 Everybody would like to call back to order the order supervisor's budget hearings for last day It is June 13th at 1 30 p.m. If we could have a roll call, please certainly Supervisor Koenig here Cummings here Hernandez absent McPherson absent friend here Mr. Blasio, are there any changes to today's agenda for the budget hearings? Yes, we'd supervisor McPherson has Asked to appear remotely under AB 2449 due to recent knee surgery Requested the board add item 3.1 to the agenda and take up the items to approve his remote appearance Is there a motion so moved second? Is there any comments from the community? I don't see any in chambers anybody online No speakers online chair. All right, if we have a roll call, please to Supervisor Koenig. Hi Cummings. Hi friend. All right That passes unanimously. Well now is there a motion to allow Bruce? Excuse me supervisor my first and to join the meeting remotely So moved second is there anybody from I see nobody in chambers It's here to speak to us anybody online on this item. All right, I'll bring it back for a roll call Supervisor Koenig. Hi Cummings. Hi friend. All right All right, that passes unanimously. We'll welcome supervisor McPherson back to the meeting remotely. Thank you All right, so are there any other changes to today's agenda mr. Plosios There are no further changes. Thank you. I'd like to know supervisor Hernandez is present and would like to open up for public comment This is an opportunity for members of the community to address us on items that are not on today's agenda But within the purview of the Board of Supervisors or also On the regular agenda items today. Should you be unable to? Stay Welcome back. Good afternoon. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Becky starber I want to just speak to the difficulty that the public has had throughout this but this year's budgeting process in Accessing information detailed information that is valuable and helps us understand the budget Expenses the revenues so that we can participate in informed manner. I Have brought to your attention that there is a problem with the public website Normally I have always Going in through the the board calendar portal to get information and that site remains broken I Understand there are other ways But the fact that the broken website calendar portal which many members of the public have relied on Historically is broken and I ask that you just remove it if it's not going to get fixed It's been broken for over two weeks if it's not going to get fixed. Just take it off the website and That will lead people more to be inclined to click on the agendas in minutes which I always thought was the way to get to the archived documents and It's only been recently pointed out to me that you can also Obviously go to current information. So I did Send your board a cure and correct demand letter and I still want you to pay attention to this. I Haven't received a response yet but It's been very difficult for the public to really participate These are very abbreviated hearings There a month early and There was nothing in the evening in Watsonville as has always been done So I don't understand why that has happened but I'd like you to pay attention and Maybe do a better job of trying to get information out and include the public in an informed discussion manner. Thank you You excuse me. Thank you. Is there anybody else in chambers that like to address this during public comment Madam clerk, is there anybody online turn public comment? Yes, chair ZH your microphone is now available ZH user ZH if you will accept the unmute and begin speaking. Oh my apologies. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry about that Supervisors, thanks for having some space for public comment today My name is off her field the program coordinator for an organization called Penance Sanctuary and I apologize for any background noise on my end today I'm I'm working outdoors today at my other job But I wanted to thank you for considering the addition of some money in the county budget for lead to representation for tenants and My organization is an education and counseling organization questions about their rights under state and local laws We speak to 300 or so individual households each year the issues ranging from security deposit theft to illegal rent increases to evictions And we help people understand sort of what the law says about the situation that they're in There's a serious lack though We're in situations where It's fairly clear from our understanding of the situation and tenants understanding the situation that perhaps their landlord is doing something that's prohibited by law but actually enforcing that law to to Represent the tenant affirmatively The vast majority of people who are contacting us a low income and cannot afford to hire an attorney out of their own out of their own pocket and With with incredible respect to the work that other late organizations in this county do most of them do not represent tenants in an affirmative capacity Mostly in a defensive capacity So we're grateful just speaking on behalf of the organization here We're grateful to the board for recognizing the need for additional legal representation and support for tenants You know without which the laws that the county has on the books such as the recently passed anti-retaliation ordinance You know would not be enforced. So we're grateful to the county for Taking the step forward and making sure that its own laws are enforced and that the laws in the state of California are enforced and that You know renters living in the communities in this county have the support. Thank you. Thank you Is there anybody else online? No further speakers chair Okay, that will close public comment. We'll bring it to the first item of the regular agenda. We're very Fortunate today to have a presentation on the 2022 California State Association of County's Challenge Awards as recommended By the CAO Carlos, excuse me, Mr. Paul says, do you have an introduction to this item before I introduce or distinguish member from CSAC that's here today? I just want to thank CSAC for this recognition It's a very Great thing to happen for our staff and recognizing their hard work that they do throughout the year and also want to thank the board of supervisors for your support Thank you. I'd like to introduce Jacqueline Wong Hernandez who is the CSAC chief policy officer of legislative Affairs are very fortunate to have you do amazing work on our behalf In Sacramento and across the state. So thank you for taking the time to come down to our community. Welcome Thank you very much. Thank you chair friend for allowing me to join the board and staff here today As chair friend just said I'm Jacqueline Wong Hernandez the chief policy officer for the California State Association of Counties Santa Cruz County has always been a strong member within CSAC and really want to thank Supervisor McPherson for his steadfast Leadership and service to the CSAC board of directors as well as chair friend for carving out time to chair our health and human services Committee policy committee and occasionally running up to Sacramento to testify before the legislature on behalf of all counties I'd also like to recognize the help of Dr. Robert Ratner your housing for health director who has been an immense Help on our at-home Homelessness issues. He was a member of our homelessness Policy solutions group and Dr. Ratner in that capacity Inform the conversation provided essential data and generally help steer us in the right direction from day one with our policies He's played a key role in the development of the CSAC at home plan And on behalf of all counties we want to thank him and thank the county of Santa Cruz for your commitment But homelessness is not all we focus on Because there are many issues important to to counties and and we're here for all of them The association has been around since 1895 And our mission is to serve counties and advocate at the state and federal levels On behalf of all counties and that never wavers in all of the issues And so today here I have the distinct pleasure of being able to recognize the Santa Cruz county's hard work and spirit of innovation with two CSAC challenge awards Our challenge awards program was developed more than 20 years ago to spotlight the most innovative and effective community programs in counties In 2022 CSAC received more than 300 challenge award entries and we awarded just 18 And two of them are here with me today for Santa Cruz county The bar was high, but our judging panel quickly identified These particular programs is rising above the rest And so I'll begin with the Santa Cruz county budget website Our judges were impressed by the county's commitment to transparency and efficiency Which gave rise to the county budget website Before developing this highly interactive website county staff and community members had to comb through more than 60,000 pages annually to understand how and where county revenues were spent So the county administration office and the information service department Collaborated on an easy to use website that turned the static budget book into an integrated accurate and accessible website Now the county budget website not only displays the most updated figures But also links to the county's operational and strategic plans and priorities and links them to those figures The public can now see the connections between spending staffing and overall county objectives Users can also see totals descriptions funded staff and emerging issues within each department and follow related links to I don't know if you all know how special this is, but we see a lot of county websites and state websites And this is pretty special For example a public defender emerging issue links to a partnering nonprofit site that provides supplemental services A gis feature allows users to enter an address within the county to see the services associated with that address Including supervisor representation county maintained roads and nearby park facilities It's translatable it works on mobile devices someday. We will have a website that works on mobile devices in my organization And it allows for real-time updates and feedback And this is what really impressed the judges Santa Cruz county is the first county to to integrate its operational plan objectives and priorities within a budget site You all should be very proud of that it improves the transparency and builds more public trust All while being replicable and scalable for all counties So it's my pleasure to present a 2022 challenge award to Santa Cruz county for your budget website Thank you all for the second award We turn to an issue that all counties are grappling with which is transparency and trust in local public safety Against the backdrop of a national conversation about police policies and procedures Santa Cruz county worked with local public safety agencies to complete the first regional Review of use of force technology and privacy policies and procedures in the country The resulting report provides a comparative snapshot of key policies and procedures in Santa Cruz county law enforcement agencies It's important to note that all agencies participated voluntarily and openly and multiple agencies updated and modernized their policies regarding use of force technology oversight and privacy as a result The Santa Cruz county regional public safety agency policy review and analysis So very long name Is a publicly available is publicly available and serves as a template for other counties to improve transparency And build the public's trust in local law enforcement We understand that the project required hard work and collaboration among many agencies and organizations But that it originated with chair friend and with this board strong commitment to transparency I want to congratulate Santa Cruz county For earning a 2022 c-sac challenge award for the Santa Cruz county regional public safety agency policy review and analysis report Thank you all for your work Thank you all Chair friend Please advisor McPherson go ahead. Yeah, thank you and congratulations As was mentioned as the member of the c-sac board I want to thank uh, miss, uh, long Hernandez for being here today Uh, I don't know that the people of Santa Cruz county can recognize what a big deal this is Uh, she said for 58 counties 300 entries only 18 awarded and we're getting two of them in very very probably the most Important sectors of our budget. Well, I don't know if that could be said but very important sectors of our budget the thanks to our our budget team led by mark ben matel to integrate How we work things here how the public and really we can translate the very dense document that Is hundreds of pages long into an online format? It's not easily done. I'm sure We're going to make an effort to make it even better It's truly a phenomenal our budget website is really Just a phenomenal achievement for santa cruz county And the c-sac wards also for the criminal justice council, which uh chair friend you were very much involved with And uh as and I I think was very proper that Supervisor Cummings was there because he was on the council It was a coordinated effort between our law enforcement agencies throughout the county to Adjust how we can have justice partners And receiving this statewide recognition for community policing. It's not the first time We've been recognized for something like this and I'm sure it won't be the last But the important thing is we're at the top of the line the front of the line In getting these types of awards and I think everybody in the santa cruz county community the employees And everybody who works so diligently on these two projects in particular should be very proud of these achievements So thank you very much and uh, let's go after more next year Thank you supervisor McPherson. Thank you for your service also on the board Of c-sac any other uh comments supervisor Cummings Yeah, I just want to um thank Again and commend the county staff for all their hard work. Um, especially as it relates to the budget portal Seeing that this year. It's a little daunting and overwhelming to try to start diving into that, but um It uh, definitely has provided a high level of transparency and um, over time I'm sure we're all going to get used to it a little bit more and more but um It was great to be able to you know, have some assistance with navigating that from um, Marcus Pimentel And um, I know moving forward that as the community really starts to understand how they can use this website It's really going to make um Reviewing the budget a lot more transparent a lot more and a lot easier too. So just want to thank you all for that And this award is a is a testament to those achievements that you all have made And then I just want to thank Chair friend when I was mayor of Santa Cruz in 2020 as we all saw with the murder of george floyd There was a lot of social unrest Throughout the nation and even here within our community And as I started having meetings with members of the black community in particular here in Santa Cruz They said that what they really cared about was understanding How the laws differ between the various Locations that you're in within Santa Cruz county and really trying to see consistency in laws across the county and um at that time I approached uh chair friend as the chair of the criminal justice council Who was able to take this to the board and get unanimous support for us to move forward with this study? And I know that it was his leadership that really and his relationships with all the law enforcement agencies that really helped us to be able to bring Everyone together um in a way that was collaborative and really helped us move this report forward And so I just want to thank chair friend for his um willingness to take this on and it really Is a great achievement for us to see that we're the first county the entire nation to do that And when we mentioned that to folks they they are often times very shocked to hear that that's the case And so I hope that more counties throughout our country do these types of studies so that we can make sure that People are being treated fairly by the law and that it's consistent across our regions. Thank you Thank you supervisor coming is any other comments from board members I would just like to take a second to acknowledge uh seasack California state association of counties is not necessarily known outside of the county structure very well known though with the state legislative structure and I can um, I can't Speak highly enough about their work and being able to advocate on our behalf Especially during budget time when a lot of the challenges that that I mean all state budget challenges end up becoming county budget challenges And so without their voice there every single day in sacramento asking us also to be advocates Teaching us how to be the best advocates They're very well trusted when you speak to state legislators when you speak to the governor's office They do trust the voice of seasack jack when you're you're a great leader there and we um a lot of people have services and funding And access because of the work that you're doing up there. So just know that it directly Translates to the communities like ours. So thank you to see sack for their work Is there anybody in the community that would like to address us on this item? It's not an action item, but it is a presentation item. So if anybody'd like to spec step forward, you're welcome to I've seen none in chambers. Is there anybody online the speakers online? All right Uh, thank you. Uh, I have a safe drive back to sacramento. We appreciate you come down the trip down here for us We'll now move on to item six Which is through a public hearing to consider a resolution approving amendments to the unified fee schedule for fiscal year 23 24 Including the addendum as provided in the reference budget documents and is recommended by the county administrative officer We have the budget hearings board memo and a resolution amending unified fee schedule with exhibits a and b I'm mr. Pimentel. Are you leading this one? Yeah Thank you So i'm grateful to be Presenting to you today chair friend board supervisors The conclusion of our four days budget hearings beginning, you know with the c-sack awards Moving into our public hearing for a unified fee schedule So before you before you today in and included in the in the board packet is a Our routine updates to our unified fee schedule Twice a year june and december we provide Departments the opportunity to present consolidated updates for a unified fee schedule. These are very routine in nature And the board of documents and exhibits include a lot more details than we'll cover here today I'm here today with our departments associate administrative and now Analyst my tears Who led our efforts to compile the request from departments for a unified fee schedule? But this hearing today to consider adopting the resolution to amend the 23 24 unified fee schedule As included in our supplemental recommendations as detailed in the departmental budget hearings and their board reports And included in our proposed 23 24 budget Following this brief staff presentation We'll ask the board to open the public hearing take testimony Public comments close the public hearing and adopt the resolution to amend the unified fee schedule as I mentioned These are typically very routine in nature Um, the left hand of the screen are our typical reasons that there might be changes in the unified fee schedule Mostly related to cost increases whether their consumer price index cpi changes are increases in in projected costs for the county There's also occasionally prior board directed items and we do have those here this time Um, there's often fees that are not yet included in our unified fee schedule So the unified fee schedule is an opportunity to have one spot shot where one place where all our fees live It's an opera. It's a it's a it's a value add to the county So we often find fees that need to move up to that level Or that there's changes in state mandated our codes or regulations or often as there are this time Some fees that are no longer applicable The examples of some fees included in the board report included in the detailed exhibits include Last year there was some new fees added for underground storage tanks Um, thanks, uh sites with one two three four and six tanks, but not five So this time we're adding that fifth when you have five tanks underground that fee should have been there that was just Um excluded There were some board directed fees that came out of the just uh, november december discussion Related to tiny homes. Those are now being added in following a board direction And as I mentioned routine cost increases built into a consumer price index county cost Community development and infrastructure is also county fire across the board. There are 10 departments proposing fee increases And we have some minor updates for some fees that um are not there for example an assessor recorder and orders a controller And the sandy cruise county sanitation sanitation district Some of the other departments including that are including fee increases um include general services health services human services information services and parks open space and cultural services again the board reports detail these um Summarize these and there's exhibits that have a detailed listing of all the fees and the current fee and the proposed new increase So with that that concludes our presentation we do have uh departmental staff here who if there are any questions otherwise um turn them back to the board Thank you. Mr. Redmond tells pretty self-explanatory, but are there any questions from my colleagues on this item? Um supervisor McPherson, I can't see but did you have any questions on this item? No questions. I might have a comment in in a minute Perfect and I'd like to open this is a uh public hearing. We'd like to open up the public hearing Is there any member of the community that would like to address us in chambers on this public hearing during this public hearing? Good afternoon. Welcome back Thank you. Thank you steinbrunner. I have a question for mr. Pimentel. You just mentioned that there are new fees for county fire I have the unified Schedule here in front of me. Um, are those related to plan checks? at all Good. Are there any additional questions? I want to make sure you get a minute. Well, that's my that's my question because I do attend the county fire department advisory commission meetings and it was announced that County fire was going to contract out their fire Their plan inspections for fire and would no longer be doing it in-house. So I'm just curious I've tried to find that in here But if you can refer me to a page where I can find that information that would be very helpful Thank you. Thank you Is there anybody else in chambers? Seeing none. Is there anybody online? Okay, we'll close the public hearing but there was a question that was posed during the public hearing. Um, mr. Pimentel Yeah, within the board packet, uh Within this particular item page six, but uh packet page 15 Details the four fees are three fee Building plan check and inspection of square footage rates that are going up. Okay Um, we'll bring it back to the board of sureza. But first of all, you said you had a comment Yeah, I just wanted to thank is I think I know each supervisor would For the hard work of each of our departments to put this budget together under the leadership of markman and mattel Um, and hopefully we're going to have greater clarity in the coming weeks and months about the status of our federal reimbursement Uh from our disaster requests and I hope our revenue projections continue to hold throughout the year Um, a significant part of the budget is of course our county personnel Without whom, uh, we could not provide the core services to our community They have gone above and beyond the call of duty under some very trying circumstances as we all know I just want to thank them for allowing us To provide the services we do and what the public expects of us Under some very trying circumstances. Uh, so I just want to thank them for the hard work throughout the year and their dedication to public service Thank you Thank you. Is there a motion Move approval of the unified fee schedule We have a motion from supervisor conig and a second from supervisor comings and no additional comments So we'll get a roll call. Please supervisor conig. Hi comings. Hi rinandez. Hi mcpherson. Hi friend All right, and that passes unanimously We'll move on to item seven, which is as the board of um I think it's actually as the board of directors of the santa criss county redevelopment successor agency Authorize the auditor controller with the concurrence of the county administrative officer to make the necessary year end adjustments and adjustments for the 23 24 due to increases and decreases in available financing And remove the 23 24 redevelopment successor agency proposed budget as recommended by the ceo We have the budget hearings item board memo and the proposed budget with line item details. Mr. Pimentel This will be short and brief. There are this is very routine in nature There are no changes from the board's action on january 17th when they adopted the 23 24 administrative budget for the redevelopment successor agency and approved the The rops the recognized obligation payment schedule. So there are no changes from that january 17th action Therefore we're presenting to you the same budget as As presented then Thank you No changes No questions as it appears I would like to open it up to the community. Are there any questions on this item item seven? I see none in chambers. Is there anybody online? We have no speakers online chair. Okay. We'll close public comment item seven. Is there a motion? I'll move the recommended actions second. We have a motion from supervisor Cummings and a second from supervisor. Hernandez. We get a roll call. Please supervisor conan. Hi Cummings Hernandez. Hi McPherson. Hi and friend All right Now it gets exciting Item eight is to consider approval of the 23 24 county of Santa Cruz proposed budget concluding actions Improve the continuing agreements lists for 23 24 Authorize the auditor controller with the concurrence of the county administrative officer to make necessary year-end adjustments and adjustments for 22 23 due to increases and decreases in available financing Improve the 23 24 county of Santa Cruz proposed budget including concluding report items and take related actions is recommended by the The budget hearings item memo the financial update the errata The proposed 23 24 budget including line item detail and the continuing agreements list Mr. Pimentel Thank you. I think you've done my job for me, but that was very well done Board chair and board members annually to close out our public but our public budget hearing process And the proposed budget hearing process We tradition prepare concluding report. This is the including report That's included in the board packet it summarizes the supplemental actions that were presented To the board on May 25th It summarizes the hearings the departmental budget hearings and any last day changes that came out of those budget hearings And any concluding actions that are clean up in nature also often work with our partners in the auditor controller treasurer tax collector's office This report also provides A summary of the actions required to close out this current year And prepare the proposed budget for adoption on september 19th be considered for adoption Some order magnitude changes in in the budget included in the last day. We had 2.1 million dollars of expenditures and Added to the budget 404 million dollars countywide these are all grant Large and grant related some new state and federal grants that were received by departments that were included in So revenue went up expenditure went up In the preliminary concluding actions, we've we took some actions to reconcile already some of the 22-23 cost The net result is a slight increase in our general fund contribution of 360 000 Our general fund is putting into the budget 360 000 more between those two actions In very small differences on this on the face of a 1.1 billion billion dollar budget and a 739 million dollar general fund budget Those details are summarized in the exhibits. They're summarizing the concluding reports And a lot more information is there What i'll Go into is just wrapping up what's coming next and i want to conclude with some thanks and appreciation Um following as i mentioned today closes out the public hearing process our next actions Are to work with our auditor controller to treasurer tax collector's office Um to prepare and present the 23 24 budget for adoption On september 19th this adopted budget is developed With strict mandates and guidelines by the state of california So you'll see a budget that looks quite different than than what you've seen online But it's in conformity with state requirements and then we'll subsequently following board approval and option on september 19th The auto controller treasurer tax collector will submit that to the state So before taking action concluding my presentation. I do you want to express some real Sincere gratitude this year every year is a moment opportunity to thank a lot of people behind the scenes who you don't see The c-sac award is just a touch of recognizing The excellence that i've seen across county staff and department heads And this this particular office and your board this board and your staff We all know that this particular budget cycle has been Incredibly challenging It began during of a three month ongoing dual disaster event that started on The eve of new year's eve december 30th And continued through the month of march And many of our departments who are the biggest departments responsible for the most complicated budgets Had their same budget staff devoted to response recovery efforts This office in particular had our staff devoted to response and recovery efforts Or many of our staff who would typically have worked on the budget were deployed in in the eoc Or supporting the event. So it was a very tough budget cycle and we all know that So it's just with deepest gratitude. I want to express my appreciation support to this board Your staff were incredible to work with These were testing trying times And i'm proud to say successful from a process standpoint. We produced an on-time budget that's balanced All departments were prepared and ready to go for the budget hearings I'm just really proud about how this cycle Finished when we were in the middle of it in january february It was hard to see an end that that looked smooth and and yet it got there And I think it's to the dedication of people who are putting in 70 80 90 hours in a week To make sure they were doing all their dual or triple duties Getting down to some specific things. I really want to acknowledge our clerk of the board That burriner staff were just been fantastic to work with Into a challenging year into a new role It's it's been seamless and and they've been very well prepared and have helped us behind the scenes more than anybody will ever see So I just wanted to express my appreciation to juliet for former staff checking west for staff lisa Helm Bailey everybody that just been phenomenal to work with it's been Our entire might entire pleasure and I think all of us appreciate it working with you Also our co team your co team is often behind the scenes every once in a while You see them presenting something or participating in something or sitting beside a presentation Um, they were all responding to the event. Um, many of the events they continue to work in response recovery efforts They continue to do other things So it's just I'm really proud of beginning with our principal administrative analyst finn stafford and peter debtless finn was I was talking to Csack a little before the presentation There was a moment in december 2021 when finn came to a meeting with a sketch of what our online website would look like He said, you know, I had a thought last night so I sketched it out And from december 2021, you know, we now have an award-winning website And finn was instrumental in just the passion that he brought to what might we do better than we think we can do And our whole team just got into that spirit and it was really inspiring to see how that worked um, our senior administrative analyst brine friedrick who just took a charge on Let's let's let's start preparing a really powerful capper projects management system and in the system that you'll start seeing Incredible benefits in the years to come and we've built the framework for it and it's going to be really phenomenal going forward Rita sanchez who this year is is doing dual duties. Um, one of our key analysts who would have been there You know sitting by my side many times helping with the budget is out on leave so rita took on that job in addition to many other jobs and i've just been really impressed with her stepping into it with a can do attitude and While under pressure, I never showing the pressure Uh, Dave brown, you know, one of our analysts, he's just a voice of reason and calm I just walk into his office. He calms me down just by looking at him I think you just got some incredible staff there and I want to button this up because I could stay here for a long time It's just been it's been a tough year But I've been really impressed by the nature of our of our team My dear see who's standing beside me sitting beside me. Um, just also an incredibly competent Woman who I respect a lot Um, and then even just our executive secretary denita denita who is scheduling all these meetings You'll never know that she's scheduling all these meetings working with department heads getting the presentations Helping us put that on place and just did that so expertly in her first year And our minister administrative aid amika white who besides these behind the scenes is also helping Populate the websites often with about 30 minutes heads up. Hey mika. We need this up. Can you get this going? And uh, it was just incredible. I'm just really impressed with the entire team um I'll summarize with it's really important and to acknowledge our it team behind us who built this website on their own from scratch Um led by our it director tammy weigle But our employee warden as you've already recognized him this year. Their work was incredible tom melconian and and yan yon chang chung Um, they were just incredible to work with always responsive even on weekends. Uh, helping us get stuff done Um, and then our own auto the controller treasure tax collector team led by edith and her staff laura bowers trevor mcguire Mcguire brian howard and tracy turner all of them and so many other staff behind the scenes But they've always played huge roles in helping us get this through this because we had a we were all sprinting this year So it's just with that. I want to also recognize your an rcao Carlos plosios who is taking an always a leadership role and what might we do better across our whole community Um, it's it's an honor to work with him with our assistant. C. A. O. Is Elise Benson and Nicole coburn Our deputy c. A. O. Melody serino Their collective vision and inspiration and passion is is infectious and and sometimes exhausting But it's it's infectious and we get a lot more done than I think any other county our size will ever get done Um, finally, I want to shake this think this board chair friend your staff The board members and you and all of your staff It's been really great working with you. Um, we appreciate all the time the questions And the feedback it's helped us be be better even during the cycle makes a mid cycle pivots to help improve our information So I'm just really grateful In particular this year with all the other challenges Struggling with FEMA and yet you all have our backs and are helping us get our FEMA reimbursements and knocking on every door that you can find Um, and then advocating for us to return our funding back to this community You know, we've talked about that. We're systematically underfunded and I know all of you are individually looking at how you might help us Cure some of those things and might take might take a while but without starting We'll never get there. So just I did that was a lot longer than I planned. I'm just really grateful for that We're here today with a really sound balanced Responsible yet austere but impressive budget Thank you, mr. Pimentel Your excitement for budget and numbers is infectious You too, mr. Skoll. I must say Is there any additional I think that The c. I also had some concluding remarks before you bring it back to the board Yes, I wanted to make a special note of thanks to the county department heads For their cooperation and developing this budget We have come to the board for many years now including this year with a unified recommendation for approval from every department head And that includes not only those who report to me, which is obviously easier to get their agreement But includes those who are elected and those who are appointed This does not happen in every county. Let me tell you There are many counties across the state that have food fights every budget session with department heads At arguing with each other arguing with the ceo with the lectids arguing And so we have something special here where people Recognize that we're part of the same team. There's a lot of give and take. There's a lot of back and forth But we ultimately come back To you with a unified recommendation for approval, but there's a lot of work Let me tell you to get to that point. And so I want to thank My staff but also the department heads Also want to thank Your board The board has been incredibly visionary in your approach to the budget You haven't taken a micromanaging point of view as some Councils and boards, you know do But you take a big picture view on policy and I know today We got an award from uh seasack on our budget and are ultimately on our strategic plan and operational plan and that Idea that vision ultimately came from the board. You started it. Um, I remember whenever first was appointed a supervisor friend and supervisor coonity Took me to go To salt lake city to go view their budget Which had an operational plan and a strategic plan and talked about how could we do that? And we got a really good presentation and ultimately it's amazing that we have a better project now than they do That's seven years later, but it's gotten where it's better And I I know that you have also taken a lead on our housing for health um, you know wanting to present that Office and prepare that office also in our or three you've taken a policy lead And we do face some very difficult issues ahead as you know The some of the main issues we face as a community policy issues is workforce Uh, we're both retention and recruitment And it's going to be a very difficult Thing as we continue to go forward because as we know we live in the second most unaffordable county in the whole country When you combine housing prices to median wages And so it's a big challenge for us and I know that you have been very supportive in our initiatives to address that issue Um, the second I know that uh housing and affordable housing and workforce housing are big issues for us And you've been very supportive as we've attempted to To address those issues as well And then today this morning, you know, we we had something that was very specific a hearing on something That was a very specific issue, but ultimately it's related to climate change. All of this is at its core Climate change. I mean that's what's causing all of these conflicts Um, and we're going to have more of them So I really want to thank your board because I know that the board has taken an active interest In us addressing climate change as well so I want to thank you your leadership and in these important policy areas and thank you for your support and passing a budget that was somewhat difficult we absorbed over 12 million dollars of increased costs just to our m. We use that we signed Uh more than a couple years ago So it shows you that uh just to absorb that was a challenge and not have any cuts But we are able to do it and keep not only our budget intact, but to provide new initiatives as well So thank you very much board and I would also Want to thank the staff as marcus did who did all the the detailed work, which was very very difficult. Thank you very much Thank you. Are there any questions or comments by board members before we open it up for the community and then bring it back for action Surveys or conic Sure. Yeah, I just also like to take the opportunity to thank all the staff that put this budget together I mean as our ceo said it happened remarkably smoothly for a 1.12 billion dollar budget And I know that all the work that went into making our budget digital first Uh, you know, we didn't do it to win an award. Uh, although it was really nice to have that Um, and I think as was also suggested by budget manager pimentel It's uh, wow, is that a good thing that we did do that because as we deal with these increased pressures dealing, um, You know responding to disasters Um, I think it was only because of the streamlined budget process that we've created that uh, as said all our all our county staff were able to balance You know the requirements of putting together this budget with working around the clock to responding to those disasters. So um, I think it's A good lesson going forward to look for these increased efficiencies as well because um, what seems like, you know, maybe going over the top Today will actually be what saves us tomorrow um, I also as That's been pointed out. I think that um, this budget does a great job of responding to It's just some of the challenges we face today It's uh increased costs for to keep everyone afloat With the increased cost of living in this community and supporting our employees um You know managing some of the impacts for budget from the from the storms as we await FEMA Funding and I think there's also stuff in here to be optimistic about for the coming year whether it's the investment in new staffing for the unified permit center Or in capital facilities like, um, the children's crisis residential treatment program that we're standing up in live oak Or you know in parks that kids will play in every day like floral park So I'm you know, I'm excited about what we're doing here and I look forward to the year ahead. Thank you So those are coming to shift something you want to do Yeah, I just wanted to thank all the county staff for their hard work in this budget and also for your Your hard work during the times when we were going through the storms and we really needed People to step up and help our community during the time of need And so just you know acknowledging the challenges that come with that and trying to do your normal day-to-day job Can be really intense and our county staff step up in really significant ways To help support the community and get their own jobs done So I just want to thank everyone for their hard work during a really challenging time In addition to that just want to thank all the department heads the county ceo for all their work on this and this is my first budget on The county side, but having sat through other budgets in the past I'd know that sometimes things can get pretty tense with budgeting and this was a really smooth process And so just want to thank everybody for that And then just want to acknowledge that you know moving forward We're obviously going to have a lot of more challenges in the year to come especially as was mentioned by county ceo on retention and recruitment of employees and that coinciding with retirements And how we can continue to maintain the services that we know so many people in our community want to see us provide In addition to that as we've seen with multiple disasters back to back Really having to expand on our disaster response and recovery efforts Is going to be a huge need for us to continue down that route of expanding those programs And as it relates to kind of mental and behavioral health We know that there's going to be a lot of state unfunded mandates coming our way Around care courts and other types of programs And so really having to be creative in how we're going to be able to stand up some of these programs where The state's not providing us with any funding, but they're trying to mandate that we we have to Provide these services. So I'm just really looking forward to seeing how we can all work together In the years ahead and then I just I also wanted to thank the board and Our human services department and also in particular supervisor McPherson on the funding for the tenant legal assistance I know this is something that many people in the community have been wanting to see us Bring forward and What better place than having it at the county level and so my hope is that we can see how that program Roles out and see what opportunities there are for expanding that moving forward. And so just want to thank everyone for for us being able to find the funds to make that happen and For us to be able to start moving forward with providing these services for tenants in our community Thank you, supervisor Hernandez I'll keep my comments brief firstly. Well, thank you Marcus and Mike that for the presentation and Of course Carlos as well and all the ceo's office for this year's round of budgets And also I want to thank all the departments and staff for their presentations that they've done from parks public works And you know, and we had a in south county in particular. We had a rough Start to the year and so I really want to thank public works for all the work that they've done and extended their budget for A lot of the damages that have occurred in south county as well. So thank you very much for that as well Uh, so yes, that concludes my comments Supervisor McPherson, did you have anything to add? Are we open it up for the community? All right, we'll open it up for the community This is an opportunity for members of the community to address us on this item Thank you. Becky steinbrunner I continue to be worried that nobody's talking about the unfunded Calpers debt liability And I heard a presentation to the central fire district board by their consultant And it's pretty scary And you folks aren't even talking about it so um, I'd like you to talk about it because it's going to be huge and in the past Ceo Palacio has said it's it's almost like a tsunami coming our way but We're not talking about it here this year So please talk about it um, I I want to um, I've I have focused on county fire budget That's a big interest of mine living in the rural areas and I participate in a lot of fire agency board meetings And so I continue to be concerned about What I consider a lack of information for county fires budget Um, I did during the lunch break go to the public computer because This is all we've got for three days of budget hearings Out here in the hallway for people without devices But I'm grateful for the public computer in the lobby And in the lobby it says the supplemental amount for county fire budget will be taking away almost $7,000 and then it says the supplemental budget corrects the initial budget by um $1,000,000 And then it talks a little bit if you click on things and I'm glad you got an award But I sure hope you make a tutorial for the public Supervisor Cummings, you had the benefit of staff helping shoot you navigate it, but the public has not had that Um, I clicked on pass through accounts Which I'm always interested in because that's county fire budget may have one more minute, please. Thank you That's that's prop 172 state public safety money that comes to our county every year And county fire gets zero, but it's a pass through to the county fire chief association And it calls it a pass through but it doesn't explain it. It doesn't define it It says though that it is over three million dollars And um, I I just feel like there's very little information for the public to understand who may not go to fire department advisory commission meetings to understand what that is Moving on clicking on the page. Um I see that the intra fund transfer for last year was 1.3 million dollars 20 23 24 zero what Salaries and uh Employment benefits last year were 183 and this year is less by almost 20 000 dollars Fixed assets Last year was over three million dollars this year down by two million dollars uses of property Um continues to concern me because of discussions held at the fire department advisory commission that county fire department is going into the business of providing Leasing equipment for cow fire to backfill their deficiencies That concerns me and I saw that happen at a recent Firewise board community outreach meeting Cow fire showed up in a county fire engine and there were no county fire volunteers on that engine in closing What I see at the end of the the budget was revenues versus expenses is a minus three and a half million dollars county fire How can that be? and there was no staff presentation to help me understand that And uh given what chief nate armstrong has said i'm really worried And I don't feel that we can trust cow fire We don't have their contract at least I don't see it in here. Can you just conclude please? So i'm what i'm saying is that well it may be an award-winning budget Website, it's not nav very easy to navigate for the public And i'm concerned about county fire And the last comment I want to make is that you are acting as the board of directors for county fire department and as such I think that your any action that you take like the public hearing that will be coming up on june 27 It should be denoted in the agenda that you are taking action as the board Thank you Thank you miss steinbrunner Is there anybody else in chambers for this item? Is there anybody online? Okay, we'll bring it back to the board for a motion Supervisor Cummings. I'll move the recommended action for adoption of the budget second We have a motion from Supervisor Cummings and a second from Supervisor Hernandez if we could have a roll call, please Supervisor Koenig aye Cummings aye Hernandez aye McPherson and friend We saw you but didn't hear you one more time Supervisor McPherson Excuse me. Aye. Aye. Thank you. And I um also cast the And and I vote and that passes unanimously I would like to thank everybody for their work on this and that'll conclude the budget hearings and also conclude our earlier board meeting Recording in progress june 13 2020 meeting of the board of supervisors. I don't think we can start with a roll call, please Supervisor Koenig here friend here Cummings here Hernandez present McPherson is absent at this time We could begin with a moment of silence. Does anybody like to dedicate this moment of silence? All right, if we could just have a moment of silence, please Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance Good morning, Mr. Plosius. Are there any changes to today's agenda? Uh, yes, chair friend and members of the board. We do have a number of corrections item on number 16 There is additional materials. This is a revised attachment Packet page 317 is replaced Consented agenda Uh item should read approved as amended And then on item number 23, there's additional materials revised memo packet page 374 is replaced recommended actions should read adopt the resolution appointing david sanford as agricultural commissioner Slash sealer avoids and measures and then item 98. There's additional materials revised memo packet page 2273 is replaced Recommended action number six should read Direct staff to return on or before october 17 2023 for the ratification of the award And then finally, uh, supervisor, um, McPherson is asking to appear remotely under ab 2449 Due to recent knee surgery And he is asking the chair to solicit a motion to add the item For his permission to appear remotely as item 3.1 to the agenda Uh, okay, um, seen as uh, supervisor McPherson meets the criteria. Is there a motion to add this? So moved We have a motion from supervisor conig and a second from supervisor Cummings, uh, this would just simply add it as an item to the agenda. Is that correct council? It would add it as item 3.1 and then you would immediately take up item 3.1 and solicit a second motion to add him, uh, to the Uh To the panel Would I solicit public comment then on the addition of the item to the agenda? Yes. All right. Is there any member of the community? I'd like to address us on on this item All right Um, seeing none. Is there anybody online? I do see a speaker online. I'm not sure if they're for this or for normal public comment. Rachel, your microphone is now available Not for this for another matter. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So we'll close public comment If we get a roll call, please Supervisor conig. Hi Cummings Hernandez Hi and friend. All right. And so now we have item 3.1 out of the agendas or a motion for item 3.1 So moved We have a motion from supervisor conig a second from supervisor Cummings Uh, is there anybody from the community that'd like to address us on the exact same item? That is to permit McPherson to be bylaw I just want to remind people that Bruce McPherson received tens of thousands of dollars from the triple chinese communist spy. That's all All right. Is there anybody else on this item? Anybody online? All right, so we'll close that we'll have a motion, please Excuse me a roll call, please Supervisor conig. Hi Cummings. Hi Hernandez Hi and friend. All right. And that passes unanimously and supervisor McPherson will have you join us remotely Welcome supervisor McPherson. You can hear us. Thank you. Yes. Can you hear me? All right? Yes, we can. Thank you All right, so are there any items that any board members would like to remove from the consent to the regular agenda? Yes Do you want to ask those questions during consent? Uh, no All right, we didn't we weren't able to hear uh, I moved the microphone Uh item 87. I just had some questions about this item regarding the ultimate trail versus the interim trail All right, so we are pulling item 87 and it'll become item One sec. I get to the regular agenda. It'll become item uh, 14 point one Any other items? All right seen none. We'll now open up the opportunity for a public comment This is an opportunity for members of the community to address those items that are either not on today's agenda But within the purview of the board of supervisors or within the consent agenda The regular agenda if you're unable to stay or the closed session item if you're unable to stay For that good morning. Welcome Chairman supervisors a national magazine, uh issued june this year Talks about red china having a police illegal police station in manhattan and they've had hundreds around the world china has been Stealing our technology. They've been buying food supplies and farms. They've been buying our ports and shipping terminals And if there's going to be a fight for taiwan it will be fought on american soil They have won contracts for rebuilding local infrastructure Diane's I find signs so called abbey driver was a lie by the media That continues to lie He has been with her since she ran for supervisor and he has spoken at usp right here in our home China has Well, they have this illegal police station in downtown manhattan As it is in new york, so it is in Santa Cruz We have two members of the board of supervisors that worked for red china One that happens to be the chairman presently one of those People he had worked for his stepson is in league and a partner was hunter biden's millions of dollars that he's received from red china The two members with the red shinies having backgrounds I have threatened Institutions in this county to prevent speakers from speaking at the range. They threaten their persons and properties and both the district attorney And the sheriff would not investigate there are hundreds of people that were attending those meetings that they would have easy access to There is no prostitution here against the illegality just as there is no prostitution against the Legality Back east. Thank you. Thank you Good morning Yeah, so hello. Good morning. My name is james you and wit minutes june 13th 2023. I'm addressing the santa cruz board of supervisors You know public service announcement one of my favorite researchers Mr. David de bind has some very interesting programs that are easier to find on rumble The adapt 2030 in many ice age conversations You know he i'm going to give him credit for this joke, you know How do you launder a hundred billion dollars? You know in 20 dollar bills it's 33 pounds per million. That's 30. That's 3.3 million pounds over 1500 tons Well Ukraine it So, you know, there's going to be some interesting celebrations going on today with other organizations that have laundered over 82 billion dollars through silicon valley bank You know, um, I'd like to see some changes So I found out yesterday that a close friend of mine died on sunday You know, I can say very directly that unelected chosen officials like carlis palosios And then we have our elected Of or supposedly elected. I mean if we talk about the voter fraud from the die bowl machines that were brought in 2002 by mr. Bruce McPherson But also mr. Manu Koenig and Zach friend you guys have been promoting these Alternatives to health which are these injections So my friends succumbed to issues that came up after her second booster And it's really quite sad You know, there's a lot of things that people can do and yeah, you guys should be looking down. It's a disgrace You know, I've witnessed over a dozen people and an organization that are gone now because of these injections So there's a lot of stuff going on. What is there over 2,500 pages today? And crap you guys are I don't even know what to say. I'd like to see some change. Thanks Good morning and welcome Uh, my name is jim garner live on water street You know, I wanted to make a comment about rodeo gouch road at the 1700 block has fallen away in three places and it's dangerous for a automobile traffic It's got three places that are new has got worse recently And there's some potholes that need replaced on rodeo gouch road. I would believe Now the second item I had was that the property next to shenna clear county park As someone is doing demolition work and they've so I complained to the governor on a phone call But I would like a park annex out of the property. I would request it And we don't know who they are, but they left their den washington apartment and went away that's a jennifer county park on um jennifer avenue So those are the two items that I had to make a comment on that rodeo gouch road could use some examination Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you Good morning. Good morning Hello chair and members of the board. I'm c. R. Ryan. I'm the water resources program manager and environmental health I'm here today to honor one of our staff members christin kiddelson who as you saw in your packet is going to be retiring Very soon and myself and some of my colleagues from the water resources team wanted to take a moment to recognize her service to the county She's been with the county for over 24 years and that doesn't include some time she spent Starting in 1989 working in the planning department So we wanted to take an opportunity to read her proclamation today and just recognize her her service and the loss that we're all feeling uh with her Retirement, although we're all very happy for her. Um, so with that Good morning. Aaron McCarthy Proclamation honoring christin kiddelson on her retirement from the county of santa cruz Whereas christin kiddelson will retire on august 2nd 2023 having served as the fisheries resource planner for the county of santa cruz health services agency for 24 years And whereas christin kiddelson has been involved in the development of federal recovery plans for steelhead and coho salmon including mapping the location of populations throughout the county and Whereas she has co-authored the 2004 sound Lorenzo river steelhead enhancement plan And participated in numerous watershed fisheries lagoon and riparian studies you Sean abbey water quality specialists Um, whereas christin coordinated multi agency juvenile steelhead monitoring program for 13 years developed a database that now includes more than 20 years of data And helped design a website that won an international award And whereas christin coordinated a fish passage program with the department of public works Evaluating all county culvert stream crossings for fist patches that resulted in 14 passage projects And whereas in collaboration with no fisheries christin developed large woody material management program in 2009 The unique program that retained large wooden streams for steelhead and coho salmon habitat And over 14 years christin worked with more than 300 private property owners Through this program and received a united way community hero award for her work in 2015 Good morning, mr. Chair members of the board. Nathan Salazar environmental health specialist Whereas christin has served with integrity compassion and poise while navigating different and sometimes conflicting priorities Working closely with staff community members and other agencies to find workable solutions And whereas christin is a considerate motivated and dedicated colleague who champions the best interests of the community And protects our most valuable resources equally at ease waste deep in a stream and in front of an auditorium filled with people Now therefore, it's the population. I Zach friend chair of the sanikers county board of supervisors hereby recognized and thank christin kittleson for decades of exceptional service to the residents of sanikers county And honor her significant contributions to the field fisheries protection That's been my privilege to work with christin for almost 10 years And uh, she truly exemplifies the best of what it means to be a county public servant Working with the community her personality her her tireless dedication and she'll be concretely missed Of christin kittleson And thank you for taking a few minutes to hear about these accomplishments It's been a tremendous experience serving for 24 years as the county of sanikers fishery resource planner There's a long history of county staff working on fisheries and watershed management And i'm really proud to be part of this lineage I want to extend a big thanks to all my co-workers and colleagues who i've worked with over the years And the community members who took the time to share information with me and to learn more about steelhead Salmon streamwood and other natural resource issues Thank you board of supervisors for your continued support for sanikers county fisheries and watershed conservation Thanks Thank you christin morning. Welcome Good morning chair friend and supervisors. Uh, congratulations to christin, of course We have another big loss today another proclamation on the agenda today Uh, we're having to say goodbye to caroline burke She has been with the county for 21 years She's done some outstanding work with outstanding contributions and and commitment for all those years She actually spent many years in public works and then many more years in planning and now she's in community development infrastructure So she's seen a lot of change over the years She's been a champion She's been a role model All of her colleagues look up to her. She's served the public very very well over these years Uh, we're going to miss her greatly. She um, we're proud of the significant accomplishments Um, and we're grateful for her contributions and uh, we will miss her Best of luck to caroline and uh and congratulations to her and I think uh, she's here. Thank you Thank you everyone and uh, thank you for the wonderful proclamation. That's on your consent agenda today I just wanted to send my gratitude to the county family um, I started here 21 years ago when I was just 23 years old um in the public works department at that time uh working for tom bolich and so I've seen many directors and uh And I've had the ability to learn from them as well as all of my colleagues. Um Who I have to say are of just the highest caliber and I'm really um continually impressed by the talent that we were able to attract here and um, you know recently We were able to see the joining of public works and planning and to community development and infrastructure and I thank matt machado for his Leadership during this time and for his enthusiasm and support of me and my role as assistant as cdi director um, I am looking forward to Um, what the future has to hold in a city government as I as I move on but I just want to extend my deep gratitude to everyone here for their Uh, encouragement support over these years. Thank you very much. Thank you caroline Good morning. Welcome Good morning. My name is fackey steinbrunner In following with these things I would like to also commend Mr. Chris berry for his 19 years of service on the santa cruz county water advisory commission His proclamation was presented to him at last week's commission meeting He's an amazing resource and um, I hope he doesn't stray far From that commission because he always brings such a breadth of knowledge and history I want to speak about some things on the consent agenda today um item number 73 Where in the county will assume maintenance of the raid street a so-called drive intersection the private rail crossing improvements that were put in by the Swenson builders and aptos adventure developers Although it's 20 000 a year. I have real concerns about the county accepting this agreement and the payment Because of any liabilities that may also come along with that I'm very worried about this new intersection. It is very difficult To maneuver now even with raid street closed and when that traffic opens and phase two construction begins And opens up as it looks like it will be soon. I'm very worried about this intersection And I advise your board not to accept this not to accept the money and Advise that the HOA hire their own private maintenance contractor, not the county for liability reasons Item 32, um, I commend you chairman friend for bringing A requirement for guidelines for county staff using ai I'm very um very aware of this and Worried about how it can open up all of the databases and make a vulnerable to outside influences Um, especially with the digital wallet project that you are also forcing through So thank you for this leadership and I look forward to the guidelines coming soon. Thank you. Is there anybody else in chambers? I'd like to address us Seeing none. Madam clerk. Is there anybody online? Yes chair Rachel your microphone is now available Hi, thank you so much for your service. Um, I would like to Raise some concerns I have about the digital wallet I'd like to begin by referencing a very interesting article I read in the government finance officers association Magazine website. They I'm sure you're familiar with them. They recently gave an award to the city of santa cruz for their budget This interesting article is entitled cryptocurrency Fairy tale or future and it strongly encourages financial officers to not rush to be the first to adopt Blockchain technology and web three. They raise a variety of concerns one of which is a fiduciary I'm not a a lawyer or finance expert, but I think this is something that should be taken into account the The blockchain organization company humble which is providing the pilot project is as of today worth 0.003 cents I know that my financial advisor would not allow me to Invest in such a company and I and I'm very very concerned that the county of santa cruz has any relationship at all Were related to government services with this company This company's overall project is to provide, you know, many different services internationally on their recent Financial report, which is available the discussion from the CEO on on YouTube they say that if santa cruz goes through they are ready to scale this For cities and counties all over the nation and the world. And so there's a lot of responsibility In this pilot digital program There's a lack of transparency about what programs are already signed up and how it's approved There is essentially fraud in in the sense that people are not being informed about humbles relationship to the services They're signing up for presently. Thank you so much Thank you Anybody else online Call and user 9902 your microphone is now available Yes, this is Nina Beatty. I wanted to bring something to the attention of the board on sunday japan began dumping The fukushima radioactive waste water. It's been storing into the pacific ocean This water will travel to the central coast and monoray bay via the keroshio current current And impact fisheries the marine environment and tourism Korea china japanese and south pacific island residents experts and officials have been protesting and testifying against this plan for the several years, but there's been no public publicized response from local and state officials here in california against this plan It since it's already started There needs to be urgent action To stop this and not impact the ocean environment any more than fukushima already has So I urge you the board of supervisors to contact state and federal officials To oppose this plan and also to yourselves write to the japanese embassy And oppose this plan and stop this dumping that's going to have horrible impacts here in monoray and in the monoray bay area. Thank you Thank you. Is there anybody else online? Colin user one your microphone is now available It's a mean a beady That's extremely important uh as the county installs more and more microwave radiation emitting Sights, uh, this is military technology. It's deadly. I want to uh share an article and What you're promoting calls for youth of the cell phone For everything So this is an article called a hundred consequences of owning a cell phone This is from cell phone task force dot award of april 12 of this year I'll read the list till you come me off This and it's a partial list. I'm sure destruction of brain cells stroke seizures tremors multiples Clarosis memory loss heart attack heart disease cardiac arrhythmia Hard palpitations high blood pressure chest pain brain cancer breast cancer Disappearance of birds Dots of bats birds insects worms frogs wildlife Extermination of the lowland gorilla Child slavery in the democratic republic of congo conclude continuing with this list of consequences of owning a cell phone massive pollution of groundwater in china genocide in west poplar anxiety depression adhd autism paranoia skin rash depression in gs gara You have no further speakers chair. All right. We will close public comment And we'll bring it back to the board to discuss Consent I'll actually begin with supervisor macpherson remotely supervisor macpherson Are there any items on consent any comments you would like to make on consent? Yeah. Yes, if I could can you hear me? All right. Yes, sir. Go ahead. Okay. Good. Thank you. First of all, I just want to say We were going to miss Miss kittleson and carillon burke immensely 45 years combined They are both gems in what they do and they much appreciate it as well as mr. Berry who was mentioned also I'd like to talk about a couple items on Incent agenda number 45 the electrical vehicle charging grant Thank you for rr3 for the work on this item. It's critical We we add more stations throughout the county and help address our climate goals But as remain competitive with other communities I want to thank them the staff for the stations and sands of valley Which is in particular need of this kind of infrastructure um And is that the sites continue to be identified? I'd also ask that we look at more sites in boulder creek Especially as big basin state park comes back and more community resumes Up in the deep in the valley in the northern end of the valley And also like like to see more centralized locations and the valley perhaps a few in ben loman if possible But we're moving forward and we're moving onward And i'm very pleased with what we we are doing in this regard with the electrical vehicle charging stations um number 65, um the housing matters project um I want to congratulate and um thank our housing for health office and our partners at housing matters On moving these projects forward in my district. It's the harby west area 120 units But really on behalf of the entire county, which is in dire need of more housing We have long said that permanent supportive housing units are really a critical Tool for helping and stabilize people experiencing homelessness There's a lot of work that has gone into planning these projects over the course of many years now And i'm glad we're able to secure the eight million dollar grant that we received Combination of items 74 and 85 Uh, thank the public works department and cdi for managing these efforts to improve and maintain our roads uh, the status of our roads is probably What we hear more about in our office from constituent than any other subject There's there's a lot to do and still not enough resources to do all that we would like to do It's an enormous task to manage the countywide and road maintenance schedule In addition to all the emergency repair work getting back to the 2017 storms including the storms of the past winter I just our need for more federal funding in this regard is is more more Necessary than ever And I just hope that we can get as many roads Repair as we can But I our departments are doing everything you can with the funding resources they have So thank you very much. Uh, that's all I have to say in the comments on the consent agenda Thank you. Supervisor McPherson of before I hand it off to my colleagues I just want to note that I do need to recuse from item 73 and 87 which is now 14.1 both are rail Line related items and I live within 500 feet of the rail line So I have a personal potential personal financial conflict with those items I'll be recusing on 73 and then eventually 14.1 when it comes back to the board Supervisor coning Thank you chair friend. I'd like to start with thanking Karen Kroslow it's on item 30 for volunteering as a new first district arts commissioner And on item 31 charlotte condo wall for volunteering for the library advisory commission Our commissions are a vital part of county government and I would thank both these individuals for stepping forward to serve On item 32 I want to thank you chair friend for bringing forward the ai guidelines As has been pointed out the county definitely deals with a lot of words to a 2500 page agenda today And I think that ai does offer Opportunities and promise to help everyone in the county do their job more efficiently But of course we do need to provide guide rails as we explore those opportunities And I think some of those set out here including ensuring that We avoid any bias in The product produced by ai and and also ensure that we're not sharing sensitive personal information or county secrets are essential So again, thank you for your being proactive on this on item 36 requesting that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Transfer ownership of greyhound rock to the county I want to thank Supervisor Cummings and the parks department for this proposal to ultimately better manage greyhound rock which is A park I mean technically fish and wildlife land, but at the northernmost part of our county Which definitely consumes a lot of resources county resources to efficiently manage and I think that the proposal here Would ultimately allow us to invest more in that facility And also to improve the kinds of activities that can happen there and including some potential overnights for For low income and another Um underserved community so that would be really a great opportunity and I hope that the state fish and wildlife department agrees with us um Finally on items 72 redwood road repair. I just want to reuse myself from now since I do a family that live on that road Thank you. Thank you Supervisor Koenig. Supervisor Cummings. Oh, I'm just sorry chair If you could just please repeat that number Supervisor Koenig. Item 72. Thank you so much Thank you chair And thank you members of the public who came to comment and I also want to express my appreciation from his kiddos and miss Burke Um, so work with the county. We will be missing you both very much and Even in the little amount of time that I've been able to work with in particular miss Burke It's been really great to see how supportive you are making sure that we're addressing the needs of our community so um, good luck on the next journey and uh, we will be missing you here in the county Um, I also want to congratulate on item number 23 our new ag commissioner Dave sanford who will be joining us as our new ag commissioner and um, I've been hearing some comments in the community about Pesticide use and their concerns around that and so I just look forward to having more conversations with you to see how we can help Better address some of the concerns that are coming out through the community, but just want to congratulate you on your new position um Item number 26 the the county flag policy. I'm very supportive of this and and thank um The ceo for bringing this forward the one thing that I did want to See if the cap if the board will be willing to entertain. It's just an addition To the policy and I'll just read. Um, this is under general flag policy item number 2 D flags may be lowered to half staff in accordance with the presidential proclamation or a proclamation by the california governor And I wanted to add at the request by a county supervisor And then if continues to read or at the discretion of the county Administrative officer to commemorate the deaths of county staff or those who have made significant contributions to the county's cultural or political history um, I know that at in most of the cities the mayors oftentimes have the discretion and given the where the representatives or our Individual districts was just saying if that might be entertained by the board members as well All right, so I like to add that direction Um Let me get back to my notes With regards to the ai policy. I also agree. I think this is something that's really important One of the things that I did not see maybe I don't know if there's staff here who can comment on this and or maybe the chair but Wanted to have a return date added to the direction because right now It's kind of just open ended which means who knows when it'll come back and If this is a priority for the chair to have us work on this I'm just wondering if we can have a return date or a date when we can get an update on the progress on that policy Yeah, it's specific. I thanks for noticing that I'd specifically Left it open because they're already now starting to work on it recognizing that the item was coming forward But I didn't know what was a reasonable amount of time. So they uh, the cio had agreed to uh bring something forward when when it was done if you would What do you think would be a reasonable amount of time? We can just have something brought back on consent or something just to give an update Yeah, I think if you gave us um, let's say four months three or four months Three months three months three months. That's fine. Thank you Um, I want to thank parks. I remember 36 for bringing the greyhound rock issued our attention We've been working in collaboration with the parks director and we've also let um Our state senator john lair know who's been working with us as well. And so we hope to um, Hopefully have some meetings with fish and wildlife and um, we'll be Year to bring back an update on how that progress is being made um I remember 63 The housing assistance just want to thank staff and their hard work on bringing forward additional tenant protection assistance and You know really helping to keep people in their homes is critical to also helping us address our homelessness problem And also retain people within our community and that also goes for the item number 70 housing authority Attendant assistance as well. Um, so just wanted to express my appreciation for um, staffing able to secure that funding um, and then I since the item 91 Recycling centers and gray bears item is on I just wanted to take it as an opportunity to Make a comment, which was that last week Um the integrated waste management task force a number of us were able to go take tours of the various facilities and One thing that we came to find out that um, even some of the folks who work in waste management weren't aware of was that gray bears actually has a Styrofoam recycling machine That they are No longer going to be operating in the near future. And so as an integrated way as the chair of the integrated waste management task force um, one of the items that we're going to be thinking about and hopefully bringing forward is I'm trying to figure out if we wanted to move forward with having a A styrofoam recycling machine where that could be located within the county because it appears that it's the only one within the region and they receive a lot of styrofoam products from ucsc And even from as far away as the monterey bay aquarium And so just making sure that we don't have styrofoam going into our landfill and we can actually repurpose it I think is something that our community will be very supportive of in our efforts to try to address Environmental protection. So um in my comments there and um, thank you for the time Thank you in full agreement. Actually was a the styrofoam Recycling was an item I'd brought for the board some years back and that's how it ended up with the gray bears But yeah, the expansion is an important discussion to have Supervisor rinandez Just briefly. I want to thank of of course, uh, miss kittleson and miss and miss berg for all their years of service And congratulations are ad commissioner, uh, mr. Sanford And thank you to public works and everyone that and part of the waste management team that worked on the tour that we did Of all our uh, sanitation sites and we did visit the gray bears site in south county as well So thank you for putting that together and that's it Thank you. I'll make some comments first for miss berg and miss kittleson is they're both outstanding public servants and miss berg It's going to be strange to think of this uh broader planning world and changes without you here in a leadership position a lot of the Of the advancements that the county has made in the last few years in regards to planning and the customer Centered approach has been because of you Um, you really are a remarkable leader and it's a great loss for the county a remarkable gain for the community that you're going to But I just know that that you are very well respected within this institution and you'll be missed Um on a few items here on the board first I'd also like to welcome mr. Sanford not really welcoming you because you've been doing this for a while But it's it's wonderful to see that you were selected on a national recruitment and also not surprising You've done an outstanding job. You have a wonderful reputation throughout the slaughter community as somebody who Actually represents more agricultural land than any other county supervisor here on the board I have to say that um our office your office. I should say uh is not just respected in the region But across the state and has done an outstanding job finding a way to Build bridges with disparate interests and so i'm looking forward to having and you had a large role in that In your current position and so elevating you to this role. I think is a natural fit and congratulations on that Regarding the artificial the i policy that my colleagues already spoken about there's it's unquestionably a transformed transformational technology and there's significant possibilities associated with it. I think it's actually going to be one of the largest Shifts that's occurred in local government Since email and some of the advance of other technological advancements, but it's happening at such a rate That it clearly needs some sense of a look internally to see how we put some guardrails around it, but yet It'll be a net benefit. I think moving forward I mean, I think that it's already being used for one by by local governments From everything from public works departments able to Look at real-time photos using ai to determine storm damage in a way that doesn't require them to physically be out there during storm damage to creating rfps in a way that's significantly reduced this time to even Parallegals to looking at complex legal briefs in order to help analyze it, but there's issues with The veracity some of the information that comes in there's information with some of the stuff that goes out associated with it. And so We're excited to also Be one of the first to try and look at this kind of policy and to work with our partners at the state through the conference state association of counties the national association of counties to help provide other counties With a framework of what this kind of policy can look at recognizing. It's an iterative process Any every single time we make a change is starting to be out of date on a policy like this So this is really just giving more of a values based framework on how to operate using this technology moving forward I'm glad to see we're taking a lead on that Two last things both in the parks world It's excited to see the continued improvements in willowbrook including the new The new playground that'll be there as well as the permanent restrooms at hidden beach park These are both long-term projects that i've partnered with the parks department on they've been wonderful partners and leaders on this Across the county including with the new work that's being done and supervisor. Hernandez is this district We've made more investments in county parks in the last five years And we've made it probably about the 40 before that and so it's a pretty significant upgrade and changes And so I appreciate the work of the parks department often unheralded for the work you do behind the scenes Mr. Gaffney and your entire team Appreciate that leadership All right, so is there a motion with the additional direction for Understanding two recusals on two different items or the consent agenda i'm concerned Second to have a motion from supervisor Cummings a second from supervisor coning if we could have a roll call, please Supervisor conic. Hi Cummings. Hi Hernandez. Hi McPherson. Hi and friend. All right And that passes unanimously with two recusals on that item. Thank you madam clerk madam clerk we'll move on to The regular agenda the first item of the regular agenda Which is item seven Is a long item so bear with me as I read it which is consider authorizing the auditor controller treasurer tax collector to Proceed with necessary actions to secure the 2023-24 tax and revenue anticipation notes in an amount not to exceed 61 million dollars and adopt a resolution Providing for the issuance and sale the 23-24 tax and revenue anticipation notes in an amount not exceeding 61 million and approving the execution Delivery of a continuing disclosure certificate approving an official notice inviting bids a notice of intention to sell notes an official statement a continuing disclosure certificate and certain other matters Certain other matters as outlined in the memo the auditor controller treasurer tax collector miz drisco. I know we have you here for this item Good morning chair friend and members of the board eat at driscoll auditor controller treasurer tax collector Also joining us this morning via telephone is susanne harrell the county's municipal financial advisor for this financing issuance The item before your board today is a request to authorize myself the county auditor controller To proceed with necessary actions to secure its annual tax and revenue anticipation note in an amount not to exceed 61 million dollars This note is being issued because counties have inconsistencies about when property taxes are received And when expenditures need to be paid Taxes are the county's largest funding source and they are received primarily in december and april Yet the county begins paying their budgeted expenditures as early as july 1 This note issuance also referred to as a tran Is issued at the beginning of the fiscal year and paid off within 364 days With funds that are set aside from the two different large property tax tax flows This year's tran is higher than in recent years due to the uncertainty of when the county's outstanding fema reimbursements will actually be received Regarding the method of sale for this year's tran our municipal advisor is recommending that notes be sold on a competitive sale However, the resolution presented for the board's consideration does allow for the county to switch to a negotiated sale If market conditions deteriorate before sale date As in prior years the county's fiscal team made presentations to standard importers and moodies to obtain a rating for the note The county's past short-term bond ratings from these agencies were at the highest rate Highest level the ratings are expected to be released today. So I can't give them to you yet However, they have not indicated that there will be any change from that high level In addition to the current year tax flow concerns This tran also provides funding to cover a portion of the prior year tax delinquencies That the county has already dispersed to cities and agencies Under the teeter plan the county distributes the property tax revenues to the cities and agencies based on the total amount expected With no adjustment for unpaid or late tax payments This provides those entities with consistent and guaranteed cash flow and in exchange the county receives a penalty's uninterest On any delinquent taxes once they are ultimately collected In summary, I request that you approve the recommended actions necessary to secure the 23 24 tax and revenue anticipation notes In an amount not to exceed 61 million dollars That concludes my presentation both myself and susanne harrell our municipal financial advisor are available for any questions Thank you, mr. Eskel. Thanks mr. Harrell officer for being available remotely Are there any questions from supervisors before we open this item up to the community? All right, see none. Is there anybody from the community that would like to address us on this item item seven Nobody in chambers. Is there anybody online? We have no speakers online chair Okay, we'll close public comment and bring it back to the board for a motion So Second We have a motion from supervisor Cummings and a second from supervisor Hernandez if we could have a roll call, please Supervisor conic. Hi Cummings. Hi Hernandez. Hi McPherson. Hi and friend. All right, and that item passes unanimously Thank you chair I'm sorry. I've just been alert that we didn't pick up the additional directions in the kind on the consent items And I would recommend for purposes of of clarity that you reopen Consent just simply to revise the motion that was adopted to pick up the additional direction because it currently is not Indicated. Okay. Is there a motion to reopen consent? So moved All right, we have a motion from supervisor conic and a second from supervisor Hernandez if we could have a roll call this is just simply to reopen to change the motion supervisor conic I'm sorry the point of privilege that we need to restate the motion with the additional direction. Yes Okay, right now we're reopening consent. Oh, I say iteration a consensus. It's just simply procedural motion to reduce it. Hi Cummings. Hi Hernandez. Hi McPherson. Hi and friend. All right Let's do some groundhog day So is there a motion then or consent with the understanding that there's two recusals, but articulating what the additional direction is Um supervisor Cummings, you had the additional direction, I believe on the item. So if you wouldn't mind actually Are proposing the motion with the additional direction on the items Sure, I'll move consent with the additional direction that for item number 26 county flag policy that under um Sorry, let me bring it up under general flag policy item d that the After by the government by the california governor comment We add at the request by county supervisor to the language and for item number 32 We add that an update come back to the board in three months Is there a second second All right, um Is there anybody from the community that like to address us on consent with this additional direction? This is Hi, my name is james So this is number 33 has to do with the digital wallet No, okay, then I'm I miss her Okay Uh anybody on line madam clerk We have no speakers. Okay, so we'll close public comment. We'll do a roll call, please Supervisor conic. Hi Cummings. Hi Hernandez Hi McPherson. Hi and friend I that passes unanimously with recusals on two items and additional direction on those two items. Thank you council We'll now move on to item eight On the regular agenda, which is as the board of directors of the Davenport county sanitation district public hearing to consider the 23 24 Davenport county sanitation district water and sewer service charge reports and adopt resolution confirming The water service charge reports for 23 24 is outlined in the memo the engineer We have the memo the summary of the district the summary of the charge report and a resolution and we have our cdi director mr Matt machado here Mr machado Thank you chair friend and supervisors and good morning. Matt machado director cdi The item before you is a public hearing on our 23 24 Davenport county sanitation districts sewer service charge reports On may 9th of this year. I presented the details of the rate increase And the board approved in concept the 23 24 service charges for the Davenport county sanitation district And set and set today as the date of the public hearing For this service charge reports The recommended action this morning is to open the public hearing hear objections or protests if any to the proposed sewer service charge reports To close the public hearing and to adopt the resolution confirming the 23 24 water and sewer service charge reports For the Davenport county sanitation district and i'm here to answer any questions that you may have thank you director machado any questions from supervisor before we open the public hearing as Seeing none will now officially open up the public hearing This is an opportunity for members of the community to address us on the Davenport on item 8 Which is the Davenport county sanitation district water and sewer service charge reports anybody from the Chamber seeing none. Is there anybody online? We have no speakers online chair Okay, we'll close the public hearing and bring it back for a motion I'll move to recommended actions I'll second we have a motion from supervisor Koenig a second from supervisor Cummings and supervisor Cummings Yeah, I just want to thank the staff for their Hard work on this and all the outreach you've been able to conduct with folks in the Davenport community I know that they very much appreciate having An opportunity to speak with staff before the board was taking action I know at that meeting that there's a lot of concerns around the rate increases But I think that having the community be able to speak with you all and really understand why the rate increases were happening And also the all the work that the staff is doing to secure grants to help offset the cost would really help folks Understand the need for having to have these rate increases occur. So just want to express my my appreciation of that and I think that's partly why we're able to move through this item so quickly today Thank you. Thank you for those comments. We could have a roll call. Please supervisor Koenig. Hi Cummings Hernandez Hi McPherson. Hi and friend All right, then that passes unanimously We'll move on to item nine Which is the board of directors of the freedom county sanitation district a public hearing to consider the 23 24 freedom county sanitation district sewer service charge report and adopt a resolution confirming the 23 24 sewer service charge report As outlined in the memo the district engineer the board memo the charge report The summary report and the resolution director machado Thank you chair friend and supervisors on May 9th, I I presented this item in detail and the board approved and concepts the service charges For the freedom county sanitation district And they set you set today as the date for this public hearing for this charge report The recommended actions are to open the public hearing and hear objections or protests if any And then to close the public hearing and adopt the resolution confirming the 23 24 sewer service charge report for the freedom county sanitation district And i'm here to answer any questions that you may have are there any question for me the county supervisors before we open up The public hearing i don't see any questions and so we'll now officially open up the public hearing Is there any member of the community they'd like to address us on the freedom county sanitation district? sewer charge reports I don't see anybody in chambers madame clerk. Is there anybody online those speakers online chair Okay, we will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for a motion I'll move the recommended actions a second All right We have a motion from supervisor conig and just because we want to give supervisor mcpherson one, you know Give the second to supervisor mcpherson Uh, could we have a roll call, please? Supervisor conig. Hi comings. Hi rinandez. Hi mcpherson. Hi and friend I and that item passes Unanimously we'll now move on to item 10, which is a public hearing to consider FY 23 24 benefit assessment and service charge reports for the sanitation county service areas of 2 5 7 10 and 20 and adopt a resolution confirming These service charge reports is outlined in the memo of the deputy ceo director of cdi We have the board memo of the sanitation electric electronic charge reports The summary reports and the resolution director machado. Thank you chair friend and supervisors on march 14th I presented the details of of the proposed increase assessments And the board set today is the public hearing For this item the recommended actions are to open the public hearing hear objections or protests to the charge report and to close the public hearing And then to adopt the resolution confirming the benefit assessment service charge reports for these various csa areas and I can answer any questions that you may have. Thank you for that. Are there any questions for my colleagues on this item? I don't see any so We'll open up the public hearing on item 10. Are there any questions from the community on sanitation county service areas 2 5 7 10 or 20 during this public hearing I see none in chambers. Madam clerk anybody online. No callers online Okay, we will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for a motion Move the recommended actions second A motion from supervisor conag and a second from supervisor. Hernandez if we could have a roll call, please Supervisor conag. Aye Cummings. Aye Hernandez. Aye McPherson. Aye And friend Aye and that passes unanimously Item thank you director machado For item 11. This is a public hearing to consider a resolution confirming proposed fy 23 24 assessment service charge reports for county service area 12 wastewater management is outlined in the memo of the director of health services We have a the agenda item the notice of public hearing and the resolution And we have director morales and director strider from From human from health services as well as our environmental health division director Welcome. Thank you. Good morning board Just a reminder that today may 9th the board adopted the resolution confirming the establishment of benefit service charges for county service area You can hear me. Thank you so much 12 for fiscal year 23 24 As such today is Tuesday June 13th as the date for the public hearing to take place With that, I just want to remind the board that we're here to answer any of your questions and I'll you know kick it now to director Andrew strider to answer any more questions and follow up with some details Thank you. Good morning Is this on sorry Thank you. Good morning, a chair friend and members of the board Yeah, just to reiterate on may 9th 2023 the board adopted resolutions confirming the establishment of benefit assessments service charges for csa 12 for fiscal year 23 24 The board also set to tuesday june 13 2023 is the date for public hearing on the proposed 23 24 benefit assessment service charge reports Csa 12 assessment service charges are expected to generate approximately one million two hundred eighty thousand dollars in the fiscal year 23 24 Uh, it is important to note that those proposed rates remain unchanged from the prior fiscal year 22 23 Fees collected under csa 12 provide for the general administration of the odds maintenance and pollution reduction program that includes better tracking Info of information on system maintenance permits pumping and inspections water quality monitoring of streams impacted by septic systems investigation of complaints and enforcement related to failing systems and property owner education on better system management With the adoption of the local area management program lamp under the state's policy for on-site wastewater treatment systems activities associated with csa 12 are an integral integral part of the compliance with the state's requirements To complete the fiscal year 23 24 benefit assessment service charge proceedings that is necessary for the board to open the public hearing Take testimony and consider objections and protests to the reports Close the public hearing and consider adoption of the resolution confirming the benefit assessment service charge reports Thank you Thank you. Are there any questions from my colleagues on this item? See none. We will now open up the public hearing on Item 11 regarding the service charge reports for county service area 12. Good morning. Welcome back. Good morning. My name is Becky Steinburner I am a resident of rural Santa Cruz mountains and At last week Santa Cruz county water advisory commission meeting there was considerable talk about the impacts of The failing septic systems on the water quality in the center in this in the watersheds and it was really clear that Our county needs to offer some Easily accessible financial incentives for people who have failing systems or problematic systems to do upgrades necessary To protect our water quality. I would like to see some of this money set aside In a fund for People who have problems with with systems to at least get some technical advisory free technical advisory and geotech work done so that they can Maintain their systems in a healthy way for the water quality of the area I also want to point out that due to the county's approval of the new septic system ordinance A considerable number of people will be forced to Add the advanced treatment systems to their property My question is I am aware that there is a fee that those people have to pay for annual inspections Is that part of csa 12? In paying csa 12 fees is that Balanced with the additional fees that Any property owner with an advanced treatment system has to pay for annual inspections by the county It should be Thank you Thank you. Any other questions on csa 12? I don't see anybody in chambers Is there anybody online? Yes, chair. We do have a speaker calling user one your microphone is now available Seems like there's so many Assessments increased tax charges for everything I would like to hear a response to becky steinburner's question that she just put to you because it seems like the huge requirements on people who have septic systems Really are financially Very burdensome or impossible to fulfill which Really impacts You know sales or people living in these areas that have septic systems So i'm listening for response to the question becky steinburner put to you It is very disturbing how the board Disregards members of the public who give you excellent direction And comments and then you act like we're not here So i'm listening for a response right now. Thank you Thank you miss garratt. Is there anybody else? online No further speakers chair Okay, we'll close the public hearing but before bringing it back to the board. Are there any additional comments? that would like to be made by Either of our two directors in regards to the questions Yeah, I just to provide a little bit of clarification. So Csl a12 has two subsets csa 12a and csa 12n Csa 12n Is the assessment for the enhanced surface water treatment? systems That was referred to And that is a separate assessment Under csa 12 and then the the normal csa 12 assessment Okay, thank you. All right. So is there bringing it back to the board? Is there are there any additional questions? Or is there a motion? i'll move the recommended actions Second we have a motion from supervisor conig and a second from supervisor Hernandez and we could have a roll call please supervisor conig. Hi comings Hi, Hernandez. Hi McPherson. Hi and friend Hi, and that item passes unanimously. Thank you both for your presentation and for the community's questions on that item We'll now move to item 12, which is to consider adoption of resolutions confirming the previously established benefit assessment rates for county service areas for opera dunes and csa 48 county fire to adopt resolutions setting a public hearing in 27 2023 on the proposed 23 24 service charge reports for csa's 4 and 48 take-roaded actions is outlined and memo of the director of general services. We have the board Uh memo we have the csa 4 resolutions and the csa 48 resolutions as well as the notice of public hearings for both Welcome director beaten Thank you board chair michael beaton director of general services Just as you identified the agenda item before you is to adopt the resolutions confirming the previously established benefit assessment rates for county fire and para dunes fire county service area districts 48 and 4 And to adopt the attached resolution setting june 27 2023 as the public hearing date for those proposed service charge Increases with that i'm available for any questions the board may have Are there any questions in regards to? Um these resolutions for csa's 4 or 48 Please so just to be clear for csa 48 We can increase it with inflation, but no more than 4 so in years like we've had where inflation is of course above 4 percent we're falling behind right Yeah, so in csa 48 there's actually two, uh special benefit assessments One is the legacy assessment which does go all the way up to the cpi Then we have the csa 2020 a special benefit assessment that the voters approved In that special benefit assessment it does have a cap of a 4 percent per annual increase, which would put us behind the continuing index increasing In costs Okay, I mean just seems to me that in the future we should tie it to a little cpi So we don't get end up in this situation when we have other csa's in the county where They're not tied to cpi at all and it does create problems and ultimately just additional work And that we have to you know go through the additional paperwork or pass additional measure to then correct these in the future Thank you, sir. Mr. Koenig any additional questions from anybody? Seeing none we'll open it up for the community in regards to csa's 4 and 48. Would anybody in the community like to address this on these resolutions? Good morning morning, mckay steinbrenner. I'm here as a resident of csa 48 to protest this increase You have no budget from county fire You have no contract with alfair for the coming year So what is the justification for increasing it simply because you can without any financial justification for need? as a taxpayer I protest this And I also want to point out that I have gone to with with regard to csa 48 2020 the special benefits assessment No public agency or utility is exempt from that charge and yet state parks pays nothing In csa 48 2020 fees. I went to the assessor's office and asked and verified it at the tax collector and I seen marks Thousands of acres is nothing Now I suspect that this could be because of the legal challenge That um has stated That it is against the law government code 50078.2 b to use beneficial special benefit assessments for fire suppression in the sra area in watersheds and timberland areas But I wanted I want an explanation why state parks is paying zero In csa 48 2020 assessments I also think that um We need to have uh, it needs to be clear and it is not in the staff report that csa 48 Every structure is to assess two fire flow units So it's not just one. It's double the amount that is in the staff report and the cpi increases become Accumulative increase in the tax over time much more than many people can pay And it is unjustified We have no This needs this And I find her that the item actually before us today are Resolutions that are confirming the previously established amounts and simply setting a public hearing for the the upcoming amounts We're not actually voting on the upcoming amounts right now. Um, is there anybody else from the chambers? I would like to address us on this item Madam clerk anybody online? Yes chair. We do have speakers online Charlie your microphone is now available All right. Yeah, charlotte edie edie consultants Representing the management committees at uh, uh ro dunes I just wanted to give you uh an fyi that Our ro dunes is working with uh, michael beton and chow fire and the budget to include money to Do an engineers report that would uh, allow consideration of An increase in the benefit Uh in the assessment in order to provide a higher level of Fire service in the future This is independent from what's going on with last go and In the comprehensive study. This is just part of dunes themselves And um, we don't know where it's going to end up but the desire of the power of dunes folks is to really look seriously at Taxing themselves at a higher rate in order to improve the level of fire and medical response For them. So anyway, I'm just uh here to report that and uh, that's an fyi. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Edie Call and user one your microphone is now available And here I also object to this increase what was Uh approved before and any future increases And I sure wish becky sign bruner were the supervisor for my area and set up the present one because she does her homework and speaks The truth and in her analysis And acts on behalf of the public I think it is very revealing that you as a board when instead of any response to these um very important criticisms of what's going on You do not Respawn you just proceed It's like your puppets Uh of someone I feel Not in the sense of representative government and um It's very disturbing. We're told we live in a democracy and that people Decide what is in their best interest through Representatives and um You're not doing it. What's the matter here? This is not Representative and it's not proper and it doesn't show integrity. That's my my comments. I urge a no vote on this Right, is there anybody else online? No further speakers chair. Okay. We will close public comment and bring it back To the board. Is there a motion for the recommended actions? I'm with the recommended actions Okay, we have a motion from supervisor Koenig and a second from supervisor Cummings if we could have a roll call Supervisor Koenig. Hi Cummings. Hi, Hernandez. Yes, McPherson. Hi friend Hi, and that item passes unanimously. Thank you, mr. Beaton We'll now move on to item 13 Item 13 is a jurisdictional hearing to consider an appeal of application number 211316 an application to construct 110 linear feet of pin pier retaining wall and a property located at 266 Cliff Court in Aptos APN 04308113 That line of the memo the deputy CAO and director of community development and infrastructure. We have the agenda Item memo the appeal letter the staff reports the planning commission There was an option for the audio or on the planning commission hearing as well as well as comments that we received By mr. Burke and mr. Ditmarsh here morning and welcome to you both Good morning chair friend and members of the board and Evan Ditmarsh development review planner This is a jurisdictional hearing to consider an appeal of the planning commissions April 26 2023 action to uphold the zoning administrator's decision to deny application 211316, which was a proposal To construct a pin pier retaining wall at 266 cliff court in Aptos At that hearing the commission considered the item on appeal from the zoning administrator falling to zoning's administrator hearings held on november 18th and december 16th 2022 The property is located in the Rio de Mar area of Aptos approximately 1500 feet south of the Rio de Mar boulevard and Aptos beach drive intersections 266 cliff court is developed with a single family dwelling which is six Approximately 33 feet from the edge of the bluff and 100 feet above the homes below on beach drive The project proposes the construction of a pin pier retaining wall which would be constructed near the south property line Built approximately up 100 feet uphill from beach drive and would be constructed with piers driven approximately 40 feet below grade The picture on the right shows a section of the proposed wall and the picture on the left is the view of the 100 feet of hillside which sit below the subject property As stated earlier, this item is a jurisdictional hearing to consider the appeal of the planning commissions april 20 April 26 23 Denial of application 211316 Which followed the zoning administrator's denial Santa Cruz county code section 18 10 3 4 0 Specifies that the board of supervisors will not take jurisdiction of an Appeal unless the board is convinced of one of five criteria, which are listed on this slide We believe the appellant's letter Attachment one and page 213 of the agenda packet for today's hearing has not demonstrated the requisite criteria for your board to take jurisdiction Among the issues raised in the letter the appellant disputes the requirement for an alternative analysis The county geologic hazards ordinance adopted as part of the county's local coastal program expressly requires that applications for shoreline protection structures shall include A thorough analysis of all reasonable alternatives to such structures Including but not limited to relocation or partial removal of the threatened structure Protection of only the upper bluff area or the area immediately adjacent to the threatened structure beach nourishment and vertical walls Structural protection measures on the bluff and beach shall only be permitted where non structural measures such as relocating the structure Or changing the design are infeasible from an engineering standpoint or or are not economically viable The materials submitted to the zoning administrator and the records submitted for decision before the planning commission Did not include this analysis and items one two and four of the appellant's letter Acknowledged the absence of this study and dispute its necessity The appellant further contends that the commission erred in judgment by declining to grant additional Continuance and in rendering a decision without counsel for the applicant or With counsel for applicant and owner present However, the appellant represented at the march 22nd 23 hearing That the continuance would allow the alternatives analysis to be prepared and submitted for review by planning staff The decision to continue the item To the april 26 agenda was discussed publicly in the presence of counsel for the applicant and remote participation in remote hearings Has been available the appellant's attendance at the hearing is not required for the commission to render a decision No evidence has been provided which substantiates that any of the commissioners actions or the planning commission as a whole acting to uphold the zoning administrators denial of the project Was biased in its action. There is no new or significant evidence presented relevant to the decision The decisions which were rendered by the zoning administrator and the planning commission were rendered appropriately Impartially and in consideration of the facts presented at the previous four public hearings Therefore the following actions are recommended Uh for your board to conduct a jurisdictional hearing to consider whether to take jurisdiction of the appeal Of coastal development permit application 211 316 An application to construct 110 linear feet of pin pier retaining wall or the property located at 266 flip fort And to decline jurisdiction of the appeal of application 211 316 And that concludes my presentation and I am available for questions Thank you, mr. Dittmar's other questions from supervisors before we open this up to the community for their Our comments at least supervisor comics. Thank you chair and thank you for that presentation. Um, I did have a question and Based on what I heard about the planning commission Meaning it sounded like there was a continuance to try to allow the applicants to conduct this alternative analysis and I'm just wondering Was the applicant actually moving forward with that? Um, and what's the current state of that? Because I guess from The way I'm thinking about how to take action on this is if the applicant in good faith is moving forward with an alternatives analysis I mean, it seems like it would make sense for us to be able to hear what those alternatives are And if there's an opportunity for a way forward The applicant did represent at the initial planning commission hearing that they would that a continuance would facilitate The production of an alternatives analysis Uh, when we returned following that continuance, there was still no alternatives analysis prepared to that point And thus our recommendation for denial stood um I also wanted to reiterate that it was an appeal of a decision rendered by the zoning administrator, which was a denial Because that alternatives analysis was not included as a submitted submitted item When that decision was rendered And so is there been any as the applicant Express in any way that they are working on that or is We've not received Any additional aside from the appeal letter provided as an attachment to this we've not received the alternatives analysis They did represent Had the continued hearing that they need some additional time. They were working on it But today the planning department has not evaluated any alternatives analysis Thank you I'll see if I was iconic, please. Thank you. I have a question about the county code. So 16 10 0 40 Uh section 59 the definition of shoreline protection structure Uh, it says shoreline protection structure means any structure or material including but not limited to riprap Or a seawall placed in an area where coastal processes operate um That to me sounds pretty big I mean it says riprap or seawall but not limited to I mean so under this definition could a mailbox placed in a Place where coastal processes operate be considered a seawall or a coastal protection structure Thank you. Carolyn Burke assistant director cdi and I think that's an interesting hypothetical that you put forward. I think this is pretty clear cut coastal processes We do have a definition for coastal erosion processes which includes both terrestrial and uh, and See seadriven land movement Very recently what we're not the coastal commission. There was a project that was um on joffroy drive that was a reinforced earth staircase or a a hill slope failure repair That the coastal commission did determine was a shoreline protection structure due to the location Where it is and what's what its intended purpose is which is to prevent the further movement of uh soil in that area Okay, right. So what I hear you're saying is even We have this definition uh these have coastal erosion processes. That's 12 so even though the erosion might be happening from Rainstorms which happen all over the county because it's specifically in the coastal Area and deals with the coastal bluff. It's still considered a shoreline protection structure. Yes This is an eroding coastal bluff and that erosion originates from both terrestrial and sea sea driven mechanisms and I mean I might be going too far to ask you to opine on the reason for that a bit. I mean, is it because The cliff nourishes the beach Is there any anywhere else and it discusses why we've defined it that way? Um Yeah, so I mean, I I do feel uh that the origins of it I I think it is going too far to opine on the original intent. This was obviously written back in the 1970s and 80s And um, it has been considered since and we can talk about how we have implemented this and this is consistent With our implementation and view of these types of projects over time. I think part of it is uh beach nourishment in some of our more, um terraformed areas such as beach drive that obviously becomes a little bit more complex because there are Um humans at the base of those bluffs doing things with the sand and such But yes, the original intent is to consider the natural erosion patterns And how those impact coastal processes Okay, thank you And just as a point of clarification because we're Kind of broadening the discussion here. There's a jurisdictional hearing. It's pretty narrow what we can consider So too was the planning commission A jurisdictional hearing on the actions of the za correct although they allowed Or A continuance that's actually not a common practice to offer continuance because there's just a jurisdictional hearing So if if uh, I recollect correctly, they dismissed without prejudice The applicant should the board elect not to take jurisdiction today still could reapply with the alternative analysis, correct? which would Allow them to move. I don't know move forward But they would all still allow to have that considered by the planning department. Is that a correct statement? Correct? It could be reconsidered. Okay. So as a reminder for the board We we have to show that in order to take jurisdiction or amend to the planning commission went to show that one of these five criteria have been made Case has been made by uh, their legal counsel. They believe something has but at the end of the day The planning commission did dismiss without prejudice Uh, the applicant could reapply with the alternative analysis to the planning department for consideration of this project Yes, and that would provide us an opportunity to not only review the analysis But also make the findings for approval or denial based upon that analysis and any supplemental information To determine conformance with our code Okay, are there thank you very much for that. Are there any additional questions from uh, are there supervisors? I've seen none. We'll So one one other question about the process. Um, it seems to me there my understanding is there maybe there was some Miscommunication about the requirements of the application because the application was accepted at the same time that we Said that an alternative analysis was required Right. So I mean in theory should it only have been accepted if it was complete and it included the alternative analysis at the time of application And was that not an error? We did accept the application as complete. Um, but when we say complete it's complete for processing meaning that we can render decision We did advise that the alternatives analysis was required and The lack of alternative analysis could be grounds for denial That was Outlined in both the incomplete letter and the completeness center But the complete letter allows us to bring the project forward. We've Obtained the necessary. We've obtained enough information to make a recommendation on the project based on the materials provided Okay, thanks Okay, but we'd like to open it up for the community. Is there any member of the community like to address us on this jurisdictional hearing Morning, welcome. Thank you for waiting through the morning session Morning supervisors. My name is Eric Zinn. I'm with pacific crest engineering. I'm the project geologist of record for the causals key project the 266 cliff court um A little bit of bookkeeping just to answer some of the questions. I heard alternatives analysis was completed last week It is in your packet. I believe um And then regarding supervisors conics question. I actually have a pretty simple answer for that The mailbox question Does it need to be is it a shoreline protection structure? So if you go to county geologic hazards codes section 16 10 0.070 0.h 0.3 0.f It's it's one of the criteria for what for what you need to have in order to for it to be a short considered a shoreline protection structure It has to be designed to standard of practice for engineering so Uh, a mailbox is not engineered Or any wave forces whatsoever. Therefore, it's not a shoreline protection structure Um to hit the I think our packet is pretty plenary. So It kind of speaks for itself. It's in in the uh The agenda packet. I'll just hit the high points um So we basically set out to keep the causals keys soil and water from striking the residences down below That's a really important distinction to make um county staff County staff's suggestion that the causals keys mitigate the landslide hazard off of their property Is neither practical nor legally supportable. That's from our council greg sanders with nosomon Um, the causals keys don't own the soil that's off their property And no cooperation has been procured from the property owners of the land that abuts the causals keys property down slow Uh, the and getting back to the mailbox question in our situation the project civil and geotechnical engineers have clearly stated and and stamped and signed letters That the proposed pin pair wall is not engineered to be a shoreline protection structure Therefore the pin pair wall is not a shoreline protection structure since it does not satisfy the criteria outlined in county geologic hazards code section 1610 070 h3 f as well as the santa cruz county general plan section 6.2 0.16 paragraph 5 so in any statement to the contrary by county staff Needs to be backed up by engineering calculations made by a licensed professional engineer that refutes the findings By the project engineers. Thank you, sir Thank you Pretty mr. Britton welcome back. Good morning co-brit and matt's britain architect I will represent multiple coastal property owners including homeowners below I want to note that this is a semi judicial event And I would request equal time to county staff in this presentation and to allow the geologist to finish his presentation Uh, it's inappropriate to limit us to two minutes So I'm going to first start this is a set of plans stamped and signed by the coastal commission within a 15 minute walk from this property where the coastal commission Acknowledged that once an engineer says a structure is not a short line protection structure Under county code and under the county lcp and the coastal act it is therefore not a shoreline protection structure the county staff narrative is misleading incomplete and inaccurate The fact is that we submit when we Appealed the necessity for an alternative's analysis They refuse to take that appeal to the board legally. It should have gone to you By accepting it as complete that means the county is barred from requiring it. That's the permit streamline the act It's completely disingenuous to come here and say That it should be not denied because of the alternative's analysis We also appealed the concept that this was a shoreline protection structure to the boss to you county staff refuse to take it to you We now have mr. Machado under investigations of the licensing board over this issue Rainy graven from the county from the coastal commission In under investigation under this issue by rights probably mr. Dittmar should be also This is not a shoreline protection structure because it is not engineered to be one. That's required by our code This is simply 1000 cubic yards of dirt that Is being retained For the life safety of the people below them It is only practical and only legally Ability for our clients to do The people below are immensely grateful for them doing so But we can't be put into the position That at the whim of county staff They can say simply the shoreline protection structure when it's not engineered to be so And it needs to be understand the coastal zone is pleased to meet Well, again, I request additional time. I represent multiple clients And speaking to the jurisdiction hearing about one of the five criteria by which we should take jurisdiction Well, that this is missing information That it is missing information that the code says this we requested the county staff address multiple times That That it's required to have an engineering determination That was not presented to the zea That was not presented to the planning commissioner The zea actually had an error In the planning staff the planning staff acknowledged afterwards That they miscloded the code. We have a very specific Documented missing things, but the staff isn't presenting it to you. Thank you, mr. Brunnan Thank you Good morning. Welcome. Thank you for waiting. Good morning. Kirk Koslowski. Good morning supervisors. I am My wife and Barry and I are the homeowners And we're just trying to do what we can do with our property to protect the lives of the people below us so We realize that these cases don't appear before you very often given the time and considerable expense and Harding to get here. This is emotional for us and to hear staff Provide incomplete or misdirect The zoning administrator misdirect the planning commission misdirect you it's it it just kills us. It just kills us We're persisting for it with this project Because in good and conscious we feel we have to Um, we're compelled to do the right thing When we first learned of this You reached out to the county called them out there. Jessica de grassy came out with the engineers They took a look at the situation recommended that we Process this application to you all and so we went back We looked for our team. We found a team And we dug in and we provided this um, and then Miss miss berk tells us that we were dead on arrival when we showed up and I can't fathom this help help us Understand what's happening here But I just don't get it life safety is the biggest issue and it's being completely ignored It's beyond our comprehension You know, this project is consistent with other projects up and down the coastline That have been approved. We're trying to help the people below us In good conscious here and we can only do what we can do with our property and This whole process has been so disingenuous And now we're being said you can come back and apply. Oh my gosh I I don't know what's going on here these people They're so manipulative We're just we're getting abused here abused No, I'll just pick up where he left off. I'm mary lissert also homeowner Very emotional. My voice is shaky this whole thing. I'm a grandmother I have gotten calls 911 calls from the people below us when the soil below Breaks loose and goes through their kitchen And there's a sippy cup on the countertop I'm shaking This is a life safety issue and if I hear Quoting code one more time. It's going to put me under I have used So much money And it's not about the money because if it was I I wouldn't be here. I would have given up a long time ago. We're hundreds of thousands of dollars Every person that has supported this from an engineering standpoint from a legal standpoint from all of it It is drained our coffers. So when I hear you say hey, they're going to have an opportunity just resupply just reapply Do you think we're going to be met with a hey, come on in Sit down. Let's work this out. We weren't met with that from the beginning We were told don't even apply. Degrassi said get your team together. Get your plan together. Come be ready And be solid and we thought that's what we did But what we were met with is You basically dead on arrival And since then it's been a clash and I apologize. I know you guys are very educated I understand that but I felt like I entered a war And it's not my war. I'm just trying to help the people below me And this is very emotional. It's very expensive and if it Stops here then it's going to stop here because I'm out of money. I'm out of emotion and I'm really not sure what's going to happen with the very next rain. I'm a gardener. I'm watching my hill It's ready to break loose It's going to break loose. So I'm going to have them call you guys Instead of calling me because right now they're all calling me or 9-1-1. So I'll just add your phone numbers I'm sorry Thank you. Is there anybody else like to address this during the jurisdiction hearing? Good morning. Morning I'm Richard Irish. I'm the civil engineer of record for the project And I just have a few comments Um, I want to say to you all This is not a shoreline protection structure. It has not been designed to be one It can't be one due to the forces that would be applied to it if it were a shoreline protection structure the location of it is over 350 feet from the ocean and The loading that it was designed for as well is just for earth pressure. So just on the technical side It can't be a shoreline protection structure The design and the purpose of the project from the start was to Prevent the slope from failing onto the houses below And that's all that was designed for and that's all that's ever been designed for At the first board of appeals hearing They asked for a alternatives analysis. Our team agreed to provide that I wasn't at the second one But we were working and it was understood that it would take longer than one meeting cycle to get to it So we have provided that alternative Analysis and that has always been the intent to do so to to hear someone say that we Ignore them and we're going to do it is not true. The team has provided that. Thank you Thank you. Is there anybody else? I'd like to address this on the side and please feel free Good morning. I'm Rocky Frannich and I want to go on record First of all complaining about the sound system in this building And it's the same complaint I had when I came to the planning commission meeting about three months ago Three months ago. I can't hear you people very well I can hear the people from the audience But I think it has to do with how people use the microphone or maybe Carlos can turn the volume up a little bit or something Anyway, I just want to go on record. I'm one of the neighbors below And it's been a disaster. I I'm sure you've all been up and down breed beach drive But I spent about $30,000 hauling mud out from behind my house at $300 a load to the dump When I came to the meeting two or three months ago I really had the feeling that the Planning commission was leaning forward on approving this and I'm just shocked that it's making so rug out Over this long period of time. It absolutely is not a shoreline issue It's a mudslide issue And it's a threat to the houses down below. There's about three or four houses There's all kinds of houses on beach drive that have problem. Mr. Kosolowski I think is really trying to do the right thing So I hope you guys will approve this let him get going on the project He's got to get going pretty soon so that we don't have another problem next winter. There's an El Nino coming It could be a wet winter. Let's get the job done. Thank you very much Thank you. Mr. Franich. Thank you for waiting Morning, welcome back Thank you. Becky Steinbrenner I have pressed these kinds of jurisdictional request appeals And as a point of order the appellant gets equal time to the county's presentation This has not been handled properly So I wanted to make that point I also feel that if You all took an oath to uphold the constitution Article 13 section 35 says Protecting the public health and safety is your number one job Now listen to these people. They're trying to do the right thing to protect the life And safety of those below them And the county is standing in the way The county is putting them through hell and a lot of expense. What is this about? This is not a shoreline protection project This is a neighbor trying to do their best to protect the lives and property of those below them and the county Is standing in the way If the county stands in the way, does that make the county liable for any future damages? That happen to the to the homes and the families and the lives below I think it does now you need to think of that And you need to think about your oath That you will uphold the constitution To keep public safety the lives and health of your constituents as primary Don't put these people through anything more And just let them do what they're trying to do to to save the lives and properties of those below them This is really shocking And as again as a point of order the appellant gets the same amount of time as the county's presentations And you've not allowed that Thank you Is there anybody else who'd like to address us please? Good morning, Elizabeth Mitchell. I'm the project geotechnical engineer of record for this project I work for pacific crest engineering We have over the past 20 years Then several of these pinpile wall retaining systems for our clients at the tops of bluffs that are designed to protect the Downslope properties from impact due to soil on our client's property I can think of two specific ones recently where a turns of analysis was never ever required It was not considered to be a shoreline protection structure And and we never provided an alternatives analysis Nevertheless Given the processes we've been through with this this particular project we did provide an alternatives analysis, which was submitted To you as well. So That's been done. We have acted in good faith The the kozlowski's are doing everything they possibly can to protect their downslope neighbors from soil impacting on their property And I really urge you to consider this Project to be approved instead of going back to square one at the planning commission and starting all over again. Thank you Thank you. Let me just clarify for what I think is not the first time We can't approve this project today that what's before us is not an approval or denial of the project. This is a jurisdictional Rocky we can't approve the project Okay, what's before us is a jurisdictional hearing. Okay, so no, no, it's very important I'm not trying to yell but I you said you're having trouble hearing because it sounds like it's everybody at home It sounds like I'm yelling at them right now So I apologize So I just want to make clear because a lot of the discussions have been about The validity of the project the approach of the project the necessity of the project That's not What is before the board today? That's not actually what was before the planning commission Either it's a simply jurisdictional hearing as to whether or not The zoning investor so that's that's what so it's a narrow finding and that's just something that's very important to understand And to miss Steinbrenner's point. We've been through this This issue a lot where people may find Merits in an argument that's being made but what's specifically Before us from a consideration standpoint is very narrow about whether one of these five now the board could make one of those five findings, right? but And then reopen up that process, but that's what's before us rock. You're able to hear me. I assume on that situation Okay, I'm sorry then that's not that I don't think that's the sound system because a lot of other people can I'm gonna I'm gonna move on. I'm gonna but we are we're losing order So I'm just gonna move on I'm gonna make sure is there anybody else I'd like to address this specifically on the jurisdictional hearing Thank you sir. Appreciate you waiting That you've already addressed this mr. Britain All right, there's another individual coming forward Miss Steinbrenner, please Good morning. Welcome. Hi. My name is Dave Escobar. I'm a neighbor below the Kosoloski home And there's been a significant amount a massive amount of mud that's come down from that property over the last couple of years and A retaining wall has to be put up there The retaining wall would be so much higher than where the ocean could possibly reach Unless there's some astronomical tsunami. It's just ridiculous to call it Some obstruction of natural erosion from the ocean um I understand the planning partners asked for some alternative to a retaining wall Beach drive is long people have been trying to hold up that wall for that cliff forever If you look down the cliff The only thing that's holding it up is retaining walls. There's been many many retaining walls put up there over the years I don't understand The objection of I haven't put it up here in pure wall It's just I mean you asked for alternatives What's your alternative? There is no alternative. You have to put a retaining wall up there That's all I have to say I appreciate you sharing that Is there anybody else in chambers before we open it up? online I don't see anybody in chambers Madam clerk anybody online. Thank you. Yes. Colin user one your microphone is now available Lynn Garrett. This is very informative here and was Major major problem. It does seem like Just from what I'm hearing A retaining wall would help However, and if someone Mentioned how there are these problems all up and down the coast um, I want to We're in a context here of overall Places being built Where it's it's very problematic and in terms of the weather and Day loose drought scenario I want to refer people to geo engineering watch dot org that talks about patents on weather intervention weather warfare so that we are getting very adverse abnormal fires, etc That are non-natural in nature. So we're all living in an environment that is very um being very destroyed in Damaged in many many ways from the the radiation the chemical Tsunamis the geo engineering. Um, you know, I feel for these people I It it seems like There needs to be a retaining wall for this This particular situation and then I wonder sometimes why Um, developments are approved In the first place going back when it's um problematic Areas too close to the ocean too close to rivers, etc anyway That that's my comments Thank you. Ms. Garrett We have no further speakers chair. Okay Will gross jurisdictional Excuse me the public comment portion of the jurisdiction or Mr. Jim R. Z. Do you have something else you were trying to add? I did just want to identify that the County geologist is present should your board have any technical questions related to the requirements Jeff Nolan is here. Okay. The county geologist is also available. Okay. So are there any additional comments or emotion from board? Um, I don't know that we take jurisdictional hearing under item The first finding that there's been an error and that This is not in fact a trolling protection structure as it was not engineered to be one That there was an error by the planning commission Who was considering a jurisdictional hearing or the in this case? I suppose that in the zoning administrator could be basically anyone in the chain, right? It says zoning administrator Part of the planning commission zoning administrator or other officer so that's granting the Feel the consideration It would simply mean that the board would choose to take jurisdiction and that this would move to a jurisdictional hearing at this point Again, as the chair has outlined, we're only deciding whether or not to take jurisdiction in this case. Yeah, I'll second that And and so the the finding of the error abuse of discretion is the is the interpretation of the code We need to make a finding if this is something we're gonna move forward with yeah, that that's what I'm moving That because it's not under 1610 or 70 h3f That this was not engineered to be a trolling protection structure, but rather attaining wall that this Is not in fact one Okay, and then I believe that the second portion of this council Please guide me on this is if the board were to agree with this Then we would make a determination on de novo or remanding back to the planning commission for consideration, correct? That's right. So the second part of the supervisor conigs would would be I mean my recommendation is if that's the direction you want to go That you should refer the matter back to the planning commission for this reconsideration of that specific evidence And then they would hear it de novo. Is that correct? They would they would hear it as instructed by your board. So so It's a little unclear because it should literally be sent back to the zoning administrator I have questions about the planning commission When it came to the planning commission Accepting the alternatives analysis or giving a continuance to accept a continuing This is these aren't supposed to be serial proceedings Where a little bit of evidence is given at the zoning administrator And then a little more is given at the planning commission then a little more is given at the board of supervisors we have a process and if your board was interested in making A decision that staff aired In in their interpretation of the code You would be sending it back down with instructions to interpret the code a specific way As your board is you know has the ability to do Can you explain to me and I apologize for this? I agree with your interpretation of the planning commissions There was nothing that even allowed for the continuance and then the well There was something allowed for the continuance but not beyond 30 days Which was one of the challenges here So explain to me I've completely absolutely lost my train of thought and let me let me just let me just let me just offer a caution Let me just offer a caution as well supervisor with with with regards to the motion that The code treats something as a shoreline protection structure Regardless of whether it was designed to be a shoreline protection structure because What we're looking at is whether it's designed whether or not the infrastructure that you're trying to put in Is meant to halt coastal Erosion processes So regardless of whether an engineer says this is or is not designed to be a coastal protection structure Doesn't mean that it's not for purposes of the code that our staff is applying So there is some difficulty and tension in sending something back down to staff and and telling them Um to interpret it a certain way because the project was not Specifically designed to fit within the code I remembered my question and perhaps this is maybe more for supervisor Koenig, but I would like council to address this They dismissed it without prejudice. So the and I recognized the applicant said that they didn't want to go back through the process But what is the fundamental difference between the planning commission considering the alternatives analysis de novo And they're just restarting the process of the application that would actually be complete with The alternatives analysis because it was dismissed without prejudice already So it didn't it didn't kill our action doesn't kill the project and for as far as that being considered Can you explain to me what well one thing is the staff hasn't even analyzed the alternatives analysis or looked at it And it may not be ready for prime time so to speak in having the planning commission review it Straight up because staff may be able to work with the applicant in the event that it is in the event that it is The project can be made better one of the alternatives can be pushed versus another one You're in a sense you you're you're you're requesting that this that the that the sausage be made in front of the planning commission as opposed to Allowing staff to have a look at it beforehand and and actually assist with the project and potentially make the project a better project That will be approved by the zoning administrator As supervisor Cummings, I will come back to you supervisor Conan supervisor Cummings So I had a question related to because I wasn't aware and thank you for pointing out that now alternative Analysis had been submitted. It seems like at the time that have been submitted It was submitted more as a comment on this agenda item. Is that correct? And so Oh, yes, it it was we received it two days ago. So staff has not an opportunity to review Someone to see if there's a way forward here kind of given the direction I think uh supervisor conig is interested in going because item number four In terms of our ability to take action on it says there's significant new evidence relevant to the decision Which could not have been presented at the time the decision appealed from was made I think that we could Say that you know the fact that there is an alternative analysis now Would be grounds for us to support the direction that supervisor conig wants to go in but rather than going into under the first Qualification item number four seems like it could be upheld given the fact that we do have A new alternatives analysis in front of us that staff hasn't seen the zoning administrator hasn't seen And the planning commission hasn't seen and so I'm just wondering maybe county council can comment on that As it relates to our ability to move forward here today Well, it could have been presented At the at the time the decision was made my understanding based on the record is that there was a Determination made by the applicants that they did not want to follow staff's direction that an alternatives analysis be prepared And then it went up forward with the recommendation to the planning commission that they not take jurisdiction And the applicants changed their mind and decided that they would submit an alternatives analysis And then they didn't produce one when they had the opportunity to produce one. So Item four is there is significant new evidence relevant to the decision Which could not have been presented at the time the decision appealed from was made And I you know, it's this is all within the realm of your board to To decide but from a legal perspective I think there are two prongs to that and I don't see in the record where they've demonstrated they could not have produced that alternatives analysis um When they had the opportunity, okay, I'll just I guess I'll just comment In response to that, um, you know, the when this first came before the planning commission The planning commission continued the item to give um The applicants more time to actually produce This alternatives analysis and it's clear that the fact that it's before us today They in good faith went forward with producing that alternative analysis And I think that to the extent that we can try to help resolve that and acknowledge what they've done And allow staff to work on this and work with the applicants You know would be a way forward that I think, um, you know would be supportive both parties And I I agree, but isn't this and we're in a technicalities here But isn't the mechanism for that that the planning commission dismissed without prejudice I don't see the why the board would take jurisdiction It just means that they would apply with the alternatives analysis and work with staff on what And that's what that's what's before us. I feel like we're litigating a case here like meaning the merits of something That's that's not What's before us And what I'm sensing is a board majority that wants staff to review this project with the alternatives analysis or seize merits within their being a protection structure Irrespective of what it's called at that location. That's what I'm hearing as a board majority's desire I don't think that the mechanism for that is taking jurisdiction. So that's and I think that counsel is also implying the same thing So but I think that there's still direction here that I mean for there to be a consideration of this That's why I think that I don't think the planning commission's right spot for that. I don't think the board's right spot for that I think that starting with the alternatives analysis back Is the right spot for that and I don't know that there's a Acceptance of jurisdiction with that direction that makes any sense because you're you're sort of in essence You're not restarting the process. You're just allowing because it was just without prejudice for that to happen That's why I'm not supportive of taking jurisdiction because I don't think that's the right mechanism And I would also add that, you know, um to to speak to mr. Heath's um Assertion about kind of the the sausage making and the fact that it would likely be an iterative process Because we would need to not only do the analysis but then Look at the preferred option Be able to review that and then findings would need to be made for either approval or denial And so it's not just one, you know, submission of an alternatives analysis and everything else is tied up There's it is the processing of the permit as a supervisor friend Mentioned that would be more holistically served by, you know, actually reviewing it from the beginning as An application and providing those recommendations to the zea It was recorded. Thank you chair So again and looking at the reasons that the board could enumerate for taking jurisdiction I mean item five seems to give us a fair amount of Discretion it says there is either air abusive discretion or some other factor Which renders the act done or determination made unjustified or inappropriate Could I suggest and for county council? Could the board say that that other factor was You know a Significant question that the board wants to consider of whether or not this is a short line protection structure Yeah, you could do that or you could say Another another factor was that, you know, your opinion is that the planning commission should have continued to give them an additional Continuance after they gave them the first continuance, which I question whether they were able to do to do that at all but that would that was That is something they did and you could say that's a factor I mean, there's room for the board There's room for the board to make a decision um To take jurisdiction if it if it decides that there was another factor The challenge that I have supervisor Koenig is What are we going to consider? I mean we we're not That that would that would portend that there's a discrete decision before us An alternative analysis that we already understand and agree to That we are then making a finite decision on what we're dealing with now is An unvetted process that would come back before us A debate about which is the best process from both There are experts county experts and everybody else and then a then an up or down decision on the board to determine what that is I think that the best place for this because again, I think there's a board majority with interest that this be considered Is back at the county staff level which means we Because people are going to view as denying jurisdiction mean we don't support the project That's not that's not what I'm here to say. I think that there's a value to Something occurring at this location I don't consider myself To be the only expert in what that decision shall be and I would rather have that go through a process And then if it's for some reason it's denied Right, then we have A finite decision to determine whether or not at that point But I I'm not comfortable with this being something we take or the planning commission takes with that undefined of reality That's why I'm not supportive of the jurisdiction here. I certainly hear what you're saying Chairfriend that you feel that Some extent makes more sense to put it back in the hand of the planning experts our staff who we've hired to do this kind of work Um, I I think What should be considered? I mean and the reason why I was you know Just some sense think there's merit in us taking jurisdictional airing Or taking jurisdiction is just simply to express to the public that we take their safety very seriously, so If we were to send it back to staff could we include some In the motion that it be process within a certain time frame to ensure that You know again, we are Rather than you know, I think the concern of the applicant is that this is going to go back into limbo and May not be resolved for for a long time And that's why they prefer it for it to be we're asking for it to be resolved at the board I mean, could we include in our motion that it be resolved within Whatever 60 days or something like that. Yes Yes, and a compromise in in the various arguments may be that Take jurisdiction and return it to the zoning administrator for consideration of the alternatives analysis in conjunction with staff's analysis And and you basically redo the zoning administrator hearing with consideration of the alternatives analysis rather than Just denying jurisdiction which would have them start the entire process over again with a new application Does that make sense? So we would take jurisdiction, but within that jurisdiction refer it to the zoning administrator Yes with instructions with instructions to consider the alternatives and alternatives analysis and work with staff to present the item for consideration Yeah, I'd be comfortable with that It would come back to us Not necessarily it would not necessarily come back to you because the project may then be approved And then that would be it. Okay So we still need to articulate in your motion though because you recommend taking jurisdiction under some Actor whichever one it is you choose, but then we need to show where it goes at that point as part of the motion I'll come back Right, I think we could do that under certainly item five, you know some other factor Okay, and you would like to remand it to the zoning administrator. Yeah Supervisor Hernandez, you seconded that motion. Are you comfortable with that amendment that he just made to that motion? Yes, and if we can get an update as well Supervisor Cummings, please Very good. I think I'm okay. I think um supervisors Oneg and Hernandez maybe having a date or timeline because if it's just sent to the zoning administration to your point Um, that's open-ended. So if you wanted to have a timeline on it Maybe suggest trying to add something in and I don't know if it comes Goes before them in 90 days or 60 days or six months But just wanted to provide that opportunity if you if you want to see this expedited then it might be worth putting some kind of timeline on And I I would also note Um that in addition to the time it would take for staff to analyze it if there are other clarifying because we never Got to the point where we were actually reviewing the alternatives analysis and then carrying You know the design review and such forward for the final preferred Option and then creating findings there may be clarifying information it you know, we're outside of the PSA necessarily because we kind of have this artificial You know remanding back we need some amount of time to not only review the information But if there's additional information that we need request that information That may have its own time frame. So um Just considering that in the overall time frame, you know, we would we would hope to have something Reasonable and that can you help God would you So I I would say um, you know Four months Something like that from here Do you want to set a closer time with an understanding that there may be a back and forth or how would you like to do it? Because I think that there's may I No, please go ahead one sec. I mean In my mining more like 60 days make sense But I would be interested to hear from The applicant okay just just briefly because we have closed this part, please Timeframes the planning commission gave us a continuance 30 days to produce the alternatives analysis. We showed up at that meeting and said We couldn't meet that time frame. We'll have it in four days Okay, and they denied us Staff is yanking us around We are being abused here put it 30 day. Okay time frame on this. This is crazy. Okay, so All right Going back to supervisor conic What time frame would you like to put on it? um Understanding that it's been submitted but it hasn't been considered and there isn't and there could actually be a time frame of A back and forth where some of the delay isn't county staff directed. I mean we have to honor that but How would you like to look at the time frame? I mean I think 30 to 60 days makes more sense. I mean maybe if I mean the fat the most expedient way is to direct it back to the planning commission with it there I think the zoning administrator makes sense. Um And our our review of an alternatives analysis could be completed within 30 days And so I think that 30 to 60 day time frame makes sense the reason why I said four months was only because if there is a request of other consultants to produce Work as you can see the alternatives analysis took a month. They have they have time frames and workloads and maybe we can Um look at it and and and that from that perspective 30 to 60 days provided no additional information is required Um, there's an opportunity to update your board as well. Um, should that be um any view Okay, supervisor Hernandez. You had something you wanted to add or no I thought you had a point to raise. Well, no, you know, I'm I'm just concerned with the winter storms coming in and with, you know Nino storms coming and I'd like to see the project expedited, you know, I I'm fine with the 30 to 60 days. I'd prefer 30 to 45 days, but I'm fine with that as well uh, because you know, it is a uh concern for I mean I see that as well. So we got protect homes and lives as well and two other comings No, okay So 30 to 60 days So we have a motion for accepting jurisdiction Under item five Which is that there was an error either an error abuse of discretion or some other factor which renders the act done or Determination made unjustified or inappropriate to the extent that a further hearing before The board is necessary Uh remanding it to the zoning administrator Uh with direction that it be heard within 30 to 40 30 to 60 days There's a motion from supervisor conic. There was a second from supervisor Hernandez I'm not trying to ignore you supervisor McPherson. Did you have anything you wanted to add to this before we move on? No, a great, um understandable discussion. I just uh, the cost factor to the applicants Do they are they going to bear much more cost in this process then? or are the facts before the zoning administrator planning commissioner or whoever that they don't have to go through Put a lot more money into this They've already gone through a lengthy process Um, they they're this is an at-cost project that's been processed in that manner So they would be charged hourly for staff time, but um, given that, you know, we've already Had this review and process there wouldn't be you know Redundant costs in that sense Okay Okay, I I'm supportive of where we're going. Um, I'm just concerned about Putting more burden on the applicant but at this point, but I'll support the motion as made Advisor comings and I just want for clarification. I know that um You'd said that go to the zoning administrator between different 30 to 60 days. Is there also? Direction there that it go to staff as well for their analysis. I was just wanting to clarify the Motion staff has the alternatives analysis They would have to provide a recommendation on those findings or a preferred Within that time frame in order to meet the hearing date. So it'd be much less than 30 this It would be 30 days or less. I assume for staff's analysis Or to meet the timeline Okay, thank you for the clarification. Okay. I think we're ready for a vote then madam clerk Supervisor conic. Hi comings. Hi, Hernandez. Hi person. Hi and friend. Hi That item passes unanimously with that specific direction. I appreciate all of you waiting this morning for that item All right, I'll take this next one. Okay All right, we're going to move on to item 14 Which is to consider approving and concept and ordinance amending subdivision a of section 2.0 2.0 6 0 of the Santa Cruz county code relating to the compensation of the board of supervisors and schedule the ordinance for the final adoption on June 27 2023 Is outlined in the memo the director of personnel And the county administrative officer We have the agenda item board memo the ordinance and the section 2.0 2 subdivision a This patelle welcome Good morning chair friend and members of the board the board of supervisor salary is reviewed annually each June Staff have completed the review and the staff recommendation is to increase the salary structure by 2.71 This adjustment will maintain the board salaries at 62 percent Of the superior court judges salary as established in ordinance and with your approval today The item would be placed on the agenda for consent agenda for June 27th And the change would take effect on august 27th And i'm happy to answer any questions if you have any Questions or comments from board members Is there anybody from the community that'd like to address this on this item and i'm quirk anybody online Yes, sure. We do have a speaker online Colin user one your microphone is now available I think that this item should be placed on the regular agenda Not the consent agenda and It's disturbing to me that the county administrative officers the highest paid person in the county and um I I feel like Is it it's not just he's getting too much money and I feel like the job you are doing is Not warranted to have increased Expansation or or salary I just see more and more approval of what's toxic in terms of Everything Cell tower survived you the antennas everything I agreeable to pay taxes and I play Pay plenty for What I think benefits the public But um Even my cat here agrees with me. Okay. Thank you Thank you. Ms. Garrett and your cat this item is on the regular agenda, which is why we're hearing it right now Um, so closing public comment saying nobody else in chambers. There's nobody else online right madam clerk No further speakers make sure that the cat gets recorded for a comment on that item If we could move it back to the board for a motion, I'll move the recommended actions A second we have a motion from supervisor Koenig and a second from supervisor Cummings So we get a roll call, please supervisor Koenig. I Cummings. Hi, Hernandez. Hi McPherson. Hi And chair friend Hi And we do have one additional item, which was the pulled item 87 as a reminder I I have to refuse from this item because it's a rail related item So I'm going to hand this item over to uh vice chair Cummings to handle 14.1 All right item 14.1 is approve amendment to agreement with rrm design group for the rail trail segment 10 on 11 project Increasing compensation by three hundred and twenty two thousand seven hundred and forty dollars for a new not to exceed toll amount of three million four hundred and eighty two thousand three hundred and sixty six dollar Contract and take related action as recommended by the deputy ceo direct and director of community development and infrastructure Um, this item was pulled by supervisor Hernandez So I will turn it over to supervisor Hernandez for any questions or comments that he may have And open up to the board for any questions or comments the board members may have So my question about this item was having to do with the some of the language right and regarding the ultimate trail versus the alternative interim trail configurations And my question is does the alternate interim trail option bring forth any potential for rail banking or rail abatement into play? And my second question is Will the 67 Million dollar active transportation program grant uh that we have for this uh for segments 10 11 permit for the interim trail about The active Sure that modal transportation. All right. Thank you for that question. I'm at machado Director of cdi. So the grant that we receive the 67 almost 68 million Is to build Just the ultimate trail does not include Uh, the the scope of the interim trail And so in the board letter we tried to describe Uh that the expanded scope is really focused on The nipa compliance for the ultimate trail only it does not include the interim because the interim is not funded through that grant um And I know there's a little bit of scope increase for the interim trail It's about five percent of the total amendment and all that does or what that does is it allows flexibility for future consideration if RTC So chooses that doesn't change the rail banking situation today. It just includes that a little bit additional scope For a sequel compliance So that in the future if that were considered it would still it would have been covered by a sequel but not by nipa So there is no funding For that interim trail as proposed today. So the vast majority of this amendment is to address The nipa requirements for the ultimate alternative Did I answer the question? To a degree, you know The role of the dice I think but yeah Are there any other supervisors that have any questions on this item? Seeing none, um, I'll go ahead and open it up to members of the public to see if there's any members of the public Who'd like to speak to us on this item Hi, thank you very much for pulling this off the consent agenda Supervisor, um, Hernandez. I'm sally arnold. I'm speaking today on behalf of santa cruz county friends of the rail and trail And we're concerned that the scope of this environmental review is being expanded to include an alternative Which would be constructed as a separate future project by the rtc independent of the of segments 10 and 11 We understand that the scope of the eir includes looking at both the interim and the ultimate trail designs Even though the county voters overwhelmingly rejected this interim plan last june But in this case, it looks like you're being asked to abandon the ultimate design on the bridge And only plan for an interim use of the capitol bridge In april 2021 the tpw meetings minute state rail banking would render our multimodal project a single mode project This would be far less likely to find funding and remember if even a small section of the track is removed or obstructed You know and requires rail banking and it takes the tracks out of use We are concerned that this alternative could compromise the ctc ATP grant for this work Given the change in the definition of the project and it's not right Either we should leave the bridge in capitol alone for the time being just build the trail segments on either side Or we should study both the interim and ultimate designs for that bridge The ultimate would then include a new rail and trail bridge, which we understand is you know larger and more expensive than Just you know throwing something on top of the existing tracks but It's not right to do one and not the other So, um, we would really suggest that this piece of this This proposal be be removed and and dealt with in another way at another time with more thorough public process Then is is being offered at this point. Thank you Thank you Any other members of the public here who would like to speak to us on this item? Thank you. Becky Steinberger. I just wanted to say publicly I concur with miss arnold's comment and ask that you follow her request. Thank you Thank you very much. Um, are there any members of the public online who would like to speak to us on this item? Yes, we do Collin user one your microphone is now available Yes, I agree This should be rejected and the request of miss arnold followed and I have a related question I've heard and Understand a lot of trees are being cut down along this proposed rail trail and That that's not good for the environment to be Removing trees everywhere. It's just fast and and also on the highway one everywhere I go It's just heartbreaking and the trees and the phytoplankton are the lungs of the earth What could you? elaborate on What is happening with the trees because I think most people Who wanted the rail trail did not want to see clear cutting along that rail trail Can someone respond to that? I'm This isn't good to be cutting trees everywhere It's just that's true Matt your microphone is now available Good morning members of the board I'd like to support Valley Arnold said I'm also on the board of board and I just like to highlight that in discussions with several staff members At the county that it's clear that this alternative project is building is doubtful Given the lack of any identified funding and the potential for appeal for legal challenges presented by the proposed rail banking which is required I urge your board to reaffirm the support for the ultimate rail alignment project Which is currently funded by the ctc And state that the board in including this hybrid project alternative To address the legal requirement that an environmental Report includes an evaluation of potential alternatives Which will help protect the integrity of the document and defend it against potential legal challenges To imply that a project could be pursued in the longer term By different agency while not compromising A project which has received funding based on grant conditions Which would preclude the construction of the proposed alternative project Seems at the least confusing And at worst a threat to that grant funding. Thank you very much for your time Rosemary your microphone is now available Okay, my name is rosemary sarka I think we lost you rosemary Oh, I did that. Okay, great. My name is rosemary sarka I am a corporate officer of roaring camp railroad and i'm authorized today to speak for the company And also on behalf of progressive rail I want to note that in relationship to this issue The two railroads met just last week With representatives of the county and also of the rtc to discuss segments 10 and 11 in great detail They went over with cooperative spirit on all sides The drainage issues the access issues for pedestrians and bikes So an extensive meeting that was Very well, uh, the the tone was Wonderful and friendly And yet nothing about this came up in that connection And I I want to note that That Our priority is has always been the repair and preservation of the rail line So to that extent we object strenuously to the diversion of resources in any way from that Thank you very your microphone is now available Uh, thank you uh board of supervisors and I want to echo what miss arnold Um said and what uh rosemary sarka explained And i've been wanting to point something out for the longest time and that is that I remember being in watsonville on june 14th 2018 When a suggestion was made that turned into a motion to allocate $50,000 dollars to study designs for a new capitol rail and trail bridge Later on june 3rd 2021 For some reason the rtc rededicated that 50 000 to study conversion of those bridges into an interim trail in capitol It seems like a terrible mistake waste of funds And we've never been able to do that at preliminary study of a new crossing What we really need to do is have begin to look at a new rail and trail bridge as described as a solution in the uh monary base sanctuary scenic trail plan And we keep uh Site stepping that it seems with regards to this item the idea for me the idea of Including something like an interim approach use of those bridges Destroys the parity between a sequel comparison between two approaches Because you're not doing anything for the ultimate trail that would cross the soquel creek. So we would have Uh It just feels like there'd be an unnecessary advantage to the interim approach um And finally i'll just reading from this item a hybrid alignment is required to be analyzed as a standalone design option because sequa guidelines Can get this require a stable project description and therefore Would not allow some portions of the trail to be developed as the ultimate trail configure Patient and others to be developed as the interim trail configuration Which right there seems to tell me that you you need to keep the conditions the same as they are right now Thank you We have no further speakers All right, thank you. Um, so i'll bring it back to see if there's uh county staff wants to comment on any of the Things that they heard. Um, I have a few more questions too as well So maybe i'll we'll start with county staff and i'll turn it back to you Survisor anandas sure. Um, I actually would like to um Invite our project manager rob tidmore is on the is on the call And so I think uh, he could address some of the original questions and even some of the comments that we've heard today So rob are you on is he? Okay, if if we can All right, thank you Yes, good morning. Uh, can you all hear me? Yes, we can excellent. My name is rob tidmore. I'm a park planner for with the county sanikers parks department. I'm the project manager for Segments 10 11 and I'd be happy to Speak to any of the um, the questions that you would like answered. Um this morning And you're wondering if um, you may be able to provide any comments on some of the um Concerns that were brought up by members of the community related to the two trail options And it sounds like there's some concern about the ultimate trail not being on the trestle and just being on the streets and then um The funding for the interim trail on the trestle currently Yeah, absolutely. Happy to um, I'll give a Sort of a brief overview of of what the 10 11 project is looking at which I think will help answer some of these questions. So um, I think as as the board and the public are well aware, uh, the segment 10 11 project is currently analyzing two alignments for the rail corridor Both at an equal level of detail. Um, the first is the ultimate trail Where the trail is built next to the rail line and then the second is an interim trail Where the trail would be constructed in place of the existing railroad tracks that is being Analyzed as an optional first phase to the ultimate trail configuration In the capitol of village area in particular, um the the the difference between the ultimate trail and the interim trail is that the um There is no ultimate trail proposed over The existing capitol of bridge and there's there's two uh, really important reasons for this. The first is that the The nature of the the wood trestle bridge At the capitol of trestle means that it cannot support a cantilevered trail bridge like was done at the san lorenzo river And the second is that there's limited right of way in the area for a standalone trail bridge. And so really the The only feasible way to uh, construct A trail bridge over the capitol uh, uh village area is to build a new combined rail and trail bridge As you can all imagine that is a very large expensive undertaking That both the county and the rtc felt was better suited to be a standalone project and that that option for providing a trail service in this area is currently being studied as part of the The rtc led passenger transit project Under the interim trail configuration The rtc had had commissioned A study some years back which mr scott mentioned in his comment to look at what it would take to convert the capitol trestle to To a trail structure. And so using that information The the interim trail alignment analyzes part of this project is looking at Converting that structure to bicycle pedestrian use so so the vast majority of the engineering and design work and the environmental analysis For the interim trail over the capitol trestle is already included as part of this project scope So really all we're doing as part of this amendment. It's a very small It's roughly five percent of the amendment's cost in front of the board today Is to do some minor engineering and design work to link up the ultimate trail with the the interim trail in this in this location And um, and some of the other questions revolved around the county's 67.6 million dollar ATP grant and I just want to clarify that Neither of the Bridge options in the capitol village are proposed as part of this grant scope So matt mentioned previously that the grant application that we submitted was for the ultimate trail project that is correct And in the capitol village under the grant scope There is a there's a break in the multi-use pathway where trail users would Use the existing on-street bicycle and pedestrian sidewalks starting from the intersection with The opal cliff or excuse me the cliff drive parking lot To the west of capitol village and then rejoining the trail at the monorail and park avenue intersections So there is no Rail or trail bridge or interim trail bridge proposed as part of this ATP grant This amendment will not change that. It also does not jeopardize The the grant funding that the county was awarded. So hopefully that was um You know Additional information and again if there's other questions that the board specifically wants me to address. I'd be happy to do so Thank you very much. All right, I'll open it back up to the board supervisor. Hernandez So, you know, it just seems to me that we you know, we passed measure d and you know The voters said, you know that we wanted to protect the rail rail lines and it seems that The this portion of the interim trail really Brings the demise of the rail I'm gonna see if we can bring this back without language that threatens the rail lines And if we can have discussions with the two rail lines the two rail companies as well So I want to see if that's a possibility that we can look into We certainly can do what the board wants us to do I did want to highlight something that rob said that might have got missed and and so much Nobody said The rtc is studying the ultimate configuration of the capitol at trestle as part of the passenger transit study And that will look at alternatives for the that rail system the rail and trail ultimate system there Which would lead to Environmental documentation and preliminary design of the ultimate through that section and so there is adequate studies underway today To look at the ultimate through capitol I think but that doesn't I understand the board's discretion what they want to do today with this Small component of this amendment. I would just say that the vast majority of this amendment is to address federal NEPA requirements We're on a very very tight timeline to secure that NEPA approval so that we can pursue construction of the ultimate trail And so if the board's direction today is to rethink I would ask that you just rethink that one component And consider approval of the vast majority of the request so that we can stay on schedule For our NEPA compliance for the ultimate trail which is funded through the ATP grant So to remove the interim trail If that's the board's desire, yes, I just would yes, that's if that's the board's desire That's correct. But the remainder of the amendment is is desperately needed Okay Mr. Chair. Yeah, sure. Go ahead. I I appreciate the the possible alternative, but I think that I don't see that this is going to kill The rail trail one way or the other I think we ought to just go with the staff recommendation And I would make a motion to that effect Second yes, so I have a motion by Supervisor McPherson seconded by supervisor Koenig I just are there I'll open up to board members to see if there's any further comments before I make some comments about Supervisor Koenig. Sure. I mean, I appreciate supervisor Hernandez's concerns. I would say this is a First of all, I'm not sure that making that the change you're proposing right now is within the scope of of this item I mean even like, you know under brown act rules if any reasonable person would actually consider the changes that you're proposing In, you know in line. I mean Is that correct county council? Yeah, thank you for raising that issue You know your your options today with regard to the contractor either to approve it or Or not approve it and send it back to the contractor for further discussions But not to make changes to the contract unilaterally I mean, I would also point out that obviously we have discussed this issue at length at the regional transportation commission I would point out that our second district supervisor who represents the area Is not able to participate here, but does have an alternate on the regional transportation commission I'd point out that both of the capitol council members who sit on the regional transportation commission are not present here So not only is it legally, I think dubious to try to change the contractors you're proposing I think it's simple doesn't make sense without the folks that directly represent the area in the room I think the contract is the amendments that staff is asking us for are quite minor and is Is pointed out very necessary to put the project forward and so I support the recommended actions at this time Any other comments by board members Well, I don't you know, I don't think it's really drastically changing just removing an item from it From the language of of this contract And you know, I think with the with the One things that that I really hold near and dear is this vote of The county vote that we had a measure d to protect the rail lines And so I want to make sure that I abide by that on every single vote that I do Yep Okay, so you know further comments. I just like to say I appreciate the concern that's been raised around The interim trail I would also point out that Based on what we've heard from staff and what we've seen in the staff report We are on a very short timeline And what I'm most concerned with is that we are going to be able to use this money in a way that's going to get us to our rail and trail Options and continue to move in the direction that the community has Signaled by their vote on measure d. I'd also like to point out though that the rtc did vote on consideration of the interim trail on the trestle and Our actions today are consistent with what the rtc has taken action on and so to staff's You know, um to where they're bringing us to today This is all based off of previous decisions that have finally gotten just to this point I think if we want to consider removing the interim rail, maybe that's something that should go back or interim trail Sorry, maybe that's something that should go back to the rtc if the rtc agrees that We want to abandon any work on any future work on interim trail If that decision is made by the rtc that will come to our board and we can stop spending money on that What's before us today is really us trying to move forward with getting the NEPA reviews that we need to secure additional funding It's going to help us move forward with being able to start working on the current Ultimate trail option, which is going to really help us move forward and you know, just want to point out We've secured again 67 million dollars and we don't want to compromise that We want to show that we're going to continue to act in good faith So that we can move forward with this because if we delay today that can actually Potentially compromise our ability to secure more funding in the future and so With that i'm happy to support Supervisor McPherson and I do want to acknowledge what we've heard in our comments today And the concerns raised by supervisor Hernandez But I think that if we want to raise those and move away from the interim trail on the trestle That we should bring that to the rtc and have a discussion about it there And so with that, uh, we'll turn if there's no further questions or comments I'll turn it over to the clerk for the role culp of Sorry about that. Thank you supervisor conic. Hi comings. Hi, Hernandez. No, McPherson. Hi Okay, that vote passes um McPherson conic comings in favor and as opposed and so we'll turn it back over to chair friend so we can continue with the meeting Thank you vice chair comings. I believe the last item we have is uh, that we're going to move into closed session Is there anything anticipated to be? Reportable out of closed session not today. All right. We have a 130 budget hearing here And so we're going to recess into closed session. We'll be back here at 130 for a budget hearing