 announcements, and then we'll move on to our regular meeting. Today's meeting is being broadcast on community television channel 25 and streaming. If you wish to comment on an agenda item today on using the instructions on your screen, please mute your television or streaming device once you call in and listen through your phone. Please note that there's a delay in streaming, so if you continue to listen on your television or streaming device, you may miss your opportunity to speak. For public comment, please press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand. It's your time to speak. You'll hear an announcement that you have been unmuted. The time will then be set to two minutes, and you may hang up once you've commented on your item of interest. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Byers. Here. Matthew. Here. I just got an email, and it's actually going to be Lori Butterworth from Jacobson. Oh, okay. Just got the Zoom link. Hi, Christine. Yeah, especially now during COVID, I think you all can imagine how trying this has been. So, the kind of a history of childhood cancer awareness month, I'll start with that. It started in 1999 in a parking lot that used to be, do you remember the old Harley-Davidson parking lot, which, yeah, when it was Harley-Davidson parking lot. We did the mural right there, and we collected signatures to declare September Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in the state of California, and it was signed then by then Governor Gray Davis. And I'm here in my office, and the original proclamation is hanging on the wall here. I can take it over here to show you. This is the original proclamation signed in 1999. And so, we're very proud that our small organization here at Santa Cruz started this groundswell of support and love for children with cancer. So, for 22 years, Jacob Hart has been here supporting kids with cancer and their families. And no one could have anticipated what we were going, what was going to befall these children and families this year. I'm sure all of you can imagine that the isolation for families who have a child with cancer right now is intensified. The fear is intensified, and we've lost five precious children to cancer during the, during this COVID crisis, and it's hard to even describe what families are going through right now. But at the same time, in the midst of all of that, what we've seen here at Jacob's Hart is an outpouring of love and support from this community like no one could have ever imagined. I've been able to witness it for 22 years, but nothing like this year. People show up with, I mean, one of the first things they showed up with was hand sanitizer for every one of our families. Toilet paper, when everybody else was hoarding toilet paper, some people were bringing it to us. Food, we've been delivering groceries every week to the doorsteps of families, and the food keeps coming from Samonos Bakery to De La Comaina to all these places to bring food so we can deliver it to the doorsteps so parents don't have to go out and risk going to the grocery store. Masks, you name it, people are thinking of Jacob's Hart, and that really speaks volumes to the community where this started in that parking lot in 1999 for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month to now, where this month of September we're not able to gather the way we would like to, but the gathering of love and support, we have been able to deliver $125,000 in rent assistance to families to make sure, not just rent assistance, but also funeral assistance and utilities and to pay their bills because parents are getting laid off and all of that ripple effect. But, and what keeps me going and keeps all of this going is at the same time this community cares. And so I can't thank you enough for the proclamation every year, like we redeclare this because it's important. So with that, I just want to say thank you and thanks to this community, there's no better place to live. Thank you for all the amazing work that you all are doing to help these families and these children during such a difficult time. I don't know if there's any other council members who wanted to, any comments that they wanted to make, or if they wanted to say anything. Council Member Golder. I just would like to thank Laurie and all of the people at Jacob's Heart that worked tirelessly for this super important organization. And I've been the fundraisers for, I don't even know, probably 18 years. I've been going to different various fundraisers and I always just see the level of positivity and love from the families that are going through this, along with other members of the community. And I just, as a lucky parent of two healthy kids, can't imagine what these families that are experiencing this are going through. And I just can't thank you and the rest of your organization enough. And I know I'm speaking for probably all of us up here, but thank you. Thank you. Council Member Brown and then Council Member Watkins. I too just want to say thank you for all of the work you do. I have friends who have been supported by Jacob's Heart and just can't thank you enough for all of the work you do. I wanted to ask if there are ways that people who are listening or watching can support you. What's the best way to do that? And just so we can announce that here and also know for ourselves how to help out. Oh, thank you. Thanks. Thank you for that. So donations are always welcome, especially now. Like was just mentioned, our events we haven't, we're not able to have our fundraising events this year. And September and October, all of these are times when we do that. So jacobphart.org is our website. We are able to have a few volunteers now. We're very careful about that. So there's a whole protocol that we need to go through. But we do need help delivering groceries and there's training and all that that people can do. And also, but really, I think it's the financial support right now, like from 10, 20, 25 dollars, all of that. What I want to mention with our grocery deliveries, we found that we spend $10,000 so far this year in purchasing groceries. Thanks to all of our community partners, that yields $97,000 in worth of food to families. And so it's all that. So we know that your donations are going to be really well used. And thank you for allowing me to share that. So jacobphart.org and we're in Watsonville. You can just go on the website and find our online donations or send a check or send if you have toilet papers. We need all of it. So thank you. Great. Thank you. Council Member Watkins. Well, it's nice to see you, Laurie. And I just echo what was said already. And thank you, Council Member Brown, for asking that question. That was also sort of what I was thinking is how can we continue to help you? I just appreciate you sharing what I can imagine as probably their darkest days. But also just having worked alongside you, Laurie, for a number of years, I just want to show and express my deep appreciation for your tireless dedication to this cause, to kids, to families. It's inspiring and we as a community all benefit from it, too. So thank you so much for all you do. And right back to you all. Thank you so much, Martine. All of you, thank you so much for the work that you do for the community. I mean, it's all a labor of love. And we all have our part to play in this extraordinary tapestry called Santa Cruz, you know. Council Member Byers. I was on the council in 1999. And I so remember your coming. And it was, I mean, I don't remember the details, but it was such a new organization. And look, it is just wonderful. I've been very proud to participate in that. Oh, thank you. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And I do want to mention that back in 1999, Melissa McDill, I don't know if many of you knew Missy. She was board president back then when we were just with like a few people working out of my living room. And, you know, she just lost her battle to cancer last month, over a month ago. And it's been a big loss to our organization because she's been around that long. And I'd like to share that at the same time we lost Missy, Granite Construction actually donated an additional 5,500 square feet to us here with our building already at 7,000 square feet free. And so what we're doing now, which I would love the community to get involved in this, is we're preparing a place to come home to for our families when they can return to Jacob's heart. We will now have over like 15,000 total square feet. And so we're expanding our counseling program. And we want to expand that out to other organizations who are working with children. And because our children with cancer and their siblings intersect with so many different pieces of it, like to educators, to healers, to counselors to come and let's welcome our community back together when we can. So that all was right there timed and when we lost Missy McDill. So we're naming it the McDill Center for Creative Healing at Jacob's Heart. So I really will make announcements about that, but I'm glad you brought that up in 1999 because it was her, Missy and I, that we're going around getting all those signatures and the Harley guys too, all those Harley Davidson guys. Yeah, that's a tapestry. We are Santa Cruz County, right? And we're really happy to be bringing this proclamation forward at this time. Thank you already. Thank you. Thank you so much for everything you do. You just can't replace that. You can celebrate their years of service and thank you for sharing those proclamations. I'm going to walk and sit and also in that it's probably not the way you pictured retiring after all of your years of dedication and service to the city, but it didn't go unnoticed all your hard work and we appreciate everything that you've done for us over the years. And we hope you have a long and happy years of travel and fun things ahead. And as soon as we're out of COVID and seeing you enjoying the beach and doing other fun things. Yeah, I just wanted to also echo my appreciation. It's quite a day for our police department to live so much decades of experience and for people who have really dedicated their lives to serving the people of Santa Cruz. And I just wish you and your families all the best and hope you enjoy everything you plan to do in retirement. And I wish we could be having a big celebration right now, but please just know that we appreciate everything you've done and all the time you've given to our community. So thank you. To the masses, we were reading the proclamations, but it's well over a century service, I think, between these four people. And interestingly enough, two of them that we would say kind of behind the scenes, doing the nuts and bolts work of the police department and two very visible people who have risen over time to become real leaders in the department. And I realized as you were reading those that their tenure in the department kind of overlapped his mind the city. And it's really, it's wonderful to see people who are so dedicated into a call to this work, who have such a sense of professionalism and very real connection to community, dedicate that career to our city. And it certainly has shown the quality of their work and also the appreciation that I think is widely held in the community for all the work they've done. And I ask of whoever said, you know, one of the things about retirement in the age of COVID is, boy, miss those retirement parties, but you can get together in person and thank people for their work. But really, thank you so much to all these people. Yeah, hi, I just wanted to say thank you for your service to all those who are retiring now in these very strange times. And, you know, I know that when Deputy Chief Martinez retired, he was able to come to the council meeting and talk with us and address us. And now it was really great to hear from him. We don't always hear directly from folks over in PD. And so while we are not getting a chance to hear from you here today, I just wanted to thank you all for your service. And it's I actually did the math Cynthia and it's 106 years total here that we've got. And, you know, and well deserved retirement. Mayor with former Mayor Watkins, we have served together on community prevention partners who are also playing a role in international overdose awareness day, as well as I'm a member of the SafeRx Coalition for Santa Cruz County who's been working for years to decrease opioid prescribing practices, among other things. And every year we host an event on August 31st together. And typically they're in the park and we make prayer flags like you see behind me that we hang at the CERN services program now. We gather with people that have lost a cousin or a family member. But this year we had to do it over Zoom, which had its negative impacts, but it also had some positive impacts in that we gathered over 100 people. Some family members from as far as Texas and San Diego were able to dial in. We hosted a lovely event with Gail Newell and Melissa Ethridge as our guest speaker, who you both know have lost a son to preventable overdose. And I really want to thank you, Mayor Cummings and Councilmember Brown, also especially for your courageous support of us, the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County, in the effort to return surge access and disposal to what it once was, which was evidence-based and far-reaching and peer-supported. I also want to thank you, Mayor Cummings, in particular, for signing on to a recent op-ed that was published in the Pateronian with other mayors, Kristen Pearson and Capitola and Rebecca Garcia in Watsonville. And the subject of the op-ed was really to address stigma and empathy for people that live with substance use disorder. And the title of the op-ed was Words Matter. And I just want to read a small segment of that, and then I will move on. I did have to put things in writing to protect you all from me rambling on or from me for getting tongue tied. So excuse me if I read. But here's a quote from the op-ed. There has been attention and commentary in both the media and social groups in Santa Cruz County regarding words to describe those who suffer from substance use disorders in less than favorable terms. Words such as junkie, drug seeker, criminal-like, addict, all add to the stigma associated with substance use. Addiction is a diagnosis characterized by compulsive drug use despite negative consequences. The people, as you said, who use drugs are our neighbors, fathers, mothers, children, and in essence, they are your constituents. As difficult as it is to live with chronic potentially relapsing disease, the impacts of stigma can be devastating. Public stigma leads to barriers of employment, education, training, health, housing, and social support. And personal stigma leads to shame and guilt, lowered self-esteem, and what's very important, it leads to delays in seeking help and poorer health outcomes. Stigma involves many labels, negative stereotypes, and dehumanization that impact social and health outcomes. We strongly urge and implore the community to move to a model of person-first language to humanize people rather than stigmatizing languages that have severe negative outcomes. I'm very thankful that the City of Santa Cruz has moved forward and has adopted a health and all policy framework, and adopting first-person language is very much aligned with this policy. I just really want to thank you from the bottom of my harm reductionist heart for your proclamation of support. And I can assure you that the Harm Reaction Coalition, as well as SafeRx and Community Prevention Partners will gladly work together with the City of Santa Cruz. COVID-19 plus the recent fire disasters, combined with an opioid use epidemic that has reduced the life expectancy of a generation nationally, has undoubtedly had negative impacts on the overdose risk in the City of Santa Cruz. And I will resend last year's report to you on the Sheriff Coroner's Update of the 2008-18 overdose data. It's very useful and suffice to say that the City that you serve has the highest rate of fatal overdoses anywhere in the county. And that's been consistent for numerous years. And the question that I would like the council to be asking themselves is, can as you support a health and all policies framework, how can we reduce preventable overdose deaths? Is all of the recommendations that you mentioned that are recommended by the CDC? It's no one magic bullet. It's going to be a collaborative effort. I only wish Jen Hastings was here with me because without their steadfast, rock-solid, door-knocking, pavement-pounding work, we wouldn't have medication-assisted treatment in the jails, the ED bridge that she's instrumental and that they are instrumental on. So I will let you know that next week on September 15th, the Integrated Behavioral Health and Action Coalition will meet and there will be a meeting with the 2019 overdose trends and data. And our speakers at that meeting will be Jen Hastings, Dr. Stephanie Fiore, Gail Newell, and Dr. Gillarducci. I will forward you a link to that event in case you need one more Zoom meeting to attend. But that's always a powerful contemplative. And it'll also have kind of a projection for 2020 because we are in a strange time and nationally we already know that 35 states are reporting surges in fatal overdose deaths. So on that note, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for acknowledging this real issue that we face as a community and that is overdose. And we can reduce overdose. We can eliminate fatal overdoses. It's not going to be easy, but it's a heavy lift, but it's worth it. It's really worth it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah, I'll just really quickly say thank you, Denise, for joining us and talking about this issue. Thank you for all the work you do. And I just want to give a really sincere thanks to the folks who work with the Harm Reduction Coalition in Santa Cruz County. I know many of you, friends, neighbors, and I just know how much you care about people and about our community and really doing the right thing to help alleviate suffering, really, and the pain that comes with addiction. So just wanted to say that and keep on doing the good work. Really appreciate you. Because the Community Prevention Partnership and our kids are opportunities to thrive and not actually go down a path of addiction ideally. And so how do we even think about things more even upstream and preventing drug use from the very beginning? And I think it's the holistic bit that Laurie mentioned earlier in terms of how we can work together to improve the health of our entire community. So thank you for that. And thank you, Mayor. The one that's needed is one of the very big steps in that direction. Condition of the City Attorney with concurrence from the Director of Parks and Recreation, Tony Elliott. Item number 25, which is the Parks Master Plan 2030 and Environmental Impact Report is deleted from the agenda. Pardon the interruption, Mayor, but I would just like to clarify that it will be continued to the meeting of October 13th. In the meantime, we'll be referred back to the Parks and Recreation Commission for further discussion at its September 14th meeting. Thank you, Mayor Cummings, members of the City Council. This afternoon, the Council closed at 12.45 p.m. to discuss liability claims and pending litigation matters only. Item one was liability claims, the claims of Ruben Farnsworth, Progressive Insurance, and Deborah Workman. The first two of those, the Ruben Farnsworth claim and the Progressive Insurance claim are also listed on your Consent Calendar this afternoon as item number 15. There was no reportable action on the third claim of Deborah Workman. Next, the Council considered pending litigation matters. Item 2A was the case National Urban League, et cetera, versus Wilbur J. Ross et al. A case pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In that case, the Council, by unanimous vote, authorized the City to join in an amicus brief that is being filed by the county of Santa Clara in this lawsuit, which challenges a decision by the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau to cut short a bureau non-responsive follow-up efforts. These are efforts that the Census Bureau typically does when it has canvas in the area and identified individuals or households that not respond to the census. The non-response follow-up efforts this census year were delayed because of the COVID-19 crisis. And earlier in the year, the Trump administration and the Census Bureau announced that they would be, in light of the suspension of those efforts, would be extending the deadline for non-response follow-up efforts to the end of October. And then just recently, the Census Bureau announced that it would, that it had rescinded that extension and was going back to the current deadline or the initial deadline, which was September 30th. I might add that last Friday in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Judge Lisa Coe granted a temporary restraining order against the Census Bureau's operational changes. And a further hearing on a preliminary injunction in that matter is currently scheduled for September 17th, at which time the plaintiffs will be requesting a preliminary injunction to again extend the deadline for the cutoff of the non-response follow-up efforts to the census process. Item 2b is a trio of cases entitled Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at all versus Lewis de Joy at all. That's a case pending in the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, United States District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Second case is entitled the State of New York versus Donald J. Trump, and that is a case pending in the District of Columbia United States District Court. The third case is entitled the State of Washington versus Donald J. Trump, and that is a case that's pending in the Eastern District of Washington in the United States District Court. And again, the council unanimously authorized the city to join in an amicus brief being filed on behalf of the county of Santa Clara and the public rights project, which is representing the city of Columbus, Ohio. This lawsuit challenges operational changes at the U.S. Postal Service that have already delayed mail delivery and that appear to be part of a Trump administration attempt to suppress voting by mail ballot, which during the pandemic has increased by over 400% compared to prior presidential primary elections. And these measures include eliminating overtime, eliminating trips to postal sorting facilities to pick up mail for delivery, the notorious removing mail sorting machines from certain localities, and prioritizing election ballots from the first class mail process, all of which appear to be intended to voter turnout and mail ballot voting in the upcoming presidential election. So again, the council unanimously authorized the city to join in an amicus brief being prepared in those three matters. And there was no further reportable action. I just had a couple of updates first as it relates to the pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, and then some updates on the CU Lightning Complex fires. So first with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic response, the governor did announce today, you may have heard that Santa Cruz County has now been moved to the red tier, which wasn't some economic restrictions. So beginning today, personnel care services such as waxing, nails and massage, restaurants, places of worship, movie theaters, gyms and fitness centers along with museums, zoos and aquariums will be open, will be able to open indoors with modifications to protect the health and safety of staff and the public. And but I also wanted to point out that the health department has also warned that the community should be aware that another surge of COVID-19 cases is anticipated. Nonetheless, this is due to evacuations from the fire, which resulted in many people mixing with others from outside and inside their household. So if the case count goes up, Santa Cruz County could return to the purple tier in 14 days. So we'll have to see how long we can stay in the red tier. School openings for in-person instruction can only be considered once a county has been in the red tier for 14 days and are subject to decisions by local school boards and administrators. So at this point, no county schools may open for in-person instruction at this time. So that's the situation with respect to the schools. The other thing that occurred this weekend were the beach closures. And I can tell you that the preliminary information that I received as far as that they were pretty quiet this weekend, we didn't really have any major incidents or large crowds. So that's good from the perspective of preventing the virus to spread. That probably was attributable to the dual-county Santa Cruz and Monterey County closure of beaches as well as state parks beaches. And also, I imagine the fires probably played a role with respect to reducing crowds. So with respect to that front, I think we did pretty well. Didn't have any major problems that we can report at this time. So that's the pandemic updates. Now with respect to the fires, I'm just going to point out a couple of fire response activities. And then I'm going to turn it over to Jason Heiduk, our fire chief, who can give you an update on the overall fire. And then Rosemary may want to comment also on the water system related issues. So a couple of activities, fire response activities that are happening in the city. First, as you all know, the county did open a resource recovery center or recovery resource center in the city at the arena. That was opened on August 29th, and it's open from 11 to 7 p.m. And that is a way for residents that are impacted by the fire to connect to resources and services so they can help to recover and rebuild. So that's operating right now. And then with respect to shelter sites, the county did consolidate shelter facilities, which included reducing or closing some facilities as the number of evacuees declined with reopening of communities. And so the Civic Auditorium Evacuation Center was closed along with others in the county. However, sites do remain open, and those include the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville, the Seventh State Adventist Conference Grounds in Soquel, Cabrera College in Aftos, Harbor High School here in Santa Cruz, and the Simpkins Family Simcenter in Live Oak. So those are still available for evacuees. And so now I'll turn it over to Jason and then Rosemary after that. City Council, Jason Haidouk, your fire chief. So brief update on the CZU fire. The good news is as of this morning it's 81% contained, and it's just over 86,000 acres in total. That containment number will go up, and primarily those lines of containment are in the Boulder Creek in the Pescadero-Butano area. It's incredibly steep terrain, and they've really been aggressive about repopulating those areas when the infrastructure can't support it. At this point, the number of people who are assigned to the incident is decreasing. I'm sure you're aware that the state as a whole has a number of very large-scale fire incidents that are occurring right now. Unfortunately, this fire did have one fatality associated with it, but I will say that given the scope of this fire and the area that it was in, being able to evacuate that number of people that quickly and not having more significant entries or fatalities is an absolute success. There's just under 1500 structures that have been destroyed. The majority of those are in the County of Santa Cruz, and they are in the process of assessing all of those areas. The recovery from this is going to be a very long ongoing process, and primarily not just rebuilding of homes and getting people back into their structures, but the infrastructure. There's really significant damage to power lines, to the water systems, and that's one of the things that's holding up the repopulation of these areas so that people have a place to go back to that safe, but also traveling on those roads. They're narrow, two-lane roads, and there's a lot of heavy equipment as those people are back in there doing that infrastructure. I expect that they'll have full containment on this shortly, but one word I do want to, that containment is just contained. There's a number of interior pockets or vegetation that will smoke and be on fire until we get significant rain, and that's going to be an ongoing issue for all the people in that area as they go back. So the good news is they have good containment on this fire. I expect they'll have full containment here in the near future. The bad news is it's going to be a long road to a full recovery for all the people that have been impacted here within our county. So I'd like to share my screen. Are you seeing my screen? Yes? No? No. Hold on a second. Sorry. I know you haven't saved, so if you want me to share mine, let me know. Bonnie, maybe you could do that for me on the MDR. Sorry. I don't know what's going on with this today. A couple of things. I've got a number of slides here and I intend to go fairly quickly, but we have been getting some requests and some concerns expressed by members of the community about water quality in particular, but I would really like to talk a couple of minutes about, yeah, that's not it. It's the other one, I think, Bonnie. I would really like to talk about the issues associated with the work that's been being done by the work team. There we go. The water resources, the watershed emergency response team, and to talk a little bit about kind of where we've been and where we're going, so maybe we could back up a couple of slides here. Hold on a second. Yeah, and fundamentally, as we did quite a bit of work right before the meeting that we had two weeks ago to get our facilities ready, and I have a couple of photos that show a big firebreak on the west side of the ridge associated with the Loch Lomond, the Mill Creek watershed, and as a result of making those firebreaks work today. Okay, next slide please. There we go. This is the firebreak that was put in on the west side of the Mill Creek watershed, and now we need to go in and put in water bars so that during the rainy season, we don't have basics more flooding and erosion of these areas, so this is a sort of hardening. The same is true for, particularly for the next slide, Bonnie. The Groundhill Water Treatment Plant, quite a bit of vegetation management was done there, removal, and now we've got, particularly in the steep slopes downhill side of this, we've got to put in some drainage structures to make sure we don't lose the hillside during the upcoming rain. Go ahead. But really, among the main things that I want to be talking about here are the fact that high water quality continues to be an ongoing focus, and I don't expect anybody to go ahead to the next slide to be able to read all the detail here, but this is an example of the kind of work that we're doing in terms of the water quality monitoring, the parameters that are being tested. There's another slide beyond this that shows even more areas that we're doing ongoing monitoring for some of the big examples of concern are benzene, which is associated with the melted HDPE pipe up in the upper part of the watershed in the Boulder Creek water system, but fundamentally, we are doing even more monitoring than we would normally do, and you can see pretty much any kind of parameter on this from the organic chemicals to the inorganic chemicals, metals, and to biologicals that we are focusing on. And so we will continue to be using that information, collecting even more than usual and using it and making decisions about how we operate the water system. Go ahead, Bonnie. The big issue, and I think Jason may be sort of next one after that. Jason sort of mentioned this is, can you click on this link for me, please? It's the debris flows and source of contamination coming into the system. If it works, we should be able to see a small clip from the USGS that's not going to work. I don't see the little thing going around. The USGS has a really interesting little clip of an area in Orange County that burned a couple of years ago that they put a rain intensity camera on. And so once you see that within three minutes, the stream starts to flow full of debris and runoff from the area that is affected by the rainfall. Go ahead, Bonnie. We'll just skip that. What a normal situation would look like, the rain would infiltrate into the ground and run subsurface into the stream beds. But under the post fire conditions, go ahead, post fire conditions, it's not what happens. The fire makes the soil impervious to infiltration. And so you end up getting quite a bit of debris that comes into the system and then washes downstream. And go ahead, Bonnie. This is what we're really concerned about coming forward. In the San Lorenzo River, we have that issue there. We know we have burn area in the Laguna watershed. Majors in Lydell seem not to be affected at this point, but we are concerned about what will happen once the rain comes. One more, please. Again, this is a map I showed you the last time that kind of showed the perimeter of the fire in the kind of late August and the portion of the fire area that is in the San Lorenzo watershed, the source of about 45% of our total supply. Go ahead. And this is an area between Majors in Laguna, just above Laguna Diversion. So this is the kind of prime area. We don't have a lot of photos of these areas yet because we've not been able to get access. But this is a prime area where we're concerned about debris flows and sedimentation and sediment transport, water quality impacts. Go ahead. So the work team that came in and started working, it really does look at reflow, flooding, rockfall, values at risk. Go ahead. And they're assessed for soil burn severity. They develop a lot of different kinds of maps and some really interesting products that are being developed. And Mayor Cummins also sent us a product that he and the folks up in UCSC that he works in is looking at the fire intensities. And these are all tools that really will help us both target restoration work, but also be prepared for what might be coming as far as debris flows and other kind of issues in the future. Go ahead, Bonnie. This is a map from the Napa Sonoma area on a fire that occurred a number of years ago that shows the burn severity. And you can kind of see the the orangey colors, which there's a little bit up here in the top of the photo of the map as the most severely impacted. But even so, you get other kinds of problems associated with these these things that you'll see in the next couple of slides. So go ahead, please. This is a similar map looking at the before and after. I think this is sediment transport surface erosion in a tons per acre. And in the prefire, which is the image on the left hand side, you can see that the average is about a quarter of a ton per acre with the prefire. Postfire, you will see that it's 12 tons per acre with a 50 percent or greater probability that this would happen in any given year. So this is a pretty significant issue if it starts to really occur in particularly in the San Lorenzo watershed as a result of the burns that have occurred on the west side of that basin. Go ahead. And this is an example of the kind of rainfall intensities. This is in inches per hour against the kind of flows that you could see. And it's pretty common for us to see rainfall events that take the flows in the San Lorenzo from 100 DFS, which is the the scale over here on the vertical axis to six or eight or even a thousand, 2000, 20,000. And if we get these kinds of rain events this winter and we do have severe burn areas, we're going to have more significant flows and we're going to have more runoff changes from the burn areas that are going to affect our water quality. And so that's a big concern for us. Go ahead, Bonnie. These are the maps I wanted to mention to you that that Mayor Cummings and his folks that he worked with at UCSC provided us with. It's with some really good imaging from satellite views about the burn areas you can see in the image on the right-hand side. The high burn areas are mostly in the on the west side watersheds, which are a concern to ask about relative to majors and to Lydell and to Laguna sources of supply, whereas some of the lower intensity burns are more in the San Lorenzo basin. And you'll kind of imagine that kind of where the green block in the in this map on the in this image on the right hand sort of separates the upper part of the basin that it's probably not so much affecting us versus the San Lorenzo basin. So been pretty lucky in the sense that not so much of the areas had the really, really intense burns that we saw on the west side watershed. So that's a that's a good sign for us, but still something to be cautious about. Go ahead, Bonnie. So the work of the work effort that's been underway, maybe actually just getting completed will help us to identify mitigation efforts and restoration efforts and help us to focus those efforts in a very timely way so that we can use the next couple of months before we really get the more likely portion of the rainy season get some steps in place to help mitigate some of those impacts coming. Go ahead. And I use the number of the slides from this in this presentation from they were from a presentation by Brewco to a meeting that the Sonoma watershed area. So I wanted to acknowledge that work. And with that, I can take your questions if you have any. Thank you all for those presentations. Do any council members have questions for Chief Hayduk, the city manager? And one more thing and that is that there's, you know, there's a lot of effort that going on right now to find funding to make sure that we have the money to do the restoration that we need to do. And so I know that we and others are coordinating to work with folks in Sacramento and with FEMA to make sure that the restoration, the money that we need will be forthcoming and that it won't all necessarily have to come out of our local coffers. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Matthews. In my mind, this just blew your budget and your work program completely to pieces if you didn't have enough going on. So yeah, any comments? I mean, the one thing I think for us is we do have an emergency fund, a reserve, that we can draw on and particularly if it's a timing issue for getting some things done and then maybe getting reimbursement down the road, which I think is often the FEMA strategy, right? And we're working really hard to collect our information. We've got staff who've been pulling together a 20-some page document to come up with recommendations both on restoration, on source monitoring and how to make sure that we get early warning in the event that there's a problem coming our way. One of the big issues with a lot of debris flows is that our intake at the Tate Street, you know, the coast pump station there on Tate Street could be blocked. And so thinking about contingency plans and also thinking about ways to manage water quality and to produce and deliver, you know, a quality product when there is a source water change. And so the treatment side of it is being looked at as well. We've got a lot of people putting our intention on that. But the goal is really a, you know, a focus in the next 60 to 75 days on those issues. And we'll sort of have to work as other things around it. But yeah. They have a lot of experience with those kinds of things. And in the presentation, I use every slide from that presentation, there were some examples of sort of temporary kind of cop dams kind of put up in places to, you know, create a little bit of a place for the water to slow down. Again, I think for us, the work teams report. And then, as I think I mentioned to you in an email the other day, getting some visual sense of what is going on in the watershed areas that have been burned over is really helpful. And we're seeing in some of the aerials that we've seen so far that there's kind of spots that are burned and then other spots that aren't burned. And if that's the case, that's probably a slightly better situation than the alternative where everything is gone. They don't all look like that photo that I showed you from the LaBouna area, so to speak. And so, you know, really getting a sense of where the big drainage has come from. The west side of the San Lorenzo watershed tends to be, you know, more granitic soils. And so a little bit more stable, maybe less likely to have so much fluffing. But we have a lot to learn. And we're obviously focused on trying to gather information and process it and make plans that can start getting put on the ground really quickly. Yeah, I was just going to add, I'm impressed that the work team is already out. And just from some experiences, you know, 10, 12 years ago in Big Sur with some severe fire with really rugged terrain, I was really impressed working with those folks trying to manage a few properties through some of those issues, including properties that had domestic water systems on them. Just very impressed with the level of commitment and follow-up and knowledge that those teams bring. And, you know, there we were able to avoid a number of what we thought would be really devastating debris flows just by working with that team and really understanding the risk and how to manage the landscape. So I'm really glad to hear they're already on the ground. And especially right now before it gets too late in the season. So, and I know, Rosemary, you have really good watershed practitioners on your staff, some of the best. So will you, I guess my one question is with all the efforts that we have been putting into the HCP and knowing that fish flows is one of our major accomplishments over the last 10 years really, but also going further into some of the restoration work that's gone on over the last few decades. How's your fishery team feeling about sort of this pivotal time right now where we're going to, you know, we've been trying to enhance habitat and seeing some good results obviously in Lagoon, but also up in the watershed. Do you, is your fishery staff able to kind of get an assessment of how to manage to the winner quite yet? Well, we're not quite there, but that certainly is on our mind. And Chief Hydage reminded me that when the work team has finished that the whole sort of report comes to the local agencies to, you know, coordinate implementation. And so we have already been in contact with the county regarding, you know, the water resources side of it and their fisheries person along with ours and the water resources management people along with our folks are certainly, you know, getting ready to dig into what the strategies need to be and how to do the best we possibly can for, you know, those resources, all the resources we that are values at risk in this situation. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, it's all of our all of our water supply streams are all steelhead streams and coho salmon too. So you've got a you've got a real balancing act of really trying to really protect those resources over the last decade. But now now trying to understand how to manage those watersheds will be interesting. So thanks. Please express to your staff just a lot of appreciation for all the work they're doing right now. So thank you. And thank you, Mayor. Moving process in terms of just how we can stay informed about what's happening and if it's just the updates during the city manager reports, that's really helpful because I know a lot of people are thinking about this, especially as we're looking towards the winter months. But you know, we still have a lot of fall dry weather ahead of us as well. Yeah. I guess I have a quick question, maybe more for having a lot of the residents from the valleys in our communities. And I'm so grateful that we have the Kaiser Permanente Center open. What is the staffing and needs of that center and how long do you anticipate it remaining open to serve those evacuees? The county is operating the facility. And so they're using a combination, I think of volunteers, a variety of different organizations that are supporting and functioning in the facility, as well as county staff so far. So the city, they have required city staff to participate in so far as operating the center, the assistant center. And then as far, I'm not actually, I don't know exactly what their time frame is, but I believe that it's, they haven't announced when it'll close. So I think they're looking at just continuing to operate it as long as there's a need and assistance that's required. And it has been quite used quite a bit actually, just from observing the traffic and the people going and coming to the facility. So it has taken quite a bit of use. Great. Well, thank you. I attended on the fire cleanup. And a lot of the cleanup was going to the Buena Vista landfill at that time. And they were also collecting waste from the evacuation centers and taking it there. And they were also taking it to centers in neighboring counties. And they wanted to let the public know that working, they're working with environmental health to ensure that the sites are not hazardous and that the lots are ready to build before letting people rebuild on them. And then one thing I thought was interesting was that when talking about ash cleanup, because there is a lot of ash debris within the city, is that it can also be toxic. And so it's best to sweep it up as possible and not down the storm drain because it, you know, if you can sweep it up, that's one thing. Or another thing is put it, push it into landscape and let it just kind of break down naturally there. And like Rosemary said, the water's safe within the city, but residents in some parts of our county are being advised not to currently drink their water until it's safe. And we also discussed food waste projects that are coming up and plastic bag bands and to-go food container things that are going to be postponed for now, but updated later. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to add something to Councilmember Golder's statement, and that's correct to sweep it up. But if you can put it in a plastic bag and seal that bag and put it in your trash so that just don't dump it into your refuse can, because then when we dump it, it'll, it goes back in the air again. So we really want to try to contain that. So if people are going to, you can kind of wet it down and sweep it, it can easily be swept up and then put it in a plastic bag and seal that off. That would be great. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Yeah. We did have our City Schools Committee meeting last month, and this was a meeting just prior to the announcement by the Governor that schools would not be going back in session. There continues to be that needs for additional technologies that for serving our kids, and also locations for distance learning. So, you know, thinking through places where potentially families and students and teachers could meet with regards to either teaching outside or as it gets colder, figuring out some additional, some additional possibilities for people to gather for some in-person learning. Of course, that's all going to be changing. So most of those, most of those items have morphed back into really having schools working out of homes right now. But the other thing with City Schools was just really, they're doing it, our Parks and Rec Department is doing a great job working with them on all kinds of different things in terms of access to various facilities and, you know, all the way to childcare and some other things. So just a really good partnership there. The homeless two-by-two committee due to the fires did not meet this month, and I believe we are trying to get rescheduled on that. And we had a long metro meeting last week, or towards the end of the month. And just extensive work right now trying to look at routes moving ahead, continue to have not a lot of, you know, smaller amounts of people on the buses and really trying to figure out sort of the business plan moving forward. We've had obviously a major ridership reduction. We have received and are currently using the recovery funds that were provided to transit districts throughout the country. But metro will have to be doing quite a lot of business planning and financial planning moving ahead. A lot, we got an extensive report from our, from the Executive Officer regarding all the safety measures put in on the buses, including state-of-the-art methods to try to keep people safe with on the buses during their travels and also looking at technologies with regards to not having to use money or cards or anything like that moving forward. So smartphone technology and things like that. So very interesting update. We were on hiatus obviously in July and learned a lot in terms of all the work of the metro over the last two months, at last month's board meeting. And that's all. Thank you, Mayor. In terms of Visit Santa Cruz County, we heard about the ongoing messaging of Visit Santa Cruz County from Don't Come to Public Safety messaging. They've tried to be very responsive, put a travel advisory right on the front of their website, basically saying some later when it's safe and trying to really be good partners with all the emergency services. The spring campaign, obviously their budget has gone a lot of things put on hold and restructuring. They have, in response to some diminished resources, laid off some staff, reorganized their staff a bit. They're down from 11.5 FTE-67 and they're rolling with the punches. Seeing the campaign when it does clear up in the future will be the theme for Visit Santa Cruz County's Let's Cruz. The theme can be Let's Cruz safely just for visitors and for staff, in every respect the emphasis is on safety. So they really aren't trying to reinforce that message. They've been putting up, as I think you know, a lot of evacuees, many of the properties giving special rates. They are also currently housing FTE crews, emergency crews that have come in. So it's been quite a mixed bag of who they're serving in prison. Another thing that's kind of of an interest, some of you may know, the Visit Santa Cruz County Perkets revenue depends largely on a tourism marketing district. It's a self-adjustment program that's been in place for at least 10 years. And it's due to come up for the current one expires in 2022. So they're just now beginning the process to examine the current assessment rates, the fits on the board, etc. So to do a good job of this and hit the timeline, it does take a couple of years to do the work, do the outreach to all the properties. There are over 100 properties in Santa Cruz County. So this is really kind of inside or vehicle in a way, but it does need the majority of the properties to come on and agree and feel comfortable with it. It's worked well for them so far. So they have been in the process of appointing the task force to guide that TMD renewal process. And ultimately that does have to be approved by the city council, by all the jurisdictions. So that will come to the council at some point in the mid future. I think that's the bulk of it. Yeah, that's the bulk of it. Basically, they're doing some major organizational changes, trying to stay on message for what serves the community needs and keep their properties alive and eventually supporting the city once again. When the time is right. It really would be the day to give comprehensive reporting from the commissions and boards, since we have a light agenda, but I don't have a lot. I will say that the Regional Transportation Commission meeting, we approved a five-year plan for measure D expenditures. And I guess the highlight from that would be that the revenue projections that we have been looking at and everything's super fluid, obviously, but the projections actually, the actuals were not down as far as we had anticipated. So that is going to be a big help for the, to not have to make cuts into the programming that has already been scheduled. There may be some kind of slow down with sequencing and timing, but overall, we're managing to stay pretty well on track. And I think in the Budget Committee's meeting, you'll hear more from us at our next meeting on that. Looking over this list, I think, I don't know if this is something in the budget process to look at. There's some committees that are kind of designated. They don't even have representatives or staffing. I don't know if this is an occasion with taking a hard look at all our work programs and our available energy if we want to re-examine whether those are still priorities. So that's just an observation. I'm pleased to say that the Code of Conduct Committee has done its work, and so you can take us off this list in the future. I don't know about the downtown library subcommittee. If you consider your work done there, you can keep that available on hold. But, you know, I think just look at the list, see what makes sense in the current time that we're in. Yeah, that's a good point. I think that's more than worth considering one of these items. To the farmers market, they have been in touch with our economic development department to do some lobbying around trying to get more family spending power in food dollars like the pediatric EDT cards that were issued to support families. And so how are we in terms of our communications with the state advocating for more of those types of programs so that we're able to continue to serve those who are in need of fresh produce. And then not necessarily affecting the city directly, but they displaced from their regular Scotts Valley location because of the staging that occurred for combating the fires. And so they have a new location in Scotts Valley. It could be a new location that they were able to find it there. So that's probably it. He wasn't able to dial in and I just tried and it didn't work. So I'm wondering if I should stop the meeting and restart it and have everyone else join in again. A quick comment on 13 and a quick comment on 18. Thank you. If we want to reopen it also maybe again, just because we didn't really give people a lot of time to call in, but yeah. One way local jurisdictions can do our part to acknowledge past processes that have led to racism influencing or not the city of Santa Cruz. I just wanted to thank the mayor and city manager's office for putting together the grand jury responses. I don't have any specific comments or questions. I just wanted to recognize the work done to date. And two of the reports really stood out to me. One being the De La Viega golf course report. And I think what really stands out in that report is that no one don't take care of our city assets when we're not able to actually put the funding into maintaining buildings and upgrading things and sort of deferring the kinds of really the care that is necessary in a climate like ours. Our assets start to fall apart and I think it's important as we go through another budget crisis that we continue to let our community know that many of the buildings the city owns are older. Many of them are on a list of long lists of deferred maintenance activities. So I think this report points out both the struggle as a local agency to try to maintain all of our different assets that we do have but also the importance to do that work to the extent possible along the way. And I do think that the golf course I'm excited about some of the vision that our parks director has with regards to the golf course not only for golfing but also for frisbee golf and some of the other things that are ahead. So I think it's a it's a good snapshot on you know an important facility similar to our swimming pool similar to a lot of these places that are very expensive to keep up but they become more expensive when they're when they're sort of at the end of life rather than along the way. So I appreciate the ability to just have that kind of daylighted via this process. And then I just wanted to also compliment even though we were part of the communities listed in the regarding the kind of best practices around budgeting and around risk management. I do believe that our decisions and past decisions of councils before us have really placed us especially with regards to the course obligation in a in a pretty solid place. And despite the emergency we're in now at no fault of our own we were keeping in pace and doing those best practices. So I just want to recognize our staff for really trying to manage that risk trying to manage those obligations moving ahead for our community and for our city. So thank you mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Myers I know you had comments on number 18 as well. Did you want to make those comments? That was just a very quick thank you to Commissioner Hamilton. She's going off of our downtown downtown commission just a really involved person always helpful and really understanding and thinking for thinking improvements in our downtown and just has been a longtime advisor in a commissioner role and I just wanted to appreciate her service. Thank you. Yeah please dig in. I just want to acknowledge you. Yeah thank you. I just had I forgot to mention earlier I just had a brief comment on item number 20 and that is the the completion of the state roots to school crossing program and I know we all benefit from that and I've seen the improvements go up in our neighborhood and our kids and our community can get to school and go about the community in a much safer way as a result of that and it's just a really testament to our public works and active transportation folks who are working on grants and getting the funding in and doing some pass through for education to the nonprofits and I'm just wanted to acknowledge their work and appreciation for making our streets safer for our kids. So thanks for mentioning it earlier. If you'd like if members of the public would like to comment on items on our consent agenda with the exception of item number system as a public health crisis does not make it so but so-called protesting racism accompanied by violent routing looting rioting arson murder vandalism assaulting the public and police police protection defunding destroying of businesses and anarchist chanting death to America as they have in the leftist home office in Oakland is very much more so a public health crisis and a crisis of politics where is the declaration of that crisis no really where is it this knee jerk leftist progressive politic crisis declaration suffers is overblown unjustified and inflammatory there are many causes of life outcomes including shortcomings in ethnic culture but primary responsibility for each life rests with the individual not the state there is plenty of opportunity in America and ranks the richest is possible in one generation equal opportunity has existed for at least two generations regardless of anecdotal evidence of declining examples of racism or not a two-term black president a black mayor and otherwise all women council should be proof enough opportunity exists like never before crisis is it is not this is a dangerous pandering endorsement of the disingenuous Marxist anarchist mob hidden agenda which is a destabilizing threat to America the riots in 48 of the 50 largest cities in America since March are a manifestation of evil intended or not it's an endorsement of that evil while I haven't examined your actual plans as hinted at to force your racial indoctrination theories on to city employees I would warn against pushing the vile critical race theories or simply put the white man bad theories which are devoid of any justified rational purpose except hate or now as we see it can be a promotion of the marxist anarchy movement also you should know Trump has issued an executive order banning such instruction of critical race theory at federal institutions agency contractors and urge the OMB to define to any that does if such appears in any city employee training hired city employees to collect the materials or report the city to the president so that the city may have any federal grant money defunded or desist there has never been a lower ratio of actual racism to the violent hotter blown about it than there is today okay see my time is up bye items on our consent agenda with the exception we'll have two minutes move the remaining consent agenda items second that thank you mayor council member buyers I ran a few hi brown holder and mayor Cummings you know instances when or if it's someone in the city manager saw Lisa Murphy your human resources director I see what you're talking about in terms of how to mitigate between that two and I think to keep it with the within the same with the council we would need to probably go add a line about the next most senior member that I think we could easily just drop a line in like that I think what we should probably consider doing is to have it be consecutive years on the council be the first one and then the second year would be something along the lines of most votes if that was the conflict in between there I think something similar that you do is when you select mayor vice mayor people I can add that in this is fine to show my screen and actually edit it on screen if that would be helpful I'm just a thumbs up if you can see that great okay pdf I apologize I'm in pdf if I'm not in word I think though in the in the first section where it was the upon report of a complaint an ad hoc committee composed of the mayor vice mayor and the most senior uninvolved council member will convene as an evaluation committee to determine the ability of the complaint inappropriate initial course of action I think in the section here where it talks about upon report of a complaint an ad hoc composed of mayor vice mayor and the most senior uninvolved council member so that by default then mayor Cummings if the mayor or the vice mayor if either one of them or both were involved both of them would not be entitled to sit on the subcommittee and we would then I think by default that refers to the fact that they couldn't because they are involved and then we'd have to pull up the next senior members so we could actually leave it as is if that you think that might address it or continue to try to clarify I was actually looking at the does not resolve the matter you know 1a number massive trying to put into words how to make a dysfunctional family love each other we can only go through far into the details I just wanted to thank the committee for doing the work I'm glad to see this coming forward I want to thank Lisa for her work as well it's just really important that we have a process where people can can work through you know various issues and I just want to thank the committee and for the news Catherine and for Renee for joining the committee towards the end and basically getting over the finish line so thank you thanks to everybody apologies in the meantime mayor Cummings further complicating the discussion um I didn't point out committee composed of the mayor the vice mayor the most uninvolved council member etc etc but if the subject of the complaint involved the mayor and vice mayor member with the most consecutive years etc you you cut out multiple times I didn't hear any of what you said but the city clerk captured it no he cut out for me to specify that when the subject of the inquiry involves both the mayor and the vice mayor then the matter shall be reported to the council member with the most consecutive years of service or if there are more than one council member with most consecutive years of service then the council member who received the highest number of votes at that at their election and then sub paragraph two should be revised to specify that if the subject of the inquiry involves both the mayor and vice mayor then an ad hoc committee will be convened uh by the council member with the most consecutive years of service etc yep yeah and of the current officials as amended during this discussion the council members and staff who participated in this and then I'd like to make a helpful comment I'll second that uh with thanks to the council members who participated in the process and staff as well who participated in this over time and in all the meetings the whole comments made and I do want to thank Lisa for rolling with the punches and keeping us on track this the absence of such a policy and the value of having it on record um became evident to us um in recent history and this kind of cognitive ethics and conduct policy is pretty common in municipalities the one that we presented here is based on a template um with variations and updates appropriate to our community but this reflects but many many many many other uh cities in california and the country are doing so we are not inventing the wheel here but it seems to reflect a general feeling of what's the most productive way to um conduct ourselves both with among ourselves and our staff and the general public um so aside from that I think the other thing that was pointed out to us is it's important to make sure that um new council members and commissioners are informed of this early early on just so we kind of know the assumptions going into this and hopefully it needs to be um used rarely because I did dial in as instructed so anyway I think you just need to speak louder okay do you need me to repeat basically this is based on a will you template the importance is early training for all concerns to incorporate that as direction follow-up direction to the adoption and that the the newly adopted uh code of ethics and policy be distributed to a wheel habit but to um commissioners and um that a standard part of orientation is the signed recognition that it's been received and risk thank you mayor council members buyers Matthew hi hi Watkins vice mayor Myers I'd like to that that's totally fine mayor Cummings and members of the city council first of all I'd like to just go through the categories of uh different categories of what's defined by the state law as price gouging um to list uh what is prohibited by this so it it makes it unlawful to uh sell consumer food items or goods uh or services used for emergency cleanup emergency supplies medical supplies home heating oil building materials transportation freight and storage service or gasoline or motor motor fuels by more than 10 of the advertised price prior to the declaration of the emergency the second category is repair or reconstruction services or services used in emergency cleanup the third category is uh makes it unlawful for the operator of a hotel or motel other transient occupancy like a short-term rental to increase their prices by 10 more than the advertised price immediately prior to the proclamation of an emergency and the fourth category is um a prohibition on eviction of any residential tenant of residential housing for the purpose of renting to another person at rental price that's uh greater than the evicted tenant could be charged uh or what was being charged prior to the proclamation of an emergency um you may have questions about why this is being brought forward if it's already covered by state law that's a question that I received over the weekend and um and the reason why is that under the state law this automatically kicks in on the proclamation of an emergency by the governor or um by the city council uh but it is only in effect for 30 days except for the um it's only in effect for 30 days and then it expires automatically under the state law so what this does is gives gives the council an opportunity to extend that prohibition beyond 30 days uh and so that's the reason why action isn't otherwise the price price gouging prohibition will expire on its own um the second thing I wanted to point out is that um this has been brought forward by way of an ordinance an emergency ordinance uh that the council can opt it adopt on a on a five vote majority um however under the charter when you adopt an emergency ordinance it has to be published within 15 days of adoption in in order for it to remain in effect takes effect immediately but it has to be published uh subsequent to that within 15 days and the city clerk pointed out to me last week that under our charter um when we do that publication it costs the city about 1500 dollars and so um so that's in that's the fiscal impact that that the city has and the city has a budget for publications in connection with city council meetings but the statute all also requires that the declaration be extended by successive 30 day periods in order to remain in effect so the council will need to take action every 30 days as long as it sees the need to have these restrictions in effect and what city clerk pointed out to me was that that would essentially um use up the city council's entire budget for publication of ordinances within a couple of and so what i'm looking into between now and the next meeting is whether or not this could be extended by a simple resolution which would not require require publication and so that would just be to avoid the fiscal impact of having to um continually publish the same uh provisions that would that would remain in effect assuming that to be the case then we would come back to the council on the 22nd of september um because otherwise the first meeting in october which is the 13th is more than 30 days from today so um it would expire before your next um before the first october meeting and so assuming that a resolution is an appropriate way to go forward i would expect this to be on the consent calendar for the next couple of months until the council directs that it be lifted um happy to answer any questions that council members have if we made the should we want to extend it that's that's what i'm hoping yes in certain communities and so we do want to be ahead of it um mayor i think if i heard you quickly you mentioned that you were in communication with the county about this i mean i'd be interested and understand a little bit more about what direction they're headed in as well ordinance and they they have not at this point but i can certainly reach out to the county council and and get their input i have one other question and the procedure um if i sorry i'm trying to take all what you said in tony um in terms of procedurally it sounds like the emergency is if it were brought back as a regular sort of ordinance what does that look like in terms of changes nothing different other than the cost for there's still a publication requirement for an ordinance that's brought forward in the ordinary course the concern i have about that is that the the penal code which provides you with the authorization to take this action uh states that the prohibitions may be extended for additional 30 day periods as needed by a local legislative body local official the governor or the legislature so um it does not allow this type of regulation to remain in effect in perpetuity which is generally what happens when you adopt a new ordinance and so um i suppose what we could do is um in fact i'm thinking of it right now is um modify this to say uh or for additional periods as determined by resolution of the city council so that would be language that i would add to the effective date and the expiration date of the ordinance correct and understanding that the state um anti-gouging um provisions are in effect for 30 days yes except for the and this is one i was uh searching for in my presentation but the prohibition on price gouging in um repair services um is for 180 days even more reference would be to continue this current meeting um and have more of a conversation with the county in terms of thinking up with um their language and their findings of urgency um and um it was also i i also spoke with someone at the county they pointed out to me the fee for violation is much lower and our proposed ordinance that it is in the state so there's probably just some um consistency issues that should be resolved ahead of time i also had some um i just thought it would be worth raising the issue that particularly for hotels and motels their rates are as i think everyone understands very fluid according to season and day of the week and weather all sorts of other things um and particularly immediately before the fire that industry would say will free call with zero occupancy so their rates would probably you know half i look at their average daily rates and immediately the few months most recent months their average rates for the season were about half of what they were in the normal year so um 10 percent from that would be artificially low because they were in an extreme recession to see around burning death and i'm not trying to plead for a blank check but i just think in that case it seems like an extraordinary circumstance so that probably just takes a little bit of examination um so for all those reasons um largely just consistently with the um the local county doing and the idea of doing it by revolution which is um easier to continue my preference would be just to continue to the next meeting and then i would just ask mayor what you did in vision and the duration of this because rebuilding i mean that's going to be going on for a while that's not a 30 day or 50 day thing so i am just that's just an honest question you know that's the duration of that yeah thank you mayor um i just have a question tony maybe for you is it ab 396 that is the emergency price gouging ordinance correct provision of the penal code but yes you're right okay and i'm sorry i think i missed something and the length of that is is 30 days after the declaration of an emergency correct and and cleanup services which extends for 180 days okay so for people who may be um obviously wouldn't repair does it mean replace them in that in that particular setting it's a repair or reconstruction services used in emergency cleanup so um reconstruction i think i think it would apply in that in that situation but if someone's home was burned i was just trying to think it's not if someone's home was burned down then potentially the state law might provide that relief to make sure that there's no gouging for that reconstruction period even though yeah that would be optimistic that people were building their homes but hopefully back in six months hopefully i think it's worth pointing out that um you know arguably that provision might uh apply to people who hire say a landscape maintenance contractor to clean up ash from the fire that um has affected most areas of Santa Cruz but there you know there's not a a building that has been destroyed within city limits or repairs or reconstruction within the city that's attributable to the fire right okay and then the recent um state uh i think it was i don't know if it's the sign of bill or assembly bill uh 3088 which was passed last August 31st that was the eviction ban till March 1st 2021 so evictions we've got coverage now so this is really just um i think i saw an earlier version just making sure that evictions we've got coverage now through state law um so i just wanted to kind of clarify a little bit between the the intent um and so that's that's now in place that we do have um evictions covered um i guess my thought on this yeah is i'm i'm really in recognition of the management and and actually deep appreciation for what um especially supervisors Coonerty and McPherson are doing for their constituents right now and um i just i think um really understanding where the county may be going with this um is i think really fruitful for us to be able to to have that evaluation and um i did speak with um uh Supervisor Coonerty's office um specifically about this and i do know that they do intend to bring something forward so i think um sort of having them help take the lead might be um i i'm just very interested in that and and making sure that we crafted ordinance that um uh you know uh sort of following their intentions and uh so i'm i'm sort of leaning towards maybe taking some time and uh postponing this for just another meeting yourself thank you so my question is is if um the county does take action at their next meeting would the city be covered under that kind of umbrella of whatever action they take and would that um cause us to not have to spend the fifteen hundred dollars to publish because those would take precedence i'm not quite sure i understand your question would you would so the question is if if if mayor Cummings passed on his language to the county and the county's considering a similar ordinance at their next meeting and we kind of just push push the pause button on ours and theirs took effect it would in essence like encompass the whole county including the city correct that's what i'm wondering is the city also included so it wouldn't be included in that no it wouldn't okay so even if this county enacted something that little the the city of Santa Cruz would not be included just the county okay only apply in the unincorporated areas of the county so complicated because all of the building is going to be done in the unincorporated areas of the county and like um yeah but i'm guessing most of the residents are probably yeah going to be trying to find a place to stay in the city temporarily yeah without without you know without any evidence at the point that price gouging gouging is actually occurring or will occur i think it's reasonable to assume if it did it would be in relation to rentals of hotels and motels possibly residential rentals to the extent that that's not already prohibited by the recent state law and and sale of goods and services because repairs and reconstruction are not going to take place within the city of Santa Cruz so um so this while this ordinance mirrors the prohibitions of state law it doesn't necessarily presuppose that all of these categories would happen here in Santa Cruz or could happen here in Santa Cruz under the circumstances i would like to i did raise my hand but i'll wait till questions are done yeah and i was looking back you know at some of the language on um by FEMA people have enough looking for rental housing but they're going to be doing that in the near future as people start on um you know where they're going to live next and they'll be looking for homes i'll take my hand down thanks do you have any questions um at the moment so i'll i'll just uh wait to hear public comments pretty protected by the recent state law are the governors in order is that ever did i mishear you the recent state law protects is evictions of people who are financially impacted by COVID-19 so that's that's specifically what the recent state law addresses so they're going to go ahead and so what this ordinance or what this law prohibits is evicting someone for purposes of clearing the unit to rent it as someone who has been impacted by um by the emergency and who may i mean the fear that the thought is or the fear is that someone who is being reimbursed by an insurance company may be able to pay higher rents than someone who has not otherwise impacted and so the the law prohibits eviction of a tenant for purposes of clearing the unit in order to make room for another um tenant who's who's supported by insurance proceeds by the way yeah some of that would would be covered by the law that was signed um the statute that was signed in the law last year that that addresses um um no fault evictions so so that might overlap somewhat uh as well right this is more of a comment but if if we're interested in learning what the county's going to be doing i think that would be really helpful and not only informing our jurisdiction but our neighboring jurisdictions like capitol and beyond and i say that because um sort of even just being around town at the dog park we're talking to people who may be displaced they're staying at a friend's house in capitol or they're out in somewhere else of not necessarily in the city although they're they're you know hanging out at the city but i think if we're going to holistically look at the impacts of those displaced as a region it might be worthwhile to have have the county take the lead on that for all of our all of our jurisdictions potentially so just sort of a thought that comes to mind is that one of the one of the recommended actions is to coordinate county wide efforts to provide temporary protection from price gouging uh among all of the jurisdictions in the county so um so that is consistent with um what what some council members have been commenting on so whether you adopt an ordinance today or defer action until you see what the county's done you know that there is an intention here to do outreach and um work with the other jurisdictions to to try to um get us all on the same page with respect to these emergency protections i just had one clarifying question tony um with regards to quite get clarification on the question that council member walkins was asking um can you okay so there's the state law with regards to covid um but there's no there's no protection through the emergency declaration i'm just trying to i'm trying to i'm trying to understand exactly what our risk level is and i'm trying to accommodate um i i i guess i'm kind of getting a little bit lost in the in the uh so the the rental piece if someone evicts a tenant to try to raise the price of the unit in order for um someone who is looking for a home because of losing their home there's no protections for that right now in the state law there is some protection from that in the law that was enacted that went into effect on january first um that also had some limited restrictions on on price increases i mean i think that what you're pointing to is is uh i guess or the point that needs to be made is that um you know this is somewhat of a blunt instrument and it has not been updated if recent actions by the legislature and i also think that um you know it's not it's not uh unprecedented to have overlapping state and local restrictions on the same subject matter and so um i'm not i'm not prepared today to say that uh that this ordinance um doesn't all doesn't prohibit uh actions that are already prohibited under state law the i think that also moves forward it it would be with the recognition that there's there's some overlap here and so um some of it may be already covered um but just in the time during which um we've had to analyze this and also in light of the limited authorization provided by the penal code under these circumstances this has merely been intended to um extend the prohibitions that are already in place under the california penal code and so the cap could certainly direct that a more refined approach be brought back for further consideration at which time we sort of screen all the existing uh state law and local regulations to to make sure that we're not um you know wearing a belt and suspenders on all of these different restrictions so that's certainly direction that the council um could give but it wasn't really contemplative exercise which is focused on merely providing a mechanism for extending prohibitions of state law okay thank you for that clarification thank you mayor yeah so my question is really for my colleagues here i think i understand the purpose and i understand the um the reasons that i'm hearing for thinking about doing this differently um but the i believe the question is does our city leadership want to declare that price gouging is inappropriate and unacceptable and to figure it out i don't think we need to take the time to figure out how we can patch work together other state uh law to then to make sure that we don't have to do this i just don't understand why we wouldn't just adopt this as an emergency ordinance today and move forward coordinating with county uh uh moving forward with their their program so um it's just a question um i'll uh wait to hear uh if there are members of the public who want to speak and then i'm prepared to make a motion we had worked on this item i as a community so that they could have a copy of this and you know work on this as well um you know communication with the county i think that we have an opportunity to find alignment on when the county would be thinking about um allowing this to expire um it may be that you know if it may be that in Watsonville you know they don't feel that this is something um they want to do just given how far away they are from north county and so you know might they want to get on board but possibly not and it might be that you know cities like scott valley would want to have this in place longer just because of the fact yeah i just want to make a quick comment that i i didn't make before during the question period uh to suggest that you know i i i think this is something that we can do right now uh to declare that we believe this is that price gouging is unacceptable people are in crisis um and this is going to be going on for quite some time we have seen the outpouring of uh you know compassion generosity mutual aid and i believe that is you know the best of Santa Cruz and i believe that is most of Santa Cruz and um so i'm not suggesting that this is necessary because there is some predatory behavior looming but i do believe that we should make that kind of declaration and have some assurance that um we're not leaving space for bad actors you know those who would act in in bad faith while people are in crisis so with that i'm going to uh move that and i also wanted to say i you know i'm not not going to repeat mayor Cummings uh points about why um he was bringing this forward i appreciate it and i completely agree um so with that i'll move that we adopt an emergency ordinance and coordinate the county-wide effort to provide uh temporary protection from price gouging in residential rentals hotels and other short-term rentals and goods and services for residents and individuals displaced by the cvu august lightning fire complex fire um and then to direct the mayor to send a letter to uh the governor requesting issuance of an executive order suspending the 30-day expiration period specified by penal code section 396 for local price gouging regulation and i was just listening to the questions back and forth and i just sort of landed that why would we not do this to me is just showing our community where our hearts are where our thoughts are and whatever we could do will it do something i don't think any of us know for sure but i just see no downside and simply doing it as a statement and hopefully have our communities back if they need it in these issues i i don't support moving ahead and i think that we uh express why there are quite a few uncertainties there is protection offered by as i understand it the state penal code right now for between 30 days and 180 days depending on this product and um i would much prefer to express our interest in dealing with this and come back at our very next meeting to give us time to coordinate with the county other jurisdictions um to give full considerations projections included um meter included or limited by state law and and do this in the most efficient mechanism from a procedural point of view for the city's operation so that's how i would prefer to approach and that's why i won't support the motion uh at hand um i would be prepared to make uh a substitute lesson on the end of your motion you said something about the 30 days can you explain or the letter to the governor can you just say that one more time so i can hear it again i'm sure yeah it's in the it's the just the wording that was in the packet i i read it out okay it's sorry the goal is to ask for dispensation so we are not um issuing a 30 day every 30 days and then paying the $1,500 you know that's what tony was describing earlier so what tony was describing earlier we paid the $1,500 that's it it wouldn't be $1,500 a month to renew okay let me clarify so that the statute council to extend the prohibitions for successive additional 30 day periods and in 2018 in connection with the um just the horrible uh sonoma county fires the governor issued an executive order that suspended that 30 day uh provision so that allowed um local agencies that adopted price gouging to keep them in effect for a longer period of so the request would be that i could go up to a similar uh executive order in this instance and then i know that there may be a substitute motion but to the extent this motion did not address um bringing this back as a resolution i was i was wondering if to make or consider including that as well uh yes yes thank you for the reminder i wrote it down and then i just read off that from the agenda report so i just now i want to make sure i'm clear because my understanding was that the rationale for uh requesting the the extension well maybe it was twofold but that it also helped um it also allowed us to not have to reissue an emergency every 30 days and be subject to those reporting requirements public noticing requirements so is that is that correct well it's both the fiscal impact of having to publish successively as well as just the i guess i'll call it the the hassle factor of having to take action um within days of the prior action so in this instance we would need to bring it back on the 22nd of september because the next meeting in october is more than 30 days from today and then if you action on september 22nd we would have to bring it back on october 13th because the next council meeting after the 22nd is more than 30 days from um the 22nd so uh so that's right those are the two reasons for um that thank you so i think i think the other thing i was kind of wanting to say is to take to speak to cap um council members is like why we wouldn't do this and as i think everybody on the council and probably in the meeting wholeheartedly agrees that price gouging is horrible um the only thing i would think is that if it was going to occur i would guess it would happen either um probably with the rebuilding process and maybe i'm being naive but i remember the day the power went back on after the earthquake my dad's answering machine had 99 messages on it and that was as high as it would go because he was a masonry contractor everyone's chimney fell down and so the thing that i learned after that was then all of a sudden these out of town masons came to town so none sirens on top and they were doing the price gouging and so if there was a way for us to work with the county on like or maybe with bonnie on like distributing a list of reputable contractors within the city or county or working with people on both kind of strategies because the way i foresee like people getting ripped off would be in that reconstruction process in some way and more with the services rather than maybe the goods and i think like right now the dust has kind of settled as far as like the hotels like people were either in a hotel or a temporary shelter and i think they're probably moving towards like like um the mayor said like what's the next thing like long-term months to years where however long the rebuilding process is going to take and i think um as as much as we could align with what's happening in the city and state i think would be um and offer the same kind of protection i that that's for you know my mind is going is that um yes i 100 want something um on the books but i think it is more applying to the county than the city right now and i don't know as well but i'm just wondering if i would imagine i can a local emergency on the 21st of august so it would be measured from that day um and then the council uh also took action on the 25th of august by adopting a resolution requiring an existence the existence of a state of emergency and the statute um stand from three days from the date of a declaration of emergency by this by the governor or by a local agency so um so arguably the most recent declaration was the 25th of august how they're managing their properties i do think in terms of the comments that that councilmember golder made in regards to it's going to be hard to find people to do that so i do think there is definitely going to be areas where we're going to need to have really strong policy in place for price gouging um i do also feel like i'm hearing uh a couple things that one that this could potentially not be the most um cost effective uh miss hearing you or what bonnie's concerns was you know i welcome your input on that um and that too that they're still interested in wanting to learn more about uh what the county is is doing in terms of their item coming on the 15th or is that did i hear you was saying at the next meeting that the county is having so i i don't know i guess i'm wondering if this is an emergency item that's at the top and how can we to councilor browns uh point acknowledge that one i think we've all seen a really outcoring of of generosity and contribution of from our community and two that we won't trying to take advantage of the situation and if it's not in the form of of an emergency ordinance at this moment i don't know how else that could be expressed the uh the penal code merely states that the prohibitions can be extended by action of the local legislative body it doesn't clearly specify that it has to be by ordinance and that's why i suggested that and what i would explore between now and the next meeting is bringing this forward in the form of a resolution in preparing for this item under time constraints the most logical avenue forward appeared to me to be an emergency ordinance and that's what i've seen examples of other cities doing as well but with a little more time to reflect on it it makes and and given the comments that were made by the city clerk only after the the item was published or as i guess last thursday on the date that the report was going to be published the sort of the fiscal impact consideration it didn't really play into my analysis in preparing the item you would like additional time if it does not pass because then bring this back after consulting with the county in the form of a resolution is that sound correct i would continue to explore that as a possibility merely for the for the ease of taking action and the and the procedural um you know eliminating procedural burdensomeness of it and also the fact that um you know you need five votes to get this thing adopted today so um so that could also affect the voting that would be needed in order to take action yeah okay no i appreciate that and i think you know if the county hasn't done it as an emergency and it's in the unincorporated areas and then um and you were and you felt rushed as not to be able to uh further explore that that maybe that could be a path forward okay thank you i think we're all awfully close here i'm just wondering if the makers emotion would consider revising it um to say that the city council committed to addressing the issue price housing recognizing that there are current protections offered by state law and we can adopt the local resolution prior to the um expiration of those protections um that we continue this to the next meeting et cetera so again for the purpose of coordinating as much as possible with the county's efforts um and that we adopt to we do this in the most efficient mechanism from the city's procedural point of view i think we're just all there that um councilman raffy thank you for uh raising that i think that's a different motion however so i'd like to just go ahead and vote on this one i i think i know where it's going but i don't understand why we want to try to make it overly complicated this um as i'm just not sure what the goal is in um trying to put it off and given that there's not really a downside to doing it now um aside from i don't even see the downside of going doing this out of the county if we're going to be coordinating with them mayor commons has already been in contact with them um so it just it doesn't i'm just not clear why we would uh just avoid this right now so i'll just go ahead and leave the motion as is and with the addition of bringing this back by resolution uh that uh the city attorney mentioned and uh then we'll well you can go ahead and make that motion then i would like to with the mayor's second motion since they can you i couldn't hear what you just said i'd like to then offer a substitute amendment a substitute motion um the city council is committed to taking action on the issue of price gouging following the local wildfires recognizing there are currently protections in place for price gouging under state law and that we can take action at our next meeting within the prior to the expiration of those protections that we continue this to the next meeting uh with instructions to coordinate as much as possible with the county's out anti gouging regulations and efforts um and that we bring this back in the most efficient form from the city's procedural point of view i'll second that like on screen i have it i got it i'll share my screen okay thanks monnie i was just going to type it out in email but that's my math views seconded by by yeah i mean i'm gonna yeah i'm seconded the the substitute motion and actually the mayor and i talked about this quite a bit last week um um absolutely no intent that we don't acknowledge as an entirety of a community um the tragedy that people are experiencing up in the valley in bonnyton um out on the north coast um and um you know i've heard reference to panorosa paradise those both were you know town town council and cities that actually were there was you know tremendous damage done within within the the governing limits of those jurisdictions um so i i really think that we would all benefit and i actually think a regional approach is really critical um and i i really i just support the concept of actually working cooperatively with our our co-government leaders over at the county this again the fires are in the county jurisdiction um and i trust very much that supervisor coonerty supervisor McPherson are absolutely laser focused as are all the supervisors on helping helping the constituents up in those locations so um this is not you know from my perspective this is not um trying to off put or offset or delay any kind of protection for people who need to either find resources or move into permanent or temporary housing here in the city um i feel like we um we really would benefit as an entirety of a county to really just take the time um the county will be looking at this in seven days and i think it's just it's um it's really important for us to work with um regionally on this um and again uh i think if it gets a good pass to go and i i i also support the idea of having a resolution pass as well so thank you mayor thank you council member brown yeah i um i just want to add in in response to some of the uh concerns expressed or the statements about this being an issue affecting uh folks in the county and not within the city limits um those are the very same people who are right now sheltered some of them within the city limits who are looking at finding potentially short-term rentals um or longer term depending on how long the rebuilding process takes and much of that is going to happen within the city so uh and and the the goods and you know and the contracting services and all of those things are often uh based within the city so i do believe that we have a responsibility to uh you know in in recognizing that to address it right here within our own jurisdiction and i i also i i just um fundamentally disagree that doing this now is somehow um negating a desire to coordinate with the county i that's just not the case um so i'll i'll leave it there and uh wait to vote on we'll be voting on uh accepting the substitute before voting on the substitute motion is that correct okay thanks yeah the ordinance to be extended by subsequent city council action by resolution and we'll be bringing that back to the council at the second meeting in september extend the covid 19 emergency declaration an additional 60 days i agree with you on that um i do have a question a media suggestion to the extent that we're hearing about um possible gouging right now i think it would be and to the extent that where it's most likely happening is in the unincorporated area um it might be useful to ask the county the supervisors to let people know how to how to file a complaint on that because they've been very good about notifying residents and businesses about if you have a claim about this here's who you contact etc so i think that's a request you could get to them right away if people do feel that they're been gouging who do they turn to in terms of the state um uh complaint that's just a suggestion um and then i do have a question for coney um does the gouging occur where the service is delivered or where the business is located that is um let's just say there's a building supply place in the city of santa cruz but the job is up in the county where you have one county you know what what's the nature of the gouging is and so clearly um in rental housing that would be rental housing located within the city of santa cruz yeah i i get that i'm thinking more the building supply building supplies i argue um is the location where the sale is made as opposed to where the goods are delivered so that would be the business hey um penal code section 396 um does not have a long list of reported appellate decisions in the annotations that flesh out the nuances of that and so you know you know that would be a prosecutor's um i don't think we have a second yet hearing from everybody is the same which is essentially how come we as a community come together to support this really tragic event and to have a little bit more information and coordination that this isn't really a you know a need to be uh politicized but this is a need for us to come together to support our residents so i appreciate the sentiments that were shared by every council member and including you the mayor in terms of how how we want to really do right by by our community and the paths are different but they're essentially with the same intention so we're on the path we're committed to doing it and i can't quite figure out we're all going to do it in two weeks or why not do it here somebody tell me what what is the difference can anyone answer that political or it is a political no well that's why i'm just trying to i'm asking the question because nobody answered one is would be immediately today it'd be effective the eighth um from tony's words there not be um what the county's doing or maybe the county for something for are struggling like we're all struggling and don't do it next week or whatever we i don't know i i just um i i'm trying to sort that out i i uh we're on a path but anyway if anyone's got any words that's struggling with them i'm not so much struggling with that i'm just trying to understand it council member matthews and council member walken oh i you know not to drag this out too much but i think we often find that we can be more effective when there's uh when we increase the degree of consistency of uh regulations whether they be plastic pollution or whatever uh among the jurisdictions and particularly this is one that the fires are in the in the mountains but the i think the repercussions are being felt uh on a much more regional basis that's that's obvious so to the extent we can come up with a more consistent package of protection i think that benefits everybody it benefits the consumers it benefits the service providers um we are not um removing any of the protections currently in place by state law we can take action and hopefully be more consistent with the what the rest of the county's doing and um do it in a way that uh efficient from the point of view of the city procedures and have it in place uh have it on the agenda and do it at our next meeting and express our commitment to get this done be the first style of the shoot with with this action and maybe the county will look at ours and adopt what we're doing but my guess my question is tony if if we do it and then we see the the county has stuck something in theirs that's a little bit i don't know stronger or whatever how do we amend our original it's going to come to have to come back to the council anyway so you know if i mean now in the 20 seconds that there is a coordination of efforts among the um the cities and the county then um i would imagine we would be bringing back something um that's more uniform with what the other jurisdictions are doing and if and if they might just look at this and say that's a great model let's go with it um or we might decide that some more nuanced approaches is is preferable okay thank you thanks so Matthew recognizing our currently protections in place on the state law the city can take action at the next meeting prior to the expiration of state protection prior to what expiration of state protection and tony correct me if i'm understanding it wrong but that's how i understand it um so we can uh therefore we continue it to the next meeting continue the items to the next meeting and start them to coordinate with the county to add anti gouging efforts bring that bring the items back so can i make a couple of minor um suggestions yeah sure i'm just trying to make complete sentences out of this bear with me for a second while i read it through one more time my recommendation would be that you change the word recognizing to recognizes oh yeah is committed recognizes there are certain protection states law and and and and then after state law comma that you insert the word and that yeah and that the city can take action in the next day correct state protection and after air for the beginning of the next clause therefore continues the item so add an s after continue yeah so with instructions to coordinate with the county's anti gouging efforts and bring the item back at our next meeting at the next meeting in the most efficient form from the city's procedural point of view comment about coordinating with the county but and i i'll just offer to the council that um that that i will also share it with um the city attorneys for scott's valley and capitol and watch them bill yeah with other jurisdictions in the county yeah that's them and also that we asked the county to provide guidance for residents who most immediately want to seek relief under the state protection is it the i should let them know how to file complaints well i would say um take action let me restate that um that we ask the county to provide guidance local residents want to who who want to pursue action regarding potential price gouging and under state law that's not in a policy in the attorney do grammar correction why don't we just put direct um the city attorney and mayor to communicate interest and agenda reports with other local jurisdictions just we could both do it yeah yeah we're all headed in the same direction here some way we could be proactive in educating residents about about ways um to get reputable contractors too because i feel like that's that's another long term i feel like that's a bit of a heavy lift yeah i don't i don't really know just mentioning that they could i don't know yeah you're right it's hard but but um i don't know i think that regard can be done at a staff level but not really the topic this agenda item so um no i just even not even within the city i met for the county like in his conversations with the county yeah something they could do and not that i'm directing staff or or or the mayor to do it just mentioning during conversations you know i think something else we can consider is uh feel like they are um experiencing some form of exploitation so that people know who to contact and then yeah just to whatever degree we can figure out some kind of like yelp or you know recommendation system be careful what you wish for i don't want the city to be running an alternative to yelp yeah yeah within the county but just even just a list of people who have business licenses in the city that's all that's all i kind of was thinking business license so that i don't know i don't know what i'm thinking i just i just don't want people to be taking advantage of and that's where my mind goes if i could make a final summit generally and i think it's in all the advice that goes out around any of this stuff it says seek a license contractor that's better i mean there's some general you know if you're gonna put solar on your home there's some general advice and that's one of them and even within that range there's it goes to the bad councilmember byers full opinion no rational being would think every german is a nazi or every muslim is a jihadist convert or die crusader who thinks enforcing sharia law has a place in the united states the resentment hate-based group identity politics of the left such as critical race theory intersectionalism and white privilege myth in the activist progressive leftist movement supported by dozens of makeabuck books media of leftist educators white men are generally portrayed as universally racist and evil this is a vile false ad proclaiming white men appreciation months would go a little ways toward oracially burying that false narrative and is really no different than the reasons to proclaim an appreciation month for any group also what a great office water cooler eyebrow razor if the was was who really don't have a recognized valid land tree claim can get an unseeded land declaration reminder ad nauseam almost every meeting for unfortunate events occurring hundreds of years ago what we're thinking real-time white men could get appreciation once anyway because white men do have deeds and play take plenty for you think appreciate government salaries stranger things have happened on a different matter i see the flow streets has been implemented so far according to my anticipated fears it consists of street closed through traffic signs which technically means the street is closed to general public travel after as i recall staff promised that wouldn't happen yep we have special interest people who wanted their public street converted into their private street for their sole personal private satisfaction using covet hysteria justifications with a vast experience daily dog walking some of these streets so there are no traffic or other justifications for these conversions uh you've been had okay next speaker i'm sebastian stock a resident um the city is coming off yet another record-breaking heat wave the heat presents hardships to all of us especially to the city's homeless the biggest cause of homelessness is the shortest of homes the council recognizes this each of you campaigned on building more affordable housing but the city looks essentially the same as it was at the time of the last election i don't suggest the council is ignored the issue i commend the decision to expand the building height limit to seven stories and to convert the garfield circles church into a single family housing complex even though multi-family housing would definitely be able to house more people but that's the point it's something this is a crisis crises require alacrity not fussing about whether more people might be housed in the imaginary proposal unfortunately the city planning commission has done exactly that voting on an amendment that will further delay the construction of the seven-story apartment complex on the sand Lorenzo riverfront that would have 175 housing units including 20 low income units out of the hope that they could wrangle and i quote 26 low income units instead the project has been waiting approval for over a year during which period of course no one has been housed in the area this is no isolated incident but is illustrative of a decades-long failed housing policy that has led to a housing shortage so severe that the purchasing power for housing in Santa Cruz is less than 80 percent of the national average search Santa Cruz housing ranking on the web and you'll find the phrases crushingly unaffordable leased affordable city in california and the nation's least affordable city for teachers whose fault do we think this is Santa Cruz has been a liberal stronghold for decades we can't play Donald Trump it is our fault now is the time to call in using the numbers on your screen hello council members my name is susan kevaleri i'm requesting that the garage complex on lot four not be built we need this space for the majestic heritage trees to cool the city center as the temperatures as the temperatures soar these trees not only provide shade but purify the air absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen we know the state is burning excessive heat has dried vegetation and fires have burned over two million acres because of climate heating many children are experiencing the climate crisis now and have lost their homes to these fires many more children have needed to quickly gather their price positions and evacuate with their families and smoke and ash fall fill the air many of our youth fear for their future if our children are to have a future emissions must be reduced to near zero over the next 10 years transportation is the biggest producer of emissions in our county therefore transportation needs to shift away from gas burning cars and SUVs to electric vehicles bikes walking and fair free transit with fewer cars there's no need to build a garage on lot four to the to decrease emissions we do need to save the heritage trees and not build the garage the city needs to ban the renewal removal of heritage trees and i believe the city needs to prioritize policies that reduce emissions for the sake of our children please do not build the garage complex on lot four save the trees and renovate the existing library thank you