parking places that have been Identified by the community like the drive-in or the Toys R Us parking lot Let's separate. I I agree with that, but let's separate them and that's something that we're already exploring at the I think it's already happening first. I heard about it. So I don't exploring other alternatives, right? Okay, so okay, well we'll keep that separate not accepted. Okay All those in favor of the motion. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously Is there a different motion at this point or do we want to Call it a night Let's make kind of make one statement for the record I'll go ahead and wait just one second. Were you preparing were you trying to prepare a mission? Yeah, I was just looking really quick We got the resolution taken care. We got the transitional encampments kind of taking care. We got the oh Well, I mean, I guess like not now whatever. No, I'll pass. Okay. Vice mayor coming I just wanted to state for the record that Just the fact that I was in opposition of the closure or the pulling of the signs down on Delaware because as someone who works in that area and Had gone out and heard the concerns of the folks in that area. I just want to point out that that One of the reasons why I was uncomfortable with that site and one of the things I expressed to a lot of people in the community was that When we make these kinds of decisions We really need to make sure that we're reaching out to the community and involving them in the conversation because many of the people who Approached me about that. Some of whom are my colleagues that I've known for a very long period of time and People have been friends within this community for over a decade None of them felt like anyone had ever approached them and and asked them whether or not This would be something that they'd be okay with And we really need to make sure as people have said that we Are all working on this together and this isn't something that the city council is going to impose on any individual community without Going to those communities and discussing this with them. So I just want to make sure that that's on the record So just to confirm that there has been no action on the Delaware Proposal at this point that was brought up There was no motion to make that change and so at this point the council has not Made any kind of direction to pursue that so that for the community's sake for clarification that will not be moving forward Councilmember clever. Thank you. I just want to Make a statement kind of in response to vice mayor Cummings This process was designed to start the conversation because the conversation was not happening on a community level and Being able to identify what was going on. It's happening on an internal level here But we got a chance to hear from a lot of different community members tonight that came out to speak We got a chance to hear some solutions, which they may or may not have presented to us in Other opportunities and now we can continue to move forward in figuring out ways to engage the community, but I do want to caution the dedication to making sure we get every single opinion as opposed to Being able to move forward and actually protect people and make it so that they are Taking care of so I just want to emphasize that there it's not one or the other It should be a combination of two or removing expeditiously But at the same time realizing that every day that goes by while we talk about things People are suffering and dying on the streets So Thank you. We have a sort of a different understanding of types of approaches Unless there's any further discussion. I'll go ahead and Adjourned quickly quickly mayor just before the gavel We don't have any direction on public facilities and bathrooms If there's consensus on behalf of the council to move forward with the project charter process We can probably just leave it at that if I can make a motion. I would say so So maybe if somebody wants to move it, okay, so I move that we Continue with the project charter process for the public facilities Analysis and I'll second that motion I'm really sorry to ask this but what are the assumptions that I I have grave reservations about that And result of that um opening up parks and bathrooms So in terms of yeah, so the project charter does outline a process for which we get to Developing a transparent and consistent process for which we analyze potential closures So it you know, I think there was some intentionality about opening things immediately and having limiting the the parks director's ability to do closures It really is about working with the parks and rec commission to ensure that As we are making decisions that those thresholds around safety and health and the things and access Are clear and consistent. So it doesn't seem so arbitrary when we when the parks direct Parks director closes for purposes of safety infrastructure, etc. So it does lay out more of this Strategic process for which we are engaging with the multitude of stakeholders that might be involved No, no decisions would be made right away And just for clarification, it would be based on the charter language rather than I believe there was language Previously submitted. So it would be based on the charter process the key being the charter analysis and process. Yeah, okay Does that help? Okay. Okay. Any further discussion all those in favor? Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously I will go ahead now and adjourn the meeting Thank you