nd if I may council member Myers I appreciate the question it's hard to believe that eight months have gone by as fast as they have but I would just emphasize I think that the most important shift has been moving from focused on the impacts associated with homelessness and really investing in what will be long-term solutions to helping those in need get on a path towards permanent supportive housing and I want to really applaud the work of Larry our homelessness response team all of our city departments this has been an all hands on deck effort and I really feel that they are steps in the right direction that will bear out fruit over time we don't like it to move faster than it is but it's complex challenging work so more to come and absolutely encouraged by the momentum that we're building with lots more work to do thank you thank you council member Calentari Johnson thank you for the presentation I sent a number of questions in advance I want to thank you for responding to those and integrating them into the presentation I do want to just draw out one of my questions I'd like you to comment here and that is so we know the county is focused on permanent supportive housing and you've articulated in the presentation in the report that they are helping with operations of some of these transitional shelters can you speak more on um what else do we see in the horizon and our partnership with the county in terms of standing up transitional shelters throughout the county outside the city um as is articulated in their three-year strategic plan yes thank you council member for that question um there's you know a few a couple of the specific ways we're in the report I think you know looking at the collaborating around housing matters campus I think the work that they're doing looking at master lease opportunities that are also transitional shelters I think you know recently too you know entering or sort of having conversations discussions about what potential properties they may have that could be utilized this and how we might be able to work together so that's been part of our collaborative discussions and so I think we're open to that and receptive and trying to facilitate you know what roles each of us can play but in terms of other specific immediate opportunities nothing at this point okay thank you I have other comments that I'll wait till after public comment council member brown and then vice mayor Watkins I think I was after but go for it okay thanks I think you mayor thank you Larry and Lisa for the update I'm gonna try to just and and I really appreciate the all the work that's going into this and and I know that it's a lot and I know that it's a it's a protracted challenge that we're experiencing and it you know immediate results aren't necessarily something that is even possible no matter how much you know good will and effort and real commitment is going into it so I don't want anything I'm saying right now to suggest I'm not cognizant of that and appreciated of that so I wanted to most of my questions are really particular to the benchmarks the costs on the budget adjustment and but also just the plan in general and so and the and the first one is kind of a big picture question actually maybe I'll ask the detailed ones first I'll go with the budget first and just try to keep it straightforward so we do have in the agenda report a table that lists what these costs you know kind of allocations to the best of your ability for what the additional cost might be and I am and I don't want to pick apart that table but I am interested in just getting a better understanding of you know what some of these costs are where you know wow there's a lot of money 280 thousand dollars for a cleanup which is I didn't wasn't able to look up the costs on the highway one nine encampment cleanup but I it's I got a little sticker shock when I looked at it and I recognize that these things are costly and longer that we have you know something in in place and it becomes entrenched without a lot of services it you know I get it that there's additional cost but that's a very high number just wondering if we could get a little bit of a sense of what you know almost 300 thousand dollars for one cleanup what is that like what's a part of that cleanup for that so that's one question and then another and then there's others are relatively straightforward but I did see that for ongoing four months for porta potties and wash stations is a hundred thousand dollars which works out to about a thousand a day is that really what the cost yes it is in fact what we just experienced was that the company has quadrupled their costs and so we are and that's not just for the conventions it's actually for the all the city and so we're actively working with the finance department to get an rfp together quickly to try to look for other bidders to provide that service thank you I yeah it really was an open question like yeah wow okay so it's good to know you know I think for our general city operations that that's a challenge that we're increasing cost and then just the cleanup and abatement item certainly so the cleanup it's a very very extensive cleanup and it will occur afterwards well actually as segments but you can imagine if you've been down there how huge and large that the work is in just one day alone when we had to clean up the water street took all day we approximately 20 some odd staff members down there to do the cleanup and law enforcement president for assistance and the trucks the loaders and the actual dumping fees at our landfill it's an incredible process we only had one bidder who was interested in actually doing this type of work and has done this work before has done the work over in the hell's trail so we they've had experience in in in this so the the costs are based on their experiences it's huge it it's much larger than I expected that's for sure and so related to I have a couple of these I'll try to make them quick related to that I did get a maybe other council members it would seem to be directed to the entire council a message about kind of the ongoing trash pickup there which you know may only play a very small role in what the costs are of a bigger post you know post encampment cleanup but that it was becoming more challenging for people in the onsite to manage and remove their trash and so I'm just wondering if like how does that factor in here because I feel like sometimes the big costs come because we're not managing it on a as well as we could or what if we had more resources and there's all kinds of reasons why but I'm just trying to get a sense of how we can omit to helping you know giving support to people who want to be part of that cleanup who are in that's in that space why is it getting harder for them and what's that what's that about well that's great question so the ongoing trash issue is another very large large issue we had daily pickup there's there's the totes if you think of your your totes there was 20 to 30 totes down there getting pulled up five days a week sometimes seven days a week and then our trash service coming through picking it up getting people to do that our staff was not comfortable any longer doing that we had a private contractor who was doing that the cost became unsustainable and to the tune of a request of over almost eight thousand dollars a week and so our staff we modified and we're still going through some growing pains of the modifications of trying to meet the trash demands quite frankly down there we still have a weekly cleanup that we do every thursday which is now we're actually going through the middle of the bench lands and then having folks throw in trash into the the trucks we also have folks that live down there who have contacted who will bring the totes up to the road for to be serviced in exchange they are giving gift certificates to do that so i would say yeah we are limping along right now trying to keep up with the the amount it's it's a lot but with the the upcoming closure we think that we can continue to try to at least somewhat meet the the needs of the campers in the in the in the trash but it's not it's not it's not perfect that's for sure thanks and then one other question related to the budget adjustment as i read it the funds would come through the the california 14 million allocation and the hygiene bay will then the money that was going to go for the hygiene bay will then be come out of the arpa funds and i guess i'm just i feel a little this may be a really silly question but i feel a little confused because when we talk about those arpa funds we're we're told they are all spent you know we don't we know when for example when we were some of us were talking about it in relation to other jurisdictions having used arpa funds for you know covid pay for workers and we are told it's that's money spent but now we're now we have it again so i guess i i'd love to understand that a little bit better in the shifting of funding within the very constrained narrow funding streams that were what we're able to use the money for how is that happening and what are we not it's not getting funded from arpa as a result of that uh yes it did until the end but let me explain and i think maybe it'll have a clarification so so initially uh the appropriation for the hygiene bay was part of the request that came to council on December 14th of 2021 it was included in there uh at that time it was part of a timing issue because we wanted to release the request for proposals to be able to move the work and we were still in collaborative conversations with the county to come up with an allocation plan for the california 14 million initially it was included the hygiene bay was also included in the california 14 million but through that process and looking at the array of needs and the flexibility of funding the hygiene bay could be paid for out of arpa the california 14 is much more flexible so the decision was made to continue with the appropriation through the arpa funds and then making available the appropriation out of the california 14 million for other uses related to homelessness right so so that's clear to me um but what's not clear is um how how we found and it feels like the way this is presented we found one million more dollars in arpa funds because we again have been told there's no the arpa money is already spent so is that am i is this not making sense am i the only one who's confused by this we appreciate appreciate the question councilmember brown and um i'll i'll try to maybe rephrase Larry's response so because of the timing and the fact that we were in the process of building out the the detailed budget for the 14 million we didn't want that to hold up the hygiene bay remodel so there was that funding for the project was programmed so to your point you know the the comment around your understanding around the the um the arpa funding already being spoken for this project was built in as part of that budget so we are we are trading the funding that was programmed into um programmed for that purpose and utilizing it for these additional needs we have in the benchlands thank you i hopefully that is more clear it's yeah it's still kind of a big jumble but that i get now the point about uh thank you councilmember brown one other question i'm sorry i totally forgot the big one um so hiding back here and i'm in this ever-sinking chair also um oh that's still here after two years i know we can trade if we can hit him around so you don't always have to um so um that you know this is a question that i'm i'm gonna ask we you know somebody at the dais usually or in the public asset every time but i i feel the need um since you mentioned that uh in terms of the phase approach that's being taken where um where we are not able to offer alternative shelter um and i the we i know that's a muddy area in terms of what whether or not people are willing to take it and whether versus whether or not they're able to take it and all of that but that aside um the we're likely to have given the our capacity which is great that we've been able to you know build this out and in some ways or taking on something that we've had for a long time as a county's responsibility and i appreciate the collaboration and i'm glad that the city is taking a more proactive role but at the same time i feel like um where kind of you know we're grasping at straws a little bit here because we with even with all of this cost we have um a significantly higher number of people who will need shelter in order to move if if the plan as you've described it lays out in that way so i guess i'm just asking again where people gonna go um just to kind of um keep it simple and i know it's not an easy answer and i'm not expecting you to be able to answer that but i just feel like it's a it's something that we have to keep acknowledging and talking about as we move forward i think you framed that very well we have to acknowledge that there is not enough shelter uh in this community and standing up the shelters that we have have made a difference and they will help with the closure of the bench lands we will try to augment with vouchers where we can uh we're asking to see if there's other spaces and other shelters and other communities as well but there probably won't be enough and we'll have to pause our closure until something else comes online thank you um um some of my questions are uh getting addressed by smear Watkins and then i'll cue myself in great thank you yeah a lot of my questions have already been asked and answered and i appreciate the presentation and more importantly the work that you and your team have been up to um i think the only remaining question that i have or maybe you know if you can just sort of fill me in and where we're at with it is the and i'm excited to hear about the information system and being able to access that and be a part of that and i know we have figures but then also we have the complexity of the individual right in the cases and you larry mentioned mental health and on that on the rise um you know there's so many diversity of needs in terms of domestic violence or somebody losing their job or you know co-occurring mental health and substance misuse and certainly we know there's a deficit in terms of bed space and facility treatment um but i think having access to that information is really helpful for us to know how to design the supports to meet the needs and i think also helps us to understand what i think could be um counter to different narratives out there in the community about assumptions around individuals for example i think when i think of homeless too i think of all of the and the non-visible phases of homelessness that we know exist in our community particularly families and students that we see um who are struggling um for housing and they're not there but we know they're there right and so i guess my question is is um as we move forward with our access to the information system as we have the the point in time count you know how is there a qualitative overlay to that to understand sort of both like the story behind the numbers i guess is the question and or is there a conversation around that so that we can kind of get to some of the more complex needs of the individuals that are experiencing homelessness yeah thank you for that question um i think the data begins and having a system to be able to collect this allows us to begin to cultivate that narrative and to understand and then inform our conversations for sure um i think the point in time count will be helpful seeing some of those train trends it's going to sort of question our assumptions um provide new information similarly as we begin to do this work um and i think about the the surfaces coordination around the bench lands is we're collecting this information seeing what connections already exist or do not exist what the needs are and can do that problem solving so one we can have new information on you know what percentage of the persons that we're encountering experiencing homeless already have vouchers whether they're in a shelter whether they're in the campment and sort of what's what's the solution around that well having that information and having the right resources around the table allows us to begin to problem solve around that so we're starting to see that so it's like ah we have a number of persons vouchers how do we we've got housing navigators that have capacity to work with new people so how do we make those connections so i think all of the data systems and beginning to have that foundational allow us to be able to be more effective in terms of the work collaboratively city county and our nonprofit and community partners but also identify where our gaps are and then inform what additional services are needed and and potentially dictate where resources need to be deployed to make that happen um that the next is maybe more of a comment than a question but i think you know we're not alone as we understand in the state of california and beyond in terms of trying to address the you know the the impacts of of homelessness and just the complexity of the issue but i think um over the years that i've been here there's also been advocacy and connection to state lobbying around supports and i guess i just say that to really just express my support to continue to advocate for resources from the state um and i think you know even if looking at a different type of model in terms of a reimbursement model i mean we have the medical like i mean some something to help sustain this type of work because um you know it's expensive as you know and it's something you can't turn your back to and you need to work on so how do we how do we kind of have a both land and i think the state really has to play a critical role in that and there's strength in numbers with us working with other communities and kind of the california league of cities et cetera so um i know we're part of those conversations i'm not sure if that was something elizabeth was doing but as we move forward with potentially um looking at filling that position i think that kind of connection to the state advocacy is important thank you um i i'll cue myself in and welcome council member golder thank you for joining us um so let's see i'll start maybe where you left off you kind of touched on um my question i think so homelessness response action plan and i think one thing that i'm uh kind of realizing is this is not a cure homelessness in our city plan this is um a response plan and i think that um you know we have a lot of community members that are joining and hopefully watching today that um our have written us i know that my email my inbox was full of a ton of questions and kind of a perception that what are we doing to solve this uh this entire issue of homelessness and and people being unhoused and so i think what might be helpful at these quarterly updates for the next one is really identifying um i always visualize things in columns and um having columns you know first of all the big picture what are the why why are people unhoused and it's a myriad of reasons right and listing out those reasons cost of living housing lost job domestic violence as that was brought up um substance use behavioral health mental health um systems of care failing and so listing out whatever obstacles people face we even had city employees this morning speaking to living paycheck to paycheck and on the verge of of feeling like they're losing their housing so taking that big picture approach and then kind of narrowing down to the city's role and capacity in this in terms of land use housing um all of the ways that we can um um contribute to the overall reasons why and where the county comes in and i think i think that's um where a lot of people are trying to understand as we for the first time are stepping out into efforts around this and not waiting for county health and human services department not waiting for the state not waiting for the federal government to build housing and facilities and funding the operations of those facilities it's now become uh the responsibility of local jurisdictions and um you know we have to kind of see that overall and that narrowed down of where we can um work towards uh response how we can help our our residents right and um um showing um i think in in in this response plan and updates a couple of things have come up from members of the public showing um funding anytime where that's coming from there were comments this morning from uh city employees around labor negotiations um uh thinking that funding for homelessness response is come is not allowing the city to give to workers and understanding there's different funding sources for example so really identifying where those funding sources are coming from when we talk about hygiene bays and and refuse and and all of that so that i think is really helpful and and and where the services from the county come in what is that collaboration kind of just getting a little more specific what what what does the word services mean i think we use that word a lot and i know i sit through meetings where then i after the meeting have a better understanding um but our people in the community really want to make sure that people that are unhoused are cared for our environments cared for our neighborhoods are cared for our parks are cared for and we're managing funding to care for that in a responsible way so really showing that in this homelessness response plan update i think would be um helpful and i'm just realizing that as we're having these discussions and as emails i we're even getting emails during the meeting um so i really want to be responsive to um kind of the community and where they're finding um you know the gaps and under in understanding how to design the support that meets the needs of our community members right like here's what we've done great update here's what still needs to be done here are the obstacles and here's what we're working on or where each one is stopped or in progress or pending and you know beyond our scope referred to county or referred to state or you know those kinds of just simple um updates i think would be helpful in the future um permanent supportive housing is a big one that um i'd love to uh i think there was a question brought up and i know there was an email i believe or somebody contacted what happens when people refuse the uh offer for shelter opportunity and you know while we say we need more shelter that's really the temporary in the minute solution to uh you know and especially as we're talking about going into winter going into benchlands flooding um so ultimately the goal is not more shelter ultimately the goal is more housing and with housing we need all those levels of housing right and that permanent supportive housing so it might be great to have just a glimpse of we have 65 units or 64 units of permanent supportive housing coming at this location and housing matters has 120 coming at this look like just kind of laying out the picture and you know what we're based on outreach contacts and and work with the him is system and the data we're estimating we need about this much more how can council then create policies that support and reach out and work with community partners that support you know specific types of housing i think that data would be very helpful and um supporting our our outreach team um there was a question about and it ties in with where do people go if they refuse service so you know our outreach team has done a phenomenal job out there like council member myers um i've been through the bench lines many times and um the work that they give has been just all in committed and and when they play that facilitator role and really try to get folks connected to whatever their needs are and um they're not accepting the offer or the help that's where i find we have this gray area um of what how do we see what that is what are those updates and where are those folks going and then we get into the issue of if they're not accepting a bed or shelter or options and they're in the pogo nap and maybe it's a restricted fire area now police are there because they're refusing so then we get into the issue of you know police being involved with unhoused folks and um so just trying to understand how what what challenges and how many people are do you have data on on people refusing services and at our last council meeting there was a comment about salvation army staff not being nice uh to folks and not wanting to go there because of that i don't know if that's true but those types of things that come up from the public or from um unhoused folks that we speak to um it would be nice to understand what's happening to those yes right and that's a great question because i think at the end of the day none of us want a police interaction like we'd all like to prevent that from happening um and where will people go if they refuse shelter we i don't have an answer for you it depends on what happens in that moment right and will they go to another place and camp out probably i think you're going to see those who refuse to go um go to another location and that that's that's the reality right that we all need to accept that we're going to see that there will those who will flat out not want to go to one of the shelters or hotel voucher or accept services there's some that just absolutely don't want to just don't want the services at all they don't want a government interaction that that's another piece to it right um so i don't have that answer but how many people refuse services i don't know if we're cutting that type of data okay but you will see that i think um when we all do not want a police interaction but what happens in that moment and where people go it's it's individual based it it really is and it can you speak to some of the county programs they know have been mentioned through different funding sources they have like this new healing the streets program and how that my understanding is a mobile team that will be out and about is that another resource that can be tapped into and yes healing the streets is one they're part of the group that meets with us weekly or around the the services coordination and their focus is is behavioral health supports um they work both the county wide but i mean specifically the city of santa cruz and the city of watsonville so they've got their team connected and so that's part of part of the work that's happening in terms of when we identify persons who have behavioral health needs uh through the work down there to be able to connect them to the healing the streets a case manager or being a behavioral health worker so they're they're involved there we brought in dvd so there's a variety of services there at that table um that particular program healing the streets as well i mean there is a open referral mechanism it's not necessarily focused to to people living in encampments so there's an ability to do that but um yes certainly trying to find the right services and that's part of the conversation we already have some of those service providers around the table but as we hear other needs and other needs are identified it becomes an opportunity to see what other resources in the community need to be brought to the conversation to support great can i just add to that i wanted to bring it up as part of my comments but it's relevant to your question and your comments um there are other grants that the county has gotten that are just getting started the cafes program which is a partnership with probation public defender da and the courts they're going to have folks who are roaming and doing outreach for individuals who have mental health substance use um challenges and are um unhoused so that's we just got word from bscc that we awarded six million dollars that's going to be in our community um i know that um health services agency and their behavioral health department has brought in over 10 million um a lot of different programs are part of it is crisis response with people who are having mental health challenges and then as vice mayor watt kins um just noted there's a lot happening at the state level and one of them is calaim and um the shift in how folks will get served and have health benefits through the calaim program all of this is going to roll out in the next six months and it's a real opportunity for us to leverage what's coming down the pipes from the state and with the county so that we can augment me to councilmember brown's point um health and human services isn't within the purview of the county and we can no longer do this it's your responsibility it's your responsibility we have to all pitch in invest and partner so that we can leverage the resources that we have so i was going to say that for my comments but it's relevant to the question that you brought up so thank you yeah and i guess that falls in line with just you know in our future update having that overview of your state here's county here's what's happening and now here's city here's what we've done here's what we're still doing and need to work on so um thank you that's good to hear um i had one more question and now i i oh the funding for the four new positions in public works can you remind me where that's coming from that's coming out of california 14 million okay thank you i think those are my questions thank you and just i wanted to say thank you for the feedback on the report it gives us information on how you know this is the i think the second report we've come back since we've started doing this on a routine basis so getting feedback on the kinds of information and the structure that is really helpful so we'll work to integrate that into future reports thank you so much councilmember comings thank you and thank you for that report um i have a few questions i'll try to keep it short i think a lot some of what i've interested in has been answered um but one question in particular that i've been getting from folks since i've been on the council the benches has been used on a number of different occasions as a homeless encampment and people have been moved and then they go to lock it off and then it gets ends up being used again and here we are you know allocating a million dollars towards restoration of the site which has like i said historically been used and i think one of the big concerns people are having is are we just throwing our money away by investing a million dollars into this only to see it be reverted back into a homeless encampment in the future and so i'm just wanting to get some sense of clarity around you know what the future of the benchlands is going to look like i'll speak to that if you don't mind and larry and lisa may have some follow-up thoughts uh council member comings i appreciate the question um our goal is for this to be a permanent shift away from using the benchlands for purposes of temporary shelter and move through a full restoration so that the park can be available to our community members again for its intended purpose um that requires that we continue making progress on standing up alternative shelter as we've uh emphasized and continue to speak to this afternoon and that work will be ongoing we know it's a major investment to move into a restoration that's our goal that's our goal okay thanks um another question that's come up um i believe this came before us maybe last year but there was a 121 units of i believe is transitional housing over at the housing matters campus there's been some discussion that there's some funding issues with that with that project moving forward um that or i mean we haven't really heard any kind of update on what's happening with that project as it relates to providing more beds for homelessness and so i'm wondering if you all have heard any information so that we can you know give the community a clear sense of where that project is going so we can have because that's 121 new beds um that could help us address this issue correct thank you for the question council member um the project is still moving forward in terms of recent funding um they are still waiting to hear responses back on a um no play no place like home grant i'm trying i think that's the right name um so that's out for consideration as well as a project home key grant application as well so they're waiting responses on that and then recently um they received an eight million dollar earmark to be able to support that project as well so my understanding they're still targeting to be breaking ground on that project um in spring in march um and that's the latest update i have but we can continue to bring updates on that um to future council meetings yeah that'd be great since it really goes hand in hand with kind of our ability to get more beds online and i think people just interested in hearing about these different projects what's happening because once we stop hearing then all the hearsay starts coming up around it's not moving forward they lost all their money the city could have put funds in that they didn't you know so i think for us to just kind of have a sense of where those kinds of projects are moving and getting updates will be helpful for us to communicate that to the public um the next question i had um was when i when i first got on council and i believe back between 2019 2020 um initially um there wasn't an interest of the state allowing us access to the army because they had planned renovations for the armory now it seems like we're moving into that you know a longer term use of that facility i'm just kind of wondering you know what's the timeline on us being able to use that or is the the us army are they going to plan on doing the renovations and eventually kind of taking that facility back over my understanding is that they aren't interested in renovating that property i think one of as again my my limited understanding is they um they need to have another property in another place to have the the operations at some point before they relinquish a property but in terms of making additional investments in use of that property that seems that the that building doesn't meet the purposes for what they're trying to use that have this detachment detachment's mission accomplished so in terms of our conversations they've been open to having a longer term lease so that is still in process trying to work through the details with the california military department um but uh it does not seem that they have a long-term interest in operationalizing that property thank you um i'll leave my questions there and um i have a few comments when we come back after public comment thank you council member coming has everyone had an opportunity to ask questions council member golder i just have one question um has there been any thought about using kind of that sp35 lens and doing any redevelopment having the city build housing either permanent supportive housing or housing they'll accept vouchers um and or even looking at existing multifamily residential properties that are for sale in the city or those kinds of things and i don't know if there'd be grant or funding for this but just like i know santa christ city schools is working on trying to build some employee housing in the future and so just thinking along those lines if there was a way for us to build or redevelop some housing um you know spread it throughout the city so it's not so dense right at housing matters as anybody thought about that as a potential opportunity maybe for the next update we can have if it's like that's a terrible idea with that too i just was curious not a terrible idea and i see we have lee butler jumping on i'll let i'll let him take a first crack at it um but appreciate the question thanks for the question council member golder lee butler director of planning and community development and um as the council is aware this is one of things that our economic development housing team in collaboration with many of our city departments is working on carefully um with for example the pacific station north and south where we have approximately 200 units of affordable housing in the works um with the pacific station south having broken ground and that's providing 70 units with 25 percent of permanent supportive housing that caters specifically to individuals who are um either homeless or um recently homeless or at risk of becoming homeless same thing with pacific station north um of those hundred and uh 20 30 units close to 130 units 25 percent of those are permanent supportive housing units and um i think as we proceed with i know you were talking about other areas outside of just the coral street but i'll i'll mention that um you know that'll be one of the things that we uh take into consideration as we're looking at the coral streets master plan design charrette and working with the community and the various stakeholders to understand what are those needs we've been um talking about from the uh council and the community the need for a navigation center out in that area expanded services because housing matters does offer those types of services at their their current campus there but also um how can we expand that and potentially go up with um additional permanent supportive housing as as folks have mentioned as other council members have mentioned that permanent supportive housing is really critical to having people transition from homelessness into uh more permanent housing situation so we are looking at those opportunities and um we will continue to explore those both with additional property acquisitions um and um with working with the resources we have and i would just add i think uh lee framed it well but we also have a couple other very specific exciting opportunities in front of us one of those is uh moving forward with the downtown library and affordable housing project that'll move forward 125 desperately needed housing units in our downtown area as well as redevelopment of the central home supply property at highway one and nine so uh both lee and our economic development team really have been pulling out all the stops to look for those opportunities and more to come thank you this was exactly the kind of overview i think would be great for our next update just to give the full picture uh thanks for that question i one more came up quickly running water at the benchlands has that been resolved um that is an ongoing um uh issue that requires attention and city staff is there every day to make sure that that's not running um from the spigot into towards the river i mean access to so there is access i'm sorry to water for uh people there um the the sinks the pump sinks to wash your hands and um so i guess that's not running water but the what i'm not sure what what you call those the washers are hand washing stations yes we were down there yeah i was there last week and they were all dry they were all right so they get serviced every day but what we found out is that um the campers will open up the underneath and take the water jugs the water containers or others will just use it and bathe in it rather than go use the shower so they're using it up but we are servicing them they are getting filled okay they're they're empty before very early okay that's seven days a week service okay thank you i'm going to at this time take it out to public comment if you are um a member of the public and you'd like to comment on agenda item number 19 homelessness response update uh now is the time to call in using instructions on your screen uh you can raise your hand by dialing star nine and um if you're joining us here in the public please line up to the right of the dais and you can sign in at the front and i will call on you when we reach that point we also have approved for extra time serge kagno with stepping up santa cruise reggie meisler with santa cruise cares and robert norse homelessness homeless united for friendship and freedom huff they requested extra time today so when they speak they will be granted extra time okay i am not seeing any members in in person here so i will take it out to our virtual attendees and um our first hand raised is leslie wooding go ahead and press star six to unmute yourself i hope you can hear me now yes welcome hi i'm leslie wooding i live on dakota avenue two blocks away from san lorenzo park um my life for the last two and a half years has been continuously impacted by the encampment in san lorenzo park i have spent many hours listening reading writing letters and organizing for change uh san lorenzo river and park should be the most natural and pure river in a city anywhere on this earth it's our common jewel that everyone should have access to with a safe and clean environment by now i think everyone knows about the conditions of the people living in san lorenzo park and the conditions of the riverbank i have been impacted almost daily checking to see if someone has overdosed or picking up trash or reporting waste needles theft i've found illicit drugs several times and um unfortunately watched bodies being taken from the bench land not not because i'm looking for it but because i'm walking through the park i've also seen tents burned down um san lorenzo park was designed by the army corps of engineers as a blood plane and so there was and there will be flooding there it is not suitable for an encampment i have talked with neighbors businesses and homeless advocates and i've started to get to know some people who live in the park i've organized to keep the park clean last night i attended the meeting where several people who live in the bench land speak it was mind-opening and i empathize with them the meeting was also very strongly biased toward resistance and defending the encampment to stay in the bench lands and there's also criminal activity that negatively affects the people in the bench lands and certainly the neighborhoods as well the um criminal activities need to be removed from the bench lands meanwhile i've listened to the city plan and i am strongly in favor of the park restoration plan thank you very much thank you for your comment our next uh hand raised is reggie meister go ahead and press star six to unmute yourself and this is uh extra time hi can you hear me yes welcome all right thanks uh we as santa cruz cares have a number of questions about the city's homelessness response as well as the coming eviction of hundreds of people from the bench lands we request that you please address these during the council members discussion while we know that the council members questions are limited per the rules of mayor bruner we believe that the public has a right to know these answers we've also emailed these questions directly to city council and staff first we see that the public response for these two items is limited to 30 minutes we'd like to know why a topic of such significant consequences for those affected is only afforded half an hour we hope you'll reconsider and give these issues the time they deserve so a few questions we have from the report what exactly is the plan to be able to provide an alternative sheltering option to anyone in the park who wants it what wraparound services will be provided to people do people need to explicitly request shelter in order to have options provided has the city consulted with people on the ground about what they actually need where in the city and or county will there be shelter for 300 to 400 people um can the city provide photos of what the shelters or beds actually look like to the public will the city commit to providing um to publicizing the options of where people can relocate to what transparency will be provided after this eviction regarding how many people were sheltered as part of the city's efforts the city continues to close programs and evict residents at the armory only to announce new shelter also opening at the armory this feels like a shell game by the city even with a phased approach to increasing shelter capacity it is hard to see how there will be enough shelter beds for those who need them we also must ask what is the plan for people for whom the shelter options do not work such as those with physical disabilities history of trauma and people who have pets when people are displaced and threatened with arrest or citation if they don't accept limited shelter offerings that may not work for them people will seek more isolated locations in order to hide and survive which will directly increase the risk of fire some of our proposed suggestions and solutions are money toward mobile services showers bathrooms black and gray water pickup fighting space for agreement camps programming decisions that involve heavy input from people who live outside to ensure the program are what people actually need and will use coordination with local organizations and volunteers in the community that want to help a more impactful harm reduction strategy putting more money towards building public housing and rehabbing old motels which it sounds like you might be doing expanding housing programs that directly provide shelter we are very excited that the parking program's opening about the parking program's opening we applaud the city for signing a contract with a fc and the free guide um more of this please thank you for listening to our comment we look forward to your response thank you for your comment our next hand raised is also extra time serge cagno good afternoon again mayor and city council my name's serge cagno stepping up santa cruz relating to advocacy and resource referral i'm the co-chair of mental health advisory board was a contractor with the county for setting up the vets hall shelters in the ongoing training of staff my thanks for larry and his team's report and their work for our community's residents who live on the streets and in our shelters i'd also like to thank his team in their efforts to support an overlook resident with mobility issues for whom i advocate today i have four requests which incorporate both advocacy and service delivery the first regards data collection in some ways it relates to councilmember watkins question about relevant data and mayor bruner's comments now that the city has its own services at 12 20 the scpd parking lot and i believe lot four and has a voice in shelter contracts at the armory in the overlook as a member of the mental health advisory board i would ask that to ensure diversity inclusion in our services that data be collected in each of our programs which help fund which we help fund regarding two types of exit demographic data or behavioral demographic data which is not collected in hms for any of the programs in our county the first is a program residents told to leave a city run or city funded program which suggested data points could measure diversity for protected classes including race disabilities including mental health and substance use disorder diagnosis or from behaviors resulting from such second data point relates to incident data which does not result in the resident being exited to include demographics as well and the third data topic would relate to grievances including number of complaints in each of our programs the demographics and how they were resolved none of these data points are collected in hms my second request regards training and in some ways relates to councilmember browns were comments regarding making our programs more welcoming to those living on the streets and relates to councilmember mires and mayor bruners question of why do people choose or not choose to go into our shelters because participants often have significant trauma histories and may be more affected by staff skills and experience for the sake of transparency and ensuring quality service delivery i'd ask the city council to direct staff to report on the training given to those working in the shelters and the city's safe parking programs i would also ask the city council to please consider creating a shared training program between the city funded programs including the downtown streets team afc salvation army in the free grad such a program would have a shared calendar or monthly email to include any of these programs to invite city staff and the other city funded programs to invite us and city staff to participate in the training the cost would be minimal but the trainings the improved services the improved collaboration and referrals between programs and the outcomes for participants most likely would be significant a future report of training thank you for your time thank you for your comment our next hand raised is the name abbey samuels you can press star six can you hear me hi yes welcome thank you um i am calling um basically to talk about i probably could spend about three hours with facts that were said or supposed alternative facts that were said that are not true for instance i'll just give you a couple as mentioned um at 1220 river street the people miss meet with their case workers once a week that's not true it was mentioned um that people um let's see sorry i'm not feeling well people at 1220 were um are finding transitional housing and are being transitioned out um i've spoke to probably around 15 people there and no one knows of anyone who's received housing from there um uh someone just made a comment that someone's taking out the water out of the wash bins and instead of using the showers what showers i know there used to be some shower once a week on fridays or something like that so what showers are you speaking about but more than that i'd like to talk to you about um the trash this is uh something that has been going on for a while they take away the trash that the city's been picking up they did it highway one they did it at um many places at um can't can't think right now they did it at the at ross camp they did it at the upper san lorenzo park they did it at pogan up they did it sycamore grove and then you call it an emergency environmental hazard this is something that you have created and i've spoken to the contractors they are not the ones who have stopped going there or the staff ron peregano who used to do it over at highway one your time like you told them that you no longer want him to pick things up that was at highway one thank you thank you for your comments um our next it looks like it's a phone number our next member of the public it's phone number ending in 3599 and you can go ahead and press star six to unmute yourself hi can you hear me yes hi this is grant dentremont i am the general manager with hotel paradox i am here speaking as a private citizen uh you just muted uh it's press star six to unmute yourself all right how about that there we go okay um so again i'm grant dentremont i'm the general manager with the hotel paradox but i'm here as a private citizen um i work in a business that is largely affected by the benchlands encampment um you know second some of the thoughts that have been put out before council today there are multiple impacts to our area regarding criminal activity drug use um impacts to patrons of local businesses um and in particular our tourist community we are a tourist-based economy we thrive off of the tax dollars that are provided to us by the tourists who visit our local economy and one of our largest impacted areas in our downtown area due to the benchlands encampment um all that being said i want to applaud this council and i want to applaud larry and his team for what they have done uh i think it's incredible to see the work that has been going on over there and incredible to see the progress that has been made uh too often you guys are subjected to people calling in to complain about criminal activity complain about drug use complain about trash or services or lack of fairness to the homeless run house but uh what this city council has done and what the city has done in response to homelessness has been a monumental undertaking under very challenging circumstances as a business leader uh we want you to know that we support you um as a local employer we want you to know that we support you um as a private citizen we want you to know that we support you and we appreciate all that you're doing and we know it's not easy we recognize that um it's a very complicated issue and it requires a lot of thought and a lot of data uh but you guys have gone above thank you for your comment our next hand raised is mark wentzler go ahead and press star six to unmute yourself can you hear me yes welcome oh thank you so much um i'm glad i was able to make it i had to take a break from my training i'm uh i live and i own a condo and the vnwava condos on 180 dakota avenue and um i have been impacted by the encampment in the benchlands quite a bit over the last two years um i've lived there for over nine years and actually lived there for a few years in the past and in the last two years um you know there's just been a lot of people walking right inside of like my backyard and frequently we've had things stolen and um it's just been difficult i have a 10-year-old son and he's afraid to go to the park a lot of the time i have two adult sons with autism and frequently uh my we we bought the condo so that they would be able to walk because they aren't able to drive and so it's just difficult they uh frankly they don't even want to go in the park that being said i am really supportive of the city's plan i think they're being very thoughtful and strategic and trying to provide services for the people there as they close the encampment in the benchlands um my wife and i and some other members of our community have actually worked with parks and rec to do um sub park cleanups and support in whatever way we can and i just really want to get out there that it's been difficult but you know i really hope that that this plan is going to be effective and it's going to both help our park but also help the people living there over the last few months the encampment has clearly taken a term for the worst when it first started there was like clear you know tent spaces and whatnot and it wasn't too bad actually at our events we've had several of the people living there come and help us do cleanups with the tools provided by parks and rec so i definitely you know wish them well but i'm really ready for there to be a change and supportive of the city so i think that's all i got to say thank you so much thank you for your comment it looks like that uh concludes the public comment for item number 19 homelessness response update and so at this time i will bring it back to council for action and deliberation and council member calentari johnson you had your hand raised i wanted to clarify is the motion um separate for 19.1 and 19.2 or is it one motion i don't think there's a motion in 19.1 oh okay so i see just 19.2 so um i'll move 19.2 oh i mean to read them okay i'll read i'll move 19.2 benchlands closure and restoration budget adjustment and refuse disposal abatement and landscape remediation contract approval motion to adopt a resolution amending the fiscal year 2023 budget to transfer a million from safe sleeping hygiene bay project c 10 2205 to the benchlands restoration project c 10 2304 and authorize the city manager to execute an emergency procurement agreement in a form to be approved by the city attorney between the city of santa cruise and clean team associates in the amount of 280 000 to remove encampment debris in the san lorenzo park benchlands and then i have some comments okay we have a first by council member calentari johnson i'll go ahead and second and a second by vice mayor wattkins and um are there any other questions uh comments okay so go ahead with your comments and then council member meyers great um i want to thank um larry and lisa for your presentation today the whole entire homeless response team and all of city staff because i know it's it's not just one department not just a few staff it's across the board and it's been a very very heavy lift so thank you all for the hard work that you do every day to get us to where we are um i want to pull out one data that was brought up today and that's the 61 percent decrease in homelessness in transition age youth um in 2019 this age group made up a third of our unhoused population 30 percent in 2019 and we've seen a significant change in three years um let's move backwards in time 2017 our county was one in 10 across the nation to secure a very competitive um HUD grant we spent a year doing strategic planning to outline very specific strategies for this population 2019 we launched the implementation of these seven strategies that were outlined we were you know sidetracked by covid and fire but we kept working and here we are in 2022 with a 61 decrease this is young people under the age of 24 unaccompanied so that's a success in our community and that wasn't just the county it wasn't just the city it wasn't just nonprofits it was all of us together and I think it's important as we look towards all the work there is left to do because we did see a six percent increase and we did see 129 percent increase in chronic homelessness those are significant numbers and um we're not going to be able to solve a loan we don't have the capacity we don't have the resources we don't have the expertise as a city but we can look to some of the successes that we've seen um and I in that particular example there's investment there's collaboration there's partnership and then there's outcomes so and and it takes time I mean actually I think three years is pretty incredible not that much time but it takes time so I think I'll I mean I could keep talking about this for a long time um I've been really invested in the transition age group myself with my the work that I do um but I think as we continue to this work and it continues to be hard and we continue to question what we're doing and what our role is like let's look to some of these positive outcomes that we've seen in the community as a source of inspiration for us to um chip away do our piece continue to bring in county other jurisdictions this tape proposal the HUD grant that we got it brought in two other federal grants and two other state grants all within a year's time frame and we partnered with San Jose and we partnered with San Francisco so that's what it's going to take it's going to take regional state all of us together I'll just I'll just stop there but I'm I'm really really grateful for the work that's being done and I understand there's a lot more work to do to be done and and I'm here to support it thank you councilmember Callentary Johnson councilmember Myers just a quick couple of quick um final comments um the county did an assessment through a group called Focus Strategies which is a nationally recognized group and I wrote down this one sentence out of that report and it was published in 2019 and that sentence was funding functioning and the size of the homeless crisis response system are not at all are not at the scale or level of alignment and coordination needed to begin to reverse current trends so that was in 2019 and we look at what we have now which is a one-time um allocation from the state which is also I'm assuming helped really elevate Santa Cruz because we finally have told our story that per capita we have them one of the highest populations of homeless individuals in the state of California if not in the nation all of this is part of telling this story and reversing really reversing the current trends and that's really what we're focused on now adding to that over time we hope that those success models will begin to show themselves in the other populations of homeless individuals who unfortunately are here finding themselves here but also on the other side of it is really building out a system that has accountability for the individuals also who are becoming part of our investment right and I look at the 1220 River Street shelter I did go and visit that and you know it's it's a functional system where we're getting contact with folks folks are able to go to work they feel safe they're able to participate within that camp environment for positive outcomes there on the property they have their kids there they have their pets there they have their belongings there and so little by little we're gonna have to build out these various options for people because frankly our population is something that most cities would be struggling with and probably would have given up on and we were sort of giving up we were just moving people around hoping that maybe they would eventually leave town they don't but I also will say along with that accountability is that we build this trust and we build this network of care and we build this network of of really getting people access to the things that they need and hopefully we'll take advantage of I really appreciated the commentators about the compliments of our staff and the recognition of what we're doing for those businesses and homeowners right in that immediate area in the benchlands we were failing tremendously in 2020 there was we were we were not managing another camp got started the county pulled out there was really no activity going on and on on there and then we called a meeting with state leaders and we we told our story and we continue to work with the state and we brought resources to Santa Cruz now I think the public would all like for us to be spending our limited resources in a lot of different ways right now but right now this is an acute issue that needs attention and it needs purposeful and well-designed systems change and that's what our staff is working on so we should be proud of that and not doubt ourselves but of course these investments will go on for a while hopefully we'll gain investment mostly from state and federal sources and not have to use our own resources but if we don't turn back and and sort of address this issue it will continue to grow here in Santa Cruz and we will not really be able to succeed but it will take probably close to a decade for all of this to sort its way out and this is a disinvestment in society that we did not create this are disinvestments that are now coming to light here and in unfortunately in individuals and their success in life or non-success and their struggles with behavioral health and mental health and addiction everything else that's rolled in as well as domestic violence so it's a super complicated issue I am very very pleased with the report today there's more work to do and I agree with the callers and some of the letters we've got today the Benchlands is a place that belongs to our community it doesn't belong to what's going on down there now it's not acceptable to me that it's an open-air drug market that in my visit there people basically were short of just sort of you know I won't say it but really disinterested in committing or contributing to anything to our community down there really very much so looking at that as a place that they had to take a stand so if you want to pitch in you want to do good by us you want to help share our resources then we can we can lend a hand but when you're treating a piece of property that is a public park in the some of the lowest income neighborhoods in sienna cruise next to seniors and people who need to transit through that area we need that park back for our community anyone's welcome to spend the day there and use it reasonably but right now that is not what is happening so I agree let's get that park closed I know it's going to take some time but let's keep moving let's not kind of divulge back into debating about what's happening we're housing people we're feeding people we're keep taking care of some of the most needed people in the community right now let's keep doing that but also let's always remember that there is a level of accountability that is perfectly reasonable for a small city like us to ask of anyone who is who is participating in our programs and I just never want to lose track of that particular piece of what we're trying to do as well so thank you to the staff thanks ma'am thank you before I move on to the next council member was brought to my attention that we do have a hand came up that was one of the groups so they came up a little late but I'm going to let them speak they were allowed extra time uh phone number ending in 4844 um go ahead and press star six to unmute yourself can you hear me yes welcome thank you for taking the time sonia um okay well we've heard suggestions of augmented vouchers we've heard suggestions of tandem elsewhere there can be secret discussions but not with the real clients we can have a council member wander through the council through the uh the bench lands an attempt to uh have any attempt really been made to talk to the people who live there about what's going on I haven't heard much of that in this discussion the council has shown its real colors this is about enforcement of ordinances so you can first of course declare the bench lands but then to enforce ordinances and doing so in ways that you will not be held accountable legally for essentially disrupting people's lives um by the way please don't ding me until it's three minutes I've noticed you've been a little premature in that all right that can happen I guess I tend to agree with Reggie's questions which I haven't heard anyone answer really I'm glad that neighbors did show up at this meeting uh the meeting that's again going to be happening at the resource center for non-violence on successive Mondays the next one is the 29th at six o'clock I think the community needs to come and talk about real solutions because the council is not the council is relying upon simply uh sort of these claims about what's going to be done with no clarity about where the places are that people are going to go how many people need to go there those basic questions are not being asked so it's nicely phrased and phased that's part of the rhetoric that's being used the real problem here is a false narrative the the false narrative that you have is somehow the belief that you're dealing with people who aren't people that these are uh these are skunks punks and drunks these are uh crazies and bums and what you have are people who are desperately living together in a situation where they have created their own community as best they can you are now about to disperse it and you're not providing any real alternatives for the entire group much less homeless people in the in the broader community until you have that power and you have the power actually until you have that determination and you're willing to devote that kind of funding even for alternate camps then you can't do this legally and fairly but I would encourage people interested in finding real solutions to come on monday night 612 ocean street resource center for non-violence that includes critics that includes people who who don't uh who don't agree with me or with the other speakers who feel there should be basic rights allowed folks and basic services allowed before you destroy the services that they exist and thank you for giving me time thank you for your comment that concludes public comment and I will bring it back to council I think there were several questions brought up by some of the callers and I hope that we can have staff go back and listen to the video and try and get some of those questions answered and available on the homelessness website or accessible somehow for folks to get their questions answered to have that available there was questions about showing what the shelters look like maybe a couple photos if that's possible I took notes about are we accommodating people with disabilities and their pets and from the last meeting my understanding is yes so really kind of calling that out and I think in any future updates that would be helpful uh money towards mobile services and showers gray water dumping which I understand is happening up at the national guard armory location where the tier three safe parking is and anywhere else that that service those types of services are offered building more housing and rehabbing hotels that was also brought up and briefly mentioned through our planning and community development director and our economic development team working on that aspect of housing and having housing updates and future updates as part of these updates there was also recommendations on data collection and incident data grievance and data I think all of those are great points to consider so I hope that as we step into these efforts that we continue to work on improving and doing what we can thank you for all the work every day thus far I know it's been a tremendous tremendous load and it's been a huge team effort and I hope we can continue working with our partners and county staff to continue making progress and really addressing the successes there were there was a caller who said that they didn't they spoke to 15 folks at 1220 river street and nobody knew of anybody who transitioned out of housing so how can we do a better job really um talking about those successes because my understanding is there are people who have transitioned and have received employment and those obstacles removed whatever someone's barrier is is definitely a success to even if it's one person that's one person last so um I will hand it over to council member brown I know you've had your hand up and then council member Cummings thank you thank you mayor um I am I find myself in a pretty cynical place right now um with respect to this item and I could make a big speech about um the concerns I have and why support other ways of um approaching this but I'm not going to do that I just want to really paraphrase where my concerns continue to lie as I explain that I'm I'm afraid this is not going to be a unanimous vote in support of this today I'm just at a point where I feel like we are we are it it's not clear to me that we aren't repeating what we have already done and I and I say that with all due respect and and recognition of the tremendous amount of effort you all are putting in I do not mean to say that I don't have confidence in you um but I I have very very significant concerns about the overall approach that this body has taken um and I have concerns about the um what I see is you know for me and it's a matter of perspective so you can disagree but this is my perspective and I share it with I think a lot of people in the community who have spoken with me over the years on all sides of this issue whether or not they um you know or believe that enforcement is important and the way to deal with this or compassionate approaches and resistance all the way to resistance it's across the board that people feel like for all of our efforts we're not making progress and um and so I'm just going to talk about the the areas that I see here and just a very high level and I'm sorry if this offends people um but I have to say it um one I what I see and and again lots of work going on but what I see is that the city has been thus far successful in building out a bureaucracy around um how to address this issue um and not actually providing services um I know that's coming um or you know and it kind of fits and starts and there's a lot of challenges associated with that I'm not placing blame any on anyone or any group at all here I'm just saying this is where we're at um we have or we're building out a bureaucracy where that's gonna cost a significant amount of money um and um I would like for that to be an effective and efficacious out of costs data I feel um I recognize everybody loves data I'm a social scientist who you know got a degree based on you know having to do really rigorous data collection and analysis I understand the significance and importance of it um but I feel like in in some ways at least based upon my own experience the conversations I'm having um it sort of feels like data is the end goal in itself and not what we're gonna do with the data so some of the things that I heard surge uh talking about earlier um to me that's data that can be really useful um you know a lot of people are are terrified of ending up in you know on the radar and that's not just because they're um you know uh it's not because they don't want to comply with some norms that everybody you know that that we all are able to comply with it's because they have legitimate challenges um that aren't getting and their needs are not getting met um I worry about um the risk of dispersing you know dispersing people we know we've been through that many a time we know what happens right and I don't want to see that happen I don't want people I mean I I get it that we need to do something and that there is an impact on that um San Lorenzo Park and the benchlands and people are struggling and quality of life for people in the neighborhood is a concern of mine and we're gonna have um people we're just gonna hear it from all sides you know you've done this before how is it different I want to see it be different and I don't see that in what we're getting in terms of updates and then the last thing I'll say is I believe what I would really like to see and I'm not even going to attempt to make a motion about it because I just know way this is going anywhere but we talk a lot we talk about accountability and you know measurement and metrics we gotta we gotta surveil the individuals in these programs um we are not applying the same standards of accountability to ourselves and until we do that I'm gonna remain pretty skeptical um and so that was a little longer than I intended I'm sorry but I just wanted to lay out the my rationale and I'm I'm not doing this to be combative I'm not suggesting um you know we need to um blow it all up and and do something different but I just feel like there's a lot more that needs to be done um internally and in our conversations with the community that's all I got for now thank you council member Brown council member Cummings and then vice mayor Watkins thank you and I want to thank the staff for their work on this I have a couple things to say but then I want to get to I have a couple more kind of questions and some some um questions I want to get to um you know since my time on the council there's been a number of different ways that we've tried to approach this issue some of what is being implemented now as even mentioned back in 2019 around um having less managed and low barrier barrier um transitional encampments um we did a lot of work during 2020 up standing up um hand washing stations port of potties we stood up multiple um you know vfw hall locations multiple encampments the armory there's been a lot of work over the years 12 20 river street and we and I want to appreciate everything that's been done because I think we've been able to see different types of models how they work with their limitations and now we're moving forward with um you know hopefully some longer term services will be offered by the city um I do want to share that some of what I've heard over the years um like because we see these large encampments that pop up and we do hear about some of the negatives but one of the positives I will say is that I had people who were saying you know when the Ross camp was open although it had impacts throughout other parts of the city we didn't see those impacts we didn't feel them and right now it's similar I know that there's the neighborhoods that are adjacent to the benchlands are feeling impacts I know that it's having impacts on our river but one thing that people are saying is that but we're not seeing as much camping being distributed throughout the entire city and um you know there's the high likelihood that we're going to see that when the benchlands is closed and so my hope is that we can just continue working on finding places where people can go and in addition to that you know really starting address these issues around the cost of living I mean we are the second most expensive county in the United States and in 2017 we were labeled as the fourth most expensive city in the world when you looked at median home price to median income and um you know we have staff that are ready to go on strike and um you know we don't see any relief in terms of the cost of housing we're doing a lot to address affordable housing and that's going to come up later today but you know the fact that we have 129 increase 29 percent increase and chronically homeless um since 2019 that's something that's very concerning because although we're making big steps we're also saying people who are on the streets for longer periods of time um so that's kind of what I wanted to state around like the situation of homelessness and my hope that we can try to address some of these issues um but I did want to get to something that's a little bit more substantive substantive about um the the um the proposal that's here before us so I do want to just express my uh similarly my concerns that Mayor Brunner brought up I think that when these um reports come forward it would be really good for us to have tables on if we're going to shift allocations of funding where that money goes because just sitting here today I was very confused about the hygiene bay I actually thought that we were reducing our funding towards that project but like after really hearing from staff and having this conversation it it makes sense to me now that you know there was the um there was the ARPA funds 1.9 million was allocated towards a hygiene bay from that source of funding but then there's also 1.7 million from the state of california funds and now we've reached a contract at 1 up 1,359,860 that's going to go towards that project and in the report it listed that that you know this is 540,140 under the projected cost for that work and then from that source of funding um which was the ARPA funds another 76,935 um dollars has been allocated towards um the infrastructure costs associated with public works homeless response field division what that means is that there's 463,205 dollars from that pool that isn't allocated additionally um since there were two pools of funding for that 1.7 million from the california state funds has now been freed up and today the decision we're making is taking a million dollars of that and shifting it to the park's restoration but what that means is that there's another 700,000 dollars that is completely unaccounted for and so um so that means between the two sources of funding there's about 1,163,205 dollars it's kind of sitting out there that's not being accounted for and so um so that's why it would help if we had these these tables because then you know when we're in these situations where there's more money available we can start having those conversations around how we're going to spend that money and it can be clear to the community that there is now actually more money available for us to use on this and so um I wanted to make um a friendly amendment um or it could be an amendment but that you know given that there's over a million dollars left toward that that could be allocated to which other things that we bring back an item to consider the reallocation of the remaining arpa and california state funds initially allocated for the hygiene bay for service that include but are not limited to a vehicle for downtown outreach workers, ADA accessible transport van, winter warming center, ongoing parks cleanup, cost study for the implementation of a 24-7 non-law enforcement response, non-law enforcement alternative emergency crisis response, pilot program I know later than the second meeting in october and again these are these are items that have come up before us um we've spoken with our downtown outreach workers and they've said we're more than happy to transport someone downtown to one of these facilities but I'm not going to use my personal vehicle um we've heard from surge and other people called in saying that the Salvation Army doesn't have an ADA accessible van to transport people from the downtown or anywhere in the community up to the armory um we've heard recently I've heard a communication that Brent Adams is potentially not going to continue his services with the storage program in the winter warming and I don't know if anybody is going to step up to do that work but that's something um that we really need to have when the temperature gets below 35 degrees um the park's cleanup is going to be an issue because as we know if we're going to displace some people from the Benchlands they're going to be going to other places likely into the Poganup and funding to help with that cleanup is going to be something that we might want to consider. There's been discussion about 24-7 non-law enforcement crisis response and if we want to move forward with that we should it was recommended back in 2020 we do some kind of pilot study to understand what those costs would be and I know there's other um you know considerations by city staff on how that one point one point one roughly million dollars could be spent and so you know since it's unclear in these proposals where that um additional money is going to go I think that'd be good that we have something come back so we can direct where that money can be spent on these types of services. Second yeah uh I just wanted you threw a lot of numbers out and without looking at it on on um in front of me does staff have have any without going too deep into this right now do you have any comment on those figures and has this been a discussion with the funding already on the staff level is there an additional one point one million um um I'll take a first crack at that I'll take a first crack at that if I if I can I'm air burner and I appreciate the comments uh councilmember Cummings um first and foremost uh both the ARPA funding as well as the 14 million has been iterative as we respond to shifting needs and opportunities and project cost comes into focus we've had savings in some areas um and we've had some areas as we've seen today that have uh exceeded our original estimates and so I understand and appreciate the request for us to bring some clear tables that would allow us to illustrate that and full transparency for the council in the community and we will certainly do that going forward I am in the process of working with Elizabeth Cabell our new finance director to update all the ARPA numbers as well as our long-term forecast and so the council can have a good understanding of where that's all pacing including these ongoing updates that I anticipate we will continue to make to the 14 million as we as we move through this process and we of course want to strive to do that in as clear and transparent a way as possible um with regards to the motion there's a lot to unpack there so there's there's several moving parts some of which I'm sure Larry and Lisa can speak to um as far as the vehicles is concerned we actually have two vans that are already on order and in the pipeline for purposes of assisting with outreach and transportation uh Larry and the homelessness response team have been working through creative solutions to providing for ADA transportation um as based on the current needs of the population we're serving that that work is also already underway um this week or excuse me last week we had a meeting with a consultant that has worked with another number of other communities to stand up 24 7 mobile crisis response units um Petaluma Santa Rosa has been a couple of successful examples and we do plan on engaging him to help us with a feasibility study to bring a pilot forward we think Santa Cruz is an ideal fit for the model that they've successfully rolled out in other communities and that is something we're currently working on we won't have that ready by October that's something we would likely bring forward after the new year um as the team has mentioned today the bench lens restoration and standing up shelter are our most immediate urgent priorities and that's that's why we've brought forward the budget recommendations you have in front of in front of you today so those are just my initial thoughts sorry that's so long winded but Larry and Lisa may have some additional well I was just gonna say we have our eyes on trying to provide additional shelters uh that we don't have identified in the budget additional transitional shelters similar to 12 20 that we don't have identified funding so those those needs as the city manager identified are emerging and we're seeing where we need them and that's I think I've spent the money 10 times over but having said that do you have anything else to add to the the shelter piece no I mean I think Matt and Lisa spoke to really the dynamic nature and some of the other plans and sort of what's in place but certainly we can we can come back with the detailed information about what those moving pieces are so that you can see it in future updates I think it's the other one thing I would add is I think just I think Matt addressed it a little bit but specifically around you know an additional cost was the contract for Salvation Army we utilized 1.3 that was for housing matters expansion because the county is going to fund operations uh the cost differential for that program was a little bit more I think it was detailed in the roots of the staff report for that contract so I want to say there was about a potential $400,000 difference depending on whether they fully expanded that contract so that's another little bit of a dynamic piece that where these services are over budgeted for what was originally in the plan so accounting for all those pieces is important but we can report back one just last comment on the RFI because you specifically asked about additional availability and programming of those funds those decisions will come back to you all and we we intend to do so in a way that also gives you an update on fun funding spent to date and so that's those are conversations of both Laura our assistant city manager as well as our finance director are currently working on so again as Larry pointed out this is a been somewhat dynamic I understand that the need to want to get a firm understanding as to where those numbers are and we will be bringing those back as there's opportunities to reprogram funding that may that may come available and I really just bring this up because you know in the absence of having that table where we can see what money is still available and if there is money that's still available and there's an explanation to the council that you know we do want to acknowledge that there's this leftover money and we're considering you know putting it towards x y and z that's helpful because in the absence of that you know I'm looking at what's what's on you know what's in our report and it's like well there's over a million dollars just floating out there and we have no idea how it's being being used and so I think you know personally for the purposes of transparency that's really what this is trying to get at especially since there's been concerns raised over these types of items and there's been interest expressed by city staff and wanting to you know explore these kinds of options around you know vans and and vehicles for outreach workers but then you know unless like this is the first time I've heard that oh that's being worked on and this is our opportunity to hear about homelessness response of what's happening around that today and so for me it's if I'm not hearing this information then it makes me want to say oh if there's money left over and we've heard that there's interest in these items you know let's bring back an opportunity for us to discuss this so that's that's the intention of the motion and I don't you know if we want to I mean that's why I also said including but not limited to because if a report comes back and it's like we're working on this we're working on this we have these other funds we need to set aside some buffer that's something we can make a decision on but in the absence of having that this report I think many people would be concerned with there's a million dollars out there and we don't know what's happening with it yeah I agree I think in the next update that we need to give you a full financial update on on all the various projects the fundings the sources and you may recall back when you did program those funds and it was this really comprehensive table and it said where it was funding and what year the funding ran out and it's really time to bring that back to really make sure that we all acknowledge that these are limited funds and this is when these fundings for some of these things that we would like to be ongoing but there isn't the funding for it so I think a full amount of report back with a lot of time spent on it I think is really important it might be also good to include funding applied for as as another column I'm visualizing columns I see it too I like tables um does that does anything change with your motion I guess when is this coming like when is the schedule to come back to council in terms of the next quarterly next quarterly would be on track either for late November early December it comes back with that that'd be amenable because I think that these are questions that we all want to have answered and if we're going to get an update on kind of where we are financially we've also heard that you know there might be new options for transportation there's obviously some discussion about 24-7 crisis response and if we can just get an update on like if we're going to do a pilot study not even the pilot program like just the study itself how much does that cost and because these funds can go towards these types of things that we've been hearing for years the community is interested in and so and if there's other things like let's let's hear about it but so council member Cummings we could certainly cover all of that in the next quarterly update I would caution about some of the specifics that are being that must be included because many of these have been budgeted for and included in the budget already but I hear I hear the request for getting a fuller understanding around where those opportunities may be what funding's been spent to date what changes have been made along the way and we could certainly bring a more comprehensive discussion around that at the next quarterly update did you have a question I just wanted to add the county is doing a pilot crisis response so let's talk to them coordinate with them see what they're doing get information from them as we're exploring this as well so okay sorry I just have one comment too is that it was a community member came up to council member Watkins and Cummings and I after a safety event at the Civic and he had mentioned that the city of Petaluma and Ronard Park had set up a system like this that was separate from the county and so out of curiosity I met with partners up in Petaluma during the break and so did chief Escalante and then the two of us met with Matt and gave the information that we got from them on how they were able to stand it up in about six months without the county and so we have different situations here but the first step was talking to this consultant and so right away I just want to acknowledge like Matt was on it Matt was already ready to start that work and so this was I don't know a couple weeks ago so I'm just super excited I know the full council would probably be on board with something like that but so I just want to say thanks to Matt for you know getting that ball rolling on our behalf in the community all right well we have would you still have a motion on the floor I'll just change the the date to coincide with the next quarterly update sorry yeah well yeah there's there's a friendly amendment is the friendly amendment yes yeah maybe available is the point to get an updated budget table or is it to basically say that we're going to pay for all these things I'm confused now it is not it's not to say that we're going to pay for these things okay it's really to put me back with that updated table and right okay and if they had like for example if there's already you know alternatives for ADA transportation if that's already in the works then we can see what that costs and okay that's great you know but um yeah this is just to get information on you know costs for these services or anything else um where this remaining kind of 1.1 million dollars could go so that we're being you know transparent up front with where this money is going to get spent and if it doesn't go to these things that's fine but if I think it's good that we're understanding where it's going to go and and just just for clarification the 1.1 million we don't even have that definite amount I'm understanding there have been shifts so if I'm if I may the um so we just heard today that the the 1.7 million that was allocated towards the hygiene bay from the california state funds we're not going to use for that and so we just shifted um 1 million of that to the parks cleanup which leaves 700 thousand dollars unaccounted for and then similarly for the arpa funds we had 1.9 million from the american rescue plan allocated towards the hygiene bay we're spending roughly 1.3 on that on the hygiene bay which is the final contract and then of the remaining roughly 500,000 540,000 we took roughly 77,000 and allocated that towards the public works homeless response field division and so what's remaining there is about 463,000 so that's that's where these numbers are coming from Mary if I may yes um in in terms of the language in the motion bonnie do you mind putting it back up for a second because I think it reads a little bit confusing if you were to potentially um instead of direct staff to bring back an item I think direct staff to um to at the next quarterly update to bring back considerations for their reallocation I think that reads more accurately yeah in which case I'm happy to as the seconder to agree and then just one note um yeah I think that that provides some clarity and then maybe we can add before you say that is that the change you made and bring it next and I don't even if it needs to be an item just consideration as part of the presentation I guess maybe a consideration delete an item yeah it's an item right delete that I think it's what she's saying I don't know if I think we're for all on the same page I guess it doesn't really matter but I wasn't thinking of it as a separate item I was thinking as an integrated component of the update for consideration and I'm sure we'll have more to include in there such as the restoration yeah I didn't even budget the you know the little a drop in the bucket for the actual restoration of the projects I don't have that information but my eyes are on what was remaining to just go towards that as well does that um still fit with your emotion and tension is not limited to okay yeah so um is the maker of the motion uh that was councilmember calentary johnson and seconded by vice mayor Watkins fine with this I do have a question about warming center um and just our rfp process we've had an rfp process for the spectrum of services that we'd like in our community um was the warming center part of that rfp process should it have been there was not a response submitted through that rfp process for that type of program okay so not as part of the motion but I think let's work with our community organizations that are doing these services to encourage them to go through the process that we've set up which is the rfp process so um but I'm good with emotion and the seconder as well I am too okay and I just have a few brief comments okay I know that we're over time so I'll keep them really short but I just I want to thank again the staff for the work and I want to thank the conversation and I think having been on the council now I've seen um with really well-intentioned reports and recommendations and summaries and ad hoc committees formed to really look at how we can continue to make progress with this really complex issue and um over the past year and a half or so I think we've really seen action and it's to councilmember calentary johnson's point it's not perfect but it's progress and we have to keep moving and it takes time and so I just I hold hope that moving forward we can continue to make progress not only for those who are unhoused in our community but for the surrounding area and I talk to parents who go to school with our kids that have kids that can't access that park and we heard from neighbors there too so it's more than just those living there it's all of the those impacted and then frankly I think having any um unmanaged encampment is is not the way to go one but two to have it right next to our river when we're seeing thousand-year floods all of a sudden occur because of climate change is a complete liability for so many lives so there it's not perfect but it's progress and I think we have to remember that as we make these decisions and we're we're seeing that and we're seeing the investment we're seeing people do the work so in the interest of time I'll keep my comments there and I'm happy to support motion and continue moving in this direction thank you mayor thank you vice mayor Watkins all right I think uh that concludes our comments and we're ready for a roll call vote this is on agenda item 19 homelessness response update member co-entry johnson aye boulder aye coming aye brown no liars aye vice mayor Watkins aye and mayor brood aye that motion passes with councilmember brown one no and six yes thank you we have one more item before uh oral communications and a break so our next item is item number 20 revised fiscal impact report for the empty home tax initiative petition for members of the community who would like to comment on this item now would be the time to call in using the instructions on your screen the order will be a presentation of the item by staff followed by questions from the council and then we will take public comment and return to council for deliberation and action if you are joining us here in person if you'd like to comment on item number 20 revised fiscal impact report for the empty home tax initiative petition you can line up here on the right of the dais and sign in at the podium so at this time I would like to welcome presenter Marisol assistant director of finance thank you good afternoon mayor members of the council and members of the public it's my pleasure to be back here with you today to present the update to the empty homes tax fiscal analysis let me go ahead and share my screen you see the power point okay all right just want to make sure you guys can see the power yes we can thank you okay thank you so an agenda of the presentation would be just some background on empty homes tax the recap of council and public concerns and a revised fiscal impact report so what is the empty homes tax parcel tax on vacant homes vacant means less than 120 days per year in youth and revenue use is affordable affordable housing initiatives this is a citizen based initiative some of the concerns in the public comment from the previous meeting and also emails that we have that we have received and reviewed some of the concerns are start-up costs website costs legal costs committee costs use of the SMU utility data revenue estimation data collection so we'll try to address these concerns and recap here in the power point and we also have them addressed in the attached agenda report so starting off with it start-up and website costs I know there was a lot of comparison between what we have listed and what was listed in the Oakland fiscal impact for their measure in talking with consultants of the the city of Oakland the consultants that do the work for the city of Oakland for their vacant tax the estimate that was on their fiscal and impact for start-up cost was 100,000 and and talking with the consultants the actual costs were more like 800,000 50,000 what Oakland had to do was fill the custom a custom database and web portal for for their customers so those estimates and comparison were just underestimated as you know this was the new tax and that was the best estimate they had at that point in time and speaking with our IT team I know there was a lot of concerns about having costs in there for for you know start-up cost website costs related to if this measure was to pass related to the empty home tax initiative after talking with our IT department they for saying that the you know the estimates that we have seemed fair and that they would caution that if if this measure is passed and we do move forward with it that it just depends on what's available if we might require a new database or for this data set a skill license virtual server and of course additional staff time from them and that's in the attachments as well shows the the hours there you know in our RT team there we have a lot of professionals that work for us and our IT directors fabulous so they walked us through the process of you know anything new they have a system their process for implementing anything includes steps in the process and they work with all stakeholders to prepare design build test the point the same these changes for litigation costs I know there was some concern about having some litigation costs in the start-up section so litigation costs are difficult to predict and after reviewing with city staff we agreed to keep this estimate in um even with successful litigation with our legal counsel will incur cost by the city and there is other costs involved in and not just an issue over the ordinance but also about protest and expansion and small claims for tax collection and unpaid taxes for committee costs I did do some research and that with the SCRTC measure D tax payer oversight committee administrators and we did scale back some of the um some of the hours that we put towards meetings in the new estimate you'll see three to four regular committee meetings per year and estimating one to two community meetings per year and we did uh separate the cost for regular and community meetings out in our attachment um for the for the cost so that way you can see which one is allocated for which type of meeting um just just to note that the measure D oversight committee they have a five member committee and the empty home tax is staying up to nine members so also to note the measure D committee they they meet twice a year for a minimum of two hours and they're slated to meet three but they've normally met two so far since they they started so they have some fluctuation there as well which is why we've provided an estimate for three to four meetings and next slide we're just talking about the revenue estimates there was some concern about the revenue estimates we saw concerns on both sides either the estimates were high or the estimates were low I did speak with the county they had done some preliminary analysis for a similar tax measure they decided to not bring it forward this year but in talking with them and how they sort of broke down the analysis we saw that are a range that we use for the estimate and also the exemption range seemed in line with what what they had used for some of their calculations if it's not all the same but in meeting with them and getting an outside view on on how better to estimate this they felt like it was a fair estimate so for the thank yous municipal utilities data some of the concerns more that you know that we could utilize this data in order to provide a better a better idea of vacant property so right now as we had discussed before we know that consumption data is private and in speaking with our FEMU department you know they warned us that zero consumption does not indicate they can see there's a slew of things that could be happening you have stuff meters or meter that are not reading right you have closed and open meter because of closed and open accounts and also just to know that they have a meter project that will be finalized next year and so you know these are things in our estimate currently you know we use based on the information we have and then down the road if this measure does move forward there could be a possibility of utilizing some form but we don't know at this time so this is the declaration process that was also a concern from some of the public during the last meeting just saying that if we left it up to to property owners to property owners to declare their vacancy status but we just wanted to make it clear from how the ordinance how the proposed ordinance is written that this is what the declaration process was property owner must declare vacancy status fee for 15 also going back to fiscal year 24 25 would be the the first year this would be implemented for the for the full for the prior full calendar year owner exemptions would be verified by the city and the city may audit properties annually so as mentioned throughout the proposed measure the final process for for doing these items is up to the city so right now these are just estimates allocated in the fiscal impact report from what we have and then if this measure goes forward the city will address the best way to to satisfy all the processes of the ordinance so here we have the summary of changes of cost changes this first column here is the June 28th original estimate and then the revised estimate and also this is listed in the agenda report more descriptions on the section you can see that the total start-up cost we did reduce after looking at some of the sections there and then total ongoing committee as mentioned we did reduce by the number of by some of the the information there and by reducing the the number of committee meetings and what's tied to that some legal costs there were reduced the total ongoing administrative this did increase because we added in a key element of administrative cost that wasn't included prior and that was actually coming from the housing and economic development department of project management once these funds are assigned a purpose to manage that project going forward so that wasn't included previously and so we added that as well and so when we're looking at total first year what we did here is just clarify what what that should mean so start-up costs plus half of the ongoing half of the administrative as we know in any start-up year it's not going to be a full full ongoing cost there's we're ramping up in that first year so that's um that's the comparison there between this new estimate in the last and then total ongoing would be these two total going forward again the estimates in the fiscal impact reports are our just estimates put forward if the measure is passed the city will will address the actual processes and what's used for for addressing the vacant lots and then the processes of who would be working on what so I just wanted to add as well that we knew that within the measure administrative costs are capped at 15 percent of revenue and so for the range that we estimated 2.5 to 4 million in revenue that would be between 375 thousand and 500 thousand so our estimate estimate of ongoing administrative below the 15 percent at this point and that's the presentation so thank you for your time thank you okay thank you for the presentation and the updated estimate and analysis on those costs I would like to bring back questions to the council if anybody has any questions on those updates for a mighty soul council member brown I do have a couple of questions and I may have more depending on what I hear in response but I guess I um well I'll say I'm glad to have received the revised report and really appreciate the work that you all that staff has invested Marisol thank you for trying to get doing your best to get a handle on a an approach that has some some pretty significant unknowns but I guess I'm I'm I'm still feeling like the administrative cost projections make assumptions that it's not clear to me why those assumptions are being made so for example um what what when you decided four meetings to cost out um uh and at on admin what do you anticipate happening at those meetings I mean measured the measure decommissioning meets twice a year over a much more complex uh administrative you know well not the collection system per se but I'm certainly on how those funds are spent and a significantly higher um revenue stream and so I guess I'm and and they somehow managed to do it in one or two meetings and so I guess I'm just wondering what you anticipate would be happening and why we those so many meetings would have to happen um for one and then um another question I have is related it's it may be more of a question for Tony um but I'll I'll wait to hear uh a response on that thanks thank you so I know um as the proposed measure is written currently that the commission uh the committee could have some proposed changes to policy and ordinance and in regards to um land use and things of that nature and so in speaking with uh the planning department it felt that some of those changes if they were to come about may require additional follow-up meetings but that was one of the reasons the other reasons is because this is um a new tax measure uh we is we did make the assumption that we're going to be meeting um more often the first few years until we get this under our belt and and things sort of um have a normal um you know fluctuation to them or less of a fluctuation to what we need to need about originally so that's also something to take into account the the estimates and the fiscal impact are not um like overrifies your stand let's say we're just talking about the startup in the first year and um you know possibly these uh could be reduced um as we know exactly what we're getting into okay um so just as a follow-up then um I'm I'm not sure how much of a cost was allocated to the potential for the planning department being involved in some of this um and how much of the additional was would be attributed to economic development because I didn't see those breakdowns and I don't want to micro manage or scrutinize um but it it does seem like a lot of money um or something that may or may not happen and I guess that gets me to my um a clarifying question that I think um Cindy Dawson from the empty home tax campaign was trying to get resolved through your office Tony and I have um like threads of emails and I tried to pull out what I thought was relevant here um so so our understanding is that when we wrote this the scope of work for this oversight committee was defined as meeting once per year publishing an annual report and reviewing financial and operational reports produced by staff um and that some other things may occur um and um having had a conversation recently with a reporter who seemed bound and determined to envision and lay out uh the the you know a very aggressive scenario for this committee um where they're meeting all the time demanding staff time and you know I mean it there's there's nothing in this that says the staff has to over has to administer um meetings on demand for a committee um and there's nothing in here that so even if a committee was formed and wanted to talk about some of those things there's nothing that guarantees them staff support for that um and um and so I guess um and it's it just keeps you know it keeps sounding like well the language isn't clear or the language um I think the what the reporter told me was you've got a big giant loophole in here and um and so I know there was some additional communication about um the ability of the city to the city council making clarifying that and um and if that's the case is that something that we can do here because I just feel like it's a do that here this evening I mean not here this evening but can the city council do it can can we do that yes and then in I believe that you were copied on my correspondence with Ms Dawson there's a provision in the empty homes tax that allows the city council to amend the ordinance and I want to get it correct so I'm just gonna read it um says the ordinance may only be amended by a vote of the people if the amendment would result in the special tax being imposed extended increased uh decreased imposed extended decreased or increased in a manner not authorized by the ordinance but the city council is authorized to amend chapter 338 in a manner that that does not increase or decrease the tax rates or otherwise constitute a tax increase so as written there may be argument about the scope of the authority of the of the committee but the council could if it passes curb that by ordinance so and that would have to happen after it was yes adopted okay I just wanted to make sure and and that I didn't I wasn't totally clear about but I'll confess that occasionally ask a question for the benefit of the public when I already know the answer because I feel like this is a really important one so I wasn't aware and I just wanted to make sure it was a very clear for everybody I wasn't trying to put you on the spot about that but I understand I was just most happy to answer any other questions you might have okay um so I'll I think I'll leave it there for now um I do have a few comments that I'll save for later and mayor if I could um I could respond to one of the questions that council member Brown mentioned um you had asked the council member right about the specific time um that was allocated to the planning and housing community development or uh economic development staff and um we um there is a table at the back of the um report that has the specific number of hours that is that that are identified um and so um so the last it's the last page of the report and that has the the hours broken down and then um there was um in terms of the um need to support the committee um part of that was you know the need to dedicate staff hours towards that committee if they chose to pursue things like um policy options related to affordable housing there's a provision in the um the measure that says um this is let me get the section number for you 3.38.70 uh I it says the city manager or designate shall provide clerical assistance administrative support and technical assistance to the committee and shall be present at the committee meetings and so when we were having those conversations with finance about um would there be support provided to the committee um if there are um technical questions related to affordable housing and development issues we um uh look to that provision to say that both um the planning department and planning community development department and the economic development and housing department would both be providing that support and in some instances both be attending um those meetings and so that's where um I just wanted to to respond directly to some of those comments about um some of the assumptions that went in notwithstanding the issues that you mentioned about the council being and future councils being able to shift those just wanted to provide a little bit more context thank you I appreciate that um if I could just get um because I and I appreciate you mentioning that we do have access to that information it it passed me by and so I'm just wondering you said it's on the last page um and I'm scanning the line items there's 58 here do you have anything happen to know sorry I was just looking at the um it's the revised impact report so um it's it's what's posted with the packet here and that's one of page one of six or excuse me page six of six right there's a table that that's a big table on page six and so I'm just wondering which line item I'm just trying I can't find the planning cost versus economic development cost because now I do want to know now I'm curious yeah yeah sorry so um if you look it's actually um in line items 36 has the community meetings and then um 35 has the um attend the committee meetings three to four a year and so that that's planning that well that that actually if you if you look across the top it has finance planning and economic development it and city manager's office and then um there's additional breakdowns there with the specific hours and so that's where marisol reached out to myself and to buying lifts come in economic development and plugins and estimates for the time that we would spend if we were looking at three or four meetings per year and I can tell you from my perspective I just said all right well what kind of time estimates do we spend on an item that goes to the planning commission or you know a single planning commission meeting and a couple of those items thank thank you I and I don't want to cut you off but I I get it now what what you're where the I get it I'm I'm just going with the column and the row and so now I see that it was not about a specific set of tasks but related to you know if it were this many meetings what what it cost and I appreciate that thank you uh Lee Butler all right are there any other questions council member brown nope okay any other council members with questions before I take it out to public comment okay so at this time uh for members of the public who are streaming this meeting if this is an item you wish to comment on this is agenda item number 20 revised fiscal impact report for the empty home tax initiative petition please uh raise your hand you can call in with instructions on your screen they should be coming up and then you can raise your hand by pressing star nine on your phone or selecting the raise hand feature in the webinar controls on your computer when it's your time to speak you will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted and the timer will be set to two minutes if you remember the public joining us here in chambers and want to comment on this item please line up to the right of the dais and you will have two minutes to speak as well I will look to see if there are any virtual attendees that would like to speak and if we can get the instructions up on the screen for those calling in please thank you I have four hands raised virtually so I'll go ahead and start and they'll alternate uh the first name is Cindy Dawson yes on measure in and go ahead and press star six to unmute hello uh good afternoon can you hear me yes okay uh good afternoon council members Cindy Dawson with the yes on measure in campaign I just want to thank staff for their additional work on the revised report I'm here representing thousands of residents that are supporting measure in who believe there still remains a few misrepresentations that should be fixed and and some costs that are unwarranted I submitted my written comments but I just want to call out a couple things really quickly first I want to just again point out and take a pause to say that the city's report says that this will raise 2.5 to four million dollars a year for affordable housing and this is a revenue positive program so that is important to emphasize and I think it should be highlighted better in the report I want to say that by design the empty home tax took great care to make sure that there weren't six administrative costs and that the meaning that the city can scale their administrative costs based on revenue again keeping this revenue positive um Sandy mentioned uh council member Brown mentioned a hundred thousand dollar line item for legal um that is unwarranted and unprecedented needs to be removed um the circle work of the tax committee is to meet one time a year unless the city a council approves meaning more than that um I encourage you I included some language that you could amend um if this passes so um that would be really clear again and those costs should be significantly scaled back to one meeting a year which would bring the costs around fifteen thousand dollars a year details are in my comments um and I also just want to say that you know if you make these appropriate adjustments um that you know we're talking about again a net positive program and I want to just mention what staff said which is there your current estimate not adjusted of three hundred and forty four thousand dollars of the admin year is under the low end revenue estimate again making this a net positive program so I think it's important for the the public and council to understand that we're bringing millions of dollars for affordable housing this is a straightforward fair approach um and we really hope that you will um make the adjustments to the report we will look forward to continuing to connect with Santa Cruz and um and add to the thousands of residents who are already supporting measure m and are ready to take action to create more affordable housing in our community thank you so much for your attention thank you for your comment I will invite the next public comment here in person thank you for waiting welcome um I'm gonna take down my mask which I don't like doing and I appreciate that um the mayor and um councilwoman Myers is wearing one I think everybody in here should because we have high spikes in our county it's not just about getting COVID it's about not spreading it to others so I'm apologize for this um I'm speaking really more to the community I think um council member Brown kind of pointed out some some biases and so did the last caller in the staff report but I have to say this is a comment I saw next door I've been monitoring this open empty house tax and one person said on their neighborhood street because of Airbnb and vacation homing or second you know a person who has money to have a beach house that he's the only one living in his house full time on his street which all these empty houses create um a potential for criminal action because if nobody's looking out for their neighbor there's going to be break-ins and other things like people working out of these houses so the criminal the criminal issue when I grew up in the suburbs of LA every house was occupied and I want to point out not only should we pass this empty tax because there's so many empty houses and there's so many people without a housing air that we should also make sure that every Airbnb person since they're running a business out of their house that they have to um have business licenses from the city and they have to report all income so the city can get the tax money from that including with all the vacation homes and I also want to point out when you talk about affordable housing you're not talking about real affordable almost all the housing that you've approved so far is not affordable I don't even think one homeless person will get a unit out of this if at most they'll be a dozen so it's not affordable it's affordable for a tech person like a young person just starting out in tech to get a lower rent AMI is not low income let's give an example I lived in a project big section eight and my rent on my income because my income was a thousand dollars was 350 dollars a month for me that was affordable even though it took up a fairly good chunk of my money but with the AMI if I was 30 percent of an AMI which my unit was owned by the city so it would go to the AMI it would have been 600 plus even 800 that was not affordable and it never will be I wish I could say more but that's it thank you for your comment our next member of the public I'll take virtually phone number ending in 0249 hi there welcome hi thank you for taking my comments and for all your work this is Carol pohamas and I would like to thank the staff for um re-examining the city costs um but I have to say I was very disappointed that the revenue estimates were not re-analyzed as well I've done my own calculations uh extensively and when I take the total homes and I take out the ones in the rental inspection program the homeowners exemption the vacation rentals which are exempt by the way those on the market those under construction and the general exemption rate um from other cities I found that in in my estimate the high is 150 homes and the low is 100 so why does this matter um I think it matters greatly for two reasons one you know I just heard that at the higher estimate of the city's um empty homes which is 705 the city costs do come under the 15 percent but at the city's lower estimate they do not it will cost the city money every year from the general fund to run this program because it will cost $450,000 a year to run it and at the lower end it will be 340 some uh brought in so the reason it matters is that the city voters need to understand an an accurate number because they need to know whether it's worth it to vote for this or not I think if people understand that it's going to cost money from the general fund every year and city services every year to bring in a diminishing amount of money for affordable housing which we do badly need they're not going to vote for it and I think we owe the voters an accurate description of that so even though the water information as I just heard is private there's no reason it has to be done individually it could be done on the aggregate to come up with an accurate number I think the voters need to know that this proposal even though it may sound great at first glance it's actually going to cost the city money every year thank you for listening thank you for your comment I'd like to invite the next person here in person hi there welcome hello good evening my name is Jack Ryan Rodriguez and good evening council I want to let you thank you guys for your dedication to this community I actually um I want to speak on this this last matter that just we just went through kind of nervous speaking to you guys um but I also want to include if I can um the one right before it but about the benchlands I think we're actually speaking on item 20 the fiscal impact report for the empty home tax initiative right now so I think all the reason why I brought that one up is because I feel like they they could go hand in hand in a sense of a solution from the bench land for some of the vacant homes um if there are vacant homes or properties that um like she said that there's a member of the community who is the only person on the street throughout the week um and she was a a certain concern by the risk of criminal activities um I know some of the people in this community might blame the benchlands for some of those community or criminal activities which can be be very well um accurate but I'm not sure I mean I don't know um but I know for a fact that um those homes that are vacant um there's people there in the bench land who are willing to work who lost their homes and stuff like that from the pandemic who are ready to work and so some of those houses I'm sure need maintenance or um maintaining or security or some of those houses are too big for uh someone to purchase so we can make them into boarding homes I used to run recovery homes um I was um was part of victory outreach for about 10 years and we went to uh communities all throughout the United States and throughout the world and we targeted you know gang infested drug infested and we planted recovery homes and training centers and vacant buildings or vacant homes like this would were ideal for you kno