 Are we ready? Good morning. Welcome to the 9 30 am public portion of the closed session of the September 22nd 2020 meeting of the City Council. If you wish to comment on a closed session item, now is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen. In this part of the meeting, the council will receive public testimony thereafter, the public line will be closed and inaccessible. Please meet your television or streaming device once you call in and listen through the phone. Please note there is a delay in streaming. So if you continue to listen on your television or streaming device, you may miss your opportunity to speak. All council members are participating in this meeting remotely. I want to thank the public for staying home to view today's City Council meeting. I would like to ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you Vice Mayor. And I will note Mayor Cummings is now with us. Council Member Byers. Hi, here. Yes. Matthew. Here. Brown. Here. Golder. Present. Watkins. Council Member Watkins. Oh, yeah. Oh no, here she's joining. Vice Mayor Myers. Here. And back up to Council Member Watkins. Here. On our agenda is our closed session. Is there any member of the public who would like to comment on items that are on our closed session agenda today? Public would like to comment on the closed session items. Now is the time to call in using the numbers on your screen. Once you call in, you'll need to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand. And you'll be given two minutes to speak. And you know members of the public who would like to comment on our closed session items. We'll go ahead and move into closed session. If there's any staff online who are not participating in closed session, I'd like to ask that you please come back and join us when we go into open session. Now it's been locked. Mayor Cummings. And how you doing? Good. Thank you. How about you? I've been doing good. Tomorrow I'm actually leaving to go do some drone flights of sites that have been burned from the fires. So just trying to get everything together and get ready to head out to the field. So busy. Let's do this everyone. Looks like everyone's here. So I guess we can go ahead and get started. Good morning, everyone. And welcome to our 1030 a.m. session of the Santa Cruz course of the city council. A few announcements and then we'll move on to our regular meeting. Today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 and streaming on the city's website city of San Cruz dot com. All council members are participating remotely today. And I want to thank the community for staying home to view today's city council meeting. If you wish to comment on an agenda item today, please call in at the beginning of the item you want to comment on using the instructions on your screen. If you want to mute your television or streaming device once you call in and listen through the phone, please note that there's a delay in streaming. And so if you continue to listen on your television or streaming device, you may miss your opportunity to speak. When it's time for public comment, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand. And when it's your time to speak during public comment, you'll hear an announcement that you've been unmuted. The time will then be set to two minutes and you may hang up once you've commented on the item of interest. With that, I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll. Mayor, council member buyers. Here. Matthews. Here. Brown. Here. And mayor Cummings. I'd like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is on the territory of the Waswas speaking UP tribe. The Almondton tribal band comprised of descendants of indigenous people taken to Mission Santa Cruz and San Juan Batista during Spanish colonization of the central coast. It's today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historic trauma. Before we begin with our first item, I would like to take a moment of silence to honor the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993, Justice Ginsburg was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court after Sandra Day O'Connor. Ginsburg was a strong advocate for gender equality and women's rights and will be remembered as one of our country's most inspirational and powerful women. On September 18, 2020, Justice Ginsburg passed some complications with metastatic pancreatic cancer at the age of 87 after serving 27 years on the Supreme Court. She will be remembered for her courage and we thank her for years of service, dedication, for standing up to defend rights of all Americans and as an inspiration for future generations. And with that, I would like to see if members of the council or staff could join us in a moment of silence. Thank you all very much. The second announcement I would like to make is that I want members of the public to know that given the pandemic and other crises that we have been faced with in our community, many items that would have come earlier on the city council agenda have needed to be shifted and be postponed in order to ensure that our meetings are done in a timely manner. As we near the end of the year and try to return to some form of normalcy, we're doing our best to adjust the agenda so that our meetings are manageable. Many members of the public have been contacting us to inquire about the Felix Street Project application. And I want the public to know that we are intending to put the Felix Street application on the next regularly scheduled council meeting, which will occur on October 13, 2020. Members are receiving emails. You can let folks know that we will be intending to put the Felix Street item on our agenda for October 13. That will move on to our first presentation. This is the City's Consolidated Online Payment Portal, my city of Santa Cruz, and will be presented by Ken Morgan, director of information technology. Is everyone viewing my screen? Yes. Great. Good morning, Mayor Cummings and City Council. My name is Ken Morgan, IT director for the city of Santa Cruz. And I'm really excited to talk to you this morning about the city's new consolidated online payment portal. For some time now, IT and a number of departments have been working on this portal. We've had some distractions in 2020, but we regained momentum in the first phase of the platform is moving from our user acceptance testing environment to production on October 1. As you can see from the screenshot, my city of Santa Cruz is the name of the portal. And my city of Santa Cruz was created because of an ongoing need to provide a location that aggregates the payment platforms that the city offers and really make that customer transaction process as uniform as possible. The city currently has about 10 different payment types for various business needs. Each has their own individual portal for processing payments and doing business with the city and some with no online presence at all. So this first phase of my city really provided the foundation for consolidating these transaction types to a single location. But at the same time, it was designed to go a step further and really aid as a business center and automate some business processes that are currently performed manually and really saving quite a bit of time. Not only for city employees, but for our customers and kind of increasing visibility for providing these services. We partnered with Interfile on the project. Interfile has been doing business throughout Europe and South Africa for many years. They have developed and implemented this payment portal tool for organizations. The equivalent size and scope is the IRS. So we're doing a two phase implementation with them and we are anticipating that much of the implementation costs that the city spent on phase one as well as upcoming phase two will be offset in credit card transaction costs. Savings within the first 12 to 18 months. So we're really excited about that. And as you can see, our initial phase includes utility billing, business license applications and renewals, our residential rental inspection services applications and renewals and then Cobra and donations. And I just want to talk briefly about the transaction types and then jump over to the site to give you a little preview. So utility bills is really kind of the big component of the city. It generates the largest volume of online track transactions. On average, we're seeing about $2 million a month in online payments for UB. And we have 15,000 existing customers using online billing. So while we knew it would be a challenge to convert these 15,000 customers, we also knew that once we have successfully migrated them to my city, we inherit 15,000 anchor accounts on the platform that really sets the stage for streamlining customer uptake in the future and for any future transaction types that we might add to the platform. So it was really important to include UB in our first phase. A huge thanks to the water department there in the midst of a lot of daily distractions and responsibilities and agree to partners for this first phase. So super helpful. As for benefits to our utility billing customers, we have all the features that existed on the previous platform exist on my city. We've added additional payment types. We now can do each X, which the utility team is really excited about a CH, which is really just that kind of bank to bank transfer of payments. This is now an automated process, whereas there was a four week application process that existed previously. We now have the ability for real time payment recognition and this is bidirectionally between our internal billing application and my city. So rather than the customers or our UB staff having to wait the 24 hours or so for reconciliation, this is now automated. And then the feature that we're most proud of is the ability to delegate accounts. So for example, if I live in a co-housing scenario, I can now delegate permissions to my housemates or tenants to view or pay those bills. Or if my home is being managed by a property manager, I can delegate various roles to that manager to pay or view those bills. And then alternatively, if I am that property manager, I now have the flexibility of managing 15, 20, all of my rentals from a single my city profile. So a big win for that community too. So the water department and really the city as a whole, by consolidating payment portals to a single site, we are also consolidating credit card processing merches to a single vendor. And in the case of my city, Santa Cruz were using card connect. So from a financial perspective, this really allowed the city to leverage our added transactional volume to a lower per transaction costs. And with utility billing alone, we're anticipating a $2,000 a month savings. So a big win for the city there. And then other benefits to the water department. I mentioned the real time payment recognition that's going to be part of the platform. We're doing a lot of this using some automation software that communicates between my city and our internal apps. We've also put this automation software to work executing the entire morning reconciliation process that our UV team take the processes each morning. And this is a process that requires 60 to 90 minutes of staff time. We have an individual that comes in at six in the morning to start this process. We have this completely hands free now using our automation software and we have it down to about 20 minutes. So we're going to be putting that into production in October as well. And the utility billing team is really excited about that. Business license was a big win when it comes to process improvement both for the city and our business community. Our current application includes a number of checks and balances and fee calculations, visits to our planning department, and really the tendency for a lot of back and forth communication between customers and finance staff and planning staff. It was a pretty unorthodox transaction process for all those involved. So my city really improves that for the employees. We have digital workflows, work queues, email notifications. But for our business community, the final result is an end to end digital self service solution that really allows for the entire business license application and renewal process to be done online, which was not the case before. Our customers will rely on email based notification systems or logging into the portal to kind of step them through the sequential steps of a business license application. We do address validation. We do zoning clearances. You can upload supplemental documentation. There are online app at David agreements and in the end when approved, you are issued a PDF business license that can be printed and posted in your place of business. It's actually a pretty elegant process compared to where we came from. It really does reduce a lot of the ambiguity of responsibilities between our finance and planning departments. We're anticipating some transactional cost savings here with with business licenses as well. And then I think most importantly, with our public counters being reduced, this really does supplement the city's ability to navigate COVID times and really diversify how we're serving that business community. Similar to business licenses, our rental inspection services program also translates to quite a bit of manual work for our staff. We do hours of data validation. We send, receive and process physically envelope to mail bills. And the number of hours spent processing mail loan was not insignificant and really was ripe for automation. So that is what we did. We created an online billing platform that did not exist previously. We reduced the need for snail mail processing. And this of course saves our employee time and reduces paper consumption. And like utility billing, we have now provided customers and specifically those property managers a way to manage multiple properties from a single profile. So again, a win for that community. And then last after a few of the larger transactions, we needed some less complex transactions. So we chose Cobra and donations. Cobra is a way for separated employees that want to maintain the continuity of health care. Again, this platform did not exist previously. And then donations is something that finance had requested as a way for the city to kind of create ongoing or ad hoc donation campaigns, which I'll show you in one second. I think that's a good time to jump over to the site. Okay. So as I mentioned, phase one moves to production on October 1st. This means the site is scheduled to be available to the public. And of course, we'll be linking to it from the city's webpage. We're working closely with the communications teams to spotlight the transition and communicate the change of the public, especially those 15,000 utility billing customers. A lot of them are on autopay. We're not sure that no one's asleep at the wheel and misses this transition. We have our staff trained and we should be prepared to respond and inquire and process those transactions come October 1st. You can see we did our best to maintain a similar style guide as our city's primary site. Our font selection, our color scheme matches our standard as well as the same sort of horizontal paint delineate the various functional components of the site. Top paint is our login screen. My city does require registration. We will be adding the ability for those one-time payments or those guest payments. But for this initial phase, we are requiring registration. The middle section, of course, is the business transactions that we're including in phase one as we get to phase two and we add additional payment types. They'll be populated here. And then we have just some news events and then links to contact business if there are specific questions. So I'm going to hop back up here and just log in real quick. Coming in, I'm kind of presented with that primary action side. We see a navigation pane that really replicates most of what can be accomplished from these bigger buttons. I'm just going to jump through real quick. Our account manager obviously is for viewing and paying or managing those accounts that individuals are registered for. Manage profile should be something that you're familiar with, just updating those individual attributes, phone numbers, email addresses, billing addresses, et cetera. It has some nice functionality in that I can select the type of question I have by the transaction type and then the specific account that I have. And then when submitted, that question will go directly to the city offices that would be able to best address those questions. I also have the ability to view the history of my questions here. On the second row here, City as a business automating business process. To my city, the form that you will see was mailed in. It was brought to our city offices. Now folks can register in the program from the platform and once the application is submitted, they can track their changes remotely by logging in or following the status update emails. Going a step further, once I am registered, the program requires an annual renewal. So my city will of course notify customers that there's action to be taken and direct them to the portal to complete the process. You can see here this particular application is up for renewal. And as part of the program, I need to approve an annual self-inspection affidavit. On my city, this is now an online declaration. I can simply open up the document and if nothing has changed, I confirm the details of my property by clicking accept at the bottom and complete the process pay with a payment. And I'm good to go for this year's self-inspection. If there were changes to the property, it triggers the rental team to kind of re-engage in the process. But again, this is all completed digitally. And now our zoning and business licenses similar to rental. This application is now digitally transformed. This was a paper process previously. You can see there are a number of steps to completing this task. Touchpoints with our planning department when it comes to address validation and finance department with regard to stipulations around business license approval and payment. But again, all done online without having to come to our counters. I have a couple of good examples to show you on some applications that I've processed. I have submitted and that the application queued via email. They can log into the administrative portion of my city, process the zoning assessment and move it back to the customer for the business license application and then to finance to payment and ultimately a certificate, which most people probably won't have through accounts. Most people will probably just have a business license and or a water bill. In this case, I have three. I have my rental. I have my family utility bill and then a generic business. For the utility bill, we have access to preview the bills that are mailed to customers or through email. We keep two years of archives. We have more, but two years typically seems to suffice. I can go in and look at the details of that account. I can view or I can pay this account. And we have multiple options for payment. We can do say banking information. If I have a credit card on file, we can do a one time payment using the different payment ACH and each check as I mentioned, or I may have set up a recurring payment for this account or auto payment on a schedule date. And donations again is just the ability for the city to throw up ad hoc donations. We have a few campaigns that we already selected. They are K-9 program, our Memorial Benchants and Museums. This is obviously a test environment, so I threw up IT Relief Fund. I can quickly run in and donate money to the good people of IT, whether that may be tied to a general ledger account on the back end so that finance can reconcile that. And then last is just some of the communication. We now have the ability for SMS or text messages, but not only that, you can delineate to the type of communication you want by account. So if I have my business license account and I want email notification for that and for my rental account, I want a text message for my utility billing account. I want to opt out entirely. I can do that specifically by account. So not only does it give more granular control to the customer, but it also, this is the first time the city has added the capability of communicating via SMS with kind of an opt-in from the customer's perspective. So that is essentially the platform and we're going to be moving on to a phase two. We know there's going to be some opportunities with our planning department and also the parking tickets as well as TOT. We're looking forward to adding transaction types in the next six to twelve months. But before I let you go or ask questions, I just wanted to give a thanks to these people. These people worked really, really hard and provided a lot of time that they probably couldn't afford to make this all happen. So we're from IT and the city as a whole. We're very thankful for them and all the time that they allocated. So thank you. It's cool to see all this coming together and being able to stream one. This technology and make these payments easier for members of the public. I'll turn it over to Council if there's any questions. Council Member Watkins. Thank you so much for the presentation. This is fantastic and really efficient and just wonderful. I just have a brief question in terms of if we have a Spanish speaking member of our community, how do we anticipate help supporting that? Yeah, that's going to be a work in process. That's a good question. We have talked about it. The initial release of this as is our existing platform, InfoCin, which we currently use is English only too. But we've talked to the comms team about how we might be able to help facilitate that without doing a direct translation of the site entirely. So we'll get back to you as that service improves. But the first iteration of phase one is English only. Got you. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that you're thinking about that and working towards a solution. Yeah. Council Member Meyers. Council Member Watkins. So thank you for asking that. I just wanted to pass on my compliments. I think it's great that people can get in and do what they need to do online. I just compliment everyone. Obviously you had a huge staff team working on this. So just many, many compliments for meeting this up. And I think it'll be a great greatly received by the community. So thank Ken to your entire team and to all the staff that worked on it. It's really impressive. Thank you. Appreciate it. I also want to say thank you. It looks super organized and efficient. And I love that. But then I was also going to answer Council Member Watkins question and let her know that we've been working with the parents through the schools, through our ELAC groups, and teaching parents how to add extensions to their browsers where they can translate any website to whatever language they need. And so I think that, I mean, it's not really something that the city can do, I guess, but anyway, maybe the county office can get the word out to people too. Are there any further questions or comments? Council Member Mathews. Very quick. Congratulations and thank you. And I know that Phase 2, the lodging industry has been very interested in getting TOT payments online and I assume the neighborhood parking permits and that sort of thing are coming up. So it's really a big improvement in customer service. So thank you. Thank you. Well, if there's no further questions or comments, thanks again, Ken, for all the hard work. Thank you. Thank you for coming together. I'm sure it's going to really help people pay their bills on time and make this process very efficient. So thank you. Thank you, guys. Okay, next item on our agenda is a presentation. Mayor, did you raise the meeting? Oh, that's right. So before we move on to our next presentation, we've been receiving some phone calls that the calling numbers haven't been working. So we're going to try restarting the meeting into rebooting Zoom, see if that helps solve the issue. And so if everyone can call back in in the next minute, we'll try to see if that solves the issue of other members of the public being on. So that's all of us should hang up and dial in again? Yes, that's correct. We can go ahead and start with our presentation. All of our council members here, I just want to let members of the public know that we're having some technical difficulties with Zoom. And so the toll-free numbers are not working. And so, but the toll, the non-toll-free numbers are working. So what I recommend is that members of the public would like to comment on an item that after the presentation, when we move on to public comment that you call in for that item to comment on, which will reduce the amount of time that you're on the line and any charges that might occur. And with that, I'd like to move on to our next presentation, which is by Susan True from the Community Foundation. And I would just like to say, you know, the Community Foundation has been doing a wonderful and fantastic job with all the support they've been able to provide our community during these very challenging times. And Susan, I want to thank you and your team for all the hard work that you've been doing throughout this process. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you Vice Mayor Myers for inviting me to be with you today. And we're able to do what we do because this community has been so incredibly generous both through COVID and now with the fires. So it really is a reflection of this entire county and the generosity that we have. So I prepared a few slides. Is it okay if I share my screen, Mayor? Okay, I'll just do that. And good. So some of you may first be learning about the Community Foundation because of these two disasters. But we have a long history in Santa Cruz County and our mission is to bring together people, ideas and resources to do two things, inspire philanthropy and accomplish great things. We say accomplish great things in a general and broad way because we want to support the incredible opportunities that happen in this community. I love to think about all the efforts from soccer fields to libraries that community members want to see happen that we're able to support getting done. And of course our vision is to make Santa Cruz County a place where all people can thrive. And we see that for now but also into the future. We're charged with thinking long term about our community. And we're a grant maker to nonprofits and we're also a place where generous locals can come to plan their charitable intentions and to give back. We've made about $110 million in grants just locally since 1982. In 2019, we're definitely in a growth spurt. In 2019, we did about $12 million in grants. And in the first half of 2020, we also did $12 million. So $12 million was our biggest year last year in grants out to the community. And we already have exceeded that by July of 2020. So we know that there's a lot of activity related to supporting our community related to these disasters. We also have a low interest loan program that we get really excited about. We can do things like pay for, you know, be the lender for preconception costs, say for Habitat for Humanity Development or help teachers buy their first houses or loan money to Farm Link to help immigrant farmers to have long term leases in their land or dig a well or those kinds of things that are just hard to access capital that we're able to be a lender that's a different sort of lender. So as we partner with our commercial lenders like Sanctis County Bank and sometimes we lend on our home. We have a really strong history of investment performance. So we take very seriously the stewardship of funds that have been given to us to caretake for the future. And we have about $100, depending on market performance, it's been a rocky year, around $140 million in assets. And we came together because of a disaster. For those of you who are here in 1982, we got about 25 inches of rain in about 24 hours. And those floods in 1982, you know, caused loss of life. You can see the bridges down. It was a terrible time in our community except for that just like today, we came together to help each other, neighbors helping neighbors. And this history, this community has stepped along history of coming together to solve problems. And indeed we're seeing that today. Vice Mayor Meyers asked me to talk a little bit about what we've been doing with both COVID and with the fires. So it feels like ancient history now to go back to March 13th, but the evening of March 12th was when the superintendents announced that they would be closing schools. And we knew that we had to act swiftly. We knew that families were going to be in great need starting starting right away that weekend as they tried to make alternate care arrangements, tried to understand how they could keep working. We had no idea what was in front of us. None of us did. But we launched our fund and we deployed grants immediately on March 13th. Those emergency grants were to our family resource centers. They were to Second Harvest Food Bank. We just wanted to make sure that the nonprofits that hold us all together were short up for what was ahead. And right away we decided we wanted to fill gaps. Philanthropy and especially local philanthropy cannot replace public dollars. We can't supplant existing resources. But we can do is identify where the gaps are. So we right away prioritize and we have continued to this day to prioritize undocumented and mixed immigration status families. People who are left out of the federal stimulus and low wage essential workers, seniors and people with severe illnesses. And so those gaps have been where we have attended most of our resources. We've also really learned and, you know, taking great care with relationships that, you know, people who have been harmed by COVID either the economic or the health impacts trust people. And much as we love our system, this has all come back to people, to people. And, you know, big shout out to the folks, you know, in the city like Holy Cross Food Pantry and Fenderos and others who have just been so, who have pivoted what they do to much more broadly serving the community, you know, organizing around outreach and how transmission happens. Holy Cross Pantry is an incredible job of that. Fenderos have gone from, you know, a cultural and arts organization to an organization that makes sure that people don't move their homes, the families don't move their homes. And it's those kinds of relationships that are really getting us through. And we've also learned how important it is to build bridges. That our systems have always worked. This has been a stress test like no other. And our leaders are starting to fray. This is just such a hard time. And so a lot of what we do is to try to bring people together. We have an economic recovery council. I'll talk a little bit about trying to bring together leaders of color to talk about what the needs are to come out a little bit stronger. We try to bridge public and private, you know, donors and nonprofits. It's a lot of what we do is just that bringing people together. It's just a story from the executive director at Families and Transition. Again, people, we just, we went into this and I just said, I just don't want another homeless family in our county to result from lost wages, reduced shifts, et cetera. And we've stayed in really close contact with the Human Services Organization that are serving families. We, every month, we have a lot of people who are working with the Human Services Organization that are serving families. We, every month, reach out to them and say, you know, what do you need? We've been paying rent. I'll show you a little bit more about those grants. But, you know, when COVID hits along with reduced shifts in already unstable situations, it's just too precarious. We're so many families here. You already know that. So no reason, no reason for me to go on. We've granted almost 3 million since those first grants and the majority has been for basic food and household financial assistance. So about three quarters has gone to just keep people afloat. We're doing more and more now on digital divide issues. You'll be seeing in the media soon a new partnership with Cruz IO called Equal Access Santa Cruz County to work on bridging that digital divide. But you can see it's about a half a million a month that we've needed to do. Again, we're just in touch with those Human Services providers. We talk about how many families they're serving. Basically, it's like what the community grocery and rent bill is, and that's what we've been funding. And we fund that entirely through donations from this community. It's pretty fantastic what we've done. And I also just wanted to point out a lot of philanthropy goes to white organizations. And a lot of times people of color, a lot of organizations are really left out of a mix with private philanthropy. And given the disproportionate impacts on people of color, not just in our community, but nationally of COVID, both economically and with the health ones, we really wanted to make sure that we were directing resources to organizations that are led by and for people of color so that those organizations and these communities come out of this disease stronger. So about 61% of our grants have been given to organizations led by black indigenous people of color in the community. In addition to this $3 million that we've granted so far, $5.5 million from our donor advisors has gone out to the community since March 13th. So again, donor advice funds are a way that people work with the community foundation to help organize and have more information about their grantmaking. So the donor advisors have been very, very active in the last six months. This is hyperlinked just so you can see that at any time you can go through and look at our grants on our websites. We try to be very transparent about this. We update it as we're doing... Sorry about that. I thought that was on the grants page. As we put grants into the community, we update our websites. So you can go in and you can look at what we're spending and what, for whom, and kind of who these trusted partners are. So I encourage you to take a look at that at any time. And you can see there's a lot of city organizations, but the vast majority, because the hits have been so strong in Washington, but we have a lot of self-counting as well. Oops. You get that wrong one here about that. We also formed the Economic Recovery Council, thanks to many of you who helped us populate that council. And big thanks to Bonnie Liskum, who's been participating on this part of the city as well. So our first meeting was back in May. And the purpose of that time, which seems completely out of date now, was to support the safe reopening of Main Street businesses. We were really focused on bricks and mortar businesses that needed customers to come to them to survive. And at that time, we were focused on the Stage 2 and Early Stage 3 industries in the governor's roadmap. That, of course, has all changed now. And also, it's changed. We wanted to work with a health officer to help her make informed decisions where she understood the constraints and opportunities of the business community. That, of course, has changed a lot now because the health officer isn't making as many local orders. The governor's staff are, and the governor's whole roadmap has changed to the tiered system. Of course, you all know that. So there's some shift in focus for the ERC now. But we have done a lot to establish that dialogue between small business owners and the public health officer. We work with each member and their network. So there's the Downtown Association, there's the Capitol Merchants, or small immigrant-owned businesses in South County. We work with them so they're knowledgeable about public health resources, and they can push out those resources to their networks. And then we've worked to educate the community about essential information. We have thousands of views on our Town Halls with Dr. Marm Cole-Patrick and Dr. Gail Newell. We've done the, you know, Don't Kill Grandma for younger employees. We've done several Spanish-language Town Halls, one for non-profit workers that was, you know, attended by hundreds. So we've tried to do a lot to educate the community around transmission and what's happening locally. And then the lightning struck. So we found ourselves, you know, thinking we're just starting to get the hang of this COVID thing. And like many of you, found ourselves in a whole new fund, in new situations. So as of today, we put up a fund for fire response, I think on August, whatever it was, 19th. And as of today, we have about 2.6 million that's been committed to the fire fund. Our largest gift is a million dollars, but our smallest was five. And I think this is one of the things that's really touching to me is that those small gifts are often from people who just stand up to mean something to them. You know, their grandma lives here. They visited their grandfather and Bonnie do, whatever it is, but, you know, just never underestimate the power of every individual's generosity. We've already granted out around $400,000. And I can show you what those grants are to you in a moment. But, you know, the kind of buckets of need that we found from other communities that have been through fires, Ventura, Napa Valley, Sonoma. They tell us that there's this immediate need, and that takes about 20% of what the funding that is raised. And then there's the rebuilding of homes and insurance advocacy. We're already starting that. We have a contract already with United Policy Holders to help homeowners work with their insurance companies and get the maximum payout. We know there's an environmental restoration. I'm excited to hear what you learn there, Cummings, from your drone research. Just preparing for the future. Fire, of course, floods. I know I think Rosemary is on the call today, but, you know, the protection of the San Lorenzo right now is, of course, top concern. And then starting teams and bringing people together who are really hyper-local. You know, what is downtown Boulder Creek going to do? What's going to happen in Davenport? Really kind of hyper-local responses. Those seem to be the big areas of funding needs. I'll just click on really quick just again so you can see. Please always feel free to check our website if you're curious about where these funds are going. We really see them as the community's funds. So initial grants. Again, you know, the family resource centers, again here, Davenport, Mountain Community, and Valley Churches have just been incredible in that first line of response. You know, farm workers who lost two weeks of wages during the evacuation needed a lot of help. Seniors who couldn't get out of Boulder Creek and the Mountain Community resources. Of course, second harvest. I talked about United Policyholders. So you can see right now it's been a lot of that emergent need kind of funding. And now we're definitely starting to shift. And, you know, you'll see that more as we move towards this rebuilding. So that's what I had prepared for you. I wanted to make sure to have time for questions if you needed, had any on your mind. Just really appreciate all of your leadership. This is just such a time of all of us coming together and trying to figure out, you know, what's next, what's the next action we can all take to keep our community safe and hopefully get us thriving again. Susan, thank you again for all the hard work that you and the folks have been doing to really help bring our community together. And it really shows through the giving that we've seen. And, you know, I think now more than ever, we really all need to come together to try to support one another during probably one of the most difficult times we've all faced in this community. I'll turn it over to council members if you'll have any questions or comments. Vice Mayor Myers. Yeah, Susan, I just wanted to thank you. I know you're really busy and I really appreciate you taking the time to come update us. I've just been watching the progress of the community foundation really since day one, spoke with you really quickly right after the COVID thing broke. And, you know, as someone who's worked in the nonprofit field for a long time, I mean nonprofits are really the place that really pick up for the social service and the kinds of things that our community need immediately that is unfortunately really hard sometimes for government to provide. So really impressive that 8.5 million has been put out under the COVID relief fund. That's phenomenal. So I hadn't seen that number. And so that just shows the level of commitment that people do when Santa Cruz is in trouble and when we need to help each other. So really appreciate understanding a little bit more about how you're strategizing on putting these resources out for our nonprofits and how quickly you're able to respond when things are shifting. That's an incredibly necessary thing with this changing landscape of COVID and appreciative also within, again, a few hours of the fire starting up again, emailing with you and boom, you know, you had your, the next fund up. So just the rapid response, the ability to really provide that's important service to people who are in extreme need is just, yeah, it's just not something that government can do. So I appreciate you as such a strong partner countywide and also with our city nonprofits and our city residents and citizens. So thanks for your work. And yeah, great, great update and very helpful for us to know, especially going into some of our budget issues as we look to the future. So we know that there's people helping in our community and that really, that makes a big difference as a policymaker that's going to have to make some hard decisions. So thanks for your work. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Matthews. We have an exceptionally generous, engaged community and just a fabulously strong foundation. So thank you to you and your board and everyone. If someone were motivated to donate, how would they do that? They could go to our website, which is three foundations, Santa Cruz County dot org CFSCC dot org and right on the front page, you'll see a, you know, donate to the response funds for both fire and COVID. You can find it right there. Yeah. Thank you. I have a similar question, which is if someone needs resources, I guess what's the best way for them to have access to resources? Yeah, you know, we do our funding through trusted nonprofits rather than, you know, give resources directly to individuals. So the best thing is to work with those nonprofits. For example, if you have been affected by the fire to reach out to mountain community resources, Valley churches, or Davenport Research Service Center would be a great place to start. We do have our resource page on our website that we keep up to date. Sometimes we can be, you know, a few days ahead of the county's website on resources, so feel free to use that resource page as well. We know people are having a really hard time, just wayfinding and making sense of this new evacuated reality for so many. And if they called 2-1-1 United Way, would they also be able to get access to some of the organizations that are offering these resources? Absolutely. 2-1-1 is up and running and actually got through a really big backlog. So hats off to our friends at 2-1-1 who were able to plow through a lot of those responses from the early days of the evacuation. And of course, the Recovery Center at the Kaiser, Rena is still up and running in a great place for victims of the fire. Council Member Brown. I think all my questions have been answered and thank you so much for the presentation. I just wanted to take the opportunity to really appreciate the work you do and to demonstrate the collaborative spirit of our community and also the ability of this institution to really harness that and really make a difference when it's during critical time. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you for everybody. Yes, it's interesting to go back to our roots and disaster and realize why we were formed in this time because the community wants that central place to have a quick response, to be able to act on behalf of our neighbors and we're really honored to be in that position to help. Thank you again for taking the time today for joining us for that presentation and we look forward to continuing to see how we can work together. Great, thank you for including me today. Thanks for all of your work and though we've got big work ahead so let's stay in close communication. Thank you. Sounds great. Take care. A few announcements and then we'll move on to our regular meeting. Today's meeting is being broadcast live on television channel 25 and streaming on the city's website, cityofsantacruz.com. If you wish to comment on an agenda item today, the instructions will be provided on your screen. We have been having some technical difficulties with our toll-free numbers so we ask that you use the non-toll-free numbers to call in to comment on items of interest. We will provide these instructions throughout the meeting whenever we move into an agenda item that will be open for public comment. The public comment is heard only on items the council is taking action on and not regular updates or reports. The items that will be open for public comment during today's meeting are number 7 through 20 on our agenda. Before we begin, I'd like to ask if there's any statements of disqualification today. Council Member Matthews, when you're muted. I will be disqualified from item number 12 which is the contractor that owns and is represented for the library and excuse project. He says that in property within 500 feet of the designated site. So I will leave the meeting for that item. Thank you very much. Yeah. Are there any other statements of disqualification today? Seeing none, I'd like to ask the clerk if there's any additions or deletions. No, there are not. Thank you. I'd like to make an announcement about oral communications. Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the community to speak to us on items that are not on our agenda. Oral communications will occur immediately after item number 20 and will last for 30 minutes. So if you wish to make a comment during oral communications, please call in towards the end of item number 20 on our agenda. I'd like to ask the city attorney to provide a report on closed session items from today. Good morning, Mayor Cummings, members of the city council. This morning the council convened and closed session at 9.30 a.m. via Zoom for two items of discussion. The first was a conference with legal council on liability claims. Those are the claims of CFAIG and the claimant. Second one is the claimant unlock. Those are also listed on your open session agenda as item 13 on the consent calendar. There's no action on that item. Second item was a conference with labor negotiators the council met with and received a report from its labor negotiator, human resources director, Lisa Murphy, involving all bargaining groups and there was no reportable action on that item as well. Okay, thank you very much. Moving on, I'd like to call on the city manager to report and provide updates on city events and business items. Thank you, Mayor. Today we wanted to give you an update on the eviction moratoriums and developments around, as you'll recall, the city council adopted an eviction moratorium and there's been some developments at the state level. So with that, I was going to turn it over first to Lee Butler who will give you an update and then also the city attorney and our economic development director will also provide the relevant information around this topic. So turn it over to Lee. Thank you. Thanks, Martín and good morning, mayor and council members. I'm Lee Butler, director of planning and community development and I'm going to share my screen here. They had lost their job, so big impacts in the community, which was played out here as well. The inversion had, again, since March 1st, it gives an idea of the magnitude of some of the identified themselves as landlords in the Spanish speaking survey and none of them, neither of them, I should say, identified that they were at risk of default. Just the English speaking version, I'll show you the Spanish speaking version in a sec, which is we're pretty high information on mortgage forbearance and so forth, all scored relatively high. Each survey, obviously, fewer respondents but resources were a high number and several programs to those that respond. It would be best to move into Tony's and Bonnie's. Slide presentation as well. So bear with me a second while I try to pull it up on the screen here. Is that, can anyone see that? All right, so as you're aware, the patchwork of local eviction protection rules that have been implemented by virtue of Governor Newsom's executive orders has now largely been replaced by 80, 30, 80, 8 and the city council's emergency ordinance that was adopted back in March and extended most recently at the June 26 meeting to the end of September is now set to expire and has been supplanted largely by AB 3088, which was passed by the legislature and signed in a law on August 31st as emergency legislation. So that took effect immediately upon its approval by Governor Newsom. What AB 3088 does is it first prohibits a landlord from evicting a resident for nonpayment of rent or other charges that came due between March 1st, 2020 and August 31st of 2020 if the resident provides a landlord with a declaration stating that their finances have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. High-income residents as defined by the statute can also be required to provide documentation of their COVID-19 related hardship provided that the landlord follows a specific procedure to require that. And a high-income resident is defined by the statute as the person or household earning 130% of the median income for the county as defined by HUD or $100,000, whichever is higher. But from evicting a resident for nonpayment of rent or other charges that came due between September 1st of 2020 and January 31st of 2021 if the resident provides the landlord with a declaration stating that their finances have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. And again, documentation is required for a high-income resident. And by January 31st, 2021, pay is 25% of the rental payments that are due between September 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 2021. That were missed because the resident experienced COVID-19 related financial distress. So to be clear here, a resident who has provided the necessary declaration to their landlord stating that they are unable to pay their rent because of the financial impact of COVID-19 that cannot be evicted even if they're paying no rent until at least February 1st of 2021. So long as by January 31st of 2021, they pay 25% of the rental payments that were due for the period starting September 1st, 2020. Landlords also cannot visit a tent who hasn't paid during that earlier period for nonpayment even after February 1st of 2021. But they can thereafter pursue the tent civilly by making a civil complaint. Landlords are required to give informational notice about the new law to residents who as of September 1st, 2020 had missed more than one, missed one or more payments that came due between March 1st and August 31st. And the new law also changes the rule with regard to what under current unlawful container law is called the three-day notice to pay or quit. Under the new law, the period is extended to 15 days, and it does not include Saturdays, Sundays or holidays. And so what that means is as of October 1st, if the tenant has not paid any rent since March 1st or has missed payments since March 1st and has not provided the declaration required to the landlord, then an unlawful container process can move forward. The new law also extends the just cause eviction protections of 80, 14, 82, which was enacted and went into effect on January 1st. But it extends the protections to all residents until February 1st of 2021 with certain limited exceptions. Under the current law, 80, 14, 82 exempt single family homes, townhouses, condos and duplexes when one of the units of the duplex is occupied by the owner. So, AB 3088 extends those protections to those categories of tenants as well as those that live in multi-family. The temporary court rules that effectively delayed most evictions in California have also been lifted by the new statute. However, the state extends the pause for non-payment of rent eviction cases until October 5th. So this pause is not a reason to do nothing in order to be protected from eviction for non-payment of rent due before October 5th. A tenant must provide the landlord with the declaration of COVID-19 related hardship. So that's a reminder for tenants who have either, who have not paid rent and have not provided that declaration to their landlord. Essentially, though non-payment of rent between the March 4th, 2020 and January 31st, 2021 period is not grounds for an eviction, all rent from March 1st, 2020 through January 31st of 2021 is still owed by all residential tenants and must eventually be paid back. And landlords are permitted to start recovering unpaid rent beginning March 1st of 2021. Mostly, most likely how that rent will be collected is through the small claims court process. And the new statute also expands the jurisdiction of small claims court to allow landlords to file claims for unpaid rent related to COVID-19 that exceed the current jurisdiction of the small claims court. Currently, you can file a small claims action, but the amount that can be recovered in a small claims case is limited to, I think, $10,000. So if a landlord seeks to recover rent in excess of the small claims court's jurisdiction due to the COVID-19 issue, then the landlord can pursue the full amount and is not limited by that restriction. The legislature also took steps to create uniformity throughout the state. The new statute blocks the city from extending its residential eviction moratorium for non-payment beyond September 30th of 2020. So the ordinance that the council has in effect adopted that is currently scheduled to expire, cannot be extended. Existing local ordinances may remain in place, but any future local ordinance has to be consistent with AB 3088. And all existing and future local ordinances must also comply with the repayment schedule provisions of AB 3088. And so if the local ordinance was in effect and required repayment to begin after March 1st, 2021, or condition the beginning of repayment period on the end of the state of emergency or the local emergency, the act now deems that the repayment period will begin on March 1st, 2021 and requires those repayment periods to be completed by March 31st of 2022. I know this is a lot to swallow, and I can make these slides available after this presentation. The act specifically excludes tenants of commercial properties from the definition of tenants. Consequently, commercial properties are not covered by AB 3088, and commercial tenants do not receive the same statewide protections provided to residential tenants. Some cities have adopted their own eviction moratorium ordinances for commercial tenants that extend beyond September 30th. However, the governor's executive order that authorizes local eviction moratorium ordinances for both commercial and residential tenants expires on September 30th, so the legal underpinnings of such ordinances are on somewhat shaky ground. And that is my brief summary of the current status of rental protections under the new statute. Happy to answer any questions or if you prefer, reserve them until after Bonnie gives her a share of the presentation, that would be fine too. I'm wondering if maybe we can go through the full staff presentation and then come back to questions because I just want to make sure in the essence of the time that we kind of get through everything and then we can ask all the questions at the end. Great, thanks. Thanks, Mayor. I am going to show some of the resources that we have been providing at the city, both on housing assistance, tenant assistance, and sort of where you can go to find this information. As both Lee and Tony said, there is a lot of information out there and it's happening in real time on a daily basis. And so we kind of have a clearinghouse of where you can go and I'm going to show that if I can effectively share my screen here. What you are seeing before you is on Santa Cruz's page under if you go to City of Santa Cruz and go to the Economic Development Department, you will see on the left-hand side of the screen housing assistance information. And here you can scroll down and you can click on the newest posted information, some of which both Lee and Tony went through just now on the federal eviction moratorium with links to this information so that you can read about it. You can go directly to the bill language of AB 3088 and read about it. You can download it. You can print it out. You can go through and see all of the resolutions that were approved by the City Council, as well as related housing legislation resources at the state level through League of California cities, bill tracker legislation, housing-related housing package legislation. And then at the bottom of this page we have additional housing resources through our partner agencies. So for Housing Authority of County of Santa Cruz and I'll go through those programs briefly on another page in just a second, our Affordable Housing Network, Senior Network Services, and also our Housing Resources brochure which we've shared with you in the past. There's so much information here I'm not going to click on any of these, but it's easy to find and navigate through going to the main city of Santa Cruz Economic Development page and click on Housing Resources. We also have information here on security deposit assistance that we fund through the city with our partner agencies at Housing Authority and Community Action Board and I will show those briefly. And then we have just some linked resources for, you know, also within the city encode compliance through community development if you are having some tenant landlord problem disputes or if you're homeless with various homeless-assisted resources. I also want to show, this is just another city page link, if you go to our Choose Santa Cruz site and this is ChooseSantaCruise.com It's also part of our Economic Development resources. We have additional resources printed here as well and links. And this is very simple. You can go to ChooseSantaCruise.com click on Housing and Resources and we have the county-wide services information on our inclusionary measure O program, more detail assistance on security deposit, section 8 voucher program, low-income rental units in Santa Cruz County. So you can get the list of what's available county-wide as well as our emergency rental assistance program with CAB as well as affordable housing projects that have been city public-assisted projects within the city. So all of this is on our ChooseSantaCruise webpage under Housing Resources as well as all of our agency partners from Housing Matters, River Street Shelters, Salvation Army, you know, any of these resources that you would need if you find yourself in need of housing or housing resources. So I just wanted to take a few minutes and show these resources to you and where to find that on the city site. And then I briefly wanted to update you as well as I should say the program funding that council has made available. We have two rounds of this for tenant-based low-income legal services and you can find the link to that on our site as well. I also wanted to briefly update you on where we are with our CARES funding that we received at the city. And I know that council will recall that we received our regular Community Development Block Grant funding around $500,000 with additional home funding this year. But then we received a $280,000 of specific CARES-related, COVID-related funding, which we did ground out to eight organizations in the community. And we'll have that first round reporting due at the end of October. And I would like our housing team to come back to you at that time and give you an update of how that funding has been distributed and what the impact of that funding has been in the community. With that said, I wanted to just briefly give you a recap of a couple of the programs and where they are and sort of this point in time. Specifically, we have awarded funding to Meals on Wheels related to COVID-related assistance. $51,000 has been fully distributed to the community. And as we, and I'll talk about in a second, are getting a third round of CARES funding. We'll come forward to you with recommendations and suggestions for that funding as well in the community. That's been a very impactful program and all of that funding has been distributed to over 20, almost 27,000 meals provided through the funding, through the city funding of the CARES program. D&TIS has 50,000, they've spent about 20% of that funding to date and to help with dental and dental screening related to COVID-related impacts. Second Harvest has spent, has received 51,000 for their outreach, Hope Services 18,000. And then related to the topic, really related to the topic as well as the support of services has been the tenant-based rental assistance. And through our regular CBG funding and additional COVID CARES funding, we've distributed over 270,000 to community action board for emergency eviction prevention program. We, through the program, CAB has received over 258 applications for this funding. They've made contact to over half of those individuals and are in the process of providing funding to a number of those individuals as well. And I look forward to when we have the full reporting later in October to come back to you with our housing team to fully give you an overview of the impact of those funding that the city has awarded to our CARES grant for the community. Also, I would say the farmer's market impact to the community for those impacted by COVID as far as providing additional housing and funding for food in the community has been very impactful. The ground of CARES funding that is coming, it's almost double what we received in the second round over the early summer that we distributed so I know that the impact and the outreach will continue to be able to provide additional resources to our community for which we're very grateful. And with that I'll stop screen sharing and happy to answer any related questions. Thank you. Thank you for that update and on all the topics related to COVID-19 resources for people who are facing hardships. I'll open up the questions. Are there any council members who have questions on any of the items presented? Council Member Brown. Thank you so much Tony and Bonnie for the update and helping the community and council members make sense of the kind of ever-shifting terrain. And I just wanted to ask a quick question though about the resource page which is awesome. Thank you Bonnie for showing that to us. I'm just wondering if where legal service like Tenant Sanctuary is not listed there and they do provide legal services that complement the CRLA director or former director is involved in having established that group and they are continuing to provide legal advice and they have an attorney on staff to work with them so I'm just hoping that we could include that as well in the list of resources and they do provide the resources that the city has made available as well they give that information to their and I can send you the information to link. That would be great yes we'd be happy to add that to our page. Right, thank you. Council Member Golder. If the state or if Tony has any information about where property owners or homeowners could get resources I was told yesterday by a friend that had to go on unemployment during COVID that they tried to stop I don't know what it's called the forbearance I guess on their mortgage and they tried for a couple of months and they asked if they could tack it on the back end of their mortgage and they were told no they said at the end of the three months or whatever they were going to have to pay it all in a lump sum and so they were lucky enough to have a 401k and they pulled money out of that but I just think boy it's going to be a real huge crisis for everybody if the mortgage companies aren't being also part of the solution. Yeah I know that generally back mortgages there are some protections that are available under those but I'm not as familiar with the protections for for homeowners and those that are having to pay a mortgage I'd be happy to look into that further and provide a follow up report to the council but I don't think that those protections are as robust as those that have been put in place for renters and that's certainly a problem for people who have been impacted by COVID-19 and are required to make a mortgage payment every month so we'll be happy to look into that. And council member Goldal this ad we do have a couple of resources for homeowners on our website too through the City of Santa Cruz page under the housing assistance we do have some links to the Cal HFA California Housing Finance Authority for mortgage assistance through a federal income tax credit program so we do have a number of programs that are for homeowners as well. Yeah just my concern is like obviously that they could potentially lose their homes or if they're kind of occupied homes if they're not getting the if they're you know hand them out already themselves that we could see people getting evicted by the banks when they have to pour clothes on the homes you know and then coming months if that was okay. Thank you. Is there any other questions from council members? Council member Goldal thanks for asking that question I had a similar question to that I just I have one question I want to keep us on time because we have a pretty long meeting today for the city attorney I was curious with the lack of being able to extend our local ordinances and just given some of the questions that we had from the community around you know I think in some of our previous meetings we had members of the public asking if we could defer you know payment of rent after the eviction period was over for up to a year or you know after COVID was over allowing people up to a year to pay back back rents without facing eviction is that something that AB 3088 talks because you know the state well it does restrict the city's ability to enact additional renter protections involving the repayment of rent however the current statute so long as the tenant is able to provide a declaration of inability to pay due to COVID-19 and if there are high income tenant supporting documentation or documentation in support of that then they are not required to commence paying rent until March 1st of 2021 and non-payment of rent between March 1st of 2020 and August 30th of 2020 is not grounds for eviction even after that period but they can be pursued in civil court and a landlord can obtain a money judgment against them obtaining a money judgment is not the same thing as collecting money if a tenant has financial hardship then the court will take a look at that and so the landlord even with a judgment saying that their tenant or former tenant owns $15,000 say still has to pursue that through a court process so there are protections in place but the city's ability in light of AB 3088 to enact further residential rental protections is limited now thank you that's the time I'm going to see if there's any further comments from council members or questions on this I want to thank you all for providing that update with that information and then I think it would be great if we could continue to let members of the public know where they can find this information on our website so that if people are in need of resources that we can connect them as best we can so thank you all for that so I should ask are there any other city manager if there's any other updates that you'd like to provide thank you very much the next item on our agenda is the city council meeting calendar I'd like to call on the clerk one of the things that we were hoping to do there's a number of study session ideas that have come up and needs to schedule some meetings and so what we were hoping to do is see if we could figure out when council members if they had preference for between days or evenings and if there's any dates that would not work for council members to have some of these study sessions the study sessions are one that's on the rental data item that's still out and that will be receiving a presentation from the company 3DI on the kinds of things that the technology could do to help with that there's been a lot of communications from members of the public around wanting to learn about the different types of mental health response programs that we have so receiving presentations from a number of the programs that we have that respond to mental health to our liaison program the downtown team and then receiving a presentation from Kahootz on the types of programs that they do and Eugene and what that could mean potentially for Santa Cruz there's a budget presentation that we were going to have a special meeting for and then a recovery planning meeting towards the end of the month I think that's all I know Ralph has been working on this too so Ralph I don't know that captured everything does have any preference if they have any conflicts for the month of October and for early November now will be a good time for us to know so that we can figure out those conflicts and then try to set some dates and times for when we can have the special meetings we can have I was from your introduction Mayor how many study sessions I didn't quite information, yes with respect to the budget we would recommend trying to do that on October 6 just because that was deferred from the interim recovery plan we'd like to schedule that the week of October 26 so it could be October 27 for the council meeting and that is a all-day session from 9 to 3 it's equivalent to essentially doing a council retreat so you could schedule that on the 26 if you're available from 9 to 3 and then the budget could be in the evening of October and then you could also add if you wanted to do the rental data you could do that also on October 6 perhaps in the afternoon or 2 to 2 to 4 or 2 to 5 and then in the evening at 6 o'clock do the budget potentially. We could type those up and maybe put them up on the screen I can't track all that and then just trying to compare to my calendar is going to be a little rough thanks don't mind data 1 is about I'm not quite clear rental data item coming to the council and did not move forward it was a tie vote and so that item needs to come back to council for another vote and given that there was interest in learning more and better understanding what that program could look like we thought it would be good for the company 3DI who gave us a presentation on that program to give a presentation to council as well given that we've had our agendas have been pretty full recently we thought that it would be good to invite the public and council to have that presentation separate from city council meetings so that council could learn more we can get more feedback from the public and then make a final decision on whether to move forward with that item and so that is kind of where we're at and I think it's just good and councilmember brown and I are meeting with some members of the community to talk to them in the near future to also invite them to the study session but I think people will learn more about what's possible and then for council to take action on whether to move forward or not and so is that is that the rental registry or rental data so you said rental data it's really the idea of having actually having people register for rental registry piece okay just as an alternative yeah okay I mean I guess one thing I would be very interested in and maybe it's too late to add it to this long list but just backing up maybe a little bit bigger would be just further study session on all the 2019 and 2020 housing legislation that was passed we never really get a study session on that and it does impact I think some of the things around how we're trying to understand our rental stock and use and some of the issues around that so I'm just curious about whether or not that might be something to do prior to the rental registry they're not exactly the same but I just be curious about both a housing legislative update as well as broadly in terms of state legislation and then possibly housing blueprint recommendations update because those things are already in place and the registry could kind of fit into sort of a tool that we should consider in the context of that larger policy report out just a concept to throw out thanks for putting this up I think that they could go together actually because I think they will complement one another okay thank you you're coming so I'm going to go through but I did see some hands up so I'm going to go on to Councilman Matthews talking to them in brown but yes we're trying to figure out what dates could work and then I also with the rental data one in the housing I'd also like to hear from staff if that's something that we'd be able to put together within that timeline I know that the data collection that's the third party that would come in and give that presentation but I'd also like to hear whether we could get an update on some of those housing elements or if that would need to come later in the month just given we're working on that Councilman Matthews I like the idea of combining updates on the state housing legislation with the rental data it doesn't seem to meet at the rental data presentation should take up to two hours and then I'm wondering what's still out there from the planning staff point of view of items that were in the housing blueprint and things that we actually have considered some things have been kind of put on schedule and taken off I think ADU revision that fits in with the state legislation and stuff we want to do locally so maybe a bigger picture of where we're going to spend policy and resources on housing issues I'd just say parenthetically on the Seabright project I would just so confused by the changing landscape of state laws on that one project I spent a good chunk of time yesterday with the planning staff saying okay what was it when it was submitted what is it now etc etc so it just seems there's so much I think it would be a service to council members and the community to get that big picture so I vote for that even more two hours if we can do one big housing thing and then on budget do you anticipate that taking three and four hours we have nothing that all involved with the budget process and you know my recollection from years past is we had a whole day to devote it to budget and I guess we've kind of done that in chunks along so my question is just how much time are you looking for for that one at this point it's just amending the budget to make the reductions obviously there's some difficult decisions that we have to make and there will be some public input so our thinking is that it would be between three and four hours is what it would likely take to do how do people feel I don't like to start at six I mean don't people eat dinner I'm going to go seven to ten or something like that that's up to you okay refer to me and Bonnie with respect to your question about being able to be ready with the legislation the housing legislation for the that's what works for the council we'll make the sixth happen and do our best to get you a comprehensive analysis by then sure yeah we would appreciate a little more time as well we want to make sure if we're providing information to the public that we're making sure it's accurate enough to date and there's just so much out there and new resources each day and updates we're juggling a lot of things right now and also just the preparation for the budget in the evening as well is on a lot of our mind so we'd appreciate a little more time if that's possible when did I do that the 20th I was going to suggest possibly that's the next sort of available Tuesday off Tuesday because it also seems like there's a conflict on the 6th in the evening so maybe the budget can be in the afternoon on the 6th and then the rental legislation and the rental data on the 20th with the other legislative info yeah the legislative and the rental data on the 20th you know my own feeling is that's not critically time dependent and I'd much rather give the staff enough time to do a good job on it and my own thought is for that again this is going to be a really important study session we should make a point to invite certainly our planning commission to that and council candidates there's going to be new people grappling with all this and and certainly broadly to the public as well a look at big picture housing opportunities deserves adequate time and publicity I would say even later and even you know the next week or so just to get a good solid job on that I would say absolutely welcome a deep dive especially into the housing blueprint recommendations because a lot of work went into that with a lot of community input and there are I think there's 99 recommendations right so if we have a foundation we should absolutely use it and keep it alive I think that it makes a lot of sense to have that conversation obviously for the reasons that have been referenced but also because we're having the interim recovery session on the 26th which I think will help have a sense of where we're thinking about going in the next 12 to 18 months which will then I think lead to how we want to expedite a specific or talk about specific housing policies so I kind of appreciate that and then just I think Tuesdays I guess just in terms of scheduling are generally the best days because I try to my calendar open so this type of work on those days having the 60 and afternoon session as opposed to evening session I'm wondering if then within the context of planning and our interim recovery planning and how this all fits in if the 20th would then make sense for the housing data or if we want to do it toward the end of that week of October 19th because it would make sense for us to have that conversation before that meeting with the interim recovery planning if that's going to be the case Mary conversation. If I may I think for me I think it would be more helpful to have it after the interim recovery because I think at that time we'll have more information from the community survey as well as the information that's been gathered from the council members as to the priorities that will help I think inform where we would want to go with the information around housing so for me I think the sequence would be after so I would use the information that we heard from the interim recovery efforts to help inform the housing information do you know what I mean? Council Member Brown. I don't have any real strong opinions about what dates any of these are on and I'm happy to incorporate the housing policy thing I mean I think we've been asking for that for a long time and it's good to hear that some of my colleagues are coming around to wanting to do that I just wanted to say that I teach class until 8 o'clock Monday through Thursday and I make special arrangements on council days to have my class taught asynchronously so to the extent that we can start at three or later it would be really helpful for but I can try to find ways around it I just can't do that too many more times in the semester. I think part of why initially going into this conversation I was really trying to find out what people's availability is because rather than trying to pinpoint exact dates for different topics I think more importantly trying to figure out when people are available is helpful because if we can find a way to work and then work with staff to understand when some of these because we also have to work with the staff as well as the people who are inviting for some of these study sessions so just wanted to put that out there that really trying to find when people are best available and we thought this was a good opportunity to do so but also if it's better to send out a doodle poll and try to use that yeah we're just really trying to figure out when people are available and work with some of the other partners to figure out when we can have these sessions I'd buy some of the Myers and then count some of the buyers I was just looking at the scheduling and also just reflecting on Bonnie's comment in the last presentation about I like the idea of also moving all the housing discussion to after the interim recovery and also I think Bonnie just mentioned that at the end of October they'll have an update on the full reporting for all the various housing assistance types of resources that have been put out so it just seems like having something after later in October early November on housing peace might just be a good wrap up for everything because it would be nice to have all that information based on what our resources that we've been able to provide I think it would make for a good discussion. Thank you thanks ma'am. So I would start going more towards early November I know I've spoken with the police in there it sounds like mid October and early November it's fine for them as well or not to 27 the 20th I can double check it put that out there as well in case people had to comment on that I'm going to walk in and then come to Matthews I'm going to do a deep dive in a lot of these topics and I know some of them like for example the budget is a priority the interim recovery is a priority I'll just personally say I'm happy to do a doodle I think the next several months for me are going to be very busy so if there's times that we can have kind of more of a deep dive into good availability I'm happy to go that route if that's a better path. That's my feeling too this is trying to pack an awful lot into one month my impression budget and interim recovery are the priorities necessarily you know if I had to prioritize the other two it would probably be the rental and housing program and then the mental health one I mean the world will continue to turn after the month of October so don't I would not get people too strong out figure which ones need the most time and give people the space probably do the polls the best way to go I know when at a minimum the budget and mental health I think we'll try to move forward with the budget and I'd just like to ask the budget meeting given that there's a number of conflicts on the 6th if the evening of the 7th could work of October because given the conflicts for Council Member Brown and I think there's another conflict with the 6th if that might work just so we can move forward with at least the budget the rental data or sorry the interim recovery and then we can work with the Council to discuss about it too Council Member Rathas that's fine I may have I'm supposed to be at the League of Cities conference that day it starts that day so I'm supposed to be there all day on that I'm happy to do something in the evening though of the 7th but I can't it doesn't look like I can do anything during the day okay thank you that's the 7th right we were talking about yes okay thanks everybody well we'll take that feedback into account and we'll try to I'll work with staff to try to figure out if we can send some doodle polls out and get some of these scheduled and then get back to the Council and the community in the next few days just to confirm we don't have any new dates yet it looks like I think we got some feedback it seems like in terms of the budget just because that one's sooner the doodle poll works sometimes I just don't get very quick responses and since that one is in what a week and a half or so I would just need to get that on calendar so everybody knows good Council Members just member buyers I can meet anytime the 7th I can meet in the evening it doesn't work the answer is no Council Member Brown had a conflict but we'll make that work then I guess we can schedule some of that my conflict is just until 3pm that's what I was suggesting maybe some 3-5 or something like that it does work well on the 6th for the budget it has a high amount of public comment on that item I think so I'm available on the 6th I think that if it happens on the 6th it's likely going to be for pretty long I think it can be 4-5 hours at least so I just want to put that out there I know there's something so if it's possible we'll move it to the Monday that's not a conflict for Council we can do it on the 5th in the evening but again I think that it might be worth us following up I just think that it would be good for Council Members to please keep an eye when the doodle polls come out and try to answer them as quickly in a very time sensitive because we really need to get this information out and we're trying to just figure out folks' availability so we can move forward we thought this would be a good way to do it but apparently we should probably just stick to the doodle poll I want to thank everybody and thank the public for kind of sitting through this but we'll try to follow up and see what we can schedule so the next item on our agenda is our consent agenda and I would just like to let the public know that item number 12 which is the item related to the contract for the mixed-use library owner's representative contract to grip on structures that that item has already been pulled from consent and we're going to receive a public presentation from staff on that item so the items on our consent agenda are items number 7 to be 17 with the exception of item number 12 so members of the public would like to comment on these items now it's the time to call in on items 7 to 17 there are instructions on your screen to call in so please remember to mute your streaming device press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand and listen for the cue saying that you've been unmuted and additionally please remember to use the non-toll free numbers that are provided and should you be concerned with charges we recommend that you call in at the beginning of public comment and again please press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand for any items on consent I'd like to ask if there are any council members who would like to pull any item from consent numbers 7 to be 17 with the exception of item number 12 being no council members who would like to pull items on our consent agenda I'll move it over to public comment this is an opportunity to comment on items that have not been pulled from our consent agenda items numbers 7 to 17 so if any member of the public would like to speak to these items now is the time to call in once you've called in please press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand and you will be given two minutes to comment on items on our consent agenda number 7 to be 17 with the exception of item number 12 economic activity due to the government state county and cities response to COVID this is due to the constantly changing goalposts for flatten the curve than having somewhat arbitrary declines in tested cases of COVID required not deaths, arbitrary designations of essential workers and no real change of course despite new information that is now available mysterious political objections to examine all kinds of different approaches and treatments a decline in human rights where healthy people are essentially put under house arrest or fined who are not sick and there's so many questionable declarations of death by COVID the big money available for providers for COVID and the gold rush by big pharma to name a few at this point isn't it about time you specify exactly under what conditions your emergency declarations would cease especially since you're under no obligation to declare emergencies just because other authorities do if you are please explain how that choice has been removed from an independent body we now find out the virus is quite small and isn't really stopped by cloth masks, cloth masks provide a false sense of security we find out huge swaths of the population at risk of dying at all we find that in some cases 90% of false positive test results are from COVID RNA remnants which can exist months after someone was actually no longer capable of transmitting COVID we find out as a national city authorities had contract tracing results from the public that indicate that bars, restaurants were responsible for only a tiny fragment of cases and the vast majority came from nursing homes and construction I would ask what have we learned so far from contact tracing and what proof exists that it is actually slowing the spread of COVID since it is such a time sensitive and individual right sensitive process this seems increasingly like a government power grab blindly executed without regard for in many cases common sense and the fact individuals are actually better at evaluating personal risk management than the government given real information are there any other members of the public who would like to comment on items number 17 to 17 with the exception of item number 12 now is the time to call in please press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand and you'll be given two minutes in a speaker you've been providing opportunity to speak good afternoon City of Santa Cruz City Council my name is James Ewing Whitman this relates to several different subjects the citizens on patrol how many refer you may refer to me as Miss Millwright as all the inhabitants on planet earth are heading into a Bolshevik winner at best for the middle part I'm going to have to mute you and pause your comments this is to comment on items that are our consent agenda if you'd like to comment on items that aren't on our agenda you can call back in during oral communications which will occur after item number 20 but for right now if you could please identify the items on our agenda that you like to speak to we will provide you with two minutes to speak you could just answer a question for me please and that would be at what time do you think public comments is going to be open thank you just looking at our agenda today estimating that oral communications will occur around five but again we've been it might go longer we're anticipating that we're going to have oral communications after item number 20 council members thank you very much I will go back to work and I will get back on this later thank you so much seeing no further comments I'd like to bring it back to council for actions deliberation there are council members who would like to move the consent agenda council member Watkins council member Golder council members see hands raised but I think those might have been for second but council member Matthews or Brown yes I'd just like to make a comment on item number 11 I appreciate the motivation behind this as I reviewed it I found that there were many assertions and conclusions etc that I felt didn't have adequate documentation and I didn't see the direct nexus with the city and so I would like to register a no vote on that one exclusively council member Brown I just wanted to make a statement about this particular agenda item it was brought to us by members of the community who are part of a broader friendship and solidarity network to end the embargo and to work with Cuba to list restrictions on collaboration with Cuban medical professionals I know that they had planned to participate in making some statements and so a couple of them have indicated to me that they've had trouble getting on the call and I don't know if they're not trying anymore I just wanted to speak to say that was the intention to give a little more background on this and this is definitely a resolution that is intended to suggest that the city supports lifting those restrictions on medical cooperation with Cuban professionals they've been to over 20 countries and 1200 medical professionals right now helping to save lives around the COVID-19 pandemic in other countries they're not able to come to the United States due to our 70-year embargo and this was just a piece of that that broader effort that we wanted to highlight so that's why it's here and thank you for your consideration and I guess I'll say that on behalf of the local group as well thank you Councilmember Watkins some of the outcomes of it and I just I'm very supportive of healing the relationship with Cuba and understand their benefits in the medical world I learned a lot from asking different folks in the medical field about the history of Cuba with regards to some of the things that they can provide I'm just going to register and know I'm just not quite clear how this completely fits into some of our goals and objectives so thank you for bringing it forward though and that's that thank you you would want to return with it form our decision as we move forward but absent that information I too don't feel comfortable moving forward at this time so I'll go ahead and register and know unless you want to maybe postpone it and I know if you said people can't maybe we want to have their voices heard as well it's hard for me to imagine that we're not going to have the same kind of technical difficulties in every meeting we kind of seem to so I'm not sure that that's going to get to getting folks on the line unless we better coordinate that and make our meetings more accessible to the public but in terms of getting your questions answered I'd be happy to save this for our next meeting and get you know if you want to send me those questions I'll make sure they get answered but having not asked that it be pulled I'm just wondering Tony if you can advise on how to make the most sense so I'm wondering if you can hear me at this point yeah yeah I mean if somebody wants to pull it fine and that's fine with me but I'm not going to pull it if you want to vote it down as far as the consent agenda you know I'm just going to say we often have these resolutions that are largely symbolic and meant to demonstrate our values and our interest in medical internationalism seems like a good one but if it's not something that folks are willing and able to do today then go ahead and pull it and move that it be deferred is there a member of the council who wishes to pull on to number 11 council member Watkins I'll pull item number 11 and at which time I'll move that it's deferred item number 11 has been pulled and so now we're voting and commenting on item numbers 7 through 17 with the exception of item numbers 11 and 12 council member Byers sorry I was back to the other one my hand has been up so real quick I think for me I believe council member Brown answered it it appears to me it's symbolic there's nothing in it causing our city to do anything or take a position it just is a symbolic gesture so anyway I think you conferred that when you confirmed that feeling when you just spoke so that's how I wanted to say okay so item number 11 has been pulled along with item number 12 looking for a I think we had a motion on the consent of council member Watkins and Golder so I guess we'll go ahead and ask the clerk to call a vote call roll call vote on items number 7 through 17 with the exception of item numbers 11 and 12 thank you council member Byers for 11 which was pulled and also asked the city attorney had a public comment on this item do you need to return a public comment member of the public who asked to speak on this item has already spoken then no action deliberation and so I'll look for a motion on this item council member Watkins I'll move that we defer it is possible even hear from our local agency around their thoughts on this motion by council member Watkins for the motion I'll go ahead and second that motion that come back with the request that come back at the next meeting I would just say this is absolutely not urgent and it might be result in a better product they just defer to a future meeting and give the supporters time to understand the objections and rework the agenda items without being specific on the date just to bring this back at a future meeting after providing more information to council members or is that captured correctly well not that the make of the motion just restate the motion I think to defer information to help us better understand the intention behind the resolution as well as if possible to hear from HSA their interests I was yes thank you okay and do a roll call vote on items by Senator Myers myself voting in favor and council member Brown voting opposed agenda well actually we have one more item which was pulled from our content agenda so it will be heard next which is the award contract for mixed use library owners representative contract to grip and constructions over to staff from our economic development department Amanda Rotella and Bonnie Lipscomb council member Matthews yeah if I could just mention here I will be leaving the meeting at this point as announced previously I have a conflict of interest on this so I'm going to close out on the meeting and we'll watch it on TV thank you thank you mayor and council members I'm going to just briefly introduce the item particularly just a little context of moving it to the regular agenda from consent and then turn it over to our project manager Amanda Rotella who's going to give an overview of the proposal contract and work scope and process to date so I first just want to acknowledge the volume of correspondence we received on this item and a desire to clarify questions that have been raised by members of the public for letters that the council received that we received over the last day and we really do recommend the full transparency and having it on open session I will say that from a process standpoint we were following up on a previous direction from council on the June 23rd meeting which was to hire an owner's representative to represent and work with staff and act on the city's behalf to move some very complicated elements of this project forward so from a staff perspective we were following through on prior council direction which is why we placed it on consent but we had already prepared a presentation just recognizing there's a lot of public interest in this project so apologize for any confusion that caused in the community for those who are following this project closely and we're available to answer questions and would like to have the opportunity to address some of the questions raised in the public correspondence we're on agenda today because it's approximately three months from the council direction on June 23rd when you directed us to come back within three months I will say the direction on the 23rd was about two pages of direction to staff at that point we did voice some concern over our ability to be able to provide that list of responses and work product at that time however we did commit to coming forward with the owners representative contract which is why we are here today we're in the final stages of negotiating some of the elements of that contract which is why we came forward today to ask for your support for moving forward on that contract but we don't have that final contract for you today with that said I just briefly wanted to overview that from June 23rd we took about three weeks at the staff level Amanda worked really hard to get the request for proposals out to the public by July 20th we gave consultants and respondent teams one month to reply we received seven robust applications on August 20th and over just the last month we have quickly moved forward to vet those, interview those and make a recommendation of the most qualified consultant for you today and get on the council agenda so I just wanted to clarify that process to date there was a lot of confusion and out there in the community and there was also some comments about housing and housing creation and I would like to overview at the time when it's appropriate related to this item the support of affordable housing actions that we have taken to support this project since the council direction of June 23rd and with that I would like to turn it over to Amanda Rotella who is going to give an overview of the process to date and the proposed consultant work scope thank you good afternoon my name is Amanda Rotella as Bonnie said I'm a principal management analyst in the economic development department and I am working to share my screen here alright there we are so yes as Bonnie mentioned we are bringing forward the contract for owner's rep and again as you mentioned this is following up on direction that we received from you on June 23rd you can see that direct direction there authorized staff to proceed with selection of an owner's rep to manage the overall project so that's what I've been scrolling away at for the last couple of months working forward to bring that before you today and just sort of a recap around next step owner's rep hired is our first step and bringing them on board is really crucial to be able to move forward with the other direction that you provided with us namely direction to return with detailed financial information timeline general schematic all of those require some professional expertise to be brought on board so in particular the owner's rep would be helping us pull together a budget and timeline so those first two bullet points are from the June 23rd direction specifically around that three month deadline which is today so really step one bring on the owner's rep step two bring back this additional information additionally you directed us to work with the owner's rep to hire a design team and which would include a community outreach process and we would need to bring on that design team before we can come back to you with some of those specifics around schematics how all the pieces fit together so kind of just sort of looking at a flow of how this project would go we start with the owner's rep they help us to get additional information around budget and timeline they help us to bring on a design team who then can answer some of those more detailed questions around how all the pieces fit together and really get into the detail so really this is just the step one of keeping us on our really our goal to move this project forward recognizing that delays have cost and so owner's rep is really the professional expertise that are going to help us keep moving this project forward and keep us on time and within budget that's sort of a big piece of why we're bringing on that sort of professional team a little bit of background about the RFP and selection process as Bonnie mentioned we issued this RFP in July of this month it was posted on the city's website in two places on our bidding page and also on the downtown library subcommittees webpage cityofsandcrews.com downtown library so it has been up there since that time we were super excited to receive seven proposals I was blown away I was expecting a lot less and so I was quite pleased to receive so many proposals and so many teams that were interested because we received so many great proposals we interviewed four teams and we had I really appreciated a great panel which had represented some public work planning economic development and also the library so we came together to really review the candidates and come up with a selection and we're very excited about Griffin structures they had a extremely strong proposal and really just really an amazing interview with them they bring four years of experience they have a project team with a variety of expertise that they bring to the table they have experience working on complex mixed-use projects and significant related past experience related to all components of this project that we're bringing forward and included in their team is a community engagement and outreach professional who will be assisting us with the communication piece and part of their proposal included regular updates to the community council and staff they've got sort of a detailed schedule and when those updates go out which we were really excited about knowing that the community is really eager for as much information and updates so that's something that this team brings with them a little bit of background information on the scope that's included in this contract you can see here development of that budget and timeline which is those crucial pieces that we'll be bringing back to you really doing an assessment of our program and the process what is the best way to bring forward which we bring on soliciting of that design team who helps figure out what does the building look like how do all the pieces fit together community engagement piece as part of that and then you can see sort of those additional as we get into the design phase all the documents and processes that are involved and so Griffin would help to oversee all of those things like the permitting process like environmental review and then again having a community engagement and outreach component to this whole thing so we are recommending breaking their scope up into two pieces the RFP included big request that we were looking for someone to manage the whole project from start to finish we decided that it makes a lot more sense to break it into two pieces that we would have this first phase where they would oversee the pre-design design and permitting which would take about two years so let's move this out of the way you can see that will take us until about July 2022 this first initial contract and then at which point we will have a product of what is our building look like what is the design and we would come back to you to issue a second contract for overseeing of the construction phase with that separate scope so you can see here a little bit a sense of how we're breaking those phases up and sort of the timeline for when we we're doing that so this contract will last us the next to the fiscal year we're in now and then fiscal year 2022 and I'm just going to skip over this recommendation and come back to it I did want to let you know that I have also been working hard to update the project page so this is the city of Santa Cruz dot com slash mixed use library page now this page which hopefully will be opening up I'm going to assume yes and so this page I've been updating this was the one that was created back in 2018 when council had voted to move forward with this project so I've updated it with new information and created these little tabs so I've got a project update page which I will be working to update regularly background information everything that all the background materials are here any council meetings that we've had there really trying to get all the information in one page and then I haven't quite built out but I'm in the process of getting set up an FAQ page and then more information about the library programmatic goals and sort of the specifics around that so this page will be available to the community to really again try and keep people as updated as possible I know that there's been a lot of questions and people want to know where we are in the process and again I'm really excited to bring on some of the different structures who can really help me build out some additional capacity in order to get that information out at the moment I'm a one woman show and so I'm really pleased to bring bringing them on to us this so just looking back to our recommendation here before you this is the motion to award a contract for the mixed use library owner's representative for phase one to Griffin structures and it's in the amount of $240,000 agreement in a form as approved by the city attorney and with that I'm here for questions Bonnie is also on the line and I believe we've got Susan Nemitz as well from the library so there's specific questions around that we've got it the whole team here thank you thank you okay that I'd like to open it up to council members for questions with regards to the contract is it possible like can you just walk us through that that process and you know whether the contract will be made public before it's agreed on by council members or there's any way that the public could have could look at the contract that's going to be proposed I think one of the big concerns that I've been hearing is that there's concern that I think there's a lot of concern around the affordable housing piece and how that fits in and any guarantees that that's going to happen within the project mayor if I may I could go over the related this might be the appropriate time to go over the related items around affordable housing that we've been working on since the June 23rd direction from council that do support this project that would be great okay I'm going to attempt to share my screen again okay great so on June 23rd actually on the same agenda as the council direction around the library of mixed use project we had two related actions and this is through our housing division of economic development both of the first two items the state matched for our local trust housing program is for our program for our local affordable housing trust fund that program specifically we were able to leverage to the maximum grant award of five million we had to show matching funds and council did support that action after that meeting we did submit our grant application for the full five million dollar match we are anticipating hearing fairly soon about that reward award and the affordable housing in the library mixed use project is one of the projects that we specifically slated we had to identify projects of which we would use for this funding it received and this is one of the two projects main two projects we mentioned the other project I'll just mention now is the metro south of the metro station 85 unit 100% affordable housing project that you also have approved key actions for and we have additional funding being secured for that project as well so the next item is the state permanent local housing allocation program known as PLHA for that one is a non-competitive grant process but we still had to apply the grant application and meet all of the criteria council you did approve us to submit that application on June 23 we had to submit following your approval a five year plan to HUD and we included in that plan the library mixed use affordable housing project as part of that so the funding that we will receive we'll be able to spend it in each of the next five years will become a permanent affordable housing funding source we will apply the library mixed use project for that 1.5 million over the next period so that was moved forward on the same evening and we submitted that in July and are also waiting for that it's now included in our budget our additional budget amendments that are going forward to council on July second this is related to the front street on purchase and sale agreement for the metro housing project and this is just showing additional affordable housing in the community there's some of the questions to the project that we weren't moving forward on affordable housing actions and we've actually been quite busy this summer on this related project they will potentially share some parking in the library mixed use project which is also one of the reasons I'm mentioning it here we can go forward now and improving 100 percent affordable projects without providing public parking it's ultimately going to be up to you at the council of what level of parking you would like to support these two affordable housing projects I just wanted to mention that we are in the final round for finding out if we've received 10 million of transit oriented development funding from housing and community development for that project and we just received some additional project based vouchers we're now at 47 for that project as well we're having ongoing meetings the Santa Cruz community health center and the interest and working on the actual rendering so we are moving this forward and then at the last meeting in August council you approved the Arbor Cove senior commons lease extension which is a preservation of 35 senior rental apartments and ADA improvements really securing and preserving those affordable units in our community and then just on the last agenda and this is through the work of our community development department council you approved AB 2162 support for supportive housing projects and this will really help move forward housing by right for affordable housing projects in our community specific ones in our community and it does acknowledge at the state level now that for projects 50 units and under they can move forward by right approval in our community for affordable housing with supportive housing development so these are the developments that have happened this summer that support overall affordable housing creation and specifically that support this project we are actively moving forward and securing affordable housing for the library mixed use project it's something we take very seriously at the city we recognize every outreach that we do in the community brings up affordable housing is one of the top issues that our community is facing we recognize we're in a severe housing crisis and we're fully dedicated to having that be part of this project I just wanted to provide a little detail on that specifically because so many members of the public weighed in with those questions thank you and Justin just to answer your question around the contract I as we did with a lot of with the all the proposals we received as part of the downtown library subcommittee I have posted group structures proposal on this website under the background information section so the members of the public can get a sense of what's included in their scope and what was included in the proposal and really the contract is our standard contract and then would include the details that were included in their proposal so that information is available to the public now and I would just add because I forgot Amanda thank you for bringing this up that the group and structures has two specific experts in affordable housing development financing that is part of their team and that was really one element that was made them really stand out from some of the other consultants on this project and was one of the top factors that we really felt strongly about in recommending that we move forward with them councilmember brown and I'll have another question but I'll open up to other councilmembers yeah I so I do have some questions because I feel like there's maybe a little disconnect in my mind at least about the what we're getting today visa visa direction that was given back in June and so I'm just trying to kind of go through here and pull some of them out but the big I guess the big question is you know the direction was to move forward in this way but it also included getting some detailed financial information about each component of the project that and this is kind of just a follow up to Mayor Cummings question and so I'm feeling a little a little I feel like that information is missing and that there could be some steps to help us understand the financial viability before taking on you know this is a pretty significant cost right now when we are in dire financial straits and I recognize that this is dedicated that the measure of funding is dedicated for this purpose but the other funding could be used for other purposes the housing trust and and the parking fund so one I'd be interested in trying to understand how what amount so of the two hundred and forty thousand dollars what where in what amount of the various fund sources that you mentioned in the agenda report how you know how that's broken out that would be one thing and then kind and then kind of following up on that if there's additional information we can get about the financial where the how the parking piece would be financed I recognize that you're working on the affordable housing piece and I absolutely 100% commend you and really really appreciate all the work you do to try to get us access to the greatest resources that we possibly can to subsidize those units but I'm just still a little confused the other piece is you know for the library presentation we got at the committee and we're sort of based on this some additional money needing to be raised you know we are now have 25.5 million for for the my understanding approximately that amount for measure F fund and but there's a gap there right so four to million dollars depending on what version we use and what kind of you know additional internal amenities or features we include so dedicate all time to moving just one project forward but we have a lot of different projects and programs on our plate having Griffin structures on is their primary responsibility making sure that we are looking at the most efficient way and as Amanda said earlier on time and on budget process the 240,000 we have the ability to terminate with ten days notice for any reason whatsoever this contract so if at some point in the process we come forward and this project you know we are able to get a grant award for critical affordable housing financing I don't foresee that happening but if there is some point in the process we can terminate and we will not owe the balance of that contract so we're only going to spend the services rendered by the consultant and in real time and I think that's an important element to convey as far as the four affordable the four funding sources we have four they're briefly referenced in the fiscal impact but we can go into a little more detail it's the affordable housing trust fund it is the measure S funding it is the parking fund we have two $500,000 set aside for parking that were secured through the sale of 100 Laurel Street for the parking division for that offset of that public parking lot coming offline and then as a development public benefit on the sale on the project on 555 Pacific the developer also contributed $500,000 to go towards future parking so we have that as a funding source that is available for this project that we secured specifically for parking so we finally have the economic development trust fund what we plan on doing, what Amanda plans on doing is sitting down with Griffin and going through these four funding sources and looking at a proportionate costing right now just as a benchmark we were just sort of holding 25% for each of these four as how we would set up that project but that could change depending on if we do it by square footage of what that final part of the overall project is we're looking at having an equitable sharing of costs from each of the funding sources that's appropriate so there won't be any subsidizing of measure S funds for parking or any of the other components in the project the ED trust fund is the gap funding for the overall project moving forward you asked about the parking funds and I think Jim Burr is here on the call he could probably specifically provide some feedback on that at this point I will say that is again part of Griffin scope is to really help us finalize in more detail what funding sources we have available what is the correct path forward are we doing parking revenue bonds how can we support that at what point do we need to secure those funding part of securing affordable housing funding for this project in addition to what we've already applied for additional funding for example if we were to move forward and try to secure infrastructure grant funding or affordable housing sustainable community grant funding that are transit oriented development projects we need to have project entitlements for those so there be at certain points in the project funding that's available based on where we are in project approval we've applied for funding for affordable housing trust fund which we can use throughout the process and specifically secure for this project so we do have that in place already this time and you know several million in the works to be able to support this project and with that I think I'll turn it over to Amanda who may have some additional information to provide yeah I mean just wanted to sort of speak to the process again and where we're at and sort of the I think part of the one of the challenges from the 23rd is that we were the last item and it was the 11th you know and so trying to sort of set all of these into a timeline of what needs to come before what so I do apologize that we didn't have a better sense of like how all of the direct all of the council direction sort of lined it up then what needed to come before what you know all of that you know I can certainly work on that now too to try maybe reconstruct and represent that information from that direction so do apologize that there is some you know understanding that there was an expectation that was set up at this meeting that we were going to be able to come forward with information that we just realistically couldn't come forward without having brought on this expertise so I definitely want to you know honor that and and take ownership for that piece but do want to just acknowledge that we do bring on owners reps for projects this isn't a new approach to project management new approved project managers for both the brand supporting Garfield Park libraries we use this for the marine thanks for exploration center the tannery you know bringing on this professional expertise to help the city to be successful so want to just sort of note that there is sort of precedent for going taking this path and using professional project managers to help move forward complex project and with that I don't know if we've got any other departments that want to weigh in specifically regarding the funding pieces not putting anyone on the spot just quickly am I there Jim Burr here transportation manager public works I'm happy to jump in and just quickly remind council that we did bring a whole rate analysis with the potential for funding a new garage in June of 2018 that was a five year plan obviously COVID has had an impact and we won't know the full the full you know impact for you know a few months or maybe even another year out we have recently updated our our permit wait list which is some indication of the demand on parking downtown we found that we did lose almost a couple hundred people off the list due to COVID but we also gained almost 30 we're still at over a thousand people on the wait list for downtown parking permits so I think the downtown is going to bounce back and we're going to come out of this and we're still going to need that supply and again we did establish that rates study to fund the parking portion of the project there was one other thing you mentioned which was air rights and I wanted to just give you a brief response as that was presented we were at that time when we gave an overview of that was related to some work that group four was doing as part of that scope for the council subcommittee and that is one potential funding mechanism if you want to go forward that could be utilized in order to really maximize the air rights fee that a developer would pay we would almost certainly need to have some market rate housing in the project and at this point our feeling is we absolutely are moving forward with the affordable housing if you additionally decide you want to add on top of that some market rate housing to create a fund that can help fill a gap on the library portion that is your direction to make towards us we plan on with Griffin to go forward and see including within the development height envelope that we can do how much additional housing on a market rate to provide over the affordable housing component so I think what we would like to do is bring forward to you some options as far as maximizing number of affordable housing units for a combination of a minimum of 50 affordable housing units and a certain number of market rate and what that development air rights fee potentially could be for the project and really have you make that decision of which direction you'd like to go so that is some future financing work that we need to do for you and we really like to do that with both our internal housing team some of our financial consultants that we use technical assistance for affordable housing and the consultant team on Griffin if that contract if we move forward with that proposal. For me I need to really back up a bit we've gotten tons of details today but before I do that I just want to make clear I understand hiring an owner's representative I'm familiar with it we've done many projects I've been involved in so I'm not I'm not objecting to that and I want to answer Jim regarding the parking garage we have got to have a conversation on that parking garage it's been promised to us but it hasn't happened so for you to just even with COVID making it questionable we need to go over that whole study that was done that I don't think we've gotten into so hopefully that's coming and that's going to be part of this big project we're looking forward to but why I want to back up a bit more than anything I haven't seen anything in writing I cannot move forward on a contract for $240,000 I haven't seen anything in writing I know we've gotten a lot on our screens thank you Bonnie I think you sent it to me I didn't get it I looked at the scoring and I see something from you but I can't the thought of doing $240,000 without seeing what was sent with the scope and what they are providing now I know you've given us enough presentation on it but that's just too much money without looking at the detail I'm disappointed because I think one of the things for the 23rd which to me we've answered all my questions to come with us financials on these projects I think Council Member Brown spoke on that I don't need the details down but just a sense of how we are approaching these three projects whatever it is that you can provide but I was so looking forward with that and then this the $240,000 would fall above that so I want to go back and still ask at some point provide to the Council what we asked you to do the financials not just the financials that you and your staff see on these projects I don't think there's any hurry to come soon and I'm sure everyone wants to keep moving this project along but that was a critical request and sort of the first to start floating us into this financial world so I'm disappointed I don't have that I put out right now I still have not seen either the well I think we did talk about what we asked the consultant to do but getting back from what I've just heard today I did not convince that this consultant will do the financials that I was looking forward within these last three months so I can't possibly be ready to vote on this I think all Council people should have this in front of them it's $240,000 I just hope that there'll be more discussion about it the little pieces I think I understand where we're going to get a consultant absolutely we're going to need to do that I wouldn't doubt it at all but I do hope there's a lot more discussion like on the parking garage and on the affordable units and thank you Bobby you've done great work on affordable units this summer I know you've been very busy so far keep approving them but anyway let me just I think I don't need to say it over and over again I just need to study these things and not just give a presentation on Zoom any other questions from Council members at this time a couple follow-up questions first one is there any way to estimate the cost of the housing and the parking components just to get a sense of based on the schematics provided by Group 4 and knowing that there's conversations with some affordable housing developers is there any way to get estimates on what the parking is we know what the library costs will be is there any way to get any kind of just based estimate on the parking and housing we could I think the challenge is putting a number out there publicly when we're not quite sure yet because that really influences cost so for example if we're doing a double loaded corridor versus a single loaded corridor how we're stacking those units what efficiencies we're able to make is going to be based on the layout and the design of the project we had had some feedback from Council and some of the versions of the library where we had a skylight going all the way up with open and some garden that's coming in and so changes what the housing can be on top as well so we'll assume 300,000 per unit could be a ballpark estimate for the cost of affordable housing development but that number can go up significantly or down significantly depending on how many units we have and what some of the other efficiencies are so I think to give you a really accurate number we again we would like to have just a little more fleshed out with what design we're going for and then we can cost that out so typically for a project that's 50 million or more that were a standalone affordable housing project that could be anywhere from 30 million and up so we can come back with that detailed information but it seemed a little premature to put real numbers out to the public when we don't have yet you know a design or even a conceptual design that the council has supported that we could then provide costing for we did include in the presentation by group 4 and Amanda's presentation previously earlier in the summer estimates for the library portion that was specifically a scope that you had to move forward on as part of the council subcommittee work so we did provide that information but to really do accurate cost modeling around the affordable housing we're going to need to have you know more information on the project that's going to be forthcoming after we hire specific consultants so that's why we don't have that now we have very general estimates and we could you know separately we can bring something forward and talk about that sooner than later but it seemed premature to put real public numbers out there yet when we don't have what that design will be and I think just to reiterate you know we think about all the work that we did on the library as part of the downtown library subcommittee we had to bring on professional architect consultants to get us those really rough you know get us those estimates around what a renovation would cost what a mixed youth project would cost and so without that expertise it's hard to be able to put those hard numbers I mean you know you looked at the two volume report that group 4 put together in an attempt to get to those numbers and so we you know as I mentioned in my presentation really going to need to bring on this professional design you know consultants team to help us get to those numbers and it's sort of a difficult cart before the horse thing knowing that you want that information but that there are kind of these other steps that we need to get to before we can you know have those hard firm numbers recognizing that it's not a straightforward number it's dependent on a lot of other things okay and then I guess I'm wondering if somebody from transportation can comment on the parking if there's a way to get an estimate of what you know based on what we heard from group 4 around the 400 space parking garage how much that would cost hi Jim Bergen yeah we did the original rate study again that was June of 2018 I believe based on one of the first concept designs which I believe was between 23 and 27 million for the parking piece that footprint has now shrunk with the as a result of sort of a remix of the use on the property and I would expect that number to come down although we're we're fighting inflation and especially construction inflation as the longer we move forward without building so that's what the original estimates were based on and we estimated a 30 year bond payment for that price tag we inflated it somewhat in an estimated 30 years and set the five-year rate study appropriate to pay back that bond does that answer your question yeah someone and I have a follow-up I'm just curious because I think that from what some of my colleagues have said there's kind of an interest in having some of these estimates in a report that they can read and that the public can read before making a final decision I'm just kind of wondering how we might be able to put some of this information together for the public so that people can understand more or less what the costs are, what the sources of funding there are opportunities for funding so it sounded like for example if we get to some of the later phases and design and moving forward there might be other state funding for affordable housing but I'm just wondering I'm trying to address some of the concerns from the community to see how we might be able to put this information together and report what the timeline might be in order to do that if I could just sort of jump in just because I was recently working on this the web page that has the background information I have detailed every single council meeting where this has been discussed and I give a little blurb about the information that was provided so I've provided links to the meetings and the staff reports and any attachments so for example the meeting that Jim is referring to where they came forward with the downtown parking rate I'm looking at it now it was June 19th 2018 we had a study session so there are links to all that information from that report and again you know I've launched it all the way back to 2016 where we received that initial council direction to do that exploratory work so just as a resource so people know that that's there that I've gone through and wanted to make it really easy for people to get the background and find all the information so that does exist as sort of background materials and as we receive more information as we move forward on this process we'll be posting that information as well to the site that Amanda is the very robust site that Amanda has been building yeah I think that's great and I'm so glad that information is available on there I just think that for some folks when they see the reports come forward and they tend to not remember or know where the information is so I'm just wondering if moving forward we can have some kind of summary of where people can find information or people are interested in knowing more about parking or affordable housing or even having information about what sources of funding can help pay for the project and what are the different phases for that to happen at the state level if we move into design this funding will be available for affordable housing what we currently have just so that people are aware because I think that sometimes it becomes difficult to find this information as well so I think that will be useful and then I did have a question I know when we were having these when the subcommittee had met there had been conversations well we had been made aware that some affordable housing developers had stepped forward and had mentioned that they were interested in potentially being involved in building the projects I was wondering if you could speak to that who some of those people are and are there still conversations happening yeah so we separately but in anticipation of the fact that we have a council direction this ties all the way back to the housing blueprint subcommittee work to look at the city's surface loss and city-owned property for the potential development of affordable housing in our community so we specifically with sort of the metro project in mind potentially this project in mind and other opportunities on city lots put out a request for qualifications to affordable housing developers trying to think exactly when we put that out I want to say we did that in the spring but we received nine robust responses and actually it was from that pool that we put out a subsequent and really worked with selecting for the future housing for the metro 85 unit project going forward so we right now have a qualified pool as I said it was nine developers there's five that have projects that they've done in the greater sort of Bay Area that are interested in developing affordable housing in our community particularly if there is city both funding and or land available it becomes very attractive for affordable housing developers if they know they have a city partner that's either providing the land or has the funding to subsidize any gap financing on the project so we had a very robust response from very well known affordable housing developers we can separately come forward to you with an overview of that just from the previous council discussion on the item earlier there was an interest in coming back around housing I know for some time we talked about housing having a housing study session so we could bring some of that information back to you okay thanks Vice Mayor Meyers the point in time that we are in with this project I'm thinking back to some of the big projects we've approved this year literally on consent even bigger projects some of our water projects are in the 60 million range and I think there's a process around hiring the companies that we need to actually accompany our limited staff so that we need these projects up and running and the best way to ensure that the investment that the taxpayers have made really is to hire a qualified firm that can really provide the robust information that we need to move forward so I see this initial contract as a really our due diligence first step to be spending the resources smartly to have a company that has the breadth of experience and expertise across both affordable housing as well as libraries and the parking garage so I think in a sense if you're going to hire a contractor to build your house or an architect to design a new house for you this is our due diligence step and this is the team who will actually advocate and review the information that really fits into the vision for what was approved three months ago and so I think this is I just hope my colleagues understand we can't get to understanding all the specifics until we start with the first step and the first step is the contract I did review the contract last night and I feel like based on some of the firms that I looked at through there I just feel like we've got a really qualified candidate and excited to get them on board I do worry that as we continue to sort of look for those bigger answers that we're losing resources as we go and so you know in a sense that inflation does continue and I think it's important that we move forward at some point I don't know if we'll do that today but I very much appreciate all my colleagues comments today but I really do believe that this is our due diligence for step and that's the right way to do a big project like this so I know there's a lot of questions about what's ahead but you know I think back on the tannery project which you know is a project that everyone loves in this town I remember looking at those reports the amount of due diligence the architects, the engineers the cost estimators these projects are so complicated and at the end of the day there's going to be dozens of people who advise us and try to bring home a project that you know when you build a project for government you want to do it in an efficient way and send those resources as effectively as possible so you know we've done projects like this we can do this project we can meet the objectives of our community which is affordable housing a new library and replace parking downtown we have reduced the amount of parking downtown by over you know a couple hundred parking spaces so again this is our very first step I think we just continue to bring additional really qualified resources into this complicated project and I think we'll succeed in the end so I want to thank the staff they've been on a wild ride over the last few months to carry a project like this in normal times is hard to carry a project like this while also trying to you know save our local businesses you know get people the information they need out of federal government funding it's amazing that this even got done so I really want to compliment Bonnie and Amanda because you're carrying a heavy load from COVID and you know so just thank you and for the public to know what they're able to do on top of all the other things around trying to save our local businesses and everything else this is a heavy lift and I'd really like to see us try to get this let's get this moving thank you I share some of the same sentiments that Vice Mayor Meyers was expressing and I would like to say I don't think $240,000 has Trump changed but I do think it's a small investment compared to what the overall cost of the project is going to be and I think it's responsible for the city because they don't have the expertise in this kind of like niche building to hire an outside firm with experience in bringing these projects to fruition and I think ultimately this investment in their services will save the taxpayers Santa Cruz money in the end and make sure that the project can be completed with with all of everybody's vision kind of in there and hopefully you know under or at budget so when it's time after public comment I'm prepared to make a motion to recommend the contract Vice Mayor Meyers I just wanted to add one more thing I think the staff mentioned this but we have approved two other library contracts so far Susan Nimitz who is really heading up all the library related aspects of this she was constantly updating us on the cost projections library during our committee work so I really appreciated that and you know she is well on her way to completing really amazing libraries for our broader community around the county the Felton Library is absolutely stunning it's an amazing place and so we do have real-time cost estimates I think there's a lot of due diligence pieces in place already because Susan is literally building four libraries right now and so we are going to have current costs we're going to have engaged contractors who have built those types of buildings bidding on this so this is not a one-shot deal Susan is deep in this she's been in it for over two and a half years now I really feel like we're very we can have a really well informed process to get this up and ready so just wanted to add that as well thank you and I will second the motion are there any further questions I'm actually going to ask what we hold off on making motions until after we hear from the public since we haven't I actually opened this up to public comment yet so if there are no further questions on this item then I'm going to turn it over to the public for public comment so if there are any members of the public who would like to comment on item number 12 related to the mixed use contract proposal now it's the time to call in there are numbers on your screen the toll free numbers have not been working so please make sure to call the non toll free numbers if you'd like to comment on this item once you've called then please press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand when the when you have been called upon you'll be asked to unmute your phone and you'll be given two minutes to comment on this item Donna Murphy and I'm speaking in support of moving forward with the appointment of an owner's representative for the downtown library mixed use project please remember the voices not in the room are on the line our children and teens low income citizens and seniors who use the library for community internet services information and critical resources think of the 50 or so families that can have affordable housing downtown and think of the workers commute into downtown every delay costs money and time this project needs to move forward further delay serves no one please approve the owner's representative and keep this important resource on track next caller you're on the line was to take in which is the situation we're in economically right now we lost a number of businesses already downtown 99 bottles poet and patriot tone of wine grilled nurse salon the square salvation army Walgreen Starbucks and I could keep going those folks are more in touch with the depth of the recession than we are but the public's going to look to the council to see how it's spending its money in these times you know Jim Burr mentioned that there was a study in 2018 about the financing model for the for the garage portion I want to read to you part of that study this is done by a firm called economic and planning systems it says the model in other words the city's model does not evaluate a worst case scenario for parking revenues where a major recession occurs the model is not worth much right now go back to the drawing board but more than that it needs to look at you know the the economics of parking study that was done and paid for by the city but has not come to the council and just to give a spoiler alert that Nelson Nygaard in that study said the most fiscally prudent approach to accommodating additional parking demand is to modernize parking management and better aligned parking prices to the cost of building and maintaining the system so nothing about a new garage was endorsed by Nelson Nygaard now folks I've heard talk of due diligence today but I really can't understand anybody on the council who would think you're doing due diligence if you have not heard from Nelson Nygaard in a $100,000 study that the city commissioned if you have any to hear it thank you again if there's any member of the public who'd like to call in to comment on the contract for the use developed for the library project now's the time to call in please make sure that you use the non toll free numbers that are on your screen and when you would like to speak please press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand you will then be unmuted and you will be given two minutes to speak visionist history whereby staff has changed the narrative again the minutes of your June 23rd meeting which were approved by you council in August are a public record these minutes include your directive to staff to return no later than three months with specified information three months is today on August 25th even the city manager repeated information requested would be available to council by September 22nd now the environmental development department web page claims that the owner's representative will provide the information sometime in the future this blatant manipulation of the public record must stop the fight in the June 23rd minutes to be made available to the council no later than September 23rd if any council member disagreed with the June 23rd minutes they should have had them corrected for the record in August no one did that the economic development department and the council is considering revising history once more this is outrageous I ask you not to approve this contract until Edd can come back with some ballpark figures they ought to have ballpark figures at the very least thank you next speaker good afternoon this is Pauline Shields representing 1600 members in Santa Cruz climate action network so I'm going to try to be brief we don't want it the vast number of people in the city who we have talked to and we've talked to very many don't like this project at all they voted for a library update and they will say we never voted for this we don't need it Rick Bonginanti mentioned that and COVID a lot of people will still be riding the bikes they just bought and will still be working from home and that will leave the city struggling to try to pay this huge debt that they will take out building this unneeded garage there are other ways to get affordable housing and this is just a really long project to be pursuing the recent fires nobody's mentioned that yet weeks ago we were choking on smoke climate change is here now and it's going to get worse and we have to make drastic changes business as usual is completely unacceptable around the world many cities are making drastic moves to become sustainable cities building a new garage is completely wrong thank you for all your hard work and thank you for allowing me to speak thank you I'm Morgan and I'm speaking on behalf of the Sierra Club formal final important consideration of this council when it makes its vote even governance that is fiscally responsible I'm speaking on moving ahead demonstrates to the community and the council more details on which to make a vote with an owner's representative to date fundamental details are lacking specifics on affordable housing units not available to the city council or to the public we were calling on another speaker I'm speaking on the line I'm a city miller I'm a long time Santa Cruz city resident with both in favor awarding the mixed use library owners representative contract to different structures incorporated it is high time for the new downtown library mixed use project to move forward since time is of the essence in this matter retaining different structures as the owners representative to expedite the design construction of this needed facility with a wise and prudent action do not be distracted from a few. Rather, keep your eye on the benefits this project will provide to the people. A vibrant new library with dedicated space for children, teens, and the community at large. Fifty or more affordable housing units in the heart of our downtown. Permanent home for the farmer's market. And a shared-use parking facility to serve lower Pacific Avenue businesses. Affordable housing projects. And the health care clinics planned for this part of the town. Everyone knows time is money. Do not waste any more of our hard-earned tax dollars. Move forward with this next step. Good afternoon, Mayor, Council Members. My name is Robert Singleton. I'm speaking on behalf of the Council moving forward by getting an owner's representative. I think this project has gone through a lot of different iterations, has responded to a lot of public feedback, but is ultimately still an incredibly valuable project for the future of our downtown. And the major decision to move forward with this project has already been taken by this Council. So this is really just more of a procedural vote to make sure that we have a really strong advocate to make sure that we're getting the best deal for our taxpayer dollars. This project has morphed multiple times in responding to people's criticisms about parking. You all passed a recommendation that caps the number of parking spaces at 200. So I don't know why people keep saying that there's going to be a six-story monstrosity parking garage when you guys have actually cut it by more than half. And that the number of parking spaces proposed in this final project is actually less than we're expecting to lose over the next five years anyway. So downtown is going to have less parking in the future. Hopefully a big, brand-new library. Hopefully at least 50, perhaps as many as 100 deed restricted affordable housing units that you guys can actually help build as part of your explicit goals under the housing blueprint and your general plan and everything else we've wanted to do to help promote more affordable housing, especially near transit in downtown. So I just do not see why people are still trying to drag their feet on a procedural vote when you guys should be moving forward, getting the best deal for our taxpayer dollars and making sure that we're following through getting more affordable housing downtown, a brand-new library, and just mitigating the loss of parking that we're expecting over the next couple years. So please move forward. Please approve an owner representative on behalf of this project. Thank you. Thank you. Speaking online. Next speaker you've unmuted yourself. We're ready for your comments. Jane Barb with Eden Housing. Thank you for allowing me to talk today. I'm calling in support of the approval of the contract for the mixed-use project. It needs to get moving forward. It's a project that needs to be on time and a lot of time has passed since the bond was approved in 2016. It's appropriate to have a mixed-use project downtown. It will solve three problems. Need for a new and large library that will serve the city residents. Needed parking as you lose other parking lots to development and desperately needed affordable housing. The time frame is so tight that I encourage the city and the consultant to select affordable housing developer as soon as possible to get them into the process and give them the time needed to get approved for state funding and other funding needed to build affordable housing. Eden Housing is very interested in this project and we did respond to the city's RFQ. Whether or not we're a select or someone else, I urge you to move forward as quickly as possible and improve this contract today. Thank you. Council members can you hear me? Again. My name is John Hall. I'm asking you to postpone consideration of the agenda item until city staff provide the financial report that council directed them to provide so that a council meeting can give full and do fiscal consideration to appointing an owner's representative. The public is not confused and this is not a procedural vote. The city council voted to direct a financial report from staff concerning all components of the project within three months. For now, a firm providing those financial details about the components in an August meeting and staff have not provided a detailed financial report. These are uncertain economic times. The city faces $30 million deficit, spending $240,000 to hire an owner's representative without knowing where the rest of the money's coming from would be like trying to buy a house without having any way to pay for it. The bank wouldn't lend the money. The seller wouldn't take the deal. Staff ought to have a great deal of information and it's given little tidbits today. The council is obligated to consider them in a sober and thoughtful way, not just in an off-the-cuff presentation. You need to know whether funding was awarded for affordable housing grant applications. You need to know where the city is going to get an estimated four to six million dollars of additional funding for the library, something that the presenters have ducked to question. They've ducked today. You need to know whether construction costs, bond funding, and parking revenue projections pencil out for a garage that's actually unneeded, and yes, it would be six doors. I'm well aware that a majority of you voted in June to move ahead with an excuse project, but you did not vote to put the cart before the horse. The council should postpone expenditure of any money until you get these answers. Thanks for your work and your consideration. I'm on Karen Simmons. Thank you for allowing me to speak. This card and horse analogy I want to just mention that that requires a hitch and that hitch is the public and this public has tried in this very difficult format and in many ways to say that this court card and this horse are not compatible and that we are not going to use the hitch to get that cart and horse together to move this forward. Again, the three components, the affordable housing, the library, and the garage do not have to be put into a multi-use project. And I am speaking on behalf of Downtown Commons and that lot is one of the last big open spaces that could be used for outside use. And in this time of the last six months, we all understand what that means and our city doesn't really have that. And I just want to mention all the losses we will have because of this multi-project, even though those three components can be, you know, we can still have those three things. You know, we will lose the 116-year-old side of the library and we will shatter that civic center triangle that I went and saw the Black Lives Matter paintings when they were making it and that that feeling there of having that as a civic triangle was very powerful. So I just want to mention again what we're losing with this multi-site project, how every day the dollars towards renovating the library where it is is diminishing and diminishing. And so therefore, please do not hire that consultant today. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, you're on the line. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, good afternoon. Good afternoon, Mayor Tonings and City Council members. This is Lisa Ekstrom, Santa Cruz resident. And I'm calling to say please postpone awarding the owner's representative contract. In June, as we've all been discussing, this council directed the city staff to provide the detailed financial information and other important reports within three months and those necessary reports haven't been provided yet. It doesn't make sense and it's not responsible to pay out almost a quarter of a million dollars to hire a company to provide these crucial reports. We've also already paid out 100,000 for a related downtown parking strategic plan that's never been completed or submitted to City Council. So to award the owner's representative contract without the basic financial due diligence would be irresponsible at any time. But in the crises that we now find ourselves facing, this would not just be irresponsible. It would be unconscionable. Don't spend $240,000 on this contract until we can see the finances will actually be there. Thank you so much for your time and your consideration and your hard work. Thank you for your call. Speaker, you're on line. We've heard Bonnie Lipscomb say that you will be hearing fairly soon about this $5 million match and other grant monies. Well, we can postpone this award of this Gryphon contract until we do hear because we have no idea if the money will be there. Other people have spoken more articulately than I will be able to. But for Council Member Golder to be prepared to make a motion prior to even hearing public comment really is disappointing. So three years ago, Nolan Tant provided timeline. Jason Architects came up with the timeline for the library. Group four came up with the timeline. Now we're paying again for a timeline. This complicated project was bad from the start. And as others have said there are other places to provide affordable housing. Everybody wants that low income housing specifically, I believe. So I think it's premature to award this contract. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm on. Can I be heard at this time? Yes. Good afternoon. Go ahead. Yeah, my name is M. DeBrendon. I'm your representative to the Downtown Commission currently, and we have been going through a lot of sobering numbers with regard to parking income. So obviously these are extremely challenging times with record unemployment among our city population income starting to run out from the federal pandemic program. Every dollar that we spend is coming out of our pockets and we trust all seven of you to be extremely careful about that money. Now we can all agree to disagree whether we're supporting this project, okay? But the real issue comes down to whether or not there are dollars there to actually build it. And the fact that there may be a $5 million grant that may come forward, why would we spend a quarter million dollars now without knowing that we have money to make this project happen? I asked all of you on the council, especially Justin Cummings, who said the key to this project for him was low income and affordable housing to make sure that that money is there before we waste $240,000 that could be spend on low income housing instead of hiring a consultant that we may never need to use because we don't have the monies to make this project happen. So without due respect, I would request that you postpone this and identify the funds for this project. I understand that well-meaning people can be on either side of the Taj Garage issue, but I think it's highly irresponsible, especially for those that are on the ballot in November to be throwing a quarter million dollars at this without knowing where the rest of the money is coming from. So please postpone this decision. Thank you for your comments. Before the next speaker speaks, I'd just like to say that if there's any member of the public who's called in who has not had a chance to speak now at the time, press star nine on your phone to raise your hand if you'd like to comment on this item. If there are no new speakers by the end of the current speaker, we'll move on to, we'll close public comment and move on to action and deliberation. So next speaker, you can go ahead. Can you hear me? That's good afternoon. Hi, thanks Mayor Cummings. My name is Kelsey Hill. I'm a community member in C Bright and also a candidate for Santa Cruz City Council. I'm concerned with the way this body is moving forward with this contract, especially by way of signaling an intent to motion before the public has been heard. In my view, the project has exemplified the gap between this council and the willingness to hear, truly hear the concerns of the public for a multi-million dollar project. I want to echo sentiments expressed by council members, Brown and Byers that $240,000 should not be approved in the challenging budgetary times we are in without those ballpark figures. There's been discussion of proper investment of taxpayer dollars, the sense of urgency to get this project moving, how this opposition to the project is a small minority, but moving forward with business on the premise that we'll have a better idea of our finances after we reward a contract is not sustainable governing in a COVID-19 recession. It's also not acceptable to me that community members are being dismissed in their concerns over the lack of a financial report. I appreciate the time given to me and for all the community members and staff giving attention to this important issue. And I urge the council to postpone the contract approving this project. Thank you so much. I'm a resident of Santa Cruz and represent Santa Cruz seniors for housing. Project really needs to move forward. Building affordable housing in a new library are both desperately needed by the city. I'm calling in a way on behalf of the many young and lower income users of the library, as well as the future occupants of the low income units that will be provided. Stalling this project only increases the cost of the project and does nothing to address the concerns regarding costs, which can only increase as time goes on. And it was my understanding from the staff report that the consultant, we're not just writing a check for a quarter of a million dollars, the consultant only gets paid for the amount of work that he does, much of which will actually be to help us learn more about the future costs of the of the project. And the existing library can't be renovated without a year, at least no library, which is really difficult for the many users who are dependent upon it. So I'm asking you to please move forward today with hiring a project manager so that we can get this done for the future of the city. Thank you. And council members, I'm Ron Pomerance. Staff certainly has the part way before the horse in this complicated public works project. A primary task of the contract should be budget oversight. That's pretty rough when there's no budget to have any oversight over, especially when the vital information was promised before this development proceeds and your vote should be taken today. How can this controversy and critical agenda item beyond consent is staff trying to keep the public out of the public process? With a rooming budget catastrophe due to the impacts of COVID-19 crisis, please hold this money for essential city services and workers till the budget sky clears. The significant expenditure of nearly a quarter million dollars is a non essential use. Additional parking isn't needed anytime soon, if ever. The library's happy in its current location. The city has more affordable housing projects on paper than it can manage. Based on past history, the Town Square idea for the farmers markets gaining support needs further community awareness, understanding and conversation. There's no hurry to move this project today. Where's the contract in the staff report for the public to review? There's so many unanswered questions, everything from the ownership of the land and the buildings to the designing of the space, from the amount and sources of funding for the promised affordable housing to financing the parking garage and library. The staff report only says that the first phase by Griffin will include, quote, include pre-designed, designing and permitting. There's nothing about a budget. Where's the contract? There's nothing complications of this Frankenstein project is designed to get council member votes without the implications being adequately thought through. This agenda item appears as a slight hand by staff to ban blues and the council and the public. Please postpone the decision today. Thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration. Hey, thank you. What's that? We're going to close out public comment on this item. I would like to ask that we take a quick, oh, it looks like we have one more person who wants to comment on this item. You may want to turn down your streaming device, we can hear it, and we might start getting an echo if you don't turn it down. Okay, hold on. You sound great. You have two minutes. Hello? Can you hear me now? Yep, we can hear you. Go ahead. We can hear you. Hello? We can hear you. Yes, we can hear you. You're now muted, so if you could please unmute your phone. If you've been unmuted, you can go ahead. Can you hear me now? Yes, hi. This is Mark Lee. I want to make sure I appreciate what the city is doing and in terms of working on the various alternatives for the community. But the garage library is too premature. It is too early to make a decision on hiring a owner's representative. There's some solutions, structures, I'm sorry. There are many people that are still growing in numbers within the city of Santa Cruz who favor and still favor the development or renovation of the main library downtown on Church Street. Likewise, there's a growing number of citizens during these difficult times. They want to retain the farmer's market where it's at and make it into a community commons at a less costly price than the taxpayers. What are you committing to this project that's estimated to cost an excess of $87 million is not the right time. Right now, the library on Church Street is now underused and not even open. This is the perfect time to be in renovating with the $23.5 million that was available under Measure S that we all voted for. So, we don't have to make a decision to make sure and I appreciate that we postpone any awarding of a contract to Griffin Solutions at this time. Thank you. Before we get started, I'm going to ask that we take maybe a five minute break. We've been sitting since, I think, 9.30 in this morning. So I just want to give people an opportunity to stretch their legs and use any facilities that are necessary. So we'll come back. I'm sorry I caught my hand up because I've been trying to communicate that I think once again, as I often do, I'm getting messages from people saying they're trying to raise their hands and are not being called upon. So if you see a number on there that ends in 4965, if you could give that person an opportunity to speak. And for members of the public, if you'd like to speak, please press star nine on your phone. That will allow you to raise your hand and you'll be given two minutes. Council Member Brown, can you repeat the last four digits of the number? 4965. I don't have anyone with those last four digits. Okay. So the person said they tried four times to press star nine four times now. So I don't know. I just don't see the last four digits of that number. So I mean, there are people on here, some of whom have spoken, some of whom have not, but it's difficult to discern between them if they don't have their hands raised. So again, if anyone would like to comment on this item, now's the time, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand. And you'll be given two minutes to speak. I know we have a Council Member who already said they were interested in making a motion. I think if before we take a break, I would say it'd probably be ideal for the community as well just to kind of close out this item. So I would advocate that we have a break after we're able to finish off this item. I would very much appreciate that. I think that if we can take a short break because as I mentioned, like we've been sitting since 9.30 and I think some of us don't have an opportunity to kind of walk away and so if the maker of the motion wants to make the motion, I, for example, I need to go into the facilities. So I think that if we can all take a break before we begin action and deliberation, I think that would be better so that we can start and continue to do this item after that point. So members of the public, we'll take a brief break. We'll reconvene at 2.30. And so if people need to use the facilities, now's a good time, and after that we will take action on this item and move on with our meeting. Turn on your video so we know that you're here. We can go ahead and continue moving forward. I got with the last four, nine, six, five, but the person has actually been pressing star nine pretty consistently over and over from number ending in eight, eight, three, eight. The number, so the last person that was trying to get on of the many who have been texting me today to get into this meeting is the number, the ending number is actually eight, eight, three, eight. I'll do that number on here, and so I'll give that under the public opportunity to speak. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I think there's an issue with the numbers. The ones in the bottom don't work. You don't seem to be able to see it, so I dial in again. But thank you again. My name is Candace Brown. I'm a 45-year resident and a member of the Transportation and Public Works Commission. We received a very dire report yesterday about the financial situation for public works and transportation. They've taken an 18.25% cut, not including the 28 vacancies in the last three years. If you look at Marcus Pimento's slide, before he left, he talked about the financial cliff, and we're in the middle of, and that was before the pandemic and the fires and the dire issues that people are having financially right now. I think people need to step back and really think about what's happened in the last three months. Everything has changed. The Public Works Department has zero money, zero money for capital improvements budget this year, and it doesn't look any better in the years ahead. I'd like to see a financial modeling of the impact of this project moving forward, not only in the next few years, but in the next 30 years. And I'm specifically talking about the financial cliff between now and 2026. It's going to affect the general fund. I am an accountant, and even though we have accepted projects that are over 60 million for water, we set aside in Slow Road water security with the aquifer and reclamation, and that was coming from enterprise, not general funds. So I really think you need to look at this very closely, and everybody expected that that financial modeling will be brought forward before any further consideration of hiring of contractors for this project. So I appreciate the consideration and certainly the time to speak at the end of this process. Thank you very much. What's that? I'm going to close public comment on this item. City Manager wanted to make some comments, and then I have some comments before we move into action and deliberations of City Manager. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify the funding. There's been some comments and questions around the funding and the potential impact to the general fund. So I just wanted to clarify that. The funding for this project is not from the general fund. As you all know, we're facing a deficit in our general fund in large part due to the impact of the pandemic. However, in this particular case, the funding for this project would not come from the general fund. And we do... The funding for the library portion in particular is from a bond measure, and we do have an obligation to use those funds for the purposes that the public voted to do that project. And so I just want to be clear about that, that this will be a mix of housing, library, and parking funds, not general funds. And we do have an obligation to, as we are doing, for example, with the remodeling of the Branson 40 branch and the Garfield branch too, and as well as the county and other jurisdictions with respect to moving forward with the project, the library projects. And I'd be happy to answer any questions around that too. Thank you. Thank you very much. I just want to express some concern that I had. I'm still supportive of this project. I think that, you know, as a subcommittee, we unanimously agreed on the new library versus the remodel. And we agreed that affordable housing is really important. And although there's some, you know, disagreement over whether or not we need parking, I think that with all the housing that's going into downtown, including in this project, and the need for parking for residents or for patrons of a library, that parking is a component that's important in this project, whether that's for bikes, you know, we need to consider all the the fact there's going into this and, you know, our city staff is great, but, you know, when it comes to a project of this magnitude, we do need a group of consultants who are really going to be able to dive into all these pieces. The one thing that I will say is that given that this is the most, probably one of the most controversial items that the council is considering that's been before our community for the past few years, and receiving the the gender report and then comparing it to the direction we were given, you know, I felt like there wasn't enough information provided. We were, we received the contract last night and, you know, the public hadn't been aware of how to get a hold of that contract and proposal. I can see why many members of the public feel like they weren't aware of what was in the contract and what the group would be doing. And in addition to that, staff was able to provide us with some broad-based financial information, some sources of funding, and some of those sources depend on where we're at in the project. And so I think that, you know, it would be in our best interest because I didn't have a chance to look at the proposal because I didn't receive it until last night and I think many council members have shared that as well. And so I think that, you know, in, you know, in the interest of transparency, I think that we should not move forward with making a motion today on whether or not to accept the contract and provide, you know, in the report and to the public, you know, where this contract is some information on the funding components and costs, which it sounds like we can get some, we can have some general information, you know, with the understanding that we're going to know that these will change once the contractors come on board and are able to give us some exact costs. So I crafted what I think might be of the appropriate motion that I feel comfortable with, and I'm just going to share it. There is a motion that was made earlier, but I'm wondering if, for the purposes of consideration, that this, the council member might feel comfortable moving this forward, which is to continue the item and direct it at return to council meeting in October with the desire for it to return at the first regular meeting and direct staff to provide in the report general, broad-based financial information on costs and available funding for both affordable housing and the parking components of this project, a copy of the proposed contract, information on potential developers of the affordable housing component of the project and links to relevant information on the project. And I think it's just worth acknowledging that, you know, there are certain sources that are available, but part of the reason why we're contracting out with this group is so that we can, you know, they can help us with better understanding and also help us with the design and trying to maximize, you know, or try to minimize the costs to the greatest extent possible. So I just want to put that there for my colleagues to consider and so I know Council Member Golder had made a motion that was seconded by Pisoner Meyers and so I'll respect that. I will ask that moving forward, as we've been doing most of the year, that waiting until after that we wait until after public comment because, again, some members of the public to express that we did not listen to them before, you know, making motions and I think it's really critical that we wait until we hear from the public before we make motions moving forward. I'll honor those, the motion that was made in the second to that motion and I'll now go down to the list to acknowledge my other colleagues starting with Council Member Brown. So, yeah, thank you. I don't want to preempt Council Member Golder's desire to make a motion here but I will just say that I am much more comfortable moving in the direction of the Mayor Cummings that you've set out here. I'll and so I'll respect for the attempt to make that motion. I'm not going to preempt just because I'm being called on first here but I do want to say that this is something that I could definitely support. I don't disagree with my colleagues points about the urgency, the timelines and the expertise needed here or the value of bringing on an owner rep. That is standard procedure and so I'm not objecting to that particularly for a project of this magnitude and complexity. I appreciate the staff's herculean efforts to keep this project moving along in a challenging time all around but we just don't have information to give us a general sense of the financing and we don't have a scope of work to approve and even the comments from some of the public commenters suggested that there's not an understanding of what this contract is for. I heard somebody say we need to do this now because we need an advocate for this project and then we hear no this is going to be this is going to be used to kind of get us the financial information we need and without having even looked at the application from this group I'm sure are quite qualified I just don't feel comfortable spending this kind of money right now and I am not saying this out of any lack of understanding of what the funding sources are. I want to be very clear about that but let's talk about if we really want to go there let's talk about debt financing and let's talk about what's not included here in the decision we're making and what we're getting ourselves into as we make this decision. I guess I'll just leave it there and say that I'm not going to support the motion that is coming but I would support something like this. Thank you Mayor Cummings for presenting it to us. Council Member Watkins Council Member Byers Thank you Mayor well I think early on right out of the chute when we opened this agenda item I spoke my frustration that I just wouldn't be able to vote on it because I had not seen the contract and I think all the speakers many of the speakers who spoke to us and letters we got you know business people they I'm sure they know better nobody would approve a $240,000 contract without seeing the contract so this will give us the time to do the right thing I'm reminded later on our agenda we're going to talk about the grand jury report and criticize the city for not being trustworthy and transparent and being more transparent and this is such a good example that we take a couple weeks to be right out in the open and transparent so your motion certainly speaks to what I've been kind of yacking about and the one to support that. Quick question too for staff because I just kind of flip through the proposal it looks like it's it looks like more background on a lot of the team members and not the contract itself do we have a contract or when would we kind of anticipate being having a contract that we could review or the community could review the as requested the response to the RFP by the consultant and it's largely part of the selection process it's a tool for us to best the qualifications for the consultant and it's responsive to the request for proposals which included the scope of work so the scope of work has been posted on the city's website under the project page for two months. We can bring a contract as we clarified at the beginning of this meeting we're in the final stages of negotiating the details of that contract yes we can bring that forward we were asking particularly because of the tight timeline that council gave us of three months of bringing that forward today to be responsive to the original council direction on the owner's rep but we can bring that back with the contract attached for your consideration. Okay thank you I just wanted to clarify that with the community because I think that having input and review of what that contract includes is really important I know we had a proposal for $200,000 recently from Slow Streets and one of the concerns I had with that is not knowing what that money would be spent on and I think this is another example of really having the council be able to look at what are we spending our money on with this contract and so I think that sounds appropriate to me so thank you. Okay that sounds good and just to clarify again if they want to see that right now they can go to the project site and look at the RFP it has the full scope of work of what this contract is all about. Okay thank you council member Golder then council member Byers. I would just like to start with apologizing to anybody from the public that felt that I was disrespectful by saying I was prepared to make a motion before listening to public comment I did read all the emails that came in on both sides of the issue and if Bonnie could stop my motion up there and I think mayor that I'm on the same page as you were I want that information and so what I put in there was the staff language and then just added a sentence that you can see where is it where is it down here so basically adding a sentence at the end with the first order business to return to the council updated estimates and more detail process outlined to engage with the affordable housing developers at the earliest convenience and so and you know I thought I heard maybe Bonnie you can correct if I'm wrong that it's not you're just not writing a check for $240,000 it was a two-year contract so it would be 120 each year and you could stop at any point if it was not working out with what 10 days notice is that what you said that's correct so anyway so that's why I felt comfortable doing this it's not like you're writing a $240,000 check at this point you're writing a check to have them bring back this information that the city staff it might be hard for them to prepare for us given their you know they're already stretched in department so anyway councilmember Byers just a quick question to Bonnie I know our agenda says motion to award the contract so you know that's what I was speaking to all the time I'm not prepared to award the contract so I know the mayor's motion is to continue for a couple of weeks but were you planning on coming back with the contract maybe maybe you just spoke to that yeah I did I spoke to that however with the specific wording of the contract with of the language before you I'm a little confused of which motion you're considering I'm not quite sure what I'm responding to but I think the process is we were specifically at this date before you because we were directed by council to move forward selecting an owner's rep and that is what we are doing today we are bringing you that information we have today we didn't have a final contract we're still working through some of those final points with the council but the scope is included and overview both in the presentation today and on our city website and in the RFP which has been posted for the last two months so all the information of what that scope is has been widely available and I would add that we have been responsive to emails that we've received throughout the summer leading up to this process any individual who emailed us on the status we have provided to them if they requested what was in the scope we provided the scope to them so I just want to be sensitive to that we agree in transparency as well if we had a contract available today by the deadline that you gave us the three months we would have that today but short of that we also recognize the urgency and the financing constraints and timing constraints of our measure as funding and this project moving forward and felt strongly that we had that council direction to select for your approval a consultant which is GRIP and structures their costing for this project is very competitive and well in line with firms that do owner representation across the board that once the contract is finalized, executed that is always available to the public and anyone who wants to look at it so we will have that information available and you will see that and I would just add that this language that was included in the recommended motion is sort of standard language that we use you know if you're looking at other contracts we ask for you know direction to give the city manager you know permission to execute an agreement sort of on behalf of the city and I'm sure Martin can speak to that but this is sort of our standard language that is standard and largely a contract incorporates the scope the scope of services so many times the contract is just the scope attached to the agreement and the agreement includes the various provisions related to the legal requirements and other sort of contracting management provisions and then also in this particular case that Bonnie noted there's some additional negotiation items that come into play as a result of revealing the agreement and having conversations where we selected them to clarify you know questions that come up but you know normally if you can in the time we've actually had the agreement we would have it for you but in many cases that's not possible because of the time frame and so this is a standard practice that we do and I think we're going to start with that this is our final question and I'll be back in a minute I just want to respond to the follow-up and I appreciate that Bonnie and Amanda and I sense the frustration and I understand the frustration about how to move through this cart before the horse challenge clear in the comments that I made but I guess what I really mean is that we have a scope of work or scope of duties in that RFQ but it doesn't really speak to some of the questions that have been raised around financial kind of feasibility stuff so you know I have the bullets I've read those and you know I see what I see is a lot you know I want to read them all but you know what I see is like overseeing you know selecting and overseeing a design build team overseeing the budget kind of making sure that prevailing ways rules are met and you know organizing the outreach and community input but I don't really see financial analysis in there and so I guess that's part of why I feel like it's not clear so I just wanted to clarify that and and also acknowledge that you know I understand that time is of the essence here but I do think that for you know transparency given given what Mayor Cummings said about the controversy around this it just feels like having a little bit more space to consider that and a little more information would be really helpful so thanks. Vice Mayor Meyers and Council Member Golda. Yeah thanks yeah I was kind of referring back to the RFP and again I guess maybe just from the perspective of well I don't know I mean I think we're sort of talking around but I think you know one of the things that comes out of this is really having the owners rep you know manage the group of consultants I mean manage and help select people for example the affordable housing developer and that that group will then help us with getting some of these financials so I think we're we seem to be a little bit in a circular conversation I again I'm just going to express that we were provided really compelling numbers during the subcommittee about how delays are affecting the inflation components to this project and maybe maybe there's a compromise that could be could be sought such that we could bring the maybe bring this back in two weeks rather than a month I'm curious Bonnie if we would have the contract ready to be looked at if we brought it back in two weeks if that if that would be available. Actually I'm going to defer to Amanda on that. I've been emailing back and forth with the city attorney today we're so you know we're very close to having that you know like I said we were like within hours of the council meeting having that ready so we're in process. So it would be if with our next agenda coming up on the let's do be October I think it's October 8th we should have that complete we should have the complete set of information to be able to move forward on the approving the contract it sounds like. We would have the right the contract which is to start the city standard language and then you know the scope that we've discussed would be included in there so the negotiations that are happening right now are around sort of that standard language and we go back and forth with consultants and vendors to sort of you know find that middle ground so yes it would be sort of packaged but all the information that you've received today packaged in there so it looks like that would be the 13th of October rather than waiting all the way to the 27th since October has five weeks in it so another month you know way over a month so we're losing another month and a half so possibly if one of my colleagues would consider that I think I think it would be appropriate thank you. Can I speak to that just because I've made a provider a recommendation and I'll just say that one of the first things was to continue it and direct it at return no later than the second meeting in March with the desire for it to return at the first regular meeting you know and maybe this the city manager could speak to this but even if I know that we have a couple special meetings coming up and if with the budget that we're able to take action on items at that meeting I wouldn't be opposed to coming forward at that meeting as well if it needed to come sooner I just think that you know it needs to be any to have an opportunity for the public to have an opportunity to review it and then I also didn't want to put constraints on staff to bring something forward or force them to bring something on a specific date and then if they weren't ready to not have the flexibility to move it further and so that's why I was trying to include that language around having it come back the desire to have it come back at the first regular meeting or any you know special meeting but no later than that second meeting in October so I just wanted to say that and because I do understand that time is of the essence and I would my preference will be to have it come back sooner but I just want to make sure that staff has the flexibility so thank you for that clarification I'm sorry I didn't I missed that in your motion if I could just ask the clarifying question as well I think if it's just the contract we're bringing back and with Amanda's comments then absolutely we can make you know certainly before the second probably definitely even the first but if we're adding this additional information and context that you're asking for on the broad that's going to require a staff report and some additional analysis I mean we can put industry standard information here but I have the feeling that that's not what you were wanting from staff you were wanting information that's general and broad in nature but that is specific to this project and that is in fact the information that we are hoping to develop once we have the owner's rep on board so I just want to be clear particularly because there's so much conversation around this out there and I think expectations on this really critically important project that were really clear on what is that level of information that you want back in addition to the contract the contract we can absolutely bring back you know this additional information is going to take some time and you know depending on the level of information that you would like contained in that and if so that could have pretty serious implications on time and budget for the project I think that part of it from my perspective was really trying to understand one you know I think that members of the public are interested in understanding you know where what are the sources of the funding for affordable housing in addition to that I think it you know if it's broad information you know what are some of the bills that are out there that we qualify for because that's been you know we've we've received that orally like numerous times on you know what the potential funding sources are out there and I think that you know we just we received a lot of information in this presentation that I think would have been really great for the public and for council members to receive in a report prior to this because what came before us was you know we want to move forward with this so approve this contract for $240,000 and I think what many members of the public and some of us were wanting to see is also you know there's been all this these different sources of funding that have been spoken about and I think that you know having that in a report in some way what we have applied for what we will qualify for if we you know move this project forward I think some of those components are just helpful for the for the public to understand because what I've been getting in terms of feedback is that many people they don't there's been so much controversy over this that they don't think that the affordable housing is going to move forward they think that you know we're going to continue moving forward the library garage or that we're going to put market rate housing in there and they're not going to see and so I think that trying to provide the public with some information on even even if it's you know that part of the reason why we're moving forward with this group is that they will have the expertise to help us you know find affordable housing opportunities and get us to work towards that I think that that is just really helpful to provide some confidence you know in the community that where we're going is actually going to get us the affordable housing and I do know that there's controversy over the parking I think that's another issue for us to to discuss but I know that people also think that the parking funds what's going to pay for the library and the housing and so I think that we just need to be really clear with the community on you know and in particular what we I think it asked for at the last meeting was information on the affordable housing I don't think parking and funding around parking was a part of that conversation so but that's that's kind of where I'm coming from with this and also you know not having even the RFP included with the staff report and you know expecting the public to try to navigate the sites for all the information that we're discussing so that's kind of where I'm coming from with all this and you know I'm trying to be flexible as well with you know how we can bring this back so I think it'd be great to hear you know what kind of information we could receive on funding for affordable housing and what level detail we could you know expect at the next meeting and you know mind you this was we made these it took this motion and action back in June so I think that you know the community was really hoping to receive after three months some information on you know water sources of funding and all these other components if I may it sounds like what the you're asking is to outline the process or the steps that are involved in for example the housing component of the project and then in possible ways to implement it and then giving an update on where we're at with that for example with respect to housing here's the way it would work in the project here's the and Bonnie outlined some of that today and then here's where we're at and then with respect to the library portion you know here the various steps that would be taken and where we're at with respect to that now there'll be I think there's a confusion around then some of the detail and some of the specifics which of course won't be available right away because we have to hire a consultant to help us develop those specifics but I think we can give you sort of a broad online in so far as to to implement a project like this with respect to housing here the different pieces that have to happen potential sources of funding and how it might come together and that's how and so we're at as the city working on this project similarly with the other components of the project does that sound uh it's about right and I think that um yeah so you know what are the steps to getting housing what are the sources of funding you know at the city aid um and then you know I think just really walking people through like what are we what are we asking for here and how are we going to really help us I think we can do that I think I think the only thing that of course we have to just be clear about is that obviously there we can lay out things but they may and will likely change as the project moves forward and as new things develop or is you know so I think that's the only sort of I think we should just be cognizant of is that uh is that it won't necessarily uh it's it's what we can put give you is is is process and what it may what the way it may develop but it may change and so just acknowledging that that it likely will for a variety of different reasons as they as the project you know moves forward and then develops and I don't know if Bonnie you want to add more to that but this project has gone on so long um and just sort of the very early stage there has been time there have been times over the last two years where we have provided to council um and I think we had obviously the council mix has changed a little bit but we have provided some information on affordable housing and how you would finance um that component of the project in in this project and what those sources would be we obviously can't commit to the sources until we get the grant funding or have the project at a certain point where we're eligible to apply for grant funding with that said um we do have guaranteed funding coming in to um from the plha that I mentioned earlier 1.5 million that's guaranteed that's coming in um we typically I mean old industry standard which is completely blown out of the water right now is that at a minimum you put in 100 000 of public funding um for an affordable housing really a 100 percent affordable housing finance project so can we leverage that yes we absolutely can and that's typically what we do to close that gap so you know we still I understand that we need to get more information out there so the public understands this but uh closing the gap on affordable housing projects is something that we do on a regular basis we have funding for that um the fact that we are contributing the land and then we're contributing dollars on top of that we have a three million dollar balance right now in our affordable housing trust fund we have two projects this one in the metro we're committing it to if that 10 million grant comes forward that we're in that final round four on the metro that frees up all the funding for this project so you know we can show that in a table format so people can see that and and you know answer questions around that that's no problem I think um you know I I just am concerned about our overall capacity and just bringing things forward to you in a timely manner and you know I take responsibility for not providing that information now I was interpreting the council direction that um you wanted finite you know specific and you know we go deep on this so information on affordable housing funding and sources that we are actually pulling together for this specific project you know we can highlight the available funding now and what we have in the work and a little more detail than I presented the overview on the screen share earlier that's not a problem I you know and then we'll continue as we do have additional resources internally and actually get the project specifics on this project to come back to you because that is something that we are fully committed to is affordable housing in this project thanks and I think and I just mentioned that because I I thank you for that too for that information because I think even at that level you know given that the direction that was previously given if that information had been been included I think that four members of the public would have asked would would have felt like okay we're seeing that even if we can't demonstrate all of it and I think there are going to be times when we're going to have to say you know we were hoping to have this information at this time but we were unable to bring it forward and we can bring it forward at us at you know next step but for many people who are seeing the city moving forward with spending a quarter of a million dollars without having some of this information around especially this affordable housing component I think that a lot of people have been you know expecting to me that they didn't they were concerned with the affordable housing piece moving forward and I totally again understand the need for these contractors so if we can bring you know a contract for review the the RFP that they had submitted with the city along with the report they're kind of addressing these concerns around you know how can we find affordable housing where's the staff can help us out I think that could be helpful so I'll leave my comments I know some of the colleagues have had their hands up so I'll move to councilmember Golder, Joachim and then Catherine Byers. I was just wanting to say that I think we all you know want the public to feel included and feel like the city being transparent and us included and so I think you know I want to find a way that we can compromise here and work together to create a motion that we can all feel comfortable with so that's you know what I wanted to say so we can take mine away or we could somehow merge them I what you know I'm fine with whatever right now. Coming back in two weeks is something that will make you feel more comfortable mayor and councilmember Watkins or who was it Brown that said you know you want more time and buyer or buyers to look at contracts and I'm perfectly fine like if you want to wait two weeks if that will make you feel more comfortable. Councilmember Watkins and then councilmember Byers. Yeah no thank you mayor and staff and into the council for the thoughtful conversation around this as well as the community members interest and I just I just really want to acknowledge that one discussion item for our community and there are many elements to it and we have explored many of those and have discussed many of them today and that this item also was sort of part of the course of how we move based on prior direction as a consent item in terms of approval of a contract and how do we sort of reconcile that with the bigger kind of topic and interest around to the vision and future for downtown the interconnection for the vision for more affordable housing and so I'm just wondering how we can move forward at this point given the input we received and I think to councilmember Golder's comments if there's the potential to say you know perhaps we can um the actual contracts come before us at the least possible time and then other additional kind of information is not trying to wait for that information to approve the contract to continue to move forward so I think that it can be a bit of a both and I know that this is a unique project given the real time constraints and I am concerned that if we continue to delay that it's even going to be more difficult and so I'm interested in trying to balance how we can have you know the most transparent and opportunity for an engaged and informed process with also taking action and it's a unique balance that we all take often as council members so perhaps the potential direction could include you know to return with the contract and any additional information as it relates to the other interest but to to move forward with having the contract for approval at the earliest meeting possibly include a special meeting if that works the other information is further fleshed out that which time we can explore that and I think that would be potentially maybe a bit of a merge between the two other motion at this time so those are just sort of my comments and thoughts council member buyers well I guess I started out earlier today not wanting well I didn't have the contract so I wanted to see it before it's seeing a contract in this huge project is not about my being more comfortable as a council member I have extreme serious duty to understand where we're spending our money and that is what was minus and top of that what was minus is we did get financials that we asked for last June so it is about the money it is about my feeling if you want to say so good about the money comfortable about the money but we have to understand I think some of our speakers talk to us about the fiscal duty so I still like the mayor's motion asking staff and money I totally understand you're not wanting to put out some numbers that become public and then everyone will hold you to those numbers which may be off hundreds of thousands of dollars but I think we're looking for I think as the mayor said I just read his motion broad-based financials a good one would be for Jim Burns to provide a 30-year bond how much is that going to cost our taxpayers I think it's in the millions I'm not sure because I can't figure that out but it's not I know we just did a whole thing on the affordable housing which is we even got a little bit more information and Martina opens up our city manager that's about process we have a lot of processes are going on we see we deal with them all the time we weren't I wasn't talking about process when I vote for that motion I was talking just give us just give us some numbers I think Councilman Brown is on the back of the paper napkin just some ballpark what the parking is going to be what the library how are we going to do the gap in the library interesting the library the architects were given the budget and had to work within that budget the rest of this stuff doesn't have a budget to work within so I you know there all three projects are different completely different from each other but I still want support the motion that staff come back um with whatever broad-based financials on these three projects okay so to make everybody work together here I'm going to suggest that I withdraw all my motion and I'm going to use the language from the mayor's motion and I think that everybody can hopefully get behind that and support it so can we do that I guess I'll just share my screen then Bonnie I have it up already I just kind of changed the wording on the first one to make it seconded by mayor Cummings is there any other comments or counts our council members comfortable with this I think there's a general sense for staff of where we're kind of yeah going with you know the information that we want back in terms of financial so that's appropriate would it be appropriate to just ask a question in terms of staff direction we heard a lot of questions from the public about the direction provided on June 23rd which included detailed financial information about each component a work program and timeline and then general schematics I just want to make sure that their expectations been set and there's clarity around all of that being delayed as a result of this direction being sort of coming into place so we will be delaying all of that and moving forward with the direction that we're receiving from you today correct and I think that it should be expressed that in order to get that detailed information which I think is the purpose of getting these contractors is that that's what these you know these contractors are being hired to accomplish that's my understanding is that that's the whole reason why we're going down the street mayor I'd like to ask a clarification on the other part of the motion in the second bullet when you say information on potential developers I think it would be premature for us to share information on affordable housing developers at this point we can share affordable housing developers that would be interested in this project generally but the request for qualifications was under a set circumstances and I think for this particular project with the complexity we will probably go out again so I don't want to mislead the public that those that responded to our RFQ is the only shortlist of affordable housing developers that we may move forward on this project and I so I just want to be clear on what that direction is you know given as I mentioned earlier the fact that we have both land and public funding to put in this project we are going to have a very robust response of how we go forward you know going with the list of those that that is a qualified candidate pool for affordable housing projects not necessarily mixed use affordable housing projects but affordable housing projects is something that we consider which direction we want to go in yeah and for clarification I think that you know the intention there was that we had had um during our subcommittee meetings it had been expressed that there was interest by affordable housing developers and so I think that including information on you know we have heard from you know whoever the seven were or you know certain develop affordable housing developers who express interest to the community I understand that you know we're not just saying that there's potential for affordable housing there's actually affordable housing developers who are interested in this project and it's not we're not limiting ourselves to selecting from that group but I think that the public wants to understand well who's actually of these affordable housing developers who's actually expressed interest in this and so does that make sense it does so just to be really clear these are affordable housing developers that have responded to a general RFQ for affordable housing development not specific to this project so but we can provide that as long as that I think the way that you stated that is is fine and you know listing who those folks are and then that we're going to be reaching out to other developers to see who might be interested in this specific project so um council member Brown I see your hand up thank you yeah I don't want to belabor this but I say and I and I appreciate uh councilmember golder your willingness to move in this direction in but I do want to be really clear um about kind of my own concerns because reflecting the concerns that I'm hearing from the community that another piece here is the is a question about where the additional money is going to come from for the library piece we have so so yeah there are three different projects as count as councilmember buyers um has suggested and we need the information about each of those but there still seems to be this um this gap in between four and six million dollars if we if you look at what group four gave us and that was what we were basing our decision to move forward on um for the to get the library that we are telling the public they're going to get out of this so I I just feel like that should be addressed a little bit more in this next step as well um I think that would certainly um speak to that would that would get uh some response to a big concern that I'm hearing and I think others are as well can I ask a question to staff I'm just wondering if that is something that um you know the group that's going to be working on this is that something that they would have the bandwidth to continue looking into because I think that what we're responding to is I think today what we're responding to is the the question around the contract and how that's being developed and um you know the questions that have come up around affordable housing and I think that that's still something you know that needs to be addressed but it's something that can be you know ongoing in this process but I guess just for you know the second movement can explore is that something that this group is going to address or I hope that's going to be addressed in the future so we what with the group for specifically related to the library and the downtown library subcommittee we did talk about you know options that could come before the council for council decisions the citizens like air rights that was the potential gap funding um why no Susan has spoken about you know some of the funds that have been able to be raised by the friends of the library those kind of funding sources I think beyond that you know um I'd have to defer to Bonnie about whether there are other information we have now that we could bring before you and to Susan yeah I mean I think Amanda is exactly right I mean we have we can bring a little more information on air rights um we can bring to you the related uh and potential grants that we could apply for we could provide a little more information and a status update of where we are with the grants we have applied for I've already shared the balance of the affordable housing trust funds depending on when we hear back we don't control unfortunately I wish we did the timeline for when the state let us know when we whether or not we're awarded grants you know they you know it doesn't necessarily even though they may say give us a window it doesn't necessarily follow in that window so we track on it but we can't with certainty guarantee when we'll have that additional information but we can certainly provide more information on the types of funding that we could go for you know another type of funding that we could pursue for this project would be new market tax credits and or opportunity zone financing both of those have some owner implications as far as tax credits and tying up the project for a certain number of years related to equity return but those are all viable options and and again back to your original question is yes we would be flushing these out and sort of going through pros and cons with the owner's rep with that specific expertise that they have on affordable housing as well as our internal expertise here in our housing division and our consultants that we use regularly and having sort of this brain trust of going through what is the best mechanism to move forward and then coming back and presenting that to you so that's always been our intent and you know I will still do that but as far as coming back to you with sort of a general broad over broad brush overview we can do that as well I think our major concern is just capacity and you know how much we put into this is another shaft report where we want to provide the best information we have available and that does take time you know but we're sensitive to time so that's my only hesitation is oh okay now the deadline for that is you know is a couple weeks before the cap the it actually goes to print so our actual window for preparing information is actually really small so that that's just largely it's just a capacity issue for us right okay thanks and I think that it's I think that maybe it's worth just kind of keeping that in mind that we're really that's still a concern in the community and I think they're working with this group would probably you know help to get us to that answering those questions but for the sake of trying to get the contract and the other information that we have before us that's been requested I think that it makes the most sense to move in the direction that's before us in the motion and then maybe even it can be a conversation after the first meeting with the group who actually award the contract when we meet with them kind of bring these questions up as well uh councilmember brown were you done with your questions and comments thank you councilmember buyers real quick by I think you mentioned the parking plan subsidizing the library but now when you ran through all the possible you know way to get a couple million dollars you didn't mention it is that a viable one I don't believe so I don't think that's something that I um you said indicated I think I was talking about air rights um from potential market market rate that well I always thought the parking plan was going to be used to subsidize some of this I don't know where I heard that but not true okay over to the city manager yes I just want to comment really quickly um that uh just a reminder to the city council that all of these questions that the community is asking they will be answered they have to be answered obviously because you will have to approve every single step of the way every single agreement in terms of the financing approach financing plan it's just a matter of not all the answers are going to be obtained within a few weeks or a few months some will come at a later time so we will do our best obviously to give you all the information that we have and the potential for how it might work out but we won't have all of the answers in the specificity to the level that I think the community uh some of the community is seeking in very quickly or right away it's going to take in some case a little bit of time but you will have it and you will get it and you'll be able to make decisions as you go along because in any point in time there may be something that changes or something that comes out that requires the project to be looked at differently or that changes the circumstances but that will all be before you but again in general you know from the analysis that's been done in the work of the subcommittee the the feeling is that the project is viable and it can move forward but again we're going to go through the process get all the information and make decisions along the way done with your comments and questions if there's no further questions or comments the motion that's before us is to continue the item to the first meeting October broad-based financial information on cost and available funding for both affordable housing and parking components of the project a copy of the proposed contract information on potential developers of I'd say affordable housing in general rather than the affordable housing component I think we have discussed that and links to relevant information on the library project no further comments call vote on this item I don't mean to drag this out but did we now we're decided that we're not going to ask for any additional information aside from just what we heard just now that it could be alright so it could be raising money through the front of the library for the to fill that gap is that I thought that my understanding was that that's what we're going to work out in the future conversations with the group that we hire okay fine on our agenda but in pretty reasonable time so the next item on our agenda is the response to the Santa Cruz County civil grand jury reports item number 18 for members of the public who are streaming this meeting is if this is a meeting if this is an item you would like to comment on now is the time to call in using the instruction on your screen and I will mention again that the toll-free numbers that are on the screen are not functioning at this time so you'll need to call the non toll-free numbers on your phone once you call then please press star nine on your phone when it's time for public comment your hand will be raised and when you're called on you'll be given two minutes to speak and I'll turn it over to our principal man management analyst Ralph Demacore for the presentation thank you mayor and good afternoon city council Ralph America and I have a quick no review at the how we got here and then we'll leave it up to council to discuss the draft responses so as you know this year the grand jury issued 10 reports and um council was requested to respond to seven of the reports at the uh september 8 2020 uh council meeting um council provided direction for staff to work with the mayor to fit responses for five of the seven reports and to return to council with draft responses to the remaining two a failure to communicate restoring trust accountability in Santa Cruz City government and the second homelessness big problem little progress it's time to think outside the box in addition to that direction over the past several weeks um as with the other uh draft responses um staff is in gathering feedback and findings that are before you today and based on the feedback and information um collected responses for uh doing the remaining two report your review and consideration I do want to thank all the department heads and um staff and especially you the council members for taking the time to provide that feedback especially with um all these things going on that are requiring your attention as well so that information and feedback we received um we have the draft responses um before you today and um staff is requesting you know um additional feedback if any and for direction to continue to work with the mayor to submit the responses for the following two reports which are a failure to communicate restoring trust accountability in Santa Cruz City and homelessness big problem little progress it's time to think outside sure uh I didn't catch whether it was it was mentioned but um if there's a specific I think that in terms of questions or comments there's a specific item that or specific response the council members have um an issue with rather than going through all of them if we could discuss those if the council members have them then that will give us an opportunity to weigh in on the relevant items rather than go through every single response so with that are there any council members who have questions or comments on the responses to report council member buyers sorry the one on a failure to communicate page 217 that would be only one um where we put in will not be implemented and it gives a reason why it won't be implemented and it is currently not feasible but I think a note should we don't need this specific we take a note they they suggest we have a task force on transparency I'm not sure we did the city needs a task force but I don't think that whole idea should be dropped I just think it should be looked at and at some point talked about and today was a good example so I would just hope um rough maybe you could make a note and maybe work with the mayor or something to see it I understand why it's not feasible and I'm not supporting a task force but somehow another discussion on transparency health member um buyer could you repeat which finding and recommendation that was again well it's finding our three a failure to communicate our three I think okay where we end up why we why it will not be implemented and why and because all this going on in the life of the city now absolutely it was not feasible at this point I'm just suggesting the topic of transparency and not suggest we use the task force but there should be a discussion on the city transparency and people weigh in and where they've had experience where it wasn't and how to correct it I just think that's the only one of all of myself just needs a little bit more not feasible wasn't a good enough excuse okay that's all that's mine there that's all I have and just to be clear on this one too this this also related to the agenda setting process in particular so just transparency or around that just to be clear okay sure and um I have included those notes council member buyers um and just to um highlight too or just to clarify that um the fact that they're recommending this be done by December 31st 2020 was the part that was not feasible but I did see that notice um this discussion should be explored yeah thank you I know that too thank you thank you uh council member buyers and then council member Matthews or sorry council member brown and then council member Matthews yeah thank you I don't have any uh specific changes although I thank you council member buyers for for raving that issue and I think the the um Ralph with the what you shared about this being specific to um agenda the transparency around agenda setting speaks to the the bigger challenge that I've had uh in how we respond to these reports um and we talked about this and so I'm just saying it to kind of put it on the record here that it's it's a frustration that I have that um what we have in terms of the what we were given to kind of agree with findings and then uh respond to recommendations um does it narrows uh the um the scope of how to address some of the problems that are identified and I think very clearly laid out in these reports about the questions questions around transparency and sort of the dysfunction that uh produce and miscommunications that have produced some of these big challenges that we've been dealing with so while we can't really do anything about that in this format that we've been given I I do just want to say that um you know for the general public for folks reading these these reports it's you know I mean these are issues that we should be taking very very and um and I don't know how to get at that in the in the kind of constrained realm of possibility that we have here um but I do appreciate all the work that you put into trying to final product. Council Member Mathews and then Council Member Wilkins. I thought the responses were entirely fine on item R12 which appears on page 225 in the hard copy um has to do with um creating strategies for curbing public disruption and um in the response it talks about uh there are protocols um mayor city clerk and city managers will continue to explore creative strategies for curbing public disruption and I really think it should be not just creative but clear and consistent procedures for curbing I mean creativity is part of it but clear and consistent procedures for curbing public disruption. That in my mind is one of the main factors in discouraging broad public engagement. Appearance for the agenda setting frame wasn't necessarily feasible and um at the time my when I was mayor and and uh and mayor Cummings was the vice mayor we actually spent a lot of time to have a protocol in place to identify you know really uh transparently when items will be coming if the urgency and so I think we have a foundation already in place although that was uh reversed at a certain point that foundation is in place for us to look forward uh move it move forward potentially when we have more capacity and time to have a more um just clear understanding on how how we do the agenda setting process uh and and how we as council members know and also how the community knows um as well. So I don't know if that needs to be added but I just for for context for those who might not be aware that that is uh something that we had spent some time on that I think could help assist moving in moving us in this direction towards more transparency and clarity. Okay I understand formations and findings are touching on issues that you guys want to discuss further at future meetings so yeah I'm taking notes on the side that are being highlighted um specifically on the response notes here um on some of these issues that you guys are bringing up. No further questions or comments from council. I'm going to open up the public comment so if you are a member of the public and you're watching uh our city council meeting now it's the time to call in if you'd like to comment on item number 13 which is the city council responses to Santa Cruz County civil grand jury reports. Once you've called in you'll want to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and when you've been called on you'll be asked to unmute your phone and you'll be given two minutes to speak. This is Carol Paul Hamas and I wanted to comment about the grand jury report on homelessness especially for people who are listening to the meeting. The grand jury produced a really thoughtful comprehensive look at the challenges and issues our city faces in trying to remediate homelessness. I really think it should be required reading for every city resident who was concerned about homelessness which is most of us. I've posted the link many times on social media sites I thought it was so good. Some highlights for me included the breakdown of data about the reasons for homelessness in Santa Cruz as well as the explanation that the funding responsibility for solutions around homelessness including mental health, drug and alcohol treatment, etc are all the purview of the county. Proponents for defunding the police in the quest for more social services really need to read this report to understand that the funding for the services they want comes from the county and not from the city. I especially like the idea of repurposing the juvenile hall facility and even the round tree facility for housing, substance abuse and mental health treatment since these are under utilized facilities currently and we've already paid for them. I also think we need to understand where the $10 million a year goes in terms of what it does fund and how fragmented the services can be and the need for accountability for both money and services. I want to encourage everybody listening to please read the grand jury report and not just let it gather dust. 19 of our fellow citizens spend a year on this report and the findings and observations are spot on. These reports can really be valuable in providing future direction and solutions with fresh perspectives. Thank you. Thank you. Okay are there any other members of the public who would like to speak to us on this item? If so please press star nine on your phone after you've dialed in and you'll be given two minutes to speak on this item. The report ignores that the council should pay some attention to so I don't expect this council to pay a lot of attention to it. Go into the city council agenda and at least the council does so it's not simply a secret meeting between manager these kinds of changes and you'll be given two minutes to speak on this item. I'm going to bring it back to council for action and deliberation and I just want to thank the staff and the members of the grand jury who took the time to actually write the report conduct interviews provide these recommendations. I think these reports are really important for us you know in terms of being informed about you know from an independent group on actions that are occurring within our community and providing recommendations on how we can move forward in a more productive way. So with that if there's no further comments I think our staff has received feedback on changes that need to be made and so if there's no further discussion I'd like to see if we can have a motion on these items and move forward to Mayor Myers. I'll move the recommendation. I see grand jury reports with the suggested information provided by staff and for the the final two reports on to the grand jury. Motion made by Vice Mayor Myers. Councilmember Watkins the motion made by Vice Mayor Myers seconded by Councilmember Watkins. There's no further discussion we'll go ahead and ask the clerk to call the roll call vote. Councilmember Byers. Aye. Matthews. I'm sure you guys have a good foundation. Thank you Ralph. When we move on I was thinking that maybe we could take just a quick 10 minute break and reconvene at four o'clock I think so that we're not just sitting for hours on end but um so we'll reconvene at four so people have a chance to kind of move around a bit and um yeah yeah next item number 19 thank you. If you want me to take it down I can. Yeah why don't you take it down for now. Take it down okay. Stable my video. I'll turn it back on for you. I'll ask you to start there you go. Okay. Well you know members Matthews and Watkins. No I'm here but you've got to turn my video on. Oh okay. Welcome back everyone. The next item on our agenda is the 914 and 916 C-Ride Avenue project. Assessors parcel number 011-123-66. Tenant map design permit and residential demolition authorization permit to demolish three residential units and construct a nine unit town townhouse development on the 21,237 square per parcel located in the RL zone district. So I'll turn it over to our principal planner Sam Hashert and also director of planning Lee Butler will be here for today as well. Thank you for coming. Hello. Good afternoon. I'm going to share my screen here. It's been in process for a very long time and so I'm happy that it's finally being heard. The application was heard by the planning commission on May 16, 2019 and it was continued for a redesign to reduce the building mapping to stay within the density range and it's possible to provide a better housing unit type within the development. The planning commission also noted at that time that the consideration of a density bonus should not be precluded in their redesign. So the project was redesigned and it was heard again by the planning commission on June 4, 2020 at which point the planning commission voted 7-0 to recommend that the city council acknowledge the environmental determination and approve the project. The planning commission then voted separately on two amendments to the motion. The first five two. The second was to require the applicant to provide two separate affordable units during the time that the units are offered for rent and that amendment passed for three. So I'll go through those in detail in this presentation. The project previously proposed and continues to propose the demolition of three existing residences and the construction of a nine unit townhouse development. A residential demolition authorization permit, a tentative map and a design permit and this also includes a density bonus waiver to the open space requirements. Both Seabright Avenue and from the cul-de-sac at the terminus of some is not included within the boundaries of the Seabright area plan and the parcel is within the exclusion area A of the coastal zone and is eligible for a coastal permit exclusion. The presenter view showing. I was reading along. And then when I change it to presenter view. Can you see the notes to maybe that a multi-family residential low density district is surrounded by other RL zone properties. The project site. You can see the two access points Seabright Avenue and Sumner. You can also see some various fruit trees on the property, but there are no trees that would qualify heritage trees. And then you can also see some other multi residential developments in the Sumner area. The existing structures on the site include a duplex with two one bedroom units that face Seabright and then in between further interior to those are a detached garage and then at the interior of the lot is a two bedroom cottage that's proposed to be demolished. Front view of the house is the house that's on the property now and then you can see the two-story structure to the north. And then that's a better view of the two-story structure to the north of the property. And then the project site from Sumner is actually beyond that sense there with the notice of public hearings posted. And then an interior view of the site so you can see this primarily flat and some of the fruit trees that are on the property. So this is the original site layout that was taken to the planning commission in 2019 at the top. And then the revised site design that was taken to the planning commission in June of this year and that's before you today. So the applicant originally proposed nine attached three-story three-bedroom townhouse units that the applicant went to great lengths to address the concerns of the building massing that were brought up by the planning commission and the community. So they are now proposing nine two-story units so a full 60 shorter than the original project and they are proposing a full break between the buildings and they're doing that by reducing two of the units from three bedrooms to two bedrooms and they revised the parking to a tandem arrangement. And within that break they're proposing a parking space and the planting of a 24-inch box size crepe myrtle. The project site sits between those two public right of ways and a typical project with two such frontages would provide an open driveway access through between Steve Wright and Sumner. But in this case in response to some neighborhood concerns about traffic on Sumner the department requested that the applicant restrict access to and from Sumner with a locked vehicular gate. So unfortunately this gate also restrict bike and pedestrian access through the property that would typically occur on any other such development. So the planning department is proposing to require a public access gate on Sumner that would provide pedestrian and bike access through the project site during the daylight hours. The planning commission's decision to eliminate this gate was based largely on community opposition in the Sumner neighborhood. They felt that the access would bring persons with criminal intent into the neighborhood that it would direct bikers to Steve Wright which they felt was unsafe for biking and that the connection was just not necessary because they used other routes to get through to Steve Wright and the coast. I want to clarify what exactly this pathway is. It's the 20-foot wide driveway through the development so it isn't a narrow sort of overgrown alleyway that could conceal persons with criminal intent. It would not place pedestrians any closer to the residences than would be on a public sidewalk. The intent of the connection is not to concentrate or funnel bikers or pedestrians to Steve Wright Avenue. It's simply to provide an alternative route to those who may be walking or biking. The pathway also meets several goals and policies in the general plan and those are all listed in your staff report and so for all those reasons the planning department is still recommending that the City Council approve the pedestrian gate with public access through the site as a part of the project. Changes remain to the exterior design to allow for greater compatibility with these distinct surrounding neighborhood and to also allow for reduction in mapping. The wide long dormers that were originally proposed are now replaced with front facing gables and it's a little hard to see but the exterior materials are differentiated between the units to provide for individuality rather than the appearance of one long building. Also been updated in a similar way it provides individual balconies to break up the building mapping. The building in relation to the north and south adjacent structure along Steve Wright that black dashed line identifies the originally proposed three-story structure and the red outline identifies the proposed building. It's a more compatible size with the two adjacent units and with other two and three-story residences in the surrounding area and then again this image shows the difference in height proposed with the dash red line at 30 feet in height that was originally proposed to the midline of the roof the midpoint of the roof line and now is measured to the peak. The study looks at shading impacts during the morning and afternoon of the summer and winter solstices. It shows that there's going to be limited shading impacts on the properties to the north during the winter in the afternoons and so there's always some shading expected on urban infill properties but this one limits shading to the greatest extent possible in that it's located at the south property line and provides a full 20-foot setback from the north property line and then also the reduction in height provides the project from Steve Wright Avenue so the front unit there was intentionally oriented to the street to preserve the streetscape along Steve Wright and then this is a view of the development from the end of Sumner and you can see the vehicular deed there as well. So I'm going to go through the affordable housing requirements and there are a few layers here so feel free to stop me if you have any questions. Let's see this project was deemed complete prior to the adoption of the most current inclusionary ordinance so the inclusionary requirement is 15% of the total in the housing development and they're required to be restricted at 80% of the area median income so for this project that's equal to 1.35 units so they're required to provide one unit and they contain in lieu fee for the fractional amount. The project is also requesting a density bonus and so in order to be eligible for a density bonus the project has to provide a deeper level of affordability they have to provide 10% of the total units as affordable to lower income households at 60% AMI. The inclusionary unit is proposed to be provided at 60% AMI and so this meets that requirement. One unit can be provided at the deeper level of affordability and count as the inclusionary and the density bonus unit. So in addition to inclusionary and density bonus there's replacement housing and replacement housing requires the project includes the demolition of three residential units and the demolition of three or more units occupied by low to moderate income households triggers the requirement for replacement housing. So when this project went to the planning commission the applicant assumes that all three units were occupied by low to moderate income households which triggers the replacement housing requirement. So replacement housing requires that 50% of the bedrooms demolished are replaced in the development as restricted affordable units. The code also allows for bedrooms in an inclusionary unit to count as the replacement housing. So staff agreed that the replacement affordable three bedroom unit that the restricted affordable three bedroom unit at 60% AMI would also count as the affordable housing the replacement housing. At the June 4th uh meeting planning commission meeting this year the planning commission instead felt that there was enough discretion in the code to require two affordable units. That would be one unit for the inclusionary housing with the density bonus and a second unit for the replacement housing. That meeting the property owner worked with the housing authority to verify the income level of the tenants in one of the three residential units. So remember one for replacement housing the project needs to include demolition of three or more units occupied by low to moderate income households. So the housing authority certified that the tenant does not qualify as low to moderate income and so the project includes only two such units that are proposed for development. Replacement housing is no longer required and the project includes one three bedroom unit that's restricted at 60% AMI to meet the inclusionary housing density bonus requirements. In addition the project is eligible for a density bonus given the deeper level of affordability that's being provided. They're actually eligible for a 20% increase in market rate units but the applicant is not requesting any additional units over the nine requested. They are requesting a density bonus waiver to the open space requirements and the requested waiver would allow for three things. It would allow for the rear yard areas to be counted as open space even though they have dimensions of less than 10 feet. It would allow for the approximately 20% reduction in the total open space required and it would allow for units four and nine to provide 70 square feet of prio open space where 100 square feet per unit is required. So in order to be eligible for a density bonus waiver the applicant needs to show that the full application of the open space requirements would basically preclude the construction of the project with the density bonus unit. The project is proposed complied with all other requirements imposed by the city and other city departments including building and fire and the applicant has reduced the sizes of the units to meet the design preferences of the planning commission in the community and the development provides unit amenities such as appropriately sized living rooms. A full implementation of the open space requirements would further reduce the living area within the units or would require the development to encroach north into the minimum driveway width as required by the fire department and this is all without the development even providing the two additional units that they're entitled to with the density bonus. So we obtained the advice of the city attorney because there is very little direction regarding the definition of typically precludes. The city attorney determined features such as ceiling height are considered to be amenities that are not intended to be stripped of the development that would provide affordable housing under the density bonus ordinance. So the minimal living area proposed within the unit is consistent with this interpretation of the amenity space. Therefore the applicant has shown that the full application of the open space requirements physically precludes the construction of the project and a waiver of the open space requirements is recommended. So we found that the project means all of the cities of today the fact that the city does not want the waiver to open space and under the housing the housing accountability act that waiver is not considered to constitute any kind of an inconsistency or nonconformity. The project maximizes infill density on a parcel that's done for multi-family residential uses and provides a public pedestrian connection between residents which is consistent with several general plan policies and objectives. The project has been redesigned to meet the preferences of the planning commission and the neighbors. Therefore it is recommended that the city council acknowledge the environmental determination and approve the project as proposed based on the findings in the attached resolution and the conditions of approval in exhibit a. And so that concludes my presentation. I'm going to try to hear here. We have the applicant here that's available for questions as well as Justin Miller from the housing department. So we're happy to answer any questions you might have. Great. Thank you very much for that presentation. Are there any council members who have questions about this project at this point in time? Yeah. I wasn't able to access the plans in a large enough scale to see what was going on. So could you show the gate, both the vehicular gate and the pedestrian gate as their current plan? And the neighbors have asked for the pedestrian access and not being sold. And if that were the case, what would be the modification on that gate area? Do you want to see the rendering with the gate or? Yeah. And while we're on that topic, we talked yesterday. The plan is that the utility, the basically garbage truck access goes true on this. It goes in one street and out the other. Is that, am I understanding that correctly? It either comes in somewhere out on sea right or vice versa. That's correct. Yeah. So that's as much of a look as we get. I see. And the pedestrian part would be over there by the fire hydrant. Is that the plan? Yes. So can you see my cursor on here? Yeah. Okay. So this is the vehicular gate here in the middle of the driveway, obviously. And then this would be the location of the pedestrian gate on the side. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that question. And then reading through the comments, I saw that the neighbor to the north, which is 527, was asking if there could be an eight foot fence. And for just greater privacy, that's the fence that goes along the driveway between the driveway and their house. And it's the house on Sumner, but that's not an unusual request sometimes for it's not a front facing fence. So I just wondered if you had thoughts on that, if that had come up, if they could do 60 plus lattice or, you know, variations on that scene. Certainly allows for a six foot fence in the interior side yard and then would require a conditional fence permit for a taller fence. But I believe that the project includes a significant amount of landscaping in that area as well to buffer the view of the fence. But we could potentially allow for an eight foot fence just as a part of the... Yeah. Yeah. Again, I wasn't able to see what the landscaping looked like, but it seemed to me an unreasonable, a not unreasonable request. Yeah. Just around the poll, maybe this could be either for the city attorney or the planning director. And the proposal, my understanding was that, you know, there's a number of different requirements, the inclusionary requirement. If you have tenants of a certain income having to provide units for that requirement. And then I can't remember the third it was on the screen. It seemed like all three of those rather than trying to accommodate more affordable units, they all could just be lumped into one unit. And I feel like that kind of undermines the intention of a lot of these different policies to increase affordable housing within our community. So I'm just wondering, one, if you could speak to that, and then I'll have a follow up question as well. But I'm wondering if you could speak to how it is that when we're trying to increase affordable housing, that we're just, you know, when we find that there's different categories and different reasons why we need to provide more affordable housing, we just kind of lump them all together, rather than providing affordable housing for each of those different scenarios and criteria. Sure. I guess I'll take a stab at it first. And Tony or Sam or Eric Marlatt are assistant directors on the line as well, if anyone else wants to chime in. So with respect to density bonus and inclusionary, the case law is very clear. Latinos and NIDOS versus the county of Napa has concluded that we have to overlap the density bonus and inclusionary units. We have in the past related to that and projects that have come before the council have had to deal with that specific issue actually requires that we do that. With respect to the replacement housing, the code says the applicant may rental units, the applicant may for the, I believe, intentionally put in to encourage rental housing. And that's why it's specified for rentals, but not for ownership. It says you may do that. And so when we looked at that, that was our original recommendation is to allow for that overlap as the code specified. The county commission said, well, it may allow you that you have to. And so we said, that's a fair back to the council. The original time we said, council, the code says you may overlap these two and it will be your determination as to whether or not you want to allow that during the rental period. If they ever sold the units, they would have to have housing as well as the inclusionary housing. What the applicant did in this case, as Sam explained, was they established that they do not have to provide the replacement housing based on the income levels of those tenants. And so that code to this particular project, that inclusionary overlap, it basically makes the more stringent rule apply. So in this case, it's one unit either way. And our inclusionary says 60% area median, excuse me, our inclusionary says it would be 80% area median income. Their density bonus says it would be 60% of the area median income. And so that unit has to be provided at the more restrictive level, which is the 60% of area median income. So I know that's a lot and it's understandably confusing, but hopefully that helps a little bit. And I don't know if Tony or Sam or others want to chime in or if you have additional questions, Mayor Cummings. The Court of Appeals basically said regardless of whether the affordable units were provided voluntarily or were required by an inclusionary ordinance, if the affordable units qualified the project for the density bonus and the developer was entitled to the bonus and could not be required to provide units pursuant to the inclusionary units on top of the density bonus. So it's straightforward interpretation of the case law interpreting the density bonus law. Housing, at the top of your head, what policy or law that is that because I'm just thinking about, you know, within our community, you know, there are units, for example, where the individuals with those units are affordable and the individuals within those units are paying affordable rents. And there are some units where, you know, the landlords have made those units, you know, have kept those units at affordable rates and the people who live in them might make more than, you know, what is considered low income or moderate income. And so I guess my question is, you know, kind of what dictates that determination of replacement because it sounds like in this circumstance, it's the income of the tenants. But if the units themselves are affordable, regardless of the income of the tenants, that means that we're losing affordable units in our community. And so I'm just kind of curious and would like to know more about, you know, what creates that standard of, you know, replacement housing in terms of affordability. So that's in 24.08.1360 of the code. And I will share my screen here so that you can see that it must be provided by the applicant when demolition or conversion of use of three more dwelling units or single room occupancy units occupied by households of low or moderate income occurs. It's talking about the households of lower moderate income straight from our current municipal code requirements. I think that it might be worth looking at that because we're revisiting that code because I do think that we have buildings in our community that are where there's low income housing and the people who live in those buildings may not necessarily be low income, but the housing is affordable. And if that's the basis for replacement of affordable housing, I think that it can, given that, you know, we have some old houses in this community that are going to be coming down and being replaced, that actually might, you know, lead to a loss of affordable housing in the community. So yeah, that's a valid point to consider moving forward with future changes. Councilmember Watkins and Councilmember Matthews. I wanted to get a little bit more clarification about the bike pedestrian pathway. There is actually a cul-de-sac as I go to Seabright, like, you know what I mean, like third common sense purposes to kind of go up to the next street and then then they would just go down. So I don't know what the thought was around that in terms of the kind of Israel. While some people might prefer to, you know, go up to Seabright in that way or to head the other direction and visit the coast, then residents might not be, might not find that useful. That is part, it's helpful in the long term to provide that connection now while we have a development project where we can require it to be provided. And it would also just provide an alternative route for someone to get through at the end of summer rather than going all the way around. Jen presented at the 10 p.m. to 6 p.m. always or was that an additional kind of suggestion after there was concerned around sort of the thing? We recommended that along that pathway. Two days when I talked to the staff and part of the confusion, I think, is that the project began under one set of rules and ended up with both other rules and changed circumstances and the replacement housing is required, if Lee, correct me if I remember this rightly, all three of the, well, I think of all three who were occupied by low to moderate income residents. But the property owner had worked in section eight to get an income verification and one of the tenants did not meet that standard. So therefore, the units were occupied, only two of the three occupied by low to moderate income residents and therefore the replacement housing did not kick in. That's exactly correct, yes. Yeah. So the code allows the unit to basically assume that all of the units are low to moderate income households if they don't want to go through the process of verification through the housing authority, some reason why they can't. And so that's what the applicant did at the beginning of this project and then they ended up going through that process before the city council meeting. So that's one of the reasons why this item was continued so many times. Any further questions from council members at this time? Open it up to public comment. So if there are any members of the public who would like to comment on item number 19, which is 914916 Seabright Project, now is the time to call in. Once you've called in, you will need to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and you will be given up to two minutes to speak to us on this item. This is John Swift. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. So I'm the applicant's representative and I assumed I have a few moments to make a short presentation. Yes, that's correct. And I'll just check with the city attorney. The applicant's representative gets, is it five minutes? The applicant's representative normally gets additional time. I'm not specifically how much, but it's generally five or ten minute presentation, right? Okay. Why don't we go ahead and have five minutes for the presentation? Yeah, my presentation should be very short. I want to thank you all for hearing this item today. It's been a long road, but we're glad to be here. And I really want to thank Samantha for her very thorough presentation. I think she covered many of the facts that I was going to have to spend some time doing, so I'm not going to do it in the interest of time. As she mentioned, the design is substantially changed from when it first went to the Planning Commission. And I think it's a vast improvement myself. I'm very pleased with the changes that were made. I think it's dropped from a 33 foot tall building to a 24 foot tall building and basically the two story structure with quite a bit of architectural design changes that are very attractive and distinguish it quite substantially from what it was before. It is an ideal and very appropriate infill development. There are many examples. I'm sure all of you are familiar with Seabright and the large, pretty large number of units and developments, both three and two story that have been developed in the recent past along Seabright. It being an arterial street, it's consistent with the city policies of infill development with a bus line on the street and that kind of thing, close proximity to school, commercial centers, et cetera, et cetera. So to cut it short, we do fully accept the staff recommendation, of course, and hope that you do as well. It's not only the staff, of course, the planning commission made a 7-0 vote of approval with the and they actually did not vote to approve the pedestrian easement. So we accept the recommendation except for that condition and that condition specifically carries out in three specific conditions in your staff report. They are condition 1322 and the second bullet point of condition number 22 and then condition number 30. So, you know, through the discussion of both the council and the staff, some of the issues that were raised, I hope that you have all seen the letter that Walter Woodlow submitted. It was signed by I think 10 other, roughly 10 other neighbors that live along Sumner Avenue and some other letters came in for the project, some against the project, but I think if I'm not mistaken, all of those letters were opposed to the establishment of this pedestrian easement. We're going to try to put up on the screen one of the exhibits that Mr. Ludlow submitted. And so he pointed out that the city has a plan to improve the intersection at Wyndham and Seabright Avenue. This is a significant factor. The blue arrow there represents where this connection would be made between the cul-de-sac at the end of Sumner and Seabright. And so really, if you look at the very end of Sumner, someone walking to that same point where this new pedestrian access with daylight would save about a thousand feet, right? But when they daylight there, they're entering onto a street without any clear crosswalk or traffic control to get across Seabright. Now that, you know, one can say, well, that's not such a bad deal. But if you have, I lived right off of Seabright for about 20 years, and I can tell you, Seabright is a high-speed, fast-travel street. And so I think the staff did look at some injury and accident counts, but my experience was that it was not exactly a particularly safe street. This Nets was acknowledged when the city took on this project on Wyndham and Seabright to design some circulation improvements there. So again, we would save about a thousand feet of walking for only a pretty limited number of people at the end of Sumner. And those people have said they don't need it. They're happy walking to Wyndham. Everyone north of Wyndham or to the east is going to use Wyndham to get to Seabright anyway. So the other thing is, if this was a wide enough property to delineate a pedestrian easement with a low fence or ballards, or in some way, in my opinion, make it a protected space, that's one thing. I use these all over Live Oak in town as I ride my own bike, but in this kind of situation, this is a private driveway. It's the people are to be backing up and turning in. Kids are playing in that driveway, yet you've got essentially strangers riding bikes, skateboarding, walking. I think Samantha and all due respect made this some analogy to a public sidewalk. I think that's a very different situation than a private drive in a private community. The feel is different. The sense of privacy, the sense of ownership is different. And I think this is kind of not a good thing for these tenants. It does raise insurance questions and expense. The insurance company we talked to said, yes, the HOA insurance. I guess that's by hearing a buzzer. So real quickly, I just want to emphasize condition 1322 and the second bullet point of 22 condition 30 would need to be, I think, stricken from the list of conditions. I also want to point out condition seven, because that is, I think a holdover from previous projects where gas lines were, you know, the use of gas in projects is allowed. Well, since the city, I believe, has adopted an ordinance to only allow electric, I just want to be clear that either that is being provided as an option in the event gas becomes possible, or I don't want it to be interpreted down the down the road that somehow we're in a conflict here with the ordinance. So I would suggest that that might need some rewarding as well. So I thank you very much for your time. I'll keep it short. And we're certainly here for any questions or elaboration that you may want. Thanks. Thank you very much. I'm going up to the public for public comment. Members of the public who would like to comment on this item. Again, now it's the time to call in on your phones. Please avoid calling the toll free numbers and call only the non toll free numbers. Once you've called in, you'll need to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and you'll be given two minutes to comment on this item. My name is Henry Hooker. And I'm calling in favor of this project to Bright Avenue on behalf of Santa Cruz Senior Housing. The project is appropriately sized and scaled to the neighborhood. And it makes a small but significant contribution to the amount of housing in town. Importantly, it provides one three bedroom unit at the low income level. It's not a large project, but it's exactly the kind of project that the city should encourage in existing residential neighborhoods. And a modest increase to the density in existing neighborhoods is appropriate to create more workforce housing. Most importantly, it increases cultural and economic integration of the neighborhoods and thus also equity throughout the city. Thank you for considering to move this project forward. Those comments the next speaker have two minutes. Coming Vice Mayor Meyers and members of the Santa Cruz City Council. My name is Paul Wontlow and I reside at 548 Sumner Street on the cul-de-sac section of Street adjacent to the proposed project. I must admit this is the first time I've had an applicant or another comment or actually use one of my figures from my comments to illustrate their points. I provided written comments with attachments yesterday for the council and I'll just briefly summarize those here. I'm commenting solely on the new proposed public access. I appreciate the applicants and city staff's efforts to reduce the massing of this project from its original design. My comments do not in any way affect the amount of potential new housing provided by this project. The council to eliminate the requirement for new pedestrian access for the following three reasons. The first is planning staff indicated that the proposed access would reduce walking cycling skateboarding distances to Seabright Beach in the neighborhood commercial uses by about a thousand feet for the quote immediate neighborhood. The immediate neighborhood here consists of about 30 total residents living on the lower half of the Sumner Street cul-de-sac. You will find attached to my comments a signed petition from a significant number of these residents indicating that they are opposed to the proposed walkway. Thus the very residents who supposedly could take advantage of this are actually opposed to it. Sighted in the staff report are largely theoretical and not real. My second point was already illustrated by the diagram which was just shared with you. I will note that if you look at that diagram it begs the question why would the city require a new access from the south end of Sumner Street which will force bicycles to cross busy Seabright Avenue mid-block without the benefit of an intersection in order to ride south to the beach or commercial area when the city has already committed to the construction on the lawn. Hi is this me? Yes good afternoon. I'm Walter's neighbor I'm at 527 Sumner Street. I live I own the property that will border on the development I think on the north side. I have several concerns I'll try to make it quick. I do find this project when you when she showed the the look the birds eye view I find this project to to be quite out of character with her neighborhood it is enormous. I am concerned that it the new design is a lot better I felt like Motel 6 was moving in next door. I am concerned about the description of these affordable units and then the third person not being someone who qualifies as lower income. I have been in these units so she may not qualify due to her income and I realize this is in the code but I want to say to the mayor that I appreciate your concern about revisiting this maybe not for this development but it's it's humorous living here and having been inside these buildings they're very old they're very rundown they're adorable from the outside but the you know it just happens to be that she makes more money than that so I appreciated your comment. On the shade study it showed an ADU that we have built on our property and it had a white square on the roof of our of our ADU which in winter I don't know why it was white we have that roof covered with solar panels that looks like through the winter days it will now be covered this is quite disturbing given how much money we just put into that this is my own personal problem I guess the city has no no reason to be involved in that but I'm just registering it because we are now quite in debt for this solar and Miss Hazard basically just said well it'd be cloudy in the winter anyway which was not actually appeasing my concerns. I do also as other people said I want to say that this walkway is unnecessary for us we walk all the time down down and it will not help us we have bad crime on our street as it is our cars are broken into on a regular basis we cannot leave anything unlocked so adding a walkway here is a terrible idea for those of us who live here and I understand I'm done so thank you thank you there's any other members of the public who would like to comment on this item please press star 9 on your phone otherwise we will be closing public comment and moving back to council for action and deliberation seeing no further hands raised from the public I'm going to close public comment bring it back to council for any questions or or motions to take action council member Matthews you're muted also there are any other questions I'm prepared to make a motion double checking with others I have I have a couple questions very briefly so I had a question for staff with regards to the comment regarding the blocking of solar on a neighbor's house I guess what if that were to happen where the shadow will be cast on the property adjacent property and impact their ability to have solar power guess what what remedies are there for that or you know just out of curiosity actually not out of curiosity because it just came up in the conversation so we do look at impact on adjacent properties in terms of shading and we do look at impacts to existing solar panels as well but there's nowhere in the code that requires somebody to not provide any shading on adjacent solar panels and if that was the case then solar panels on an adjacent property could limit development on the on the other property so we do look at the impact and we try to reduce them to the great extent possible in this case as I mentioned in the presentation the property the development is actually pushed as far back to the south property line as it can be and so while we acknowledge that there will be some limited shading in the winter months in the afternoons that that appears to be the extent of it based on the shading studies that were submitted thank you as you guys my next question then was with the representative of the developers on number seven the gas main question that was raised and given our the changes to our building electrification policy I was just wondering if this is in conflict with that and if it should be removed um in reading through that ordinance it looks like that policy kicks in based on the application date of the application and so this one would not be subject to that but we can add the term if applicable at the end of that condition and then it wouldn't preclude them from going all electric if they chose to do so okay um I think that's all the questions I have um again I think that to the comment that I made earlier and I just feel compelled to make it that you know part of what helps people um get to a point where they can afford to purchase housing is that they're able to save money um and live somewhere that's affordable and so I think that moving forward you know revisiting the code to you know allow for the replacement of housing based on the affordability of the units and potentially the the income of the people who are living in those units I think is critical for us to ensure that we're maintaining affordable housing stock in the city um so with that uh we have a motion by councilman Matthews and I seek counsel council member I said I was prepared to make it I didn't make it yet I asked her and um uh Sam if you want to just put up the solar thing I want to respond to that I took a look at the solar diagram and it is shaded uh somewhat in the winter but gets total sun in summer and I think um we'll see it in a minute so there there you get in the in the summer there's there's uh oh yeah the diagram there you know it's got it's a really total sun in the summer and uh it has the the whole development and push the south end and then there's the driveway is the buffer so um I'll just say we have solar on our house and you know we we draw on our credit a little bit in the winter but with great summer exposure you you build up a terrific credit as well so um and also some of the people who wrote in didn't want any big projects and I think most of the people understand we have relatively little judgment on this um project because of the recent state law I think all the council read the report and understand that so um I'll just make a few comments I think the um changes in the height the scale the breaking up of the building architectural style was given given that there will be a large replacement project here those were a big improvement and many of the neighbors expressed appreciation for those changes um I particularly like that the front unit faces on the sea bright as the house and I think that preserved kind of the rhythm of the of the houses along sea bright it really does the street in that little area of single family houses even though many of them are duplexes or have ADU in back or whatever um so I think that um redesign was successful um so just given those two comments I will go ahead and move that we um uh the recommendation that we acknowledge the resolution we adopt a resolution acknowledging environmental determination approving the tentative map design permit and residential demolition authorization permit to demolish three residential units and construct a nine-unit townhouse development based on the finding contained in the attached resolution and conditions of approval with the following exception deletion of the requirement for a pedestrian designated pedestrian pathway the length of the property and that's reflected in three separate conditions the clarification of item seven regarding the gas main does that give you enough direction there Sam and um adding um an optional eight foot fence along the driveway by mutual consent but that'd be my motion we have a motion by council member Matthews I see there are a number of hands up council member Brown were you gonna second the motion or was your hand raised for question no I was gonna second it okay I was gonna and it announced for that those conditions to be removed should the first uh the motion maker not do that so I'm happy to second the motion and if I could just make a couple of comments then like to do that right now sure that's clear you know I just first I want to really appreciate the the developer addressing those some of those concerns around building nothing and kind of architecture you know that it still means that there will be some some significant impact to the neighborhood and you know unfortunately SB 330 the housing accountability act doesn't really give us the latitude to reject projects and in this case I think that the the developer has done a good job of trying to address those some of those concerns and I think the pedestrian access piece is particularly important given that there is going to be a real impact here and you know council member golden I was first came on to the agenda and was pulled we went over and looked at and we walked around to try to figure out you know why the pedestrian access was so important and you know we just kind of I mean we looked at it we you know sort of and then it wasn't on the agenda so but I I do feel like that the potential community benefit there for having that kind of access is really not significant enough to balance with the impact on the on the neighbors so I'm I'm appreciate that council member Matthews you decided to move in that direction I just want to say on the the replacement housing I agree you with mayor Cummings that this case has caused me certainly to want to rethink our replacement housing policy given that projects like these are going to continue to come to us and given that we talk about the need to approve projects to get us affordable housing I mean let's let's not kid ourselves we're losing affordable housing here or at least you know housing that is it may be not deed restricted but that has been affordable to residents in our community you know I I'm just going to put it out there because I don't want to you know I don't want to be misunderstood in approving this that you know I continue to disagree with the staff interpretation about the density bonus rules and the intersection with our inclusionary ordinance and there is really not a body of case law there is one case and I you know there are multiple reasons that Napa is different but that case was different that are the communities are different and I think you know the case law is going to build and I'm not sure that that's the Napa case will be the the the final word and so I guess I think those are my comments I do you know I do appreciate you know the involvement that kind of the the motivation to kind of by the developers to make sure that the the project was kind of addressing those community concerns of neighbor concerns and so I'll I'll leave it there with my comments to be continued on inclusionary and replacement housing for a future date Council Member Byers and then Council Member Colbert I am disappointed about the path I wish we could go neighborhood by neighborhood and find ways to put paths in I think there's such an increase of people out walking and want to walk and there's such an it's better experience walking on a path versus walking on even though that area doesn't have a lot of traffic on Wyndham and Windsor and those streets however walking on a path versus walking on the street with cars zooming by it's black and white and I I just think we should be looking for more opportunities to have paths and the thought that you could walk down a path and you wouldn't notice stop when it came to the street I think our people are a little bit smarter so I will support the motion I am just disappointed that the path isn't part of it I think it it was a thanks to our planning department I think they looked at the right thing and I just hope they don't give up on finding other places to install paths I was going to speak to two things I want to respond to Council Member Byers and I'm curious now because to me it didn't look like a path like I was when you say that like I'm picturing the one along Bay Street or Miri Lagoon but what what I thought was just a driveway and it was just like you could like kind of just walk on the driveway there wasn't a sidewalk was there even no it was just but no cars oh there is cars it was a driveway yeah right so it was like walking yeah so it wasn't really a path though right right am I wrong no no I understood what it was but it was not designated now um and then I was just going to speak also I was thinking about what uh mayor Cummings and um Council Member Brown said and in my head it was I did did I see it anywhere in the report what's the current rent almost one bedroom and I forget if the other one was two bedroom units were currently no that was not provided in the report we just are required to look at the income level of the tenants so that's I just that just out of curiosity when one of the neighbors said that she's been inside of them and they're cute from the outside but dated and worn down and so then I think like sometimes landlords faced the rent on you know if they know that they're old appliances or this that any other and so they make the rent lower so would make it affordable for people but then you know every 30 years or whatever you have to do a major I don't even know how many years you do a major overhaul and a renovation that money has to come back somehow and so I would imagine that that would cause the landlords or the owners or whatever that they would need to raise the rent to recoup some of their costs for the improvements to the property and so when studying this further I just want to you know realize like that you know sometimes things are price lower just because they're not in the best shape and it's not brand new and that it would cost money to make things nicer if that makes sense Council Member Matt. I'll make just a couple more comments about the path I'm enormous fan of paths they put extra in this most of you know but this to me was not didn't feel like a designated path it's walking down someone's private driveway which is a little bit creepy and the other thing too in Seabright there's so many nice little pd plan developments of about this number of units that that were done maybe 20 years ago or so what's the minus on some of those big lots and the fact that that they are self-enclosed really creates a sense of neighborhood within those units so I think in the plant this isn't the plan development but it has that same similar feeling so I'm just adding those observations. There's no further questions or comments why don't we go ahead and take the roll call vote on time oh yeah I see it I do have some question who was the second Council Member Brown and then just for clarification for the minute since it was kind of broadly stated is it items and this might be for Sam is it items 13 the second bullet of 22 30 and 31 if that's where the reference to the path occurs I'm not turning to it right now but I think that's correct that's correct yeah those are the conditions that represent the path and then and then the other one where there was like ability was I think it was item number seven was regarding the gas mains and I leave it for the applicant and planning to figure out what does it do on that that's correct we'd like to build on that if I could have you clarify the fence condition also I that we would allow for a an eight foot fence yeah on the secret okay yes and that was by mutual by mutual agreement of the adjacent neighbors just because it sounded for the minutes part would I have my in my notes clarification of item seven that would be to include the term if applicable at the end of that condition to allow for them to yeah okay we'll count some member buyers Matthew hi Golder cruising along and thanks so thank you staff and thank you everyone for bringing that item before us and we'll look forward to seeing how it all turns out given that we're kind of moving along why don't we move on to the last item on our agenda item number 20 which is appeal of the transportation on public works commission decision on closed changes to the block of olive street and I'd also like to let people know that when the numbers are on your screen the non toll-free numbers are the numbers that you need to use to call in to comment on this item so if there are members of the public who would like to call in on this item the items that the numbers that you will use are the non toll free numbers that will be on your screen once you enter the the meeting you'll need to press star nine on your phone during public comment to comment on this item and you'll have up to two minutes and so with that I will turn it over to staff for presentation on item number 20 thank you mayor Cummings this is Brian Berguno parking program manager can you guys hear me okay and I'm going to share my screen can you guys see the screen okay I'm kind of recapping what was already provided in the agenda report and staff packet a majority of which was related to the transportation public works commission has already had a public hearing and rendered a decision on the parking proposed changes that I'm going to go through with you guys right now so this is affecting the 100 block of olive street at the cross street of mission street and on the other side of Toledo street overview just to provide some additional context the traffic engineering department received you know a number of different requests annually on average we receive three to four requests per month we work through those in chronological order and typically the turnaround time from the time someone initiates a request until we can kind of get to a point of completion averages about six months a majority of these requests remove you know we move forward with a work order unopposed especially when there's neighborhood consensus and I think that this context is important because sometimes we get to these points where council's reviewing something that you know has taken quite a bit of time to get in front of you for the first time but we've been spending a little bit of time on a number of these types of requests and we currently have about 17 in our backlog so this isn't isn't unique for us but it might be you know one of the first ones that you guys have had to look at in some time so the timeline for this particular parking change request began last August in 2019 we we got a request from a member of the public that asked us to take a look at parking regulations on the 100 block of Olive Street it took us until March to finish review of that request and determine what we were going to move forward and then of course you know at that time it was like the worst timing from the standpoint of trying to deliver a quicker turnaround on this particular request because the COVID pandemic hit and we were in a declared emergency we post to so the existing there are two ingress egress driveway access points to the businesses that's commercially zoned on two of the parcels that are against this block face and one vacant parcel that's zoned for residential that is currently not in use there's already an existing parking permit program with the two-hour parking limitation Monday through Friday and the only exception to that is to have a parking permit to park outside of that two-hour restriction we also have our zip car program has two designated spaces on this block and they are still in place and we have two fire hydrants one nearest Toledo and another one on the corner of Mission Street give you an example of some of the risks when we get these types of neighborhood requests we you know we ask these types of questions we consider safety we consider you know can we meet the requested by the neighborhood or is it something that we can't do for various reasons is it compatible use of the public right away you know making sure that the use of the street is being used for multiple uses for example bike friendly pedestrian friendly you know we had the the jump bike program too that added another layer of complexity where we had jump bike stations so you know these are the types of things we look at when we're making these determinations these were the four bullet points that are provided in the packet of what are changes encompassed and I'm going to jump to the map as I kind of explain those so what we were looking at doing is first and foremost providing a shuttle's location for the UCSC bike shuttle program they currently use this area as a drop-off point when school is in normal full session and they have been having difficulty finding parking and often having to double park or utilize the parking lot for their pickup and loading and unloading processes so during a review process they they asked us to provide an accommodation so that's one of the changes that we're making secondarily we're enhancing some of the the red curb areas at the corners of mission one because there's a fire hydrant located there and two to increase the sight line visibility when you're making turns left or right onto mission street off of all of and then secondarily there's another the second fire hydrant at the dead end was being obstructed often there was I think intent to provide parking because it kind of dead end in that unused space but what we have been seeing is queuing of cars that have been impacting the fire hydrant and then also through the process of our review we uncovered that there may be a potential development on the vacant lot that would be asking for a driveway rate adjacent to where some of that red curb is going to exist and then the last feature in the last piece that we added was the single space markings designating the number of stalls and organizing the parking in a particular layout that allows for a standard size vehicle to park the staff's recommendation was to satisfy the neighborhood request which focused on designating those single space markings while also enhancing safety looking for ways to expand the use and accommodate multiple modes of transportation including the bike shuttle to continue the existing limitations of encouraging turnover and existing restrictions and also ensuring compatibility of use with the adjacent neighborhood and businesses TPWC meeting in August they voted 5-2 against staff's recommendation I think one of the themes that was apparent as they kind of deliberated on the appeal that was presented to them was they were grappling with how to handle the displacement of some of the RV parking that's been occurring regularly there and asking for staff to provide additional information and feedback on safety parking programs for RV use they expressed during their discussion that they felt that they were limited in their role as a commission advisory only and would require City Council to weigh in on the context of the conversation between the appellants at the time and the neighborhood overall in conclusion you know we use these regulations for parking throughout the city we have a number of different examples where we've implemented enhancements for safety purposes compatibility of use or shared use of the street to accommodate transportation needs or neighborhood requests traffic engineering has limited tools to assist neighborhoods with parking and we feel that we have an obligation to use these tools to assist with the vitality and compatibility of the neighborhood we often feel that you know there's there's even more restrictions as we enter the coastal commission's jurisdiction and we struggle with you know trying to utilize these to the best of our ability um many of these parking regulations that we we receive again um when the neighborhood has consensus often we post these and submit a work order and it's not something that has to move through an appeals process but we get about one or two a year that we take the transportation public works and I guess with that that was again meant to be brief and just kind of summarize some things but I would like to open it up for any questions that you have great thank you for that presentation are there any um questions from council members at this time uh seeing none I'm going to open it up to the appellant the way this process works is that the appellant having the burden of proof will be permitted to present evidence in support of the appeal for 15 minutes and so um I was contacted um sorry give me one second can bring up by Dana who is the appellant of this she is called in and so I'm going to open up the line to the appellant for 15 minutes to respond and to present on this so you're on the line thank you hello mayor Justin Cummings and vice mayor Donna Myers uh city council members my name is Dana I live on the 200 block of olive street and I'm calling today to represent 76 of my immediate neighbors uh 26 of who signed the appeal I wanted to read that appeal to you now Dear Santa Cruz city council and city clerk this letter is to appeal the decision of the transportation and public works commission from 8 17 2020 regarding the parking changes in the 100 block of olive street the commission voted to uphold Alicia cool's appeal against the public work staff decision to install designated single space parking tees that designated UC shuttle drop off zone two zip car parking spaces and additional red curb markings on the 100 block of olive street between mission street and Toledo street for exit safety onto mission street and fire hydrant access at the end of the street property owners and residents of the neighborhood are appealing the transportation and public works commission decision to city council we ask that the concerns of the residents and homeowners to be taken into account in support of the parking regulations brought forward by the parking department staff our neighborhood has been adversely affected by the current unmanaged unservice RVs and van parking on olive street this short half block street is not an appropriate area for this homeless encampment the campers generate excessive excuse me excessive amounts of trash drug use noise and bad behavior and unsanitary conditions we believe that a decision to uphold the parking changes recommended will help solve some of these problems the vast majority of our neighborhood is an agreement on this issue we have been working on this change for over a year now and we ask that you consider our request and uphold the neighbor's appeal we will add that not only residents of our neighborhood are impacted by the current situation on olive but all customers and employees of cbs are also affected customers and employees of mathnasium tutoring on the corner of mission and all of are also negatively affected and genuinely concerned about the impact of their businesses the current conditions are unacceptable they create unsafe and hazardous conditions and a negative threat to our families we urge you to take to make the right decision and implement the parking changes proposed by public work that's the end of the appeal I just want to keep this simple clear and to the facts for you I'd like you to refer to the emails that came in to you the calls and upcoming public comments and we do have a slideshow for you please note that because of the hour of this I'm hoping that some people will get home from work and be able to join but that was um feedback that I got because they people didn't know if they'd be home on time thank you for your time and consideration thank you um I don't currently see um I'm working on it I'm going to share but um sorry um dana has a uh powerpoint um dana did you want that played now or later during your five minutes actually no it has to be played now hold up yeah and now please is it working or is it not moving it's not moving it's I don't know if you clicked it uh dana are there any further comments uh you'd like to make um please note there's one more screen that just popped up that's important because it shows um how it is now versus how it was before and it looks like we're also having more calls for service screens showing for everyone to review Bonnie we see the the presenters you know if you could switch it to presenter view of the the uh full screen view um I can't it's on the wrong screen and I can't figure out how to move it to the other one the presenter view it looks like I think we saw all the uh uh the slides that were in the show so I think we were able to see the calls for service further comments dana no I think it speaks for itself thank you thank you a rebuttal from the opponent however I don't um see there are a number the last four digits a bit of numbers so what I'll do is um I wonder if there's any questions from council before we open it up to uh public comment if there's any questions for staff dana oh talk to them around all right takes me a minute on this device uh so yeah I guess my question I have is um about the help me understand the appeals process here um because I as I understand it the appeal went about the decision by the department the transportation public works department went through a designated process um and then and now we're seeing that this is an appeal and just heard from dana thank you for um you know speaking up about this but I'm just I'm not clear was there an actual appeal is there what the what just help me understand the appeal process I guess overall I don't see it having gone through uh the same kind of process that the original appeal went through and so I just want to make sure that I'm clear on process if the city attorney could address that question or if there's someone from the city manager's office um there was an administrative process whereby this the staff initially approved the application um by the neighborhood uh that decision was appealed to the transportation public works commission and the transportation and public works commission um basically reversed uh or upheld the appeal and and rejected the staff's recommendation and then um um the appeal letters of which there were numerous um were inadvertently omitted from the agenda packet or rather um as a procedural matter um uh it's questionable whether or not it's required to include the the letter of appeal in the packet um I think a careful reading of the of the code uh state uh does not require that um but on on occasions there have been appeals filed where the actual letter of appeal is included in the packet and and others um it's not and this event it was not um it was however later distributed and is is a public record and on file city clerk's office for appeals under the municipal code was followed in this in this instance as far as the factual background I'm not as familiar um with that and so from a legal perspective it seems like the appropriate process was followed any questions or comments see that we have um one of our offices of our police department here and I was just wondering if you could comment on I know that the appellant had mentioned um you know increased calls for service in that area and and so I was just wondering if maybe you could speak to that yes mayor we have had I just kind of pulled the records for it was like you went back to 19 I just pulled the records from January and this year and we've had about 43 calls the parking to intoxicated people to people leaving trash leaking and I would see people causing disturbances so they are legit calls and that's kind of like to see the s and so the police department has ever been pushing for this change uh with parking and with Brian we've been working closely with them just to figure out what we can do what kind of changes we can make uh to make this more of a see brown it's your hands where it is again all right I do have a follow-up question uh thank you so in turn thank you um uh for the report about kind of calls for service I guess another question I have and this is just for anybody who has some uh something some kind of response I am wondering how restriping the um kind of what's really like a half a block is going to effectively address the concern that I'm hearing from the neighbors and um you know from the from our scpd um it's just I'm just I just I don't know that you know there are we have rules we have laws on the books about some of the behaviors you know dumping and things like that um you know public intoxication um and I guess I'm just not clear how changing the parking the size of the parking spaces there is going to make and impact that those challenges so I'd love to hear more about your thinking there design changes intend to disruption to the current use of the parking spaces that we believe will have the intended outcome that we hope um but like any parking regulation you know it isn't necessarily a crime solving problem um but we will we will want to try this um as a you know environmental design change that would have that outcome that we desire right thank you yeah I'm just I guess I I just am really I'm stuck on that because I I've heard the neighbor you know we've had a lot of communication about this and I completely understand the concerns and I'd like to find a way to address those and I'm just not um I'm just I guess I'm just still not clear how how that we're going to get there I feel like there may be other things to think about as you know whatever we do today that that if those concerns are real and I believe they are um we ought to be trying to figure out how to address those can I take a stab at answering that question as well please go ahead um we have used the single space marking as again as Brian said one of the few tools we have to deal with oversized vehicles in town and we've used this um the first location was Elton Avenue and um the bump outs on west coast drive and um we got immediate positive results from the neighbors in fact I hear very little from the neighbors out there anymore and so it actually has proven to be an effective tool it it it would not prohibit people from um say camping in their cars or short rvs but for the oversized vehicles it definitely changes the nature of what's allowed out there you have to park entirely within the space as marked or you can be cited so again it's just one of the few tools we have and it has proven at least from our point of view to be effective thanks councilmember golden this is a question for pdc so um writing a citation for a vehicle for you know say that that we do the striping and our rv comes in parks parks there they can get a citation is there any is that it so these parking spaces if an rv parks outside of the markings we can write a citation for that we do uh and every everywhere around the city parking citation for 48 dollars and it could escalate all the way to the impound in a vehicle if they continue to uh park there so we do have some some room in there and so i'm just curious because i i've also been out there too and is there anything else that these vehicles have been cited for yet i mean the ones that i've seen i've seen all of those things that showed up on the slideshow plus i've seen like uh rvs without a cap on their blackwater tank and i've seen um someone stepped in human waste and it's like pretty it's pretty unsanitary and and um inhumane the living condition conditions quite frankly and so i don't think it you know so i'm just wondering if there's some of these vehicles have already been cited absolutely there's several sections when we go out there they're technically supposed to move every two hours on it they sit in their vehicles and they wait for us when we come they move around the block and come right back so we have the two hour time limit a lot of the vehicles aren't aren't registered some of them register their vehicles we have cited vehicles for the dumping of waste we've towed vehicles out of there because of dumping of waste we have cited people for littering in the area so there are actually quite a few sections that we have cited uh during this past year the quality of life citations and some um and some d and b violations so that they're having quite a few and we will continue to do that thank you council members at this time we make a decision to deny the appeal do we uh or uphold it where does it go in effect maybe someone from our yeah i have i just have no idea but it is so critical and i i just you know some things are 30 days some are the the the tony this is brian we're gonna look in if i can help answer that maybe tony came from yeah there there is there there's no time certain implementation after after you guys make a decision we then can submit a work order the work order um can be delayed or paused or postponed due to the streets teams capacity or when we finalize submitting the work order based on the decision that you make so there is no no time certain um but once once the approval is done it gives us the authority to move forward with it um after that point great thank you just went to here thank you yeah questions or comments council members none i'm going to turn it over to the public um before we begin i'm going to just double check to see if the um checking the numbers does not appear that um the opponent to this has called in so we're going to go ahead with um opening up for public comment so if there are members of the public who would like to comment on this item now's the time to call in using the numbers on your screen after calling in you'll need to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and you will be given two minutes to speak unless you've contacted us prior to the meeting to request additional time um if the opponent called in um i'd like for the opponents please announce themselves and they will have 15 minutes Paul Hamas again hi i'm speaking as a representative of the west side neighbors on behalf of the neighbors on all of street in support of the proposed parking regulations RV overnight parking is an ongoing issue in west side neighborhoods including all of street Delaware fair Miramar western swanton garfield park and others this issue predates the COVID pandemic a number of these RV residents have lived in our neighborhood streets for well over a year allowing RV parking overnight on neighborhood streets without sanitation or oversight is not fair to the neighborhoods parks or businesses that have to deal with related impacts and consequences those who live in RVs do need a safe place to park we already have the AFC safe spaces program to park free in the county and we need to get information out about these places and we need to develop more as the grand jury report also suggested but allowing overnight RV parking in residential neighborhood is not acceptable and it creates many problems the solution is to provide a legal place and then enforce existing regulations please support the request of the neighbors by approving the proposed parking changes on all of street thank you thank you thank you of homeless squatters rights where none exist the city can make parking changes as it sees fit respecting the local residents safety aesthetic and health concerns and the original appeal petitioner i hope can try her luck squatting elsewhere i suggest she make increase into RV campgrounds save spaces or look further away for RV accommodations CVS is open until midnight and an RV and capping across the street is surely not doing them any good i really don't know what goes on there at night but nothing of the residents to their say would surprise me we need a lot more of this approach on the west side and you can continue with garfield park delaware natural bridges please don't overthink this one implement the original approved parking changes on olive street thank you bye okay next speaker can you hear me yeah good evening hi my name is carolyn bowman and i'm the owner of mathnasium of santa cruise located in the beautiful brick building on the corner of olive in mission street and i'm calling you today to respectfully ask that you support the proposed parking changes on the 100 block of olive street and my two concerns mainly are trash um and safety i spend a disproportional amount of my time running my business um cleaning up um after a whole lot of people who um are not my customers and my bigger concern is really for the safety of our children that come here to do their math tutoring and um i arrived today um just a few hours ago to find a used needle in my parking lot and i just um really think that these changes would be in the best interest of our community thank you so much engaging in extremely loud and to be an rv park owner of a major rv park in the bay area and i can tell you uh this ain't the place where you want to be putting putting rvs from my professional standpoint from a safety very very busy and i hurry to get the errand done or whatever but they go zipping up that street living in rvs in my park so i i know that they're a a good way to do substitute housing and i'm certainly all in favor of it we gotta uh accept the staff units off that particularly uh particular street six months from now finding ourselves all on the ten o'clock news because we missed a call here and i would urge that the traffic engineer maybe the city attorney get on down there and just kind of looked at over and and think in those terms uh with that mindset anyway i appreciate the opportunity and uh and thank you very much for your time on this thank you very calling him hi this is robert from homeless united for friendship and freedom robert norris i believe the appellant is trying to call in that's what she's told me or i should say the responder she was occupied in another call so be alert for that uh the real issue here has to do with the lack of real logistics on this issue can i promise you for one second i just want to uh respect the fact that um robert norris is called in on behalf of huff and has requested uh additional time so robert you'll have up to four minutes thank you thank you justin um so what you need to make a really informed decision on this is to have input not simply from neighbors who have what may well be legitimate concerns but also have a very specific perspective and a specific aesthetic they're searching for they don't have the problem of having to sleep in a vehicle at night and having to find a place to park it's often nimby really a really profound part of santa cruz as well i'm really talk to service providers and find out just how many rv spaces are actually available is have service you should need to go out to service providers and homeless persons to get more indication the homeless uh the people in these vehicles you also haven't got any real stats for like to see the evidence and i think the city council should see if any criminal behavior in that neighborhood i don't mean anecdotal accounts and not being available maybe it's technically okay situation the public needs to see that in advance and so did the people concerned about this that was not a part of the agenda packet so to make a decision about that information the situation the staff also seems to be somewhat partisan as is the police department are implemented for providing some safe parking spaces there aren't that many in the needs of folks who are in their vehicles parking changes industry which is one block from the hundred block of all the street um i bought my house 16 years ago and i've lived in santa cruz for 33 years over the past several years there has been a large increase in the number of people camping at the end of all of street but there are no facilities to accommodate the campers there is no class trash collection there are no bathrooms there's no there are no picnic tables therefore the trash gets dumped outside people pee and poop in the bushes and personal items are placed on the sidewalks and in the streets it's not a healthy situation for anyone uh this includes the campers as well as the people that live nearby and the patrons of the businesses nearby i have also on occasion seen numerous drug deals and drug use people shooting up right next to the cvf at the end of all of street i have reported what i have seen to the police as a result of these activities i have reduced my use of the area reduced visits to cvf and i do not walk through the area to the other stores and restaurants anymore uh these problems are not constrained just to the end of all of street they spread out at my house which is one block away i've had camping near stolen i've had my tenant had their bike stolen um a car has been broken into numerous times and i've been stolen the end of all of street is not a suitable location for camping if the people want to camp in their vehicles they should do so where there are appropriate facilities such as the safe spaces parking program i urge you to adopt the proposed parking changes in an effort to reduce some of these problems thank you for your time thank you very much okay next speaker well this is abby samuels um i'm calling on behalf uh to support alicia cool's um appeal that the commission had voted five two on the commission commissioners 70 letters that were against the parking slots and now you're trying to reverse their decision um the thing is is that well i hope you don't less than a block away show that they were near any rvs it was a drug deal down there a lot every every single commissioner that voted five to two they went down there and they checked it out um i three rvs that part there mainly mainly alicia cool and the residents of the neighborhood in the rvs some of them have been living there for over a year the fact that they've chosen to live there indicates that it's a good place to live among the options available to them they could move if they wanted to could not possibly improve their quality of life or prevent the rvs from leaking fluids or being not registered with dmv uh i think that changing the parking to exclude rvs is the wrong city action to address the problems at all the street services from the city such as waste uh removal for rvs trash disposal storage uh social workers needle deposit uh need to be brought out to the site by the city to meet the needs of the residents there if you want to improve the community you have to actually improve the community not break it up and try and hide all of its members elsewhere in the city thank you hello good evening hi can you hear me yes thank you council for the opportunity to speak our family on a house on toledo street just a hundred feet from the olive rv encampment our house has been rented out since 2012 in 2018 we started facing problems with the rv encampment encampment next to our property our tenants a family of three reported excessive noise fights in the middle of the night clear evidence of drug use and drug dealing in short everything you would expect from an open campaign which is unmanaged and unregulated after suffering harassment by some of the rv dwellers our tenants left only a year after moving in instead of the six years they intended to live there i understand that san jose has a huge problem of lack of affordable housing and homelessness i am not anti-homeless and i would urge you to find such solutions for the rv dwellers however open camping in the midst of a neighborhood is not a good solution it has a negative impact on our neighborhood it is not safe for anyone not the neighbors not the businesses there and not the unhouse population living on that block it took our neighborhood over a year to try and address this issue we are not an anti-homeless coalition or any other organization and we're not trying to target home houseless people we are only dealing with our own neighborhood and i hope you will learn thank you very much yeah my name is kurtis galloway and i've lived in santa cruz for over 30 years my house is on king street a couple blocks away from all of the streets and i got involved about a year ago when i was noticing as i would walk down all of the street to get to mission streets a lot of vehicles camping there and increase in trash and that's that's how i came to talk to some of the other neighbors and hear about the problems that they had been experiencing too i think from my perspective it feels like this is a reasonable change and i i think that a lot of thought went in from the public works people and i appreciate the work of the commission and the city council and reviewing all of this and if we need more resources for RV parking in santa cruz i think that's great but i think we should be thoughtful about where we cite that and should go through a process of consulting the neighborhood other than just sort of grand father and yin places that have sprung up places spontaneously so i would urge the council to support the parking changes that were proposed originally thank you thank you i've noticed that the opponent into the application is called in and so before moving forward with the um the rest of public comment i'm going to allow the opponent to speak um they are allowed up to 15 minutes to provide their evidence against the appeal and so i'm going to allow the um the opponent to speak at this time about 15 minutes to uh provide your overall statement to the council thank you okay so i want to point out several things um number one i've been parking on all of street for approximately two years um it is a safe location i kind of consider myself a resident several of the nearby people living there consider um for me and a couple of the other individuals that park there like family um they welcome us there they say that we actually improve the neighborhood they say that they prefer to know the people that are parking there rather than to not know them uh we have provided many photographs to show that there is no collection of of um feces anything like that um there are a lot of police phone calls because in general there are a lot of police phone calls targeting people who are experiencing homelessness um removing the parking there isn't going to make a big difference as far as what's happening there because what's going to happen is people are going to have to move to nearby streets this is not a like a productive way of addressing this issue right now we have a growing number of people who are experiencing homelessness we have a lot of fire evacuees this specifically targets large rvs which kind of makes no sense if you're talking about health and safety concerns because larger rvs are the only ones with restrooms they're not the ones that being sewage or going to the restroom outside um I myself show a ticket every single month to show that I'm dumping my rv properly because people are constantly getting accused of that and so although many calls come in most are not substantiated um changing the parking would not help the the area at all there's plenty of parking in the cvs area for cars it's not going to open up any parking like for the ucsc shuttle or anything like that they frequently stop in the cvs area um large delivery trucks have no problem getting in and out of there um I would like to also point out that citing people who are experiencing homelessness in an effort to give them five or more tickets so that you can tow their home away is just a hateful horrible tactic it doesn't lean towards helpfulness or um improving people's lives whatsoever it it dehumanizes people um in their worst time in their worst crisis and makes their situation work if you take their rv or their home or their car away what does that put them that puts them on the street that would essentially if you did that to me take my bathroom away from my family that would put us in a tent that would force my daughter to have to use one of these disgusting porta-potties on the street that are hardly ever serviced and rarely ever open um you know the afc parking program is few and far between they're pretty much at capacity they do background checks you have to have fully registered vehicle you have to go through a lot of criteria to meet their program requirements it's not low barrier it leaves many many people out right now we need solutions not criminalization I find this to be like a horrible tactic to use like parking regulations to target people experiencing homelessness in general I think it's kind of an abuse of the process I don't think it's appropriate um like many people were saying we won the appeal fair and square if you were to go against what was already voted on five two you would be going against logic and just approving an anti-homeless hateful policy and that's basically all I have to say thank you for your time thank you for your comments okay we'll go back to public comment um next speaker he allows unmute yourself and next speaker gail michaela's out I don't live in the neighborhood I live on Highland Avenue but I along with my family own the property at 1700 mission street where the CVS is located and I'm calling to support the changes to the parking to support the appeal I've had several meetings with the neighborhood and I've also had several meetings with people from CVS Amy and Pagel who's the area district supervisor and the manager and because of the RV problem in the neighborhood employees and customers alike are being harassed by people who live there a lot of them want to just speak up today but they are afraid it's the same thing that everyone else has talked about there's trash there's needles there's urinated and deprecating on property there's a lot of harassment going on this is not COVID related as was talked about at the uh traffic commission these folks have been here as you heard this process started over a year ago it is really important that in Santa Cruz we find an appropriate spot for RV parking but that little block of olive street is not a safe or appropriate spot for this to happen so please um help protect this neighborhood and the businesses in the neighborhood and the residences and thank you for considering this matter tonight thank you the planning commission's decision number of people that have the safety of the people living in RVs I think if that is truly the concern that we need to bring on more services online before you talk about harassing people their vehicles will be impounded and that they will be on the street that is just straight up cruelty to obviously this is not an ideal situation in the neighborhood I live I also am dealing with trash and all the things that people mentioned nobody has offered any evidence just saying this stuff happens and there are people in RVs there's no way again a lot of these calling campaigns good afternoon my name is Amy Pagle I'm the district leader of the CBS pharmacy located at 1700 mission street um that's previously been mentioned a number of times um I appreciate you taking the time to listen to us tonight and I won't go into all the same details that many of the others have um in support of these changes um I just wanted to um say that I am too in support of these changes um these this particular group and people that have been living on the 100 block of olive street many of them were previously residing in our parking lot um it took us a lot of a lot of time and effort um but we were eventually able to get the right signs that prohibited that um they moved to olive during the time that they were in our parking lot um they were routinely harassing customers there was trash there was um needles there was drinking um and they were harassing my colleagues as well since they've moved um that haven't really stopped um I personally have received over 50 customer complaints this year alone um and many of these customers are neighbors saying they don't feel safe coming to my store um they won't be coming back until they can so um this has impacted my business this has impacted my colleagues um safety and and perception of safety and the customers as well and that's all I have thank you thank you very much hi um my name is Candice Brown I am a transportation and public works commissioner as I mentioned earlier um earlier I was not able to read the report by the way but that's a separate issue because there's an issue of downloading very large files that is probably problematic to other people which I have had a problem with so apologize I've not been able to read all the attachments but I can't speak to that particular meeting um and the issue that the commissioners had was that we were in the middle of the COVID pandemic and the appellant was asking to be able to shelter in place and we didn't feel there was no legal authority there to see whether we could um not honor that appeal otherwise and so I think that was a major influence the other thing was that the solution that the traffic engineering came up with the parking there actually the sign says 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. uh two hours so it's not 24 hour restricted number one and the solution for that was not to change that and it wasn't to change the parking around the surrounding area so it was felt like it would just move to another block or something that was one issue or the second issue um and also it was just targeted to the RVs and people were saying there was maybe one or two or three RVs there at any point in time but there's a lot of cars there's a lot of vans there there's a lot of trucks there and none of that would be restricted also the RVs in particular have bathrooms but all these other vehicles do not and so it just seemed like the solution that they came up with was not going to solve any of the problems that were of concerns and there were you know letters and there was some documentation by the tenant that then moved out um it also seemed from some of the documentation that became very personal between a couple people so it was hard to know if it was just a personal issue I just wanted to represent that because I think it's important and we felt that it needed to go to the city council because this is a much broader issue of homelessness and how to proceed forward so thank you okay next member of the public and how do people lose their housing that the government the churches and businesses open up places for them to park and camp and whatnot unhoused people this is for other reasons other than a fire are scorned upon and we must drive them away um this this is something that plays out nationwide not just here in Santa Cruz anything on olive street come up with a solution because if you have no solution for these people if you have no solution for them then what are you doing except playing whack-a-mole where you let say okay you move out of this area address this issue the way to address it is to come up with a solution uh I hear a lot of vague references to problems but no real reference to any problem that is caused by calling oversized vehicles the street when you're pulling out I'm fine with that or if they want to make a little buffer at the turnout out of the parking lot so that there's enough room for big big voted on by the planning commission with a 5-2 vote I live near this location and regularly go to the cbs for prescription drugs I never feel unsafe I never feel like the area is dirty or dangerous and I'm honestly astonished that during this moment of discussion regarding black lives matter and transformative justice that staff seems entirely unconcerned about the obvious bigotry and dehumanization of these kinds of regulatory changes this is the worst kind of nimbyism that is being supported by an anti-homeless reactionary coalition from next door this is honestly Trump-like has in addition of services even been considered are we as a city simply going to normalize this fish cleansing if a home alone would you suggest the city forcibly remove them from their home is this kind of thinking uh this kind of thinking is only ever acceptable when discussing people living in poverty because they have no rights city staff seems entirely unconcerned with human rights of people living in vehicles adding bathrooms a trash bin and a needle kiosk seemingly solves every problem put forward in a fair and simple way as others have stated this particular regulation is clearly more cruel than it is even thoughtful RVs have bathrooms RVs have space to store trash and meals and yet RVs are being explicitly targeted with these regulatory changes these proposed changes are not only cruel and inhumane they're downright stupid except the appeal okay thank you lower their hand so i'll call them next speaker last four digits ending in 0889 i'm going to be real quick on this i just want to say my name is lori i live on Toledo street i've lived here for 38 years and i'm really um appalled by everybody acting like the neighborhood is making these stories up i have two young grandchildren that visit me weekly eight and ten there are a lot of kids on the street um some just approaching high school some just approaching junior high um some that have never been exposed to some of the things that they are seeing that's happening on the block down there by cbs i'm a couple houses away but the it's not like people planted these things there they came a lisa cool she came two years ago and considers herself a resident what is she doing to give back to society what is she doing to get a job her place is a hub and her hub has brought more and more vehicles here small and large and the and this is when it all started i've been here for 38 years i watch this i see this i don't go to cbs anymore either i don't walk down that way unless i have my grandkids on the weekend we try to do it in the day never at night now just because of halloween just to look at things in the store but i i can't believe that that they are saying that people would in the neighborhood would plant these things and put these things these things never came the whippets the needles the feces none of this came before the motorhomes came and none of the smaller cars came before the motorhome came so all of this has been because of the hub she started as a hub and it brought more people to the area that's what i'd like to say and i'm appalled that she would say that the neighborhoods and and other people like robert norr said are planting things you know maybe these are planted they don't look like they're coming out of the motorhome well where the hell do they think they came from said i'm upset listening to this because like i said i am a homeowner and i lived here for 38 years and it's never been public comment after this we'll turn it back over to the appellant to make any um rebutting arguments short i have five minutes and then we'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation for digits 2789 hi thank you um i'm really glad to be going last and that we don't have to end on that absolutely insane speaker that is just spouting disgusting nonsense i am definitely here to vote that you to speak my opinion on that you should reject those changes you should definitely follow the five q planning commission ruling in favor of appealing the parking changes on olive street i myself am not a member of that neighborhood but i am a home them a homeowner in santa cruz i am disgusted at andy mills and officer west molly i cannot tell you how many times in the last four years i myself had to call the santa cruz police department to complain fraternities next door urinating in droves defecating barking i was told that they could not do anything probably because they were white bcsc students but now here is police here's the commission trying to do things to these rv dwellers if it's a quality of life whose life i you know following in numerous times to have the fraternities keep in check nothing is done until someone dies in one of them do something about the people that are entitled do something about the people that are actually causing a problem and not trying to do the best with what they have thank you thank you okay so i'm gonna um ask if uh the anna would like to speak um if so please press star nine on your phone you'll have five minutes to um to say any closing comments um in response to the opposition and the comments you heard and dana before you begin i'd just like to say that um just based on council policy you're able to rebut any of the things that you heard earlier but you can't bring up any new um arguments to be made so and you'll have a good five minutes thank you i just want to thank you for listening to the concerns of the neighbors and myself we are not next door we are not a coalition we are not anti-homeless um you have received in your emails over 83 emails in support of this change and as neighbors we represent families that were born and raised here immediate neighbors to the hundred block of olive all socioeconomical backgrounds teachers students homeowners renters immediate business owners managers landlords to that hundred block residents dating back to the 70s new homeowners and renters caretakers the elderly ucfc students taxpayers realtors customers to cbs and the close by businesses therapists volunteers and supporters of the homeless community including myself we the neighbors and the two immediate businesses of cbs and mathnasium support the proposed parking changes to the hundred block of olive street to address the issues of sanitation safety and parking we hope that the city council will help this homeless community to find a designated safe parking space with running water trash and bathroom facilities and the resources and support that they need again thank you for your time and consideration okay thank you we're going to bring it back to council um its actions and deliberation the council members who'd like to speak on this item council member Watkins and council member golder uh input from the community as well as the staff and our commission's time uh thinking this through i know it's really challenging and and and balancing neighborhood compatibility and these broader issues around those experiencing homelessness in our community as well as um illicit behaviors that are happening in neighborhoods and um you know given what i've heard in terms of the uh impact it's it's had to have some of these um efforts underway in certain areas where there's been a disproportion amount of illicit activity occurring uh i am supportive of uh of moving forward with uh and i want to make sure i'm saying this quickly but moving forward essentially with the implementation of some of these changes to our parking um i i believe that means then that would be to um uphold appeal so i'll go ahead and make that motion to meet where they are and certain RVs in that area and and i know that there's work happening with the county office of education and our safe sleeping program and looking at other locations that are more compatible for children and so i just invite uh you know our community and those who are in you know um sharing resources with our unhoused families that that be also a reference reference for those to consider a more compatible location for their children so with that i'll just go ahead and leave the motion on the floor okay so the motion on the floor um just in terms of lines of hands that are up council member gold are you prepared to second the motion okay so the motion made by council member walk and seconded by council member golder council member golder if you you have the floor and you're muted i i was just going to second the motion i don't have any further comments vice mayor mires yeah i just wanted to thank um all the folks who spoke tonight um i have talked with a number of folks over in the neighborhood there and obviously reviewed all of the correspondence we got um and you know we do have we do have extensive RV camping pretty much throughout the throughout the west side um i think that this street is problematic because of the commercial nature that's that's there the the shortness of the street um in the you know the commercial district is quite dense there there's a lot of use there's a lot of cars coming in off a mission street at high high levels it just this isn't i just don't agree that this is a place where we should have people living in their vehicles and um it's not you know um we we we do provide um safe parking programs we have three sites in our in our police department lot available every night not not very often are those used um but it's in my opinion that's just unfortunately it just is not a really good it's not a good location for for what's happening um i don't i don't know why the the residents who are there um would you know make accusations or try to i mean i i you know i've seen similar types of results in other places so i i think we are um you know we're dealing with a very difficult program problem we don't have um facilitated places except through the afc and i just think it's just very incompatible with the neighborhood and i'm i'm uh supportive of the motion it's just this is really not it's not really going to work in a residential area to do this and um so i'm going to be supporting the motion tonight thank you thank you talking about i do have another question which is explicitly about the appeal but i it's come up so i just want to ask where are we at with the afc uh parking we uh the the catch recommended to us that we expand um safe parking uh i believe the council has voted to um allow uh churches to increase the number of um campers and i i guess i'm i'm just going to leave the police department parking lot out of it because i think that's a bit of an anomaly and i understand it's maybe not as welcoming of the place for people who are living on the margin so um that aside where are we at with the afc um is there um you know are we expanding are there places that we could send people um and kind of what's the outlook there and i see Susie oh harris here thank you i had to i had to turn on my light good evening uh council members happy to answer that question for you council member brown so with regard to the afc safe parking program we do have the lot at pd um and also we opened um a 10 space lot um behind will work in lot 17 for the use of the afc program one of the catch recommendations as you mentioned council member brown was to continue to look into um expanding that program and as of now afc has 40 spots within their rotate i'm sorry not the rotating shelter within their safe parking program um during covid that moved to a 24 7 shelter in place program and i think the big distinction being is that um that program is a fully managed program um yes there are requirements in order to access that program um that this cool did mention and i think the afc needs to continue to provide um flexibility around some of those um perceived and actual barriers into the program we do have the ability to expand um from three to five spots at our faith-based organizations and the county's focus strategies work which is the system wide improvement for homelessness response is contemplating additional safe parking um across the county so i know that there will be potential for expansion um as the city continues to think about homelessness response programs the need for safe parking um is obviously paramount to continuing to meet the needs of our sheltered community um i would agree that this area is particularly challenged just for equity of use um for folks um that are accessing that area whether it be for business or residential or personal reasons and um really hosting a safe parking program needs to come with all of those service provisions to help people exit their homelessness and not just by virtue of providing parking so much more for the council to consider um but i appreciate the question and i do think there's opportunity um to continue continuing to move forward with afc as well fires and then i have a few comments i'd like to make two on this um good i'm glad you were here susie to update us uh because one of my uh i tried to get a hold of the social um faith communities this morning so i could get an update because i thought i understood that they had proposed another location in which they would manage but i don't whether you've heard that or not and i wasn't able to talk to anyone before we started 9 30 this morning by the way we've all got to encourage the churches because we've had a program might say we the city for on the books forever that churches can allow up to three um whether they're cars or rvs and often they have bathrooms and often they have water maybe they don't have but you know it it is a place and i think there's such a um there's so many out there that really could contribute to this problem no it on the city streets is not a good place you know my street i get rvs all the time but they're usually just here for an overnight they're more tourist than they are people who really have jobs and happen to be living in their rv so we must not um just we can't give up in finding a lot more and i think it just helped the whole community if we each one of us take it on to get your church to expand the program thank you susie too for all your work and and yet i'd certainly um and voting to uphold the appeal thank you for those comments um i just you know with respect to the issue around homelessness you know i think it's really important that the city remembers that not only um you know when we think about where the services and who who is in charge of operating services you know this really is a function that um falls under the purview of the county however the city has worked you know with the county of this year more than ever to stand up you know more services than we've ever had um i think susie just mentioned we had 40 um new a of c parking spaces i don't think that you know i don't think we had anywhere close to that last year at this time we have you know we have coral street we have the vfw halls we have at least seven hotels where we're um we're we're sheltering people at the moment in addition to the homeless services that we previously had um the benches the armory i mean we have set up unprecedented amounts of shelter for homeless people this year and we've expanded our parking programs and you know i think that we you know we really need to continue working with the county but i think we're trying to do as much as we can and we need to just respect the fact that we have to work within the amount of resources that we have i live over by a lot 17 and i often don't see that a lot at capacities so you know working with the a of c to do outreach to the people who are on this street i think would be great to see if some of those folks could you know become a part of this program um and you know i'll say that that safe parking program has not had any impacts on the community i we haven't received complaints um when i walk past there on the way downtown there's not garbage everywhere there's no you know needles and so there are programs that we've been standing up that have been working in our community and i think it's really important that we continue to use those models for providing um you know safe parking and sleeping programs for our uncheltered population and you know unfortunately um just based on the comments and the feedback we've received today it seems like what's happening on um on olive street is not very compatible with the residents in the neighborhood and so i'm going to also be voting to uphold this appeal and i just hope that moving forward and between you know now and when these um parking um these implementations for parking are put in that we can um provide some information to those folks about how they can get access to the services that we're currently offering throughout the county i also you know for the makers of the motion i think it would be great if we could maybe if the maker in the second of the motion would consider um approving that the mayor send the letter to the county expressing support of increasing capacity for safe parking programs in other parts of the county um that would be considered absolutely thank you and um yes i think that we really need to you know these times are very difficult and we have to balance the impacts on everyone in our community and i just think that you know with this um situation we really need to take the neighborhood concerns and the business concerns into account and try to find um other places where these folks can can sleep safely help remember brown i um excuse me i i agree um with uh much of what's been said i i um um you know i hear the concerns that are coming from neighbors um from the businesses there i will say it's not really i mean it is adjacent to residential street it is right there on mission street um but even now aside i um you know i hear the concerns and yet i have no you know for we we say a lot about making data-driven evidence-based decisions and i um i do not see any evidence um and if somebody has it please share it that um you know restricting large vehicles but continuing to allow smaller vehicles to is going to somehow change the dynamic there i i guess i just you know i that is one thing i just don't see this as uh a solution to the perceived problem um i i realize that making a decision like this is a politically expedient thing to do but it certainly does not do anything to address um the challenges that we have it does not do anything to address um the behavioral issues you know so so if that's our goal is to you know to deal with trash and and you know waste and needles it's hard for me to imagine that simply restriping uh that one block is going to is going to do anything about that and just you know kind of in on principle i don't think that i'm continuing to implement these kinds of changes in order to address a problem that just seems to it's continuing to grow is is going to get us anywhere so i can't support uh the motion that does not mean that i do not hear the neighbor's concerns i would be happy to um be involved in um you know efforts to try to address some of those issues um you know aside from just changing the the you know the parking the size of the parking spaces there it just it just does i just don't see how that's going to get us the relief um that people are asking for so i'll be voting no and um hope that there we can continue the conversation because i imagine that even with this change those issues aren't going to go away if there's no further questions or comments i'll turn it to the um city clerk to call the roll call vote the motion before us is that the council motion to uphold the appeal to uphold the appeal and move forward with the installation of parking of keys and designated shuttle drop-off in addition to red car markings on the 100 block of olive street between mission and tolato and and that's it and in addition to that uh direct the the mayor to write a letter on behalf of the council expressing their support for increasing capacity of safe parking programs um throughout the county council member buyers i matthew just unmuted i no council members matthew's buyers wackens golder vice mayor mires and myself voting in favor and council member brown voting opposed with that we will move on to the last item on our agenda which is oral communications or communications is an opportunity for members of the public to address the city council on items that were not on the agenda today if you would like to comment during oral communications please call in now numbers on your screen you will have two minutes to comment on items that were not on our agenda today and so after you call in please press star nine on your phone to raise your hands and you will have two minutes to speak Deming systemic police racism but instead it's the name of the progressive BLM made up of andy trumpers anti-factor solutionaries anarchist destructors looters arsonist vandals murderers the violently mentally disturbed criminals and yes the oh so virtuous leftists who condemn all white people and think black people are incapable of much of anything without their help using inflammatory hyperbolic dishonest rhetoric the hundreds of non-stop nightly videos of violent BLM provox officers and Compton and BLM filthy mouth celebrators shouting i hope you die in front of their hospital rooms even though fell mostly by press defa anti-fa BLM sympathizers that movement spizing america is still unmistakably on youtube every night any night will do to view war in america waged by useful idiots ranting lies of police racism between obscenities police are not perfect but do protect us from among other criminals the deceitful violent marxist anarchist anarchist groups hiding behind the first amendment like the BLM the BLM have done exactly nothing for black people it's not their real agenda the health crisis of BLM arson looting murder assault and rioting gets unfathomable official silence by the council racism as a health crisis and BLM endorsement by billboard plays local politics the BLM destroys everything it touches those who fund and endorse the BLM are not helping black people at all because the violent BLM poisons reality will rise masquerading as justice police racism doesn't make the list of real black crisis such as the pervasive no-responsibility black oppressive victim mentality or the alarming disproportionate ultraviolence of some black males who commit 50 percent of all violent crime overwhelmingly against other black people or the shocking 73 percent climbing percent of black children bored outside marriage to single mothers and to a more likely poverty or the shocking abortion and teen pregnancy rates or the boys without fathers lacking role models a vicious cycle repeats itself okay i can't believe i have four minutes only received in the same letter i requested both for item 20 and this item four minutes it was sent to you on friday i think mentioned item 20 we'll go ahead and give you four minutes for this item okay massive increase in unsupported homeless encampments which are survival spots you can see them all the way up and down highway one these are not places where people choose to live because it's a wonderful opportunity to be outdoors for a camping experience but this is a massive and in reality a real expansion of essentially the expression of need here in santa cruz along the levee along highway one and the pogan up and elsewhere it reflects impoverishment through a driveway up vehicles make it more likely that people are going to lose the place so that they actually have with a bathroom it's a great move on your part the shore projects that that mayor comings mentions that do provide real help but only for a relative few it's about the increase in parity of those outside and the point is not that it's up to the city to provide all the resources but it's up to the city not to criminalize people whose only resources are what they have themselves whether it's a vehicle or a tent there's a documentation that further available housing or shelter or camping spots as is posted up all along the pogan up and along the levee and is happening probably as this council meets uh missing and tower from the agenda is any discussion of that for these people rather instead you are concerned with the privileged people who are afraid that their children are going to be attacked gee you know it's interesting we didn't hear that one child was attacked walking past alisha cool's van sorry that just didn't show up and it's really kind of a form of really nasty bigotry to hear these things repeated again and again even though they are fears that people have black people too people will apparently that's what the council thinks the agenda you have is any redirection of the police budget to encourage an end to police violence and militarism black people which i'm sure mayor comings knows about particularly troubling is the sudden appearance of unnecessary large numbers of police to deal with small problems marty mirabelle also one charge after another dismissed in court but dragged over charging scenario that we've seen so blatantly and frequently happening in other cities often involving serious if not lethal violence by police we're lucky here and the victim didn't get to the hospital but he hasn't even offered medical treatment though he was bleeding as far as he tells it to matter on the street in front of city hall have the mayor and police chief kneel together but that means nothing if the same policies use of force taser use lack of transparency continue along highway one destroying camps and property they violate common decency as well as risk community health for all of the things likely in the future on these issues it's the community that brings these issues to the unwell in the city even if it disturbs the comfort of those happy with the status quo as others suffer or can't abide the reality of other people suffering i think listening if you were thank you the any other business section of the meeting i have two points i'd like to address uh the first is about police and policing and the police budget i still want to see the council investigate alternative approaches to public safety at reduced cost uh and i haven't really seen any motion on that and i'd like the council to make progress in that area uh my second point involves city manager martin vernal uh and his emergency policies on vending uh i don't think that those policies are justified in the prolonged nature of the pandemic health emergency i think the council should end the city manager's emergency powers and review those policies themselves thank you thank you let's ground again from um long time resident eastside i just want to bring up a few points um can you hear me okay um well first of all i mentioned in passing but i am having a serious technical problem in the fact that the city has changed the access to the agenda attachment and you have to download the entire thing it keeps timing out in my tablet in my other computer and so i have not been able to resolve that problem technically i've tried different viewers and different pdfs and all kinds of things so i just wanted to bring it to your attention because it really um requires people to upgrade their equipment which is kind of unusual in order to access the attachments and i think that again it's an issue of equity and that's certainly an issue for me as a commissioner um i also wanted to mention that as an accountant sometime the city council talks about issues that are very complex when it comes to accounting and fund accounting and um it you know for instance the enterprise fund includes debt service and cost allocation but if you for instance with the la viega you change that so that it doesn't it's not no longer an enterprise fund the debt service and the cost allocation has to go elsewhere so it does other budgets and it could impact the general front i just wanted to mention that in general but it's something that you need to be aware of so you need to have those levels of details in order to understand the full impact of major projects not being specific to any in particular other than the la viega and um and i also wanted to say black lives matter i'm a white woman i've been in this community for a long time and i personally find it very sensitive sometimes what garret says to the point where it makes me physically upset and i think that we are a compassionate community we're going through a lot right now i want to thank all those that protest in my name while i have to be the question place my with my partner that has medical issues and i want to thank you for that thank you very much black lives matter are any other people who would like numbers of the community would like to speak to us on items during oral communication that we're not on our agenda now's the time to call in and after you've called in please press star nine on your phone i don't see any other hands up except for one more speaker so if by the time that person's done we don't have any more callers we will move to adjourn meeting so next caller i think you mentioned maybe i heard you i heard it only once mentioned that the 800 numbers are not working a lot of people had probably tried to call in as myself i tried calling in on the 800 numbers for the first half an hour when i realized maybe i'll try the other numbers and i did not hear you mentioned except for one time and that was way previous to when i was trying to call in on the previous agenda item so i think we're losing some of our democracy that's one example the other example of losing our democracy is these fascist executive orders that are being that are being put out by martin burnall and i want to suggest to please fire martin burnall um thank you other members of the public who would like to speak to us uh that brings us to the conclusion of our meeting uh councilmember matthews i had the same kind of difficulty that kanda brown mentioned downloading and a single agenda item the whole agenda package just goes into a spin and i can't get it to work so something for it to troubleshoot maybe i'll talk with him okay that sounds good you can talk to me who's that funny funny okay thank you all right thank you um if there's no further are there any further comments from council members seeing none um have a good evening and i think our next regularly scheduled meeting is for october 13th and there might be a special meeting regarding the budget between now and then but uh thank you all councilmember golden last one fill out the doodles fill out the doodles so we can get those dates on the calendar and to everyone for the community please register to vote if you haven't already it's probably one of the most important things that all of us can do so thank you all have a good evening