The hour of 1230 having arrived and the council having completed its business in closed session City council's back in session and the clerk will call the roll Thank you mayor council member with new some present here What can here runner? President Valentine Johnson present ice mayor golder and mayor killing here The quorum having been established we will move on to all communications This would be the opportunity for anyone who is with us either in council chambers today or online To make comments to the council regarding any item under our jurisdiction But not on today's agenda if you're here to speak on an item on our agenda You will be given the opportunity to do so when we get to that item. This is all communication Let me see if there's anyone with us in chambers today wish wish it who wishes to provide the council with oral communication Seeing hearing none miss bush do we have anyone online? We do yeah We will take the first person online. Good afternoon.  I mostly did so and trying to give one to a very quiet very pretty black girl What a mental health smile named Alicia Alicia had an Inseparable and sufferable pink tail sidekick named Lorraine who seemed to me to be a short mean possibly jealous mess But hang on who stood between us and presumed to tell me I should stay with my own kind of people to stay with my own kind She said the civil rights movement was picking up steam And I'm sure that kind of thing was going right and anyway, she couldn't tell me that earlier music I'm not the memory of this is still steered in my mind in this day As I was shocked when even with that great-kind smile her silence showed she took the rain side and she was not there by Valentine card Hopefully such act or could have been the time of America's greatest progress to our society of equal-free individuals judged by character And that I said cars since then among those was welfare and affirmative action that destroyed the black nuclear family The ideas of cultural Marxism progressive identity politics with DEI critical race theory radical BLM claims of police systemic racism now put forth the idea white people our Institutions are inherently racist and children are racist since birth all need to be educated to believe this That unequal wealth or success is always the result of racist oppression not merit town or hard work And a different income is always in itself an injustice But violence is justified and white people and any white people will do should pay and people of color shown perpetual privilege And only a coerced lowest common denominator mediocrity of forced equal life outcome to an anti-american central authority using hypocritical discriminations of control Thank you very much good afternoon, sir Welcome to the council meeting Thank you very much. My name is Ken bearer. I'm the president of SCI you five to one You're at the city of Santa Cruz. I am here today to address you about the third round of class and compensation study That may be affected may not be affected by later proposal, so we've come to an understanding with the city of Santa Cruz that When funds allow that city workers get closer to proper compensation And we are at the third round but we understand that HR and finance are not going to be recommending that you proceed with that today, however, I'm asking you to Consider to actually proceed with with continuing on that route Like I said, it's the third round The finances projected a downturn in economic activity in 2025 as the basis for the reasoning, however, they were not able to explain that to me in a satisfactory manner And I hope that you see that the Continuation at least in the same rate of increase is likely here in the city of Santa Cruz They actually projected a downturn So less income coming in for the stream of revenue in 2025 then in 2024 Or 2023 so that that that's my piece We may be sticking around to listen to the rest and possibly address you some more. Thank you Thank you very much, sir. Anyone else online miss bush. We'll take the next person online Good afternoon, welcome to the council meeting Good afternoon councils Bradley Snyder. Let's talk a little bit about Some of the buildings and the apartments They're going up now one time I was in downtown At Subway and it was approaching noon And And it just so happened that I guess the the lunch bell rang and all of a sudden there was over 20 maybe 25 construction workers behind me at Subway and And then, you know, so What that what that what what that was like was well first of all what I realized is It's not a single one of these guys or anybody I knew from growing up here in Santa Cruz or had seen and in also part of part of I think like I've said before part of the The construction of some of these larger structures in downtown Santa Cruz. I feel it's an important value. I feel it's People who are politicians who are not having, you know, seeing the community and grown up here and Seen it develop, you know, after the earthquake seen it develop in certain ways and I feel like the development is just so Fast forward that it's it's to me. I personally find it kind of offensive now the impulse To make more housing, you know, I feel like first of all what you're doing is you're warping the market rate for For any housing in Santa Cruz by putting all this high density housing in the center of everything You know, they've kind of marketed Santa Cruz They said, okay, the locals are just these quirky kind of antique, you know, values pro-drug socially anti-conservative liberal liberals, right? And and and then And and really what you're was driving it of the UCSE students who have a two-year average of living in the county and they and they I personally almost feel like UCSE should be to like be made like a separate administrative division with their own You know mayor pardon the expression with their own, you know, their own representative on counsel and counsel something else Which we just did and it worked out great.  Thanks. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, sir Welcome back to the council Well, thank you so much. My name is James Ewing The board of supervisors meeting was quite fun. I Got chastised and stopped for saying some Adjectives that would be perfectly acceptable on national radio Simply remind those gentlemen that I wish the sheriff would have been in the room because then I would have really spoke my mind What's going on in Santa Cruz? What what about the loan from the Environmental Protection Agency Bank? I wonder where that stuff is, you know about a year ago They decided it was okay to burn off a half million gallons of chemicals that turned into dioxins That are dangerous at parts per billion EPA's guidelines on that is only off by a factor of a thousand What other government agencies aren't off by a factor of a thousand? So it's just interest You know, it's just kind of fun to address the various people I'm not that sure about what's on this agenda, but I'll be looking at it and speak pointy and Lee I must admit I've watched the Putin interview Three times. I still haven't taken notes. I don't know what I would give to have two hours with that man. I Have endured at least 20 full and partial other joke commentators not as much of a joke as Tucker Carlson, but Almost equal. I really like what Scott Ritter had to say in about six minutes But boy would I ever love to sit down with that man Recommend if anybody wants some interesting information that could really be branched off. I mean, it's amazing what somebody who? Who's had the world's best? military and healing and growing food location for 1200 years It's really quite amazing what they'll choose to talk about in their sense of humor and their state of grace. I Don't have that opportunity to be in a state of grace, but I'd like to be thank you Anyone else online? No one with their handrails. Thank you last call if anyone would like to provide testimony under oral communication Soon hearing none We are on item three mayoral Proclamations and I am wondering if Ms. Collin Tara Johnson might be kind enough to make a presentation regarding Leslie Connor. Thank you mayor It's my great privilege to Present this mayoral proclamation to Leslie Connor as please come forward and I'm gonna read parts of this And then share some additional thoughts So whereas in 2011 Leslie Connor began her tenure at Santa Cruz community health centers when it was called Women's Health Center And with Leslie Connor's leadership the Santa Cruz Community Health Center was Designated as a federally qualified health center and in the ensuing years focused on expanding sites and services and strengthening the finances operations compliance and quality and With Leslie's guidance the health centers expanded the behavior health program to include evidence-based treatment to address opioid and other substance use issues and developed responsive care and services for unhoused patients serving more than 2,000 individuals a year With Leslie's guidance the health centers advanced a vision of pediatrics center of excellence using Ebps particularly on on those in early childhood to prevent and address adverse childhood experiences and With Leslie's leadership The Live Oak Health Center was brought forward in partnership with dientase and mid-pen housing And it's the first of its kind to unite health and housing on a century located campus with a second being the city of Santa Cruz Metro Pacific Station North housing project due to break ground this month And with Leslie's leadership She saw the health centers grow in workforce from 50 to over 200 employees and a budget of 5 million to over 30 million With Leslie's leadership Santa Cruz Community Health Centers was a leader in pandemic response providing outreach education and vaccines to underserved community members Leslie has served as a strong advocate for justice for women's reproductive rights and led rallies as reproductive rights We're being stripped away from women across the country And with Leslie's Connor's support a culture of collaboration across health care systems partnering with health health school and social service partners and service of improving community health and well-being and Lead us leading us to the vision of health care as a human right So now therefore I Shebra Callentary Johnson on behalf of our mayor Do hereby proclaim February 13th 2024 as Leslie Connor day in the city of Santa Cruz and encourage all of you and all of us Citizens to join me in this observance A couple more words. I want to say about Leslie. I have had the privilege of working with Leslie for I think 18 years now Initially on the health of boomer partnership when we're working on childhood obesity prevention But what I want to share about Leslie is that? She enters every space with courage and with compassion because she sees the potential in our community She sees the potential in every human being and I have learned so much from you You have done so much to change Systems that aren't working Policies that aren't working and we are a much better community for it. So thank you for all your work Leslie Well, thank you very much and I want to thank Shebra for the acknowledgement and the whole all the city council members for the acknowledgement I Think I've been honored to serve in this role and honestly I couldn't do it without partnerships Like we've had with the city of Santa Cruz and also with our amazing staff. We have some amazing people who work With me at the organization This is actually the Santa Cruz Community Health Center's 50th anniversary Santa Cruz Women's Health Center was opened at that same location on Locust Street in 1974 this is a year after Roe v. Wade was passed and we continue that mission of improving the Health of our patients and community and advocating the feminist goals of social political and economic equality to this day Again our partnership with the city is vital. We're right stones through a way And as you know, we're gonna be partnering with the city on the expansion at Pacific Station We're really excited about that and I'll just let you know that Anita Aguirre Is our new CEO she's fantastic comes with tons of experience and knowledge And so she will be working with you and the wonderful Bonnie Lipscomb in the in the months ahead to build out that place And it's gonna be beautiful again with housing and and pediatrics and all of it So again, thank you so much for your partnership and onward. Thank you We are presiding officer announcements. I have none Statements of disqualifications this would be the opportunity Mr. Newsome, okay. Thank you I'd have to disqualify myself from agenda item 18 own property within 500 feet of this property so noted Any other statements of disqualification? additions or deletions to the agenda We have any we have done Moving on We were on city attorney report on our closed session. Good afternoon. Good afternoon The council met in closed session to discuss two items of pending litigation Alicia Lopez versus Mary McCoy et al and don't more of the war versus city of Santa Cruz The council got an update and discussed these two items with legal counsel The council also met in closed session to discuss five items of real property negotiation with its city negotiator body Lipscomb for the first three items involved involving the addresses 1126 Pacific Avenue 1016 Cedar Street 1520 K2 Pacific Avenue Councilmember Brunner recused herself as she noted prior to closed session and The whole council was present for the remaining two items involving the addresses 37 municipal wharf and 59 municipal wharf. Thank you Thank you Council meeting calendar madam clerk any updates or items you would like to draw to our attention. No updates Thank you so much We are on the consent agenda if you're unfamiliar with how this works. We will be taking up items five through 14 on one motion What I will do is give the council members opportunities to Pull an item comment on an item or raise questions on the item. I will then Extend that courtesy to members of the public who are with us today. Let me start with the council I'll start on my left miss Brunner Comment on item number nine and twelve Please proceed Item number nine is It is the city participation in countywide landlord incentive program a Contract amendment and budget adjustment through our economic development department and I just wanted to really think our economic development team and housing and really think The the staff at the housing authority for partnering with us this program has been a real Benefit to our community and What this item does is it in it's a proposed motion for funding to the landlord incentive program and Which really makes sure that any housing choice voucher Holders in our city will continue to have access to high-quality affordable units citywide. So, thank you Item number 12 That was the or is Let me go back The un-signalized crossing improvement project notice of completion and that was just a thank you. I've noticed some of those Completed projects and just another example of the small many ways that our community is safer and thank you Thank you. Ms. Collins are Johnson Madam vice mayor Miss Watkins miss Brown Mr. Newsom Thank You Mary Keeley. I want to make a quick comment as well on item agenda item number nine Similar to my colleague. I want to thank Director Lixman and team for bringing this as item forward as my colleague said This program works in partnership with the housing authority with the county to increase opportunity for low-income members of our community to obtain rental housing and I think this is a great I think this is a great program and I hope to have further discussions their budget hearings on how to augment this program. Thank you Thank you on item eight, I would comment that I Understand how this is the Security deposit interest rate for residential rental properties and having been the county treasurer and understanding how This number has arrived at I understand it. I don't agree with it And that is I think it is Significantly too low as county treasurer as I say I'd for ten years I've made recommendations on how to establish this. This is pretty common in government financing about how it is you you come to this number I Would like This is not additional direction I would simply like to point out to Economic development and housing that I would like to engage in a conversation with you as We move along and as we prepare this for next year about what alternatives we might have because I think it's pretty clear That you can beat the heck out of this return Without really working very hard to do that. So I would like to engage in that conversation at a later date I'll associate myself with With mr. Newsom's comments on item nine This would be the opportunity for anyone who's with us today wishes to comment on an item on items five through 14 inclusive you will have Two minutes to make your comment on any and all items you wish to comment on but you get an entirety of two minutes Good afternoon again Yes Thanks, keep changing. It's one of the pleasures of life as things change so on item number seven the Integrated regional water management and then 15 the CalPERS My understanding is there's gonna be five million gallons of sewage being pumped into the mid-county water table You have that Structure that's right next to the sheriff's building Which has a very interesting frequency weapon on top of the sheriff's building and you have that new pedestrian bridge that goes on there You know it sure looks like that Building next to the sheriff's Location is a soylent green factory There's enough soylent green factories all over the place. They seem to be burning down the real ones all over the real food locations So, you know next to water we need next to air we need clean water and I have spoken before about questioning the EPA I Wish I had 25 minutes to share some information about the community foundation Santa Cruz County, which started this program in 2007 Probably enough on that moving to the CalPERS and what you guys are Putting all your nest eggs in Really hope that that works out for you. I have some feelings that 2024 2025 or I've quite a bit of information in them that the four major religions talk about so it's gonna be interesting how we all work together Through these changes Thank you. Thank you Anyone else Who's with us today wish to comment on any item on the consent agenda? And We will have one more person online. Good afternoon person online Excuse me. Welcome to the council meeting. I just wanted to I just wanted to talk a little bit about the wisdom of a resolution You know declaring an existence of a state of emergency. I mean the storms are largely over and What would I kind of find Objectionable is the the term atmospheric river because people can drown in a in a river per se but in a you know in a storm that comes along, you know They will in in in addition to drowning in rivers. They'll they'll have all you know all a Penopoly of other problems.  I object to politicizing the weather And and and climate But you know, that's not to say it's not a fascinating topic of discussion But yeah, I find it I find it kind of and then I wanted to I wanted to Actually wanted to second although I'm not a voting member of this body I wanted to say that the the one The one item on the the safety improvement that miss Burner mentioned I I agree with her that's good that there are safety improvements Happening all the time. Thank you. Thank you so much All input haven't ceased the matters back before the council motion to approve the consent agenda would be in order Miss Watkins moves vice mayor seconds is there a debate or discussion seen and hearing none the clerk will call the roll Member of Newsome. Hi, Brown. Hi Hi, Brunner. Hi, Calentary Johnson. Hi vice mayor Golder. Hi Hi motion passes and so ordered Next up is the consent public hearing. These are items 15 through 17 inclusive on the agenda If you wish to comment on these items This would be the opportunity to do so and we will also take Comment online. Let me first ask if council members wish to comment or pull either of these items Start around on my left. All right. Let me go to Anyone who is online do we have anyone online miss Bush? No hands are raised. No hands are raised anyone with us today wish to Comment upon either of these Seen and hearing none a motion would be in order Miss Contar Johnson moves the consent public hearing agenda as a second by mr. Newsome Is there further debate or discussion seen and hearing none the clerk will call the roll? Council member is Newsome. Hi, Brown. Hi Brunner Hi, Calentary Johnson. Hi vice mayor Golder. Hi, Mariculia Hi Motion passes and so ordered we are on item number 18 This is an appeal from the Planning Commission approval of the development proposal at 900 high Street in Santa Cruz We will have a staff presentation. There are then various other actions will take which include testimony from the appellant in the applicant Questions that you folks may have we will begin with miss Whitehall Good afternoon. Welcome to the council. Good afternoon. Thank you one moment. Let me get this set up My name is Brittany Whitehill Thank you, and hello council and members of the public So the item for your consideration today is an appeal of the Planning Commission's approval of a 40 unit apartment building on 900 high Street I'm very pleased to report that the appellants of the project have recently contacted staff indicating that Their concerns have been addressed through revised conditions of approval. So they'll not be contesting the project So I do have a very brief presentation that I can share and have backup slides if there's any additional questions, but Considering no concerns from the appellants will keep it very brief So as I mentioned this project is at 900 high Street on the north side of high Street immediately to the northeast of its intersection with Moore Avenue It's adjacent to Westlake elementary other surrounding uses include single-family homes a church a non-operational quarry and UCS UCSC campus housing So the project proposes to construct a 40 unit four-story apartment complex on the The uphill portion of the site the northern portion of the site and the site would also be subdivided to create two lots So one existing lower lot, which will retain the existing church And that'll be about three three point seven acres and then an upper lot of approximately two point two three acres with the apartment complex The project is providing It's five low income and four very low income units amounting to 22 and a half percent of the total unit count therefore it does qualify for density bonus and as a reminder it is Subject to California Senate bill 330 and not subject to the city's objective standards for multi-family development The project was approved by the zoning administrator on October 4th and then appealed to the city council Pardon to the planning Commission the planning Commission considered the project on November 30th And approved the project and their approval was appealed by Norman Tardiff representing the Springtree homeowner Association and Westlake neighborhood association So the appeal to the city council had sort of three primary areas of concern The first had to do with implementation of the geological recommendations The site has some unique geologic features And as such the applicant has been working with a geologist and geotechnical engineer The appeal raised concerns that the conditions of approval didn't fully capture the recommendations of the geologist Another point raised in the appeal was concerns about the proposed use of clustering density So we looked at the entire 5.9 acre site to determine the development capacity and Clustered that within the smaller two and a half acre portion of the site That has been resolved through the project being revised to take advantage of new amendments to state density bonus law So that's no longer a concern of the appellant and then lastly there were some concerns with potential future damage to heritage trees That are intended to be preserved and we have some updated conditions to address those concerns as well So to summarize since planning Commission approved this project. We have revised a number of the conditions of approval Firstly there was a condition for a deed restriction to memorialize that the clustering of density had occurred Since clustering is no longer proposed. We have eliminated that condition We have refined the conditions related to the geological and geotechnical recommendations. So The project geologists and geotechnical engineer will both need to submit a letter indicating that they've Reviewed the construction drawings prior to issuance of the building permit and then a subsequent letter prior to occupancy that they've signed off on the project We have at the applicants Consent added some additional more stringent tree protection conditions and this is through collaboration with staff in the applicant so these protections would include periodic arborist inspections at different stages of construction and as needed the applicants have also agreed to a unenhanced mitigation of For each heritage if there were to be a heritage tree that requires removal due to changes in the project or Failure to implement tree protection measures They've agreed to a an enhanced mitigation of either so the typical city mitigation would be for each heritage tree removed It be replaced with one twenty four inch size tree or three fifteen gallon trees So the condition now says it would be two twenty four inch or four fifteen gallons. So enhanced tree mitigation some refinements to the the condition related to the participation agreement for Inclusionary housing and then some additional rewarding and reordering for clarity. So that sort of sums up the revisions to the conditions so In conclusion staff is very pleased that the appellants concerns have been addressed through the revised conditions of approval Staff finds that the project is consistent with the city's general plan and meets all required development standards Except as modified through density bonus waivers and concessions Additionally, the project is aligned with several goals and policies of the newly adopted six cycle housing element And will contribute to the city's meeting its regional housing needs allocation particularly through provision of very low-income units Staff continues to support the project as designed with the recommended conditions of approval included as exhibit a to the resolution Therefore staff recommends that the city council deny the appeal upholding the planning commissions Approval of the minor land division design permit slope development permit density bonus request and heritage tree removal permit Based on the findings in the resolution and the conditions attached to that resolution. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions Thank you so much. Let me see if there are any initial questions by council members Let us move to yes certainly miss Watkins I just have a procedural question in regards to the appeal now being withdrawn is the motion language Remain as a denial of an appeal or with that shift Yes, so to clarify the appeal The pellets intent is not to withdraw their appeal I think what they're trying to convey is that they are satisfied with the current recommendation with the updated conditions of approval Okay, thank you. I appreciate that clarification. I was procedurally confused Thank you let us hear from mr. Tardiff if mr. Tardiff is here Mr. Tardiff is the appellant mr. Tardiff will have up till five up to five minutes We will now hear from Ms. Al Faro who represents workbench For up to five minutes. This would be the applicant Mr. Simon you don't even look a little bit like Ms. Al Faro Halloween but I Just wanted to introduce I'm happy to take any questions, but I remember for go telling you all my points about the project But I want to have a chance to hear from the pastor of peace United Church Pastor David Pate because they're really the inspiration for why this project is happening and the guiding force in the mission of the project We are helping them as a partner execute that So I think this is still just a worthwhile to have a couple minutes to hear Good pastor. Good. Welcome. Welcome to you. Good afternoon. I don't know why anybody would think that clergy always have to have something to say My name is Dave patty and I am pastor of peace United Church of Christ and I want to offer a brief word About what this project means to us and why our congregation has been working on it for so many years We call it peace village and it is a central feature of our vision for the future of our ministry in that place which has been in Santa Cruz for more than 150 years and on that site at 900 High Street for more than 60 years and we intend for at least another 60 Peace village is much more than a housing development for us It has long been a part of the mission of peace UCC to be a place for the wider community We offer our campus and facilities as an inviting place of generous welcome Gathering place for creativity and common cause a sanctuary for prayer and praise and the arts for healing and service and recovery for the marginalized and Very often for people who've had a hard time finding a place I Think many of you for all sorts of reasons have been on our campus And that's because we want you there and We want more people there and we want housing to be a part of that We hold a vision of our church as a beloved community of caring and sharing where persons are seen Respected and where diversity is celebrated as the gift of a loving God not a barrier that we have to Overcome but an asset that enriches us peace village is a part of that vision for the flourishing of our ministry on the High Street campus and beyond it includes 40 units of new housing nine of them Income restricted low and very low, but even more than that Accessible by clever design. We have two large units of co-housing so really accessibility is is 50% of what we're doing in peace village But it's most exciting as a vision of our future a place to live and learn and play and grow With the church at the heart of it all we are so glad to get to this moment Thank you Thank you Let me This would be the moment for us to ask any additional questions that council members may have then I'm going to open it to public comment Matter will then be back before the body. Do we have any other additional comments? Let me open this up to public comment Anyone who wishes to make comment on this item? This would be your opportunity to do so and you can speak up till two minutes in time Anyone with us wish to do that And well, Mr. Hall is making his way here. Do we have anyone online? No one with their hand no one with their hand. Mr. Hall welcome Thank you My name is John Hall. I have worked on this project along with other people in the congregation for now nine years We have and one of our members of our Person who really helped to bring this forward in the early years is now deceased But Mary male we do this in honor of her and I want to thank the planning department the planner that we worked with the Brittany Whitehill the zoning administrator the planning commission and The mayor and city council you've all been very generous with your time and Consulted with us about how to do this and Helped us make revisions in it and I want to thank the appellants as well as neighbors who have raised issues that Frankly have improved the project One of the great benefits of the project as it's now Designed is that it will improve the traffic situation at High Street and Moore Street We think that's a great benefit to the West Lake school so I just sincerely want to thank all of you that have been involved and as Reverend pati said we are so thrilled to be able to move ahead with this. Thank you very much Thank you, Mr. Hall Good afternoon Welcome Hello, my name is Lola Kiroga. I'm a UCSA student representing the student housing coalition I urge you to deny the appeal of the peace village. It's been appealed twice Times to two times too many. I think we desperately need student housing housing for anyone It's the co-living units are awesome great way to build community The affordable units are great 22% is also awesome I would have loved to live here to live at the peace village Project, I would love to live there when it's built.  Thank you. Thank you Good afternoon Thank you, I'm Lisa hazing a member of peace and I just want to Reiterate what has already been said. I'm not as eloquent as some of the people before me, but This is I'm the moderator. So a bit of this Approval is on my watch, and I'm really grateful. So thank you Thank you very much Miss Bush anyone online with their hands up Last call if anyone would like testify on this item seen in here. None the matter is back before the council I would entertain a motion Ms. Brown Thank you, mayor. I'll move that the council adopt the resolution denying the appeal of Norman Tardiff and thereby upholding the Planning Commission's acknowledgement of the environmental determination and Approval of the minor land division design permit slope development permit density bonus request and heritage tree removal permit based on the findings Listed in the documentation and the conditions of approval I believe it's a revised attachment. I want to make sure I get this right So the the attachment has not been revised. It's okay with that one. Okay. Is the correct? Got it. Okay, so with the the conditions of approval as Seen an exhibit a Second by Ms. Contari Johnson as brown you may open on your motion. Thank you I will very quickly say that I am just so thrilled for this project to Be moving forward. I remember the first meeting I had back in 2017 when I first got on the council and You all have been tenacious the alacrity you've demonstrated in getting to this point your commitment to providing The type of housing we really need in our community to making it affordable. That's the kind of community I want to live in I so look forward to this project just thank you for for persisting Thank you, Ms. Contari Johnson is Just keep it brief. I want to thank all the groups and all the community members that came together I mean, this is what we can accomplish when we do that when we truly partner has come up with a beautiful project That's going to serve our community. So thank you for all the hard work and thank you to the city staff For the debate or discussion seen and hearing none the clerk will call the roll Thank you mayor councilmember Newsom is disqualified councilmember is brown. I what can I Runner I Calentary Johnson I face mayor Golder I mayor Culey. I motion passes and so ordered congratulations We are on item 19 we will start with 19.1. These are 2024 budget adjustments and information on the city's financial status Ms. Cabell will be presenting on this item Good afternoon. Welcome. Good afternoon, Elizabeth Cabell finance director so I'm here today with Sarah daily on our people officer as well as the budget team Tracy Cole and Emily Burton to present the mid-year report for 2024 and And in doing that we're going to start by looking back a little bit look at 22 23 24 kind of look at where we are right now and then look at the adjustments that we have to bring forward for 24 and then also look into 25 and a little bit on the The compensation study that we started in the 2021 compensation study that that we've been working on Then conclude with a recommended action So looking back over the last couple of years in fiscal year 22 We had a huge surplus which was due to a lot of the one-time money that we received from ARPA in California 2014 fiscal year 23, we actually had a little bit of a deficit We ended the year about one and a half million with about a one and a half million dollar deficit We did when we adopted the budget We had a much larger deficit is about four million that we expected to pull from fund balance So we came in better than what we had initially budgeted, but still a deficit for 23 in 24 we are showing the budgeted numbers up there and that is we did adopt a basically a balanced budget And that was primarily due to the postponing or not doing the CIP transfer We usually do a five million dollar transfer to our for our CIP program We did not do that and budget that in 24 which allowed us to Make to present a balanced budget of a hundred and thirty nine million So kind of a little snapshot of where we are now If this is basically as of the end of the calendar year So December 31st and you know as I've mentioned before things because of timing don't all you know It doesn't all hit at the exact time that we would like so So with this is pretty much where we would expect to be about almost at fifty percent of revenue and a little over fifty percent For our expenditures that's pretty much exactly where we expect to be So we are tracking there will be you know, there's a lot that comes in especially the end of the year We've got the sales tax and everything that runs a couple of months late. So so anyway, I think Short we're looking good for and expect where we expect to be for 24 Then this is looking at some of our top taxes that we receive. We see receive lots of different types of revenue We have charges for services. We have grants. We have various things But these are the top taxes that we receive and we're looking back four years here So going back to twenty one twenty two and twenty three you can see it's been pretty much a steady increase We had a big jump in sales tax in twenty three or twenty two Basically kind of that quick recovery from the pandemic and then it sort of is back to where we would expect it to be just sort of tracking as Like the other tax revenues that we have When looking at the mid-year report We there's a lot of different adjustments that are going on There's a lot of numbers in there But basically most of it is all corrections and some of these I've just highlighted here a couple of the corrections that we have We have some revenues that were budgeted sort of too soon and for for water some grant revenues that were budgeted That so we've backed those out. We've got some project corrections, which is basically no changed anything is just moving Moving revenue from a general ledger account into a project And then we have a tech surcharge that we just started collecting this year and we're moving that into its own fund On the expenditure side again kind of moving things around we are Taking some money that we've already collected. We've got two million that we've been setting aside every year for For the ERP system So we're now moving that into a project and then we have two point three million that we've put in there for the purchase of a building Over by the which came to council a couple times ago for the purchase of a building over on locust and Could you go back one slide? I want to enhance a little Explain a little bit more here So I do want to talk a little bit about Some of the assumptions that we have when we're looking at these revenues We did do you know We presented a long-range financial plan to you back in November and in looking at trying to project What's going to happen 24 25 and so on we do look at a lot of different things. There's the trends We look at we've got information from the county. We've got information from consultants or HDL So we have lots of different things that we look at specifically for property tax. We do build in 80 new residential units each year and we start with a value of about a little over about 570,000 increased that about 3% a year. So we do build in some new construction there We also do build in The some additional Commercial as well. So we do have those things built in that we are speculating these things that we expect to happen nothing specifically tied to some of the development that we're doing here, but we do Expect once those things are finalized and we know exactly what how to what kind of revenue to generate from that We do expect we can adjust our model to reflect some of that increased revenue Yeah, and I'm going to cover the people aspect of the mid-year adjustment these next two slides I'm the first slide here actually relates to funding and new positions being added to our public works and water departments the Classifications you see there all of them relate to legislative compliance improved service delivery and CIP support next slide The second page is has no funding associated with it But this is a modification to our classification and comp plan that adds two new Classifications to supervisory positions for police records and property evidence and then an administrative correction that will improve some efficiencies For bay of benefits and payroll and no changes there no changes to the staff itself or funding Okay, so bringing up this kind of we've talked a little bit about 24 23 the past now We're looking a little bit the future We've just started the budget process and in looking this graph probably looks familiar This was presented back in November when we had we presented the long-range financial plan We do expect expenditures to continue to outpace revenues One thing that is probably not immediately clear on this chart is that when we're looking at and you can see kind of the deficit Decreases as we go through 25 6 7 and 8 that's because it's factoring in the use of our reserves in order to Kind of get us closer to that balance. That's why so it's looking like we have you know that revenues or expenditures May be increasing or decreasing It's what's really happening and the reason you've got that change there and the decrease in the deficit is because we're using reserves So the the if this if we continue kind of along the trajectory that we're going What happens is our operating and our emergency reserves are depleted by 27 our pension reserve Which is a restricted reserve can only be used for pension costs would be depleted by fiscal year 28 We also build in recession. So we have built in a mild recession that starts in 26 25 25 and then we kind of have that recovery basically a seven-year recession is kind of what I mean a seven year We have a recession every seven years So part of that also that increase is the recovery from the projected recession So that's a little bit about what's going on as far as the the chart So it's not strictly reflecting only revenue generated and expenses it's also reflecting the transfers that we have from reserves and Reflecting that if we continue like that then we don't have any more reserve So as far as trying to Get closer to to this close this deficit. We are working with the revenue and ad hoc committee We've got lots of the long-range financial plan gave us lots of different options We're still focused on we've got a cost recovery study that's going on We have the sales tax ballot measure that's coming up in March and part of this too like I mentioned We did postpone that five million dollar transfer to the CIP CIP is still a priority for us So we want that is going to be back in the budget for fiscal year 25 and moving forward So we do want to make sure that we plan for that and that is reflected in all of these numbers So I mentioned a little bit about reserves So I did want to talk about kind of where those what what that is and what the kind of reserves that we do have So if I have a the slide up here shows the 22 and 23 The purple is sort of sitting out there on the side because that is a restricted reserve That is our pension reserve. We can only use that for pension costs So our goal is to have two months operating expenditures in numbers in an unrestricted reserve So that's reflected by the line at the top That is our goal to have unrestricted reserves at that amount and you can see even where we are right now we have about five point three and twenty two six point two and 23 at the end of 23 in our operating reserve which we vote which we try to keep at about five percent of our operating budget and then we have an emergency reserve that kind of has stayed Pretty static at seven point one million But those are the reserves I was referring to on the previous slide that we would deplete all of those both operating emergency and pension reserve would be depleted by 28 without additional sources of revenue or without additional solutions to solve that deficit So just again a quick highlight into 25 We have started the 25 budget process The plan right now is we will have budget hearings on May 28th and 29th and then adopt the budget on June 11 So if you can all take a rewind with me back to September of 2023 You may recall some approval we received from council that adjusted compensation for several Classifications in our service and supervisory unions at that time. I also stated that I would be back with what was called a phase three Analysis for a 2021 compensation study So next slide Bonnie here. I am I'm gonna give you a slight overview of what I'm gonna go through related to the analysis That's the effort to the why of the importance of the analysis the analysis itself And then the recommendation associated with this specific topic next slide Bonnie So our efforts in the why I don't need to remind you all of our strategic plan thriving Organization that's in the center of the heart for human resources compensation is important of course to all employees We also have an upcoming 2024 Compensation study that we have a lot of preparation and analysis to do and this analysis supports our efforts in that arena as well Then there's also our all-in shaping our future which relates to projects that we feel there's opportunity for service delivery improvements We have two of those culture as a competitive advantage as well as the 2024 compensation study that all support and relate to the analysis necessary here for phase three next slide The analysis itself we focused on our benchmarked Classifications in the study as you might recall those are items that are had surveyed agency comparisons We looked at all the remaining benchmarks that are more than 10 percent 10 percent Excuse me more than 10 percent below market We also looked at their associated mapped positions There's usually a relationship between benchmarked and mapped and that there's a similarity in the classifications Knowledge skills and abilities experience education, etc We took the analysis a step further and looked at unmapped or related Classifications, so if they were close in salary range We started to pay band other Classifications that may not have been included as a benchmark or mapped position in 2021 2018 or a 2015 study Those are the three sets of classes that we looked at to collect what the cost could be to bring them within 10% of the market next slide Bonnie So this first set here shows you the benchmarked Classifications, I won't read all of them off to you But you can see some of our highest outside of market include our development manager at minus 20.4 percent And I believe we have one and 22 our buyer one and two next slide Bonnie Our mapped positions in the gray you see the original Benchmarked classifications and their associated mapped items next to it And so because of the definition of mapping in our study We should also include these other classifications that are very closely related to the benchmarks So these classifications were also included in the analysis next slide Bonnie These unmapped but related classifications This is attachment one of the staff report for 19.2. There's about 42 separate classifications Without showing you a long list. I tried to separate it by the type of work That's related to those 42 classifications here Next slide Bonnie in total If we're looking at fiscal year 24 25, it's around, you know in between 800 thousand dollars We tried to include the cola averages to the to the areas to the years we have Given the amount and the financial status so far the recommendation at this point Is that I submit this as a decision package with fiscal year 25 so that the council can see everything collectively and make a decision Based on fiscal status and your approval in fiscal year 25 I'm available for questions We're available for questions So if the recommended action is to adopt the resolution adopt with the 24 budget appropriation Authorize the city manager to allocate the budgetary changes and adopt a resolution amending the classification and compensation plans for 24 Thank you. Ms. Leon. Thank you. Ms. Cabell We will now take questions. I'm going to start over on my right this time We'll move across the dais then members of the public. You'll have your opportunity then the matter will be back before the body Ms. Brown, thank you. Thank you, mayor. I wanted to try to get a better understanding of What the what it means to be delaying or if we are delaying Making adjustments on the compensation based on the compensation study And those positions out of range That was a major part of our agreement to settle our last contract, which as we know was A tough one and So I'm I'm wondering what this means are we We're delaying implementation of additional adjustments for What amount of time Can I just want to better understand where this was supposed to come? I don't have that timeline in my head So information is essential right to the cost and I think at the time when we came in september We had no idea of what an estimate would be and so at this point The budgetary process Is the recommended place for everything to go because I imagine there's going to be a number of other requests coming to you All for consideration at that time The knowledge and having that on the forefront and with the public with our unions is what was critical to me So that I can submit the decision package as needed based on union conversations. It is in our contract It's a good faith effort And we have been continuously making that effort towards this goal And I think fiscal year 25 is the most Responsible aspect for that to come forward finally Can I ask a follow-up? I appreciate that and I'm not in any way with my question suggesting that you're That you're not Being completely reasonable about what what is is you know where we're at But I do want to ask the question because I feel that you know, I have some concerns about What happens when we push those decisions to our budget? You know our overall budget and then it as you said ends up on a list with a bunch of other priorities And we have made it at least I that's what I believed I was doing when I voted to support that That contract That we were committed to making this a priority Not and that this would this would just move right as we were able to do it So if we're waiting to then hear What it's competing against I'm very concerned that we're not going to get we're not going to make the progress that we Said we wanted to make and that the the members the workers of the city believe that we were We're in good faith. We're going to do that. So I I'd like to I guess we'll probably hear from members of the public and You know, I may have other questions Thanks Vice mayors recognized Thank you. Thank you for the presentation and I do have some questions around Increased health care costs. I've heard about this in other industries. Are we seeing that also as As we're looking at total compensation packages We are and that's reflected in the 25 budget So as you move forward that we have reflected increased insurance cause health care and as well as other insurance liability and so on So yes, those are we are we're expecting that and that's what we've reflected the information that we have now We do have we have reflected that into 25 budget okay, and then As we're trying to to to you know reconcile some of the Gaps between the the the folks here and other neighboring agencies Is there a time? I know we've got some revenue streams. We're hoping we'll come in But is there a time we're going to have to look at potential cuts? Is that going to come at budget hearings also? I mean cuts to departments or cuts on in services Um Well, I think so right now we are level of service So so right now when we're looking at um, especially 25 budget We're looking at things kind of staying as they are right now. We don't we're not projecting You know large revenue streams coming in or anything. We're not including the sales tax in there So we're we're projecting very conservatively So the hope is with the work that we've been doing with the ad hoc committee with the other things that we have going That yes once we as we get further, you know, we're still A while away from 25 starting that will have additional revenue streams, but that but yes, we're looking at all um sources and all kinds of solutions if we if we do get to that point So right now again, we're kind of being on the ultra conservative side We don't have anything large projected as new revenue But as we get those as new hotels come online as things like that happen. We do reflect that Thank you, I appreciate the being conservative But I also just want to acknowledge like even when we went to go out for a city manager It was hard for us to find somebody because our city previous city manager didn't take some raises And so when we get these big gaps, um, it's harder to bring it back up And so I think when looking at At um, you know various positions the ones with the biggest gaps I think it's important to address some of those And the positions that are the hardest to fill throughout the organization And I'm not sure what those are but I think that's important and then bringing people up to you know A living wage whenever possible to and if I may add to elizabeth's comments vice mayor golder I just want to emphasize our commitment to retaining and attracting top standard Employees we we benefit from excellent hardworking passionate public servants And of course compensation is an important aspect of that We've made some good progress over the course of the last year with the last round of mo use as well as As seri described implementation of phase one and phase two And I think we've got a good picture now of what phase three will require Of course with some big question marks on the horizon as to whether or not the sales tax manager will be successful We're all optimistic that the community will support that But as we build out fiscal year 25 will have a better sense of where that's pacing and when we'll be in a position to move forward with it Thank you guys. Thank you. Mr. Contar johnson councilmember bruner is recognized Can you um clarify when you refer to um the recommendation to um pause or for the 2025 Budget do you mean the 2024 fiscal year 25 budget? Starting in july. I am not clear on that Yes, so we're what we're recommending is that that we brought as a decision package for the fiscal year that starts july 1 of 24 ends june instead of starting now right Okay, and if I may add to that real quickly as well councilmember bruner But the vast majority of the proposals that are here before you as part of the min year really what I would describe as cleanup items Much smaller in magnitude of what we're talking about as part of the phase three Implementation and from a practical standpoint, we'll be building out the next fiscal year budget Over the matter of the next couple of months. So we're really already moving into budget development season And that will allow us to really take a comprehensive look at this decision package along with You know other needs that we're going to have to balance as we build out the budget I think for me my my question stems from um I don't want to lose what we the work we've continued in the direction that we've given and um, I think we need to show that by Investing in our in our workforce and to pause is really doesn't show that and it's a few months. Um, so I'm I will listen to public comment and Understand how we can move forward. Thank you For the questions kind of certainly miss walkins is recognized. I've um over the years I've seen sort of that Imminent cliff essentially and it seems now as I'm finishing up my my last year on council It's closer and I'm just wondering how concerned you are about, you know, the fiscal year 20 27 20 28 Showing that you or the graph that you showed um, I think that is concerning it's been kind of On the horizon and now it's sort of at the doorstep and I just I know that the revenue committee is working on on that but I don't know if you guys want to speak to that now or that's a budget hearing. I mean, yes, it's concerning I think that but the positive part about it is that we're looking at it now We are planning ahead and I think that we have You know, dude, that was one of the main reasons we did the long range financial plan Like there's it's not always about cutting expenditures It's about the rev it's both sides of the equation And I think we've done a good job of identifying a lot of those things that we can hopefully make happen And now the next step is to move forward and kind of get some of those things going so that we don't have that You know, we're not just going to sit still and we don't want to definitely have that cliff in 27 and 28 And how about the depleting reserves as well? Yeah, what I would add to that is that updated 10-year forecast makes clear that we cannot simply rely on our reserves To fix this structural deficit and we were fortunate for covet to have a lot of one-time state and federal dollars That allowed us to survive that season over once again looking at A forecast that shows that without major intervention. We will have completely depleted our reserves by fiscal year 27 That's obviously not acceptable. So the sales tax measure will be one option We're going to have to continue exploring others and then through this all in shaping our future Opportunity, how can we continue to modernize it as an organization? Perhaps deliver services in a more efficient way And really looking at both sides of the ledger to get our get ourselves on more solid ground Okay, and just you know one more thing to add because you know, we have had a lot of Disasters they seem to keep coming and those are those can be very expensive and a lot of that Is the timing of it? It takes for us You know, we've got to go out and fix things and repair things and do things But the money coming in from femur wherever doesn't so we have we do um We brought a contract for a finding a municipal advisor back in the fall So we are working on trying to again to kind of figure out. What are some ways that we can Help bridge that gap knowing, you know, because we've got that You know money goes out way before it comes in so we are looking at lots of different avenues as far as how to Um, again to close that gap and not use up our reserves. That's definitely not what we want to we don't want to be in that position Thank you Couple of questions first of all, uh, miss bruner could I borrow that document? Thank you For those of you who have not seen this document, uh, which is entitled making funds make sense the Finance department has developed this document. I commend it To anyone who is interested in local government finance and local government budgeting This is a thorough but not dumbed down version of how This little government works and I strongly commend this document Let me ask a couple of questions. So What are we making any assumption with regard to? Uh, our shelter operations so far in the budget instructions to the departments Are you making any assumptions with regard to our ability to get A soft landing a nice long landing strip from the state of california For our current shelter expenditures, which are being Subsidized by the state of california, but we'll end on july the first So we have not made any so we have our homelessness response budget Continuing as it is in 24 on what what we don't have is the other side of that equation We don't you know the one time funding as you mentioned will be used up in 24 But we have not our budget our current budget does reflect continuing those services. Okay So For absolute clarity purposes The expenditure is in you are assuming the expenditure From the city without support from others. Exactly. Okay. Thank you. That's what I thought you were doing very good a couple of others Parks and recreation The staff is going to rue the day that they Got me to actually use the word midtown So now i'm willing to accept there is such a place in that I live in it The the question I have is is essentially and and this will be this is more of an alert to To the parks and recreation department. I'm interested in understanding when we get to budget hearings How the allocation of time resources in the parks department is made throughout the city Not wishing to get crosswise with my colleagues who represent the The ever popular west side of santa cruz. Um, I will say that My eyes tell me That some of the pathways on the west side Seem to be in much better condition and shape and maintenance and investment Maybe then some others In other parts of the city known as midtown So, uh, I'm interested when we get to budget hearings to understand how you treat that Because it looks like some and this is not an aspersion. It's a question That some get maintained quite well and are up to some very high level Others maybe not so much. So I want to see how we do that not at the expense of The nice work that is being done. I understand it's challenging, but I will want to address that issue Four warned is four armed Uh, let me do a couple more We have a this is to the city manager We have been discussing with the county and with others Navigation center wondering if you could give us a moment of your thoughts on that now and What we should be prepared for when we get to budget hearings Sure. Thanks for the question mayor. So we have stood up a multi agency project team That includes community stakeholders like housing matters as well as our colleagues with the county with the goal of Really fleshing out and developing a plan for standing up a permanent navigation center with permanent supportive housing and shelter On the coral street campus our hope is to align that with state funding that may be available to help Finance such a project so that work is just now underway And to the extent has relevance to the budget. We'll be bringing that forward for further consideration Thank you I will say that on that point One of the reasons that we're Going hand and hat in hand to our senator and assembly member right now with regard to shelters because The state falls in love and out of love with various ideas on various challenges all the time And homeless is no different. They used to be in love with shelter. They're no longer in love with shelter They're in love with upstream prevention and permanent supportive housing Leaving us with the gap in between on shelter Which should it not be at the level it is now on a going forward basis? We will have lost years of progress on homeless Effectively dealing with homelessness in the city So I am pleased to hear that and more on that as we move along. I suspect another Heads up when we get to budget hearings. I am going to be interested in hearing Uh, how the electric bikes the Is is the b-cycle program is working out getting some data on that one of the issues I'm interested in there is that We are and I think correctly from public policy point of view at least initially That it is a good idea to take some parking spaces out and put in these Bicycles that you can rent and and they make a lot of good sense and they reduce emissions and so on Uh, but uh, I do think that given we're sort of one and point five laps around the track on that It would be good good to hear How we're how we're doing on that my last My almost last item is uh is on the wharf Mr. City Manager, we sustained some more damage In the most recent storm Shutdown the end of the wharf as I understand it. Can you give us a bit of an update on The wharf and what we might be dealing with with regard to the budget? Sure, thank you for that question mayor over the course of our last two storm systems the wharf has unfortunately sustained Some major damage and in two separate areas Some of those are very visible because the wharf itself is sagging due to a loss of supportive peers below it Um, so I know that our our parks team has been working out A repair schedule for those areas. We also have Funding that's already been set aside To address a number of the structural maintenance Projects that are needed on the wharf as we get a better sense of what the budget looks like for those repairs and what Federal funding might be available to help support those. We'll be bringing those updates back to the council. Thank you Uh I I do have a question my last one is on A desire to engage in conversation not here and now But between here and well before the cement hardens up on the budget And that has to do with the disc golf course As I understand it Ball golf versus disc golf That they both take place more or less at the same place and we have a golf course ball golf course and a disc golf course As I understand it the disc golf course that we have Is considered among those who know such things that this is A disc golf course that people travel to it's a destination and not being a disc golfer And a really terrible ball golfer I I don't know much about this, but i'm told by people who seem to know something about it that that's true And as I also understand it there's a desire to engage you sir. Come on come on forward to engage Mr. Elliott, please please Thank you so much for all the work that you and your team do it's absolutely remarkable What I would like to do sometime between now and Maybe a couple of weeks three weeks something like that before as I say things firm up too much Let's engage in a conversation around the disc golf course What they bring To us what their needs may be Looking at them over time and so on if we could do a little bit of work on that that would be great If you have a comment now, I'd be love to hear it Yeah, happy to talk through that happy to get out to the disc golf course or the golf course anytime as well And do some tours and field trips, but we'll follow up on that Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I have no further questions anyone who's With us wish to comment on this item We have anyone online miss bush who wishes to comment on this item Okay, thank you the Bear with me for one second We do have items on this a three items that are recommended the matter is back before the body is there a motion On the recommendations There's a motion by miss Watkins is our second second by mr. Newsom Yes, I think you might have people in the audience here who want to speak looks like Oh, I'm sorry. I did ask for that, but please come forward. No, no, no, it's quite. It's quite all right I was moving rather fast. Good All right, so I got just a couple minutes left before I have to get back to work from lunch So I would like you to consider to move forward the Class and comp study adjustment the third phase Now rather than waiting until budget year 24 25 Because it affects our workers directly This just spur the spawning The cpi was upgraded to 3.1 percent for january We're talking about for most of our employees that are affected by this a two percent increase It would go a long way in order to actually Get them to that 10 percent As well as help them out in their everyday life Ms. Golder since you had asked the question about insurance costs I'm sure that you Would expect that other Municipalities would actually have the same increase as we would so in the next class and comp study in 2025 I would imagine that would mean equal So we would still be 10 behind if if everything else didn't change as well So I would appreciate that And I need to go back to work. So thank you very much speaking of your work. Thank you for that And thanks to all of your colleagues for the great work that they do we are a service Government and you are the service that is provided and thank you so very much for that and thank you for being here today, sir Well, thank you very much. Have a good day. Thank you Anyone else wish to comment on this item matter is back before the body I do have one person who just there's someone online will take the person online. Good afternoon Yes, sir. This is Garrett. Say why not comment? You know just in general I don't really Well, I disagree with a lot of things but I don't personally agree with compensation studies to compare You know your salaries and things to other government salaries just theoretically for me The only comparison is to a similar job in the private sector because the private sector pays the bills The government doesn't pay any bills. So it's a little Very much all came to compare the other governments And there are usually somewhat comparable jobs in the private sector I'd love to see that comparison Just in terms of measure elder. I didn't want to comment on this very slick Mailer kind of handout that came to everybody's door. Yes on our real solutions for homelessness And I I know you're well meaning and everything but this is probably the most disingenuous piece of political literature I've ever seen and there's not it's like four pages essentially and It doesn't even mention that it's a half cent, you know general purpose sales tax, for instance And it's just it's all a fusive you know, uh, slobbery, you know It is full kind of uh, you know, we need No to for homeless, right and and yet, you know, you're not obligated to spend not a dime On homeless this that it is a general tax. You can spend on anything And and if you did spend money on all the things that we talked about here It's really mostly all welfare items. That's really city services in the normal sense And every single person who is it says our community agrees and every it's all government officials And some leftist organizations and a lot of non-profits that stand to gain uh, free money And I don't see that as really, uh, you know I don't really see that I think it's disingenuous Thanks Thank you Anyone else online? Okay. Matter is back before the body. There's a motion and a second for the debate or discussion Seeing hearing none. I'm sorry. Ms. Brunner. Did you have a question? It's quite all right Can we get the motion? Yes, it was to approve The recommendation as submitted on page 19.1.1 in our packet. Yeah, and that included the compensation study um delayed to 24 25 which I don't support so I won't be supporting the motion as it is Okay, thank you for the debate or discussion Oh, I don't see a motion on the floor if I could Oh, I'm sorry. Um, if I could I not get a motion and a second. I apologize if I didn't do that I thought that I had Okay, is there a motion I'll move the recommendation that I'm up for as Watkins moves. Is there a second? Mr. Newsome seconds. There's a motion and a second Okay. All right motion second. Ms. Brown under discussion um So I I just want to say that I my comments that I made earlier in in the questions I asked stand I'm very concerned about Ratifying a delay like this with the especially after hearing the city manager say that it Kind of confirming my concern that this This round of adjustments would be weighed against other budget needs We made a deal with the workers and I don't believe that We I don't believe it's good faith to to stop now and say we're going to pause and we'll get back to you And that um, perhaps there will be money The the workers have since we Since we settled that contract they have been all in they have been supporting this city You all do Um, every day and the work that you do But in terms of our efforts to generate additional revenues, they have stepped up And I just I can't in good conscience support Making a move like this, which is kicking the can down the road to an uncertain future If we had a more certain future And we said that these are going to be baked into next year's budget I would feel more comfortable But I can't support The the move today to just kind of leave that open ended So I I'd love to hear from my colleagues if anybody else is interested in this. I I could put forward a Either a substitute motion or an amendment Ms. Brunner is recognized and miss Watkins miss Brunner. Thank you Just knowing that it's another four months until our july 1st fiscal year begins and You know, we have been really working hard on our budget and expenditures and Trying to get more revenue in for our city but All of the capital improvement projects everything all our goals is not possible without city staff And if we don't have the people and we're not investing in the people nothing else matters we can't even do anything else and The fact that we went through the last couple years really working towards this goal and to even pause it just for four months or I don't I think that speaks volumes to an opposite of our goal of retention and recruitment and so I I also share concerns. I understand the fiscal responsibility of this But we have to invest in our people who are working In our city and certainly seeing Our city in all the ways that our community needs and so I think if we can You know Come to an agreement here today with this motion to Accept this recommendation, but to continue forward with the comp study and to not pause that Um, I know it would go a long way for our city employees and staff and for me personally as well I know a lot of the community would appreciate that Ms. Watkins is recognized I'm happy to ask our city staff if they want to weigh in my understanding It was just to come back with a more thorough kind of Assessment of what this looks like in the bigger kind of scope of things within the next couple of months Or you know three months essentially in may and then not to pause But to kind of have a more inclusive picture and But but certainly committed to moving forward in this direction. That was what I interpreted I just want to make sure I'm clear because I don't know if that's clear amongst the council Yeah, thank you for that question council member Watkins. That's an accurate characterization of where things stand And I I do want to just start by saying I appreciate the support being expressed by you council member brown And by you council member burner, we all share the concern of continuing to make progress with seeing competitive and supporting our employees Um, just a little bit of history back in september when we originally brought this forward The commitment was to study the feasibility And the cost associated with implementation of phase three and in good faith. That is what we've brought forward Sarah and our HR team have been meeting with our employee groups throughout the course of the last several weeks To develop a clear understanding of what the price tag would be and when and how we might implement it Um We're just on the horizon of knowing whether or not the sales tax measure will be successful That'll have a significant impact on our financial trajectory As well as as we build out fiscal year 25 I want to I want to make very clear. We're very committed to completing implementation of this comp study And we're going to be moving on to starting a new one with uh 2024 So that's just where things stand We're just we're not at a point today with clarity and certainty to tell the council that we're in a position to approve this today But we expect to have a much clearer picture of that over the course of the next month Great I appreciate your insights in that way and that's how I interpreted it and I am I think I share the same commitment to our employees and to furthering the comp study and Look forward to having you come and return with a more clearer picture for us Um, so I don't think there's any interest in not kind of letting that fall by the way side I think having that bigger picture makes a lot of sense to me So i'm comfortable with the recommendation at this time given that information Vice mayor is recognized I was going to say I associate myself with your comments And yours, you know, I think that it is important to um stay competitive, but I think Making it just we're still moving forward with the comp study and everything But I think waiting until after the results of the march election would be in the best interest of the organization given the financial uncertainty moving forward and so I want to keep our Wages competitive and I'm committed to that And I want to have more clarity in what revenue streams we have and not try to overspend what we don't have and put us into a place where we have Obligations that we can't meet financially Ms. Bruner is recognized Um, I wonder if um You know Pausing or if we're not pausing I still was not clear on what you said. It didn't help clarify anything for me But waiting even a month The delay is impactful to To everyone and so Again four months one month Um, maybe we don't even have that on here if there's We're still moving forward with it I don't know Clearly there is concern from city staff. They showed up that some of them spoke um, so I see some concerns and um, I'd like to figure out how we can move forward With a motion that expressly expresses That we are not pausing or stopping or ending or delaying our comp study And it's still moving forward as is As we directed in previous action and direction Thank you. I'm going to recognize the city manager that I'm going to recognize councilmember Watkins. Mr. City I'm sorry councilmember brunner if my original description was a little confusing I don't characterize it as a delay because the commitment was to do the feasibility work associated with implementation of phase three Without a commitment of when the implementation would take would take place and we have honored that The plan you have before you Is work that has been happening just up to today to get a full picture of what the cost would be to map out What sarah described earlier Our plan is to continue to prioritize Implementation of phase three, so I don't I don't want anyone to leave the room today feeling as though it's not a priority It is absolutely a priority As as fiscal year 25 takes shape over the over the next couple of months. We'll have a much better picture of Our ability to implement that phase three of the plan I guess Thank you in response. I think it's important to then communicate that our our direction to implement phase three is Regardless of what the march election regardless of what is coming because There won't be workers to do the work if we If we don't invest in the workers so Um, that's first and that continues and we see what we have for everything else Councilmember Watkins I the only thing I was going to add and matt you covered it was that the reason why I believe it's here today Is because we gave prior direction to have it return and what I'm hearing is that we need more time And we'll have a bigger and better picture in a couple of months As to implementation More time for when we can implement is what your understanding is For the feasibility study. Yeah, right Miss brown is recognized Thank you Well, I'm just going to say that um, you know We're hearing a message here and I am seeing workers who have been involved in these negotiations Who have spent a lot more time on this than any of us have Um Seem to disagree and so I'm not going to take it on faith that um This is that was the understanding that SEIU members had when they voted on that contract that we were going to study some things and Maybe if we could figure it out, we'd move forward Um, that that is not the message that I think was delivered And so I am very I continue to be concerned and I am not going to support um Taking action that solidifies a pause And a kind of ongoing acknowledgement that of course workers are our priority We hear that from everybody all the time no matter what the decision is that's being made so You know, there's a trust question here and I'm just I gotta be real about that There's a reason that we ended up in the position we were in in our last round of negotiations There is a trust Breakdown and we are restoring it and making a move like this does nothing. It just it just undermines that progress So I believe that we need to keep moving forward We need to have A clear picture of what the cost is going to be and it needs to be incorporated into next year's budget If adjustments aren't going to be made in the next couple of months my Obviously, I would prefer that we get get that done now. I understand there are constraints But that was a commitment that was made and I don't think it was just a commitment to study I don't think we would have settled a strike over a commitment to study so I'm not going to support Emotion that undermines Our prioritization of this workforce. I just won't miss leon I just wanted If I could ask you a question And then whatever comment you wish to make My question is this. I am I am not clear Others may be I'm not There seems to be a disparity or a gulf here some difference of an understanding On this question. So when the labor agreement Came together and everything was settled What was the exact action? That the city committed to on this particular issue That it was dependent on funding and council approval And that we would make a good faith effort towards Bridging the gap essentially just on that language and the agreement says happy to bring it up I would like you to do that Just kidding. Um, I can bring it up and then email it to you Where are you getting it? It's just the city of santa cruz mo use if you google it You bring up the service What I'm what I'm going to do what I'm going to do Let me do this because we've got another situation Developing here right now, which is that the appellant on a previous item has now shown up in council So what I'm going to do I want to explain to them what's going on So on we are going to take about a five minute Let's let's take a 10 minute recess. We're not in a roll call. We have a motion, but we are not in a roll call We'll come back at 20 after 2 so I can deal with that person. You can get that document up. We'll be back in 10 minutes time Santa Cruz city council is back in session following an afternoon recess We are on item 19 on our regular agenda Which is budget adjustments and information on the city's financial status We have on the table a motion and a second to approve recommendations one through three As presented by the finance staff The matter is now still under debate and discussion by the council I'm going to recognize miss Watkins miss Watkins Please proceed Yes, thank you mayor. I appreciate the conversation and understand the confusion and wanting to get clarity on this and so I wanted to modify my motion and I will do that at this time if you're ready for that bonny Okay, so the motion would be to approve the recommendation parts one and two on our agenda and to bring back Phase three to implement the compensation study at the second meeting in march This will just allow for us to have a and I'll pause there Do you want me to repeat that? Bring back phase three to implement the compensation study at the second meeting in march And if and then I'll end my motion there and then just have a quick comment to say about that Is that agreeable to the second of the motion? Agreeable very good open on your motion to amend just my understanding is hearing For the how to actually implement the phase three requires a budgetary A clear budgetary picture and after this the march election will have a better understanding of what that can look like Either way But we'll at least have that information to inform how the implementation could proceed at that point So essentially having it come back at the second meeting in march will have a better picture financially of where we're at and if mayor if it's okay I can offer our city manager to speak to that a little bit if if in Soon manager has comments on that I think council member walk-ins captured it. Well the primary concern we had with with implementing That proposal for phase three in advance of that was just not having a clear picture of where things would stand Regardless of what the outcome of the sales tax measure in march will develop options for the council to consider implementation Of phase three and again, I appreciate the spirit behind the advocacy today We all share wanting to address these compensation challenges and wanting to support our employees Thank you Thank you, um, that was actually what I was um, going to suggest was to bring back a phase three implementation plan um, and for the march 19th meeting, um This says At the march 26 council me. Okay. I might have had the dates wrong, but um Um, I think that's really important for us whether or not We know what the you know revenue status or whatnot we have You know made a direction to And to really support and invest in our workers and to come back with options for Implementing phase three. I think is is vital at this point as we move forward because We need our our city workers to to do the work and To feel valued and to feel compensated in our very expensive city. So if if I think that speaks to the commitment that we can move forward with that and and so thank you for for proactively I'm going in that direction and clarifying and calling that out. I think it's very important and addresses some of the concerns Thank you for the debate or discussion Seeing hearing none the clerk will call the roll Council member nuisance. I crown I watch it. I Brunner. I Helen tarry johnson. I vice mayor golder. I mary culey. Hi We are on item 20 And this is a first reading of ordinance amending Uncautified ordinance number 2022 dash 16 relating to temporary use of certain adjacent public street and outdoor areas for eligible businesses Ms. Unit, good afternoon. Welcome to the council meeting. Good afternoon mayor city council Rebekah unit economic development manager. Um, so the item item before you this afternoon is an amendment to extend our temporary outdoor Expansion program. So this is our outdoor dining program that we launched during the pandemic We have been implementing our park lot program, which is on public property And so we are now working on some permanent solutions for the private property spaces So this extension is dealing just with the private property And we are proposing or requesting to extend through may 31st of 2025 And that is That would give us about a year for the businesses to be able to have a transition period from when we plan to adopt the permanent changes and then bring them into That permanent solution So just a bit of background of sort of where we're at on progress toward private property Permanent policy updates. We've been working with the subcommittee council members nuisance countary johnson and bruner On those policy changes, we did our initial community engagement with some of our proposed revisions in september of last year Got a lot of really great feedback in terms of how we could further streamline those approaches make this easier and And more streamlined for those businesses So we're now Finalizing our revisions and we'll be meeting with the businesses in the community again In the beginning of march With a goal of bringing that to the planning commission end of march and hopefully to the council end of april and may for final adoption if we're able to work through that And and get that good feedback going so Well, happy to answer any questions and would appreciate the recommendation Very good. Let me see if council members have questions. I'll start on my right moving around here There we go. No questions I will just say I had a Conversation during the break very briefly with miss lipscomb about an item That a business has brought to my attention that does not relate to the private property side But instead the public property side will be engaging in a conversation offline And maybe looking at at something in the future But no No questions or comments. Let me offer the opportunity to folks who are with us today to comment on this item Is there please come forward? Good afternoon Hello, my name is Karen Madura, and I'm here representing brady's yacht club and the jury room And other businesses that are interested and I wanted to speak in support of Extending this and also to thank everybody for their hard work in working with us and Hoping to make these patios permanent for our community. So thank you. Thank you so much Ms. Bush, do we have anyone online? We'll take the next person online. Good afternoon. Welcome to the council meeting Okay, this is good again. I didn't really prepare anything for this. It's really the same old story Uh, I understand in the pandemic measures had to be taken to help businesses and so forth But we'll be on that and and although you did sort of say here that this is about private property that to me I don't remember reading it. It talks about outdoor Maybe that's public space also but as regards public space just in general as I've said many times before you know, you are stealing public property and renting it to private individuals when it comes to Permanent parklets on city streets and you are violating the public's right of way for no good reason really Uh, permanently you've even you know contemplated and There have been judgments in the past where exclusive Use permits of public property were revoked because there just wasn't in the public interest and uh, it's This you know, you're kind of charging a lot of money for these things and I'm not sure that that's That you know violating the public's right of way is really in their interest. So You know This should all come to an end. You know at some point Thanks Thank you Matters back before the council. Excuse me I'll move the record People are moving around I'll move the record Ms. Watkins moves Uh Ms. Bruner seconds. There we go. Very good. For the debate or discussion scene, please I just wanted to um say that this has been a process and and um, we're working really hard to get through Regulatory policy and measures and public safety aspects of outdoor seating on private property and um our Staff that we've been working with on this topic. I said on this subcommittee Has been working really diligently and so I wanted to acknowledge them On it and I wanted to acknowledge the core group of businesses that have been also Working to give very specific constructive Input and feedback to help us work through all the components. So What this does is it allows All of those businesses to continue operating Under their temporary permits for another year because That's the reality of what is needed and so I I'm happy to support this and continue to work through and get to a place where We have a policy in place that will be in place going forward. So, thank you Thank you Further comment? Ms. Cullentary Johnson is recognized. Thank you Just also briefly wanted to um, thank the businesses that have worked with us city staff This has been a huge lift the public The the public property framework that we came up with Didn't have as many nuances and hurdles for us to go through and so it's taking us longer Then anticipated, but it's taking us longer because this is what collaboration is about Takes a little longer. We're listening to the businesses. We're listening to the neighbors And we're trying to come up with a plan that's feasible to implement and best for the community So just thank you for all the work to the staff and to the businesses we've been working with and my council colleagues Vice mayor is recognized. Thank you. I don't have a brief Thank you to everybody for bringing this forward and I also am really excited I know it's something that we had talked about prior to the pandemic And I think if there's one ray of light that's come out of the pandemic is bringing this forward I think it creates a festive dining atmosphere and for socialization It feels very european and fun when we're eating outside and I just appreciate that we're trying to bring this to permanence So, thank you everybody Very good. Clerk will call the roll Councilmember is nuisance brown. I watch runner Calentary johnson. I Vice mayor golder. I I motion passes and so ordered We are on item 21. This is a review of recent state legislation Regarding land use and housing Mr. Van Waal and mr. Butler. Good afternoon Let's see you Good afternoon mayor vice mayor and council afternoon That van waal principal planner advanced planning Chair mass green here I see this still on the screen, okay Great. Thanks again everyone Just to give a brief before I go into the the more recent 2023 legislation that was passed This past year and is going into effect As of january of this year I wanted to provide a larger legislation background On what's what's really been passed in the last like five or six years and kind of what has led to The work going forward right now And it's really a start to that We have the housing accountability act which has been around since 1982 and has recently been Has gotten much more robust Housing accountability act states california has a housing supply and affordability crisis of historic proportions And that's really a good framing point for where the state is coming at In regards to Supporting a lot of this legislation that's moving forward So in 2017 California found that there was nearly two million homes of unmet backlog And that equates to about 180,000 units per year to get to the point by 2025 Where we start to meet housing needs So far we've only the statewide has only been approving around 100,000 of those So there's still a significant housing shortage and backlog And so since 2017 We've now seen at least 129 to to my account at least 129 housing related bills passed Just in the last seven years Which is really remarkable So navigating, you know all these new directives from the state certainly makes our work much more complex And at the same time it's important to appreciate Where the state is coming from in a lot of these ways to to really support moving housing forward as much as possible So again, I wanted to provide another quote further To provide even more context So the the housing about accountability act from 1982 underwent a significant amendment in 2017 that really kicked off a lot of this housing legislation that we've seen going forward and so Just to read the the back half of this meaningfully and Meaningfully and effectively curbing the capability of local governments to deny Reduce the density for or render infeasible housing development projects and emergency shelters That intent has not been fulfilled So again, the state is really looking to create more legislation to To bring local governments forward in in supporting housing And so as part of that amendment in 2017 to the housing accountability act, you'll see it as haa And a few places. So it significantly strengthened the haa In a really reduced the power of jurisdictions To deny or place conditions on a project that renders it infeasible and it also Required that review standards, you know development review standards Are are set at the time the application is deemed complete Prior to this legislation actually Up until 2016 you could have a project that comes in and two months later If the community or council didn't like the project they could have passed different setbacks Or different height requirements To essentially kill the project And this really Didn't allow for those goalposts to change anymore. So that was the first kind of significant change on legislation There was subsequent housing accountability act amendments In 2018 it went even further and spoke to The consistency between the zoning ordinance and the general plan And where inconsistent The greater standard for housing production would prevail That was a large change because Many jurisdictions across the state have a general plan That's general And has goals and What it what it wants to be someday or what they hope to change it to someday But the zoning might not have necessarily been to that level And when this came along the state was really saying No, whatever standards you have Even if your zoning isn't there yet, you have to allow it. That was the large change for planning And then sp3 30 we've heard that we've probably heard that before housing crisis act of 2019 That really instituted objective standards, which we've seen come before council And then it prohibits reducing the intensity of land use. That's a no net loss provision As well as prohibiting housing moratoriums housing caps or or delaying approval And it also Importantly added tenant protections such as replacement units Relocation benefits and first right of refusal refusal for housing units displaced by a housing development project And then affordable housing streamlining of 2017 that that's sp35 Which has come before council as well that streamlined review processes For qualifying housing projects that meet certain affordability percentage And sets review times Limits public hearings and the and no sequa as well And this is really based on the regional housing needs allocation Which we've talked about if if this arena If the city is not meeting its arena in certain affordability categories that is really what allows sp35 to kick in and What what happens with that review is every year The city does an annual progress report to the to hcd the state's housing and community development department and Every based on how many units we're producing and approving Every four years the state takes the tally of that And essentially if we're meeting our pro rated chair of rena Then we qualify for Not being an sp35 city If we're not meeting that Then we would fall into the streamlining process So we have the annual progress report coming before council In a couple months here a month and a half That will show that the city met all of its rena requirements This this latest housing element cycle So we we should be found to not be under the streamlining for the next four years But beyond that that that next count kicks in if we're not meeting that chair Again, that's when sp35 would would come back And and that's a if we're not meeting low and very low affordable housing requirements under rena Or the targets, I should say not requirements Then it's a 50 percent affordable project That would qualify for sp35 And if we're not meeting our above moderate market rate housing Under the rena target then Any project with 10 percent affordability would qualify and that's 10 percent or the city's inclusionary rate. So either way Most projects under that circumstance would qualify for this sp35 streamlining Then accessory dwelling unit legislation. There was a lot of this In the last four or five years A large one was in 2019 Where this omnibus of of bills was passed to streamline approval remove parking requirements Increase square footage remove lock coverage and decrease setback requirements Another one more recently was a ab 22 21 And that reduced minimum setbacks allowed front yard development and increased height development This was one in particular where we We intend to Formally bring this into our ordinance, but we currently have an urgency ordinance In place that has been approved and extended by council Until we do a larger accessory dwelling unit ordinance work And I bring this up because this in this particular instance the the state In hcd are very interested in pushing cities to have these ordinances adopted To meet the these the state legislation and they actually want to see this state legislation In local ordinances Unlike things like density bonus, which the state hasn't put a pressure on to actually have in local ordinances This in particular there's a lot of pressure now From the state and a lot of interest in In bringing these bringing this legislation Into the local ordinance And and just as an aside Should measure m pass for instance we we've talked about this at the previous meeting. This would be an example of To meet the state requirement and to appease hcd and bring this into conformance in our local ordinance That would trigger a vote of the people for instance because this is talking about high requirements and and greater allowances far things like that Another important recent legislation. I'll I'll try to run through fast here. Uh, a b 23 23 45 Increased density bonus maximums to 50 There was already greater allowances for 100 affordable Up to 80 but this changed from 35 to 50 percent in in 2020 sp9 Allowed for two homes on a single family lot And it allowed for that lot to also be split into two so you could have potentially four Homes on a single family on a single family a lot and then ab 2097 which Again, we recently brought to council to to bring our ordinance up to date on was a no minimum parking requirement near transit So now I'll go into 2023 legislation again, it was it was a very active year and the state legislator and Number of bills were passed over 60 And I'm just going to do a very quick rundown of kind of the largest ones and happy to answer any more questions on them too after um AB 1287 uh speaking of density bonus this actually increased the Maximum density bonus for mark rate development to 100 percent So any project now? What what would happen is a project could come in and it first has to meet that 50 requirement That's been standard the last three years And then this bill added certain ways for that 50 percent to be doubled to 100 percent And that's either through adding moderate or very low income only Not low income In particular So this 100 percent could only be achieved through a moderate or very low affordability As that bonus As before it was a by right approval of housing and church and school sites And this would allow this would allow home residential development on these sites To a standard that would be similar to what would be allowed on other sites nearby or um Kind of the closest applicable zoning or general plan standard to a development like that Plus plus one story So it allows slightly more than what we currently allow now And sp4 23 This was a big one too. We spoke to sp35 in that streamlining that was actually set to sunset in 2025 And this bill was passed this past year To not only extend those sp35 streamlining requirements to 20 36 It also expanded them into the coastal zone, which it previously was not was not a part of that's a significant part of our city that's now also Open to that as well should sp35 be enacted here And Yes, yes, sorry. Yep. That is the yep. Thank you and then sp6 84 This was a ministerial approval, which is Essentially over the counter building approval. There's no planning process really For up to 10 unit projects in multifamily zoning So there was a number of a number of bills around the californ environmental quality act sequa That were passed as well AB 1307 Found that residential noise is not an impact under sequa This stemmed from a specific student housing project in berkeley The people's park if you've heard of that one AB and in that one in particular, I'll say that near all of these bills that Except for this one went into effect on january 1st. This was actually an urgency Ordinance that went into effect as soon as it was signed to september 7th. I think of last year AB 1449 was a sequa exemption for 100 affordable housing Then ab 1633 This this essentially again was kind of in the spirit of the housing accountability act where Projects that qualify for a sequa exemption Are entitled to that exemption? before There could be findings made somehow that even though even if a project was exempt that maybe it wasn't exempt In this this kind of put a put a stop to that and that uh And also that ruled that local government must certify an eir If there's substantial evidence to support that certification So it really raised that bar to if a if an eir comes before council along with a project Uh, it's it raises the bar to to deny that eir Essentially, there's higher standards in place And kind of along with that too SB 439 at the bottom there Really heightens the standard for sequa challenges of 100 affordable projects And so it really What what it essentially does was say that uh, if there's 100 affordable project Uh, the sequa a sequa challenge to that Had to had to meet some immediate standards by the state and that the state could step in Much faster and deny that that appeal To allow this to allow affordable housing to go forward So gave the state a lot more power to step in and say that's that's a frivolous appeal Doesn't meet our standards and allows the housing to go forward Specifically the 100 affordable housing Accessory dwelling units, uh, there's several of these past this year too AB 1332 was a streamlined, uh, 30 day review of pre approved ADU plans And so those are ad use For instance in Santa Cruz, maybe an ad you has been Approved already on a different site And if those if that same set of plans is essentially brought to another site and used You know, there's there might be site differences and things like that But essentially the actual construction of the project Has been approved already Then it qualifies for the streamlined review The next two, um, there's the owner occupancy requirement prohibition extended beyond 2025 That went in place in 2020 and and was set to sunset in 2025 Now there's a now it is there's no sunset. It's extended indefinitely this prohibition on our occupancy and currently Santa Cruz has owner occupancy requirements pre 2020 before the state legislation And so this is one area where we Staff intend to bring back a proposal to remove that requirement in keeping with This requirement being removed from 2020 onward for all other ad use Uh, so when we bring back that urgency ordinance that I spoke about the other 2022 changes that were made Um, this this will be part of that another thing for council's consideration AB 1033 It gives cities the discretion To allow ad use to be sold separately as condos Really interesting bill there's there's a lot of pluses to this It could allow for a lot of new home ownership opportunities and And a variety of homes ad use tend to be smaller Likely more affordable than a standard single family house So really improves ownership opportunities at the same time The one negative might be that you still could have displacement of those current Adu residents that are currently renting from these same ones that will then be sold So should council be interested in looking at this further as part of this adu work that we're doing over the summer the spring and summer We could look at additional anti displacement strategies if if council were interested in supporting something like this So I just wanted to mention that as well. You're welcome to comment further on that if you like Then finally just some additional legislation AB 8 821 is really Further seeking to resolve general plan and zoning conflicts if necessary. There's actually still a few places in the city where Our objective standards which went through a couple of years ago now Did a substantial amount of resolving those conflicts? There still are some parcels in the city for one reason or another that didn't fall under that And and this was really just to further say that We we should and that if a project goes forward in one of these sites We still have to follow the housing accountability act, which we which we would anyway But again, it's one of those ones if we brought this fully into conformance Those sites would likely be up zoned to meet the the current general plan standard and may also trigger a vote for instance And then AB 1218 extended sp 330's tenant protections To commercial development proposals as well So if commercial proposes a project or if a commercial project is proposed on a site That has someone living there currently There would be those additional tenant protections For that commercial project as well and they would have to meet relocation benefits and replacement housing things like that before under sp 330 that was only for a housing development project So that concludes my update. Thank you Mr. Van Wilde, thank you very much. I suspect we're going to have a couple of questions Maybe even a couple of comments. So I'm going to start on my left work my way to my right Ms. Brunner questions or comments? Certainly will Ms. Countary Johnson. Yes. Thank you. Thanks for distilling these complex state legislations for us Let's see. I got to look at my notes Okay, sp for By right approval of affordable housing on church and school sites. So is that Is that How is affordable housing defined and is it a projects that are 100 affordable housing? It is under percent affordable. Okay, and it's very low income and low income categories, okay, and I guess just a question and a comment that AB 976 80 owner occupancy. I know we've talked about this in our housing elements subcommittee This is something that's come to my attention Of of going to that pre 2020 pre occupancy and changing that so I'm glad that we're looking at that I wonder if Planning has a timeline in mind of when that could come Before us just as constituents reach out to me because they continue to I want to be able to have a sense of What that looks like That that will likely come before council in the fall. Okay pretty quickly. Yeah, those are my questions for now. Thank you Thanks, madam vice mayor. Thank you. I have four questions. My first question is So if a school or a church were to build one of these affordable housing projects like the one we saw earlier this afternoon Could they build it by right even if it's let's say like sensitive habitat or historic Or would other could other things potentially impact that That's a good question. I'll dig into the legislation a little bit further and get back to you on that one vice mayor I think they're there typically are provisions that that allow for things like that to be considered in a review process Even a by right one. Cool. I that's just I'll double check on that one for you And then I forget which one it was but in regards to the noise As we're seeing Proposals come forward kind of in our industrial areas like on the far west side or down by harvey west This has been an issue. I know where there was the foam factory over here that abutted a neighborhood And so I just wonder Strategically when we're developing housing in our industrial zones like be mindful that we still need our industrial zones Because that's where jobs are and so I think I don't know if there's more of a question or a comment, but is that something that we can still kind of consider in our overall Planning like if something's owned industrial Do we have to approve housing projects necessarily there because I just anticipate future complaints and then And then we'd lose industrial Does that make sense? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we uh planning Both as a both as our department and also our planning documents such as the general plan and the housing element that was recently approved I'll have policy in them to keep industrial industrial And and to only support residential in in cases where they're still able to have a full employment capacity Achieved on those industrial lands. Yeah, so that's been our current policy to again Yeah, kind of hold as much industrial and job lands as possible That legislation that was specifically passed around noise was regarding housing projects and not being able to Call a housing project an impact by a way of noise So we'd still have to consider that vice vice versa It doesn't account for industrial so much, but certainly industrial noise would be something to you know Take into consideration as we're putting Housing in it or near it things like that. Sure. Thank you. And then um, I had a question a I guess more of a I guess it's a I don't know a b 10 33 this idea of ad use being sold as condos I think that's really exciting. I think entry level Market rate housing is something that the community Needs to people for people to get their foot in the door My only um thing and I don't know if it's changed Back when we were first time home buyers and the second time we bought a home Both times my understanding was that the lease supersedes the purchase So both times we were barely scraping to make the purchase But we had to keep the tenant in there for the full duration of their lease and for those people It was almost a year for some of them. And so then we had to kind of subsidize We had to pay rent where we were And then pay our new $5,000 a month mortgage And then only get back from them the thousand that they were paying and rent And so it was like a real hardship for us to get through that year as first time home buyers. So I think Before implementing tenant protections look at what already exists because My understanding is a lease or a rental agreement would already supersede and there's already significant Um protections in place in that event and I wouldn't want It to be an undue hardship for people trying to get their foot in the door as a first time home buyer this my Comment question about that and then my finally my last thing and I'd already talked to Not have a group briefly about this the other day as I went to a An event with the mayor of San Jose and I think they are implementing something that I would love to see us maybe look at moving forward with this bundle and um, it would it was where Local architects and designers that we work with frequently Have a streamline process where they can self-certify to help projects move along They take a test or they do something. I'm not sure we could see what they're doing over in San Jose But it's helping them move projects along at kind of no extra expense to the city because their Licenses really what's on the line. And so they're you know, I don't know if it just might be worth exploring Um in the next coming months. So thank you for all your hard work as always Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. We're we're certainly aware of the the San Jose program and it is a very good one So well, yeah, we'll look at that further. This legislation was kind of based off that a little bit It does it in just a little bit lighter way But San Jose four or five years ago Created a had had some kind of budget and created a project around you know building out a whole Website of pre-approved plans and and architects Thank you. Yeah, thanks councilmember Watkins Yes, thank you for the presentation Um councilmember brown and I were remembering when there wasn't a whole bunch of legislation to to present and since 2017 There certainly has been a lot of action on behalf of the state in this area So a lot has grown in our legislative presentations in this area Um Which is in some ways good in some ways really challenging for local jurisdictions, right? One of the questions I had that Wasn't already asked or sort of maybe if you could elaborate a little bit more on Is the 80 use sold separately as condos? I just was curious about that I certainly agree with what vice mayor golder shared in regards to entry to home ownership But does that look like splitting lots? What does that look like for parking requirements? I think there's a lot of also Just seems really interesting to me in terms of what that means for land use and home ownership and lot size And everything in division and all of that and and rights So a lot of these are in the back of people's houses. So anyways, if you want to speak to that I don't know what that would look like. Yeah Agreed if we were to go forward with this We'd still have to work out a specific way to to draw those lines and figure out the parking A lot of parking now for 80 use for instance have all been removed So I don't think transitioning them. I'll double check the legislation on that as a parking requirement But there the other would be we do have to figure out how to do the deed and the lots of things like that Mr. Butler good walk good afternoon and welcome. Thank you mayor and council members just to add to that And first introducing myself lee veller. I'm the director of planning and community development for the city and council member Watkins We would anticipate that those subdivisions occur in a condominium Process and so there wouldn't actually be lot lines that are drawn But the airspace subdivision so you could own individual air spaces the interior of the main residence and The four walls and interior of the adu and then there would be something written up in the deed about how the Shared space is used the parking and so forth But we wouldn't anticipate actual lot lines There are approaches as as matt was mentioning sp9 and allow for subdivision of single family lots But this particular bill is more aimed at airspace condominium subdivisions for accessory dwelling units Interesting so then if they were just so you would say to do that and then they were to sell that then What does that look like they could sell it independently? So so if you had an yes, if you had an adu in the backyard You could then Sell just the adu And the airspace rights It would be similar to a condominium in a multifamily Complex except there, you know the air spaces are horizontal and vertical And here the airspace would just be defined by the space of the adu But it could be an attached adu Similar to what you would see with the multifamily development. It wouldn't necessarily be a detached adu Interesting. I'm not sure if I fully understand what that looks like in terms of the average adu in santa cruz because it seems really Challenging from a homeowner's perspective of what that would look like and what the cells or resell of that could be But you know, we'll see when that comes forward and it's more fleshed out But I appreciate the clarification that does help a little bit for me. Thank you Welcome councilmember brown Well, thank you for the thorough overview I I want to say to members of the public who are not present here in the chambers, but maybe listening online That this the document that you produced really is An overview a historical recent timeline of what's happened How you know how we got here to the kind of constrained decision making authority we have So I really highly encourage folks out there to Take a look at it if you want to better understand the The major changes that have taken place And just I don't really have questions. I've been following most of this legislation And have a general sense of the totality of it and some of the the bigger pieces But I did want to ask about as we know the Kind of new legislative the second year of this two-year session is in full swing now and more bills are coming And so I'm just wondering if you're where you're at with Kind of diving into that analysis and if we can get an update about what some of those might mean I don't know that we need a whole presentation, but it would be great to just keep getting updated Maybe with a memo or something about What's coming our way? Thanks for that comment councilmember brown. I'd just like to note that one of the things that I do is I sit on the american planning association legislative review team and We have a review Period that is starting in the next few weeks and then will culminate in meeting of statewide planners who get together to discuss the upcoming legislation and then that serves as As a sounding board for the legislative review committee to present to the american planning association of california's board that then lobbies on behalf of the planners statewide and so We do get involved early in that process And we're happy to give you an update on Some of the key bills that we see coming down the the line for this upcoming year Things change all the way up to the last minute, of course and so you never know If a provision is going to stay or if a curve ball is going to come in at the very end Or if something's not going to make it out of committee, but we can give you an update on Some of the the key legislation that we think will be most impactful to the city of santa cruz Should it proceed in the current state? Council member newson, thank you, mary kealy and thank you for the for the very thorough presentation And for the agenda report. This is really good. I had um just Say three qualifying questions a very quick questions about sp4 23, which I think just continues sp35 and you may have mentioned this in your um In the presentation, I'm uh, my apologies if I missed it, but When did the streamlining provisions of that bill kick in you know say after how many years of a city not meeting their pro-rate arena targets Do they enter into that ministerial process or that streamline process for development projects? We were talking about you were talking about Yeah, thank you council member. Good question Oh, the city submits its annual progress report to state hcd and on april 1st of every year By about mid june, it it really depends on how quickly they get through everything, but around mid june certainly by july they publish a list Of all the cities that meet or don't meet that requirement And if you're if you're on the list, that's that's the start. That's their official That's the that's the official timing of when when your subject sp35 Okay, so it's so it's an every year Look at if you're meeting your pro-rate arena targets or not Yeah, they we submit that every year but that that total that pro-rated amount is only calculated every four years actually so the state is giving Jurisdiction some amount of time to try to meet that arena target Um And so it's it's only calculated at a four-year period now the downside to that is that If you if you aren't if you aren't meeting it That pro-rated chair at your fourth year your subject sp35 Requirements for the next four years Even if you had some huge housing boom and built all your housing in year five or year six Those next four years are Are your it's not counted until it's it's only every four years. Okay. Thank you and that that answer is my My second question. So basically you have four years to meet your pro-rate arena target If you don't meet it at year four then by sp35 you enter into this ministerial process for the next four years Can you provide just a little more insight into what a ministerial process is or what? What that means You know the ministerial process is essentially Just requiring a building permit it bypasses most planning approval. It would still have to meet objective standards But beyond that it goes right to the building department and in that streamlining process Really limits the number of community meetings There's no sequa Things of that nature as well. Okay. Thank you So if you don't meet your pro-rate arena targets within four years and the next four years you entered into this ministerial process where as long as a Development project meets your objective standards They basically move forward without a sequel analysis or anything of that nature. Correct. Yeah Similar to what council and the public saw with a three one water project a few years ago That was our our first sp35 project Thank you Ms. Brunner back to you Thank you for presenting all of those new legislative bills My questions are On sp We talked briefly about 80 us sold separately as condos sp 1033 And I I guess I was going in the direction of council member Watkins in What that looks like we don't know yet. You're simply presenting this report of all these new Updates that have come before us. So Um I guess my question is can you speak about how this will all come together forward? Are you applying these automatically? Do you need future council Direction to work on implementing some of these you mentioned 10 If anybody was interested in working on it. What what are the next steps Regarding all of this what's automatic and what What If any how does this all apply now going forward? Yeah, thank you. Uh, so we we look to be uh proposing amendments to our accessory dual unit a to u Ordinance In that full time frame as I mentioned a lot of that is bringing forward the the state legislation that passed in 2022 for heights and setbacks Allowing a to use in front yards things like that A lot of this had a had a requirement per the state to to move into our our local ordinance And so we will be doing that And so with that a to u ordinance opened up and and us working on it We intended also as part of this to to work on the owner occupancy and also propose A change to that as well In our ordinance and this is something as far as the condos sold separately Per council direction That's something we could look into further as well and include in this package if council so wishes I guess then my question is all of these should be looked into and and I mean does it require each one for us to say please Look into how that would apply here in the city or I mean is it just that one like how does this work? Yeah, this one in particular called for a local discretion So that's why we just highlighted that specifically. It's not a state requirement It's just something the state said you can now we're allowing you to do this if you would like to um Lee Go ahead. Thanks. I was just going to add on that that because it is a local discretion issue and We wanted to bring that up and and gauge the sentiment of the council What I'm hearing is there's some general interest if if we had heard from everyone on the council saying No, let's not proceed with that then we wouldn't be spending our time working on something that The council has indicated they they don't have an interest in and so Hearing that there is interest from a number of the council members. We will proceed with that I also wanted to add to The other comment or the other response to your question council member bruner And I want to be clear for members of the public about what we will be recommending To the council when it comes forward matt had mentioned that we will be recommending some additional owner occupancy changes The state has said for accessory dwelling units. No owner occupancy requirements from 2020 on in perpetuity now It was 2020 to 2025 for building permits getting pulled and now it's in perpetuity And so with that being the case We will be recommending to the council That we remove the owner occupancy requirements for those ad use that were constructed prior to 2020 And so that will the state law does not cover that But given that everyone moving forward doesn't have that restriction We believe it's important to also have that That same standard applied to everyone retroactively That is going to take Act it would require once once if assuming council approves that I should say it would still take action on part of the homeowners because There are actually deed restrictions on those But we would come up with a streamlined process for that So I want a daylight that for any homeowners who are out there who are contemplating. Hey, maybe I'm Thinking about moving but I can't because we've got this own rocket pente requirement That is something that we'll be presenting in the future to the coun