t is never made available to the public and their weightings that map drawings hidden and are really needed for verification transparency a few standard objective examples are the is that roughly equal adult voter population count districts must represent roughly rational justify contiguous geographic boundaries and consideration of incumbents vote strength for residency should be a minimize factor to draw boundaries and as to which staggered districts vote first in 2022 they should be chosen by random drawing only not to protect incumbents or to do social justice for wearing priorities but the 100% fair and not create some privileged voting block rules that is 50% of the vote needed to win needs consideration okay thanks thank you any other members of the public interested in speaking on item number 19 on our agenda today I see oh hand just went down oh I do see Ron your hand is up to this item you can go ahead and speak a star nine to excuse me star six on you Ron if you're interested in speaking on item number 19 which is transitions to city council district elections is that the vote can you hear me yeah okay I'm not on a phone so good afternoon council members I find agenda item 19 puts the card before the horse any change to the city charter must be done by a vote to the people according to the law establishing district elections is a change in the city charger talk charger therefore before setting up district elections an affirmative vote by after it appears to be required having a vote after district elections are established appears to be a way to avoid to evade the required process the city attorney's conclusion that district elections could be done without a public vote doesn't adhere to the law the city attorney's judgment says we can go to district elections without any judicial ruling that says that the city of Santa Cruz is in violation of the cvra the purported violations affirm that it's in the business to extort money merely by saying jurisdictions are in violation of the cvra the city attorney told the the council that measure oh is 15 percent affordable housing requirement could be reduced to 10 percent by ordinance without a vote of the people lawyers make mistakes changing how we vote must be taken very very seriously and thoughtfully not dictated by an ambulance chasing law firm prefer a vote to change the city charter first then if approved go forward with the process to set up district elections I don't know if district elections are a good or a bad idea district elections may be the best way to go forward if they provide for expanded voting rights and equity maybe it's ranked choice voting is the best way to comply with the cvra can succeeds being districts and one at large why can't we be in compliance with cvra by the 2024 elections why go through a districting process and then go through another complicated process to comply with the cvra take care of it now and and one time as shever stated as other council members now that's the conversation that must be had now so please don't suspect how we get around this and and go time and consideration thank you are there any other members of the public who want to speak on item number 19 which is transition to city council district elections please raise your hand if you okay i'm not seeing any other attendees who would like to do that I see council member commentary johnson and the council member Watkins thank you yes I I would like to make a motion to approve staff's recommendation to move forward with a pursuing district elections and I would also like to add that staff explore elected mayor as a simultaneous process to come back when you come back in august to share with us what that could look like as a simultaneous process and in general there was a lot of really great input from my colleagues today around process and direction so so to take all of that into consideration when you come back in august with what our next steps would be thank you and council member Watkins um I was just going to make that a similar motion so I'll go ahead and second the motion and that's okay okay so we have a motion on the and then I'll open it up for further deliberation from council member commentary johnson to um direct staff to proceed with um the next steps and propose general timeline to transition to city council district elections including bringing back a information on potentially the process or process for an elected mayor and including what I've heard from many council members is the consideration of some kind of some kind of possible independent redistricting commission as well as additional public meetings especially during non-work hours and in the weekends I think those are the main three points that I at least caught as we were discussing things and then I guess I so we have a motion chevro did I capture that primarily okay a second by council member Watkins so we'll go ahead and and take further comments and deliberations I have one question just real quick myself here real quick since I didn't ask questions before Tony could you speak to the last public member who disputed sort of the the timing on whether or not we should go first with the charter amendment to the voters and then and then into so the question to the voters would be should we go to districts should the charter be changed to become a district to go towards districts can you speak to that and my understanding that part of our issue is that it's the settlement agreement that we're in as well so there's the legal sort of component that we're trying to also accomplish during this period of time but could you speak to that yes that I mean that's right that's the rationale for bringing it forward as an ordinance is that it's pursuant to a demand made under the California Voting Rights Act and an agreement to place a charter amendment on the ballot doesn't resolve the California Voting Rights Act claim unless the voters approve of the charter amendment and if they don't then you have a you know of voters take an issue on something over which ultimately a court would likely direct the city to transition to district elections anyway and that's why other cities and I didn't make up the part about other cities having transition to district elections by ordinance even if their charters specified at large elections it's common practice done or it's not a common practice aren't that but but it's done there's established precedent for it and it's recognized as an appropriate way to proceed so I reject the argument the charter or that going by ordinance would be illegal under the charter okay thank you for those for that clarification so we'll go ahead and continue we do have a motion on the floor so councilmember brown just a couple of comments and one more question so we've been at this for a while now and lamentably most of that has been behind closed doors so the public really has not been privy to the same information that we have and and so you know I think that this is very new as Mayor Meyers and other council members have said this is a a really major change and in how we do business how we you know are city representatives are picked and and so I do think that having some additional community input you know may either additional public meeting town hall meetings you know some kinds of you know maybe community workshops things that would give the public an opportunity to in in a form that is not simply you know everybody lines up and says we've supported or oppose it right because that's not really going to tell us much about how to move forward so getting meaningful community input I think and finding ways to do that is really going to be critical so what's to come clear to me and all of this time is that I'm just going to say this for the public record for the watching or listening that it it doesn't really matter if there is racially polarized voting in our community or any given community and it really doesn't matter whether or not districts would be an appropriate remedy or for that matter if it might actually undermine the goal of increasing diversity of candidates which is frustrating I mean that's a function of the CVRA in the way it's been interpreted by the courts so here we are it's you know there is there are attorneys out there who are literally going around to California communities cities and extorting money out of those communities enforcing district elections and you know it's really frustrating to see the top it to be successful in this way but we are in a situation now where we're in a settlement agreement essentially so I am I guess I'm wondering because we have never been asked to actually approve an ordinance or any particular plan for district elections what point do council members do we actually get to go on record saying whether or not we support this because we've kind of been all been moving along this you know down this path understanding that it's you know we're kind of we're just in this bind but at the same time we're you know I've heard other council members and I've asked you know serious concerns about you know whether or not this is actually going to support the goal of inclusion and access so I just want to clarify I guess so today we are being asked to accept this report give input on what else we want to see happen in the process and we're not being asked to make a statement of clearly yes or no on district elections is that I just want to be clarify that because if that is the case so I'll be voting no so if anybody could just help me understand I didn't see anything in the in the agenda report that said that's what we're doing today but I'm starting to feel there yeah and today the item was I'm sorry mayors you know I was going to say maybe Ralph you can clarify my understanding was the former that you described not not going as far as saying you supported on support of a district election but Ralph please clarify correct today's item is following up on the direction that was provided in the resolution that council passed in May of 2020 which includes bringing ordinance for a council to consider that would transition the city to district elections by 20 by the 2020 elections so at the end of this process that ordinance including draft map or including a final map would go to council for final consideration in this process but today's action is really just presenting that schedule of how staff plans to meet the direction that was given in the resolution that was passed back in May and then I guess the last thing I would ask my colleagues if you would be willing who made the motion and second if you'd be willing to include some information about rank choice voting coming back to us as part of that I know it's a huge can of worms and there's a lot you know a lot that goes into that but at least just something so that we can understand it a little bit better and kind of put it in the in the mix for conversation I know there are many community members who are interested in it and I don't want to I'm not suggesting this to try to derail what the road we're going down but I do think it's important to be responsive to community's interest and you know at least you know open up the space to talk about it Councilmember Brown yes I think Mayor Myers also named those specific pieces I didn't list them exactly but it sounds like rank choice voting the independent citizen's committee and elected mayor were three pieces that came up by community members and colleagues so for staff we can add those specific ways for staff to come back in August to let us know what those would look like thank you so I don't do a lot of that yes oh yeah thank you yeah I didn't I didn't hear it so I just wanted to make sure thank you thanks great okay I have Councilmember Cummings and then Councilmember Golder thank you I have a couple questions related to the timeline I know one of the things that I mentioned earlier and it might be taken that I'd like to offer for consideration is that given the timeline of you know we have about we have a few months before August hits and we get and this comes back to and so one of the things I was maybe going to suggest is that we if there could be a public hearing you know between now and when this comes back to Council preferably in June but in addition to that I think one challenge too is you know if we if we get feedback from the community that you know we'd like to move forward with an independent commission my my thoughts are that we'd probably need to establish that commission sooner than later if we want that commit that body to have any kind of influence over this process for the upcoming you know for when we're drawing these maps so that's one thing to take into consideration and so I'm wondering you know if if we want the independent commission if we want recommendation on that would it make sense for us to have a public hearing to allow the public to weigh in on these timelines and then and also specifically on the independent commission and then we could have a report back at the second meeting in June and the reason I say that is because if the community strongly feels that we should move forward with that independent commission and maybe they'll be able to provide us some feedback on that timeline during the summer months or during when we're off that could provide us with an opportunity to select members to serve on that body if that's the direct question we're going to go in and so I don't know if I need to make a friendly amendment but if I were to make a friendly amendment it would be to direct staff to hold one public hearing prior to the second meeting in June to get feet on the independent commission and the timeline for the district map drawing process and to return to the council at the second meeting in June for recommendations that's the seconder of the motion I think that I feel more comfortable with just moving forward as we originally outlined in terms of the timeline I think it seems really rushed to have it come back in June and frankly I having been mayor I'm not I know that sometimes you have a full agenda right particularly before you're about to take the break in July we're looking at having a meaningful engagement I think we want to have our due diligence so I feel comfortable so I'd rather not have it go fast forward in terms of personally I was pausing because I was just thinking about staff's comment about the feasibility and the capacity of staff to accomplish that in a short period if that's the case then I then I'm wondering if there's the opportunity to have an additional public hearing before this comes back to us in August on all the items that you all have listed because when this comes back to us at the meeting in August we're going to get an update on the timeline process and any feedback received from the committee and it's not clear that there will be any kind of public hearing before that so I guess that is a question as well for staff is given that you know what's listed in our agenda is that we're going to get an update in August what's the I guess what's the expectation between now and then as to what kinds of meetings will take place does it sound like there's going to be two public hearings required it's not clear whether that'll be you know one of those will happen before August or after and it sounds like there's now a discussion of you know the independent commission rank choice voting direct elect mayor and that will require some time to receive input so can you kind of provide any feedback on what are your thoughts around timelines for how to make all this happen so the reason why we wanted to come back to council in August before the public meetings occurred was to clarify what would be discussed at the public hearings and to really determine when and how they were going to be held and just kind of share that with the council before we move forward with the initial public hearings which you know will cover the process content and as you're concerned the community might have before any maps are drawn out or drafted if the council feel that we should have those initial meetings sooner that's something we can change and you know possibly come back to council before the first public hearing occurs so we can share with you what is going to be expected at the public hearing or if council wants you know for a step to inform the public hearing before returning to council with a finalized schedule that's fine too but that was sort of what the thought process was of why you wanted to come back to council before the initial public hearing occurred with to clarify with council that you know this isn't what the public hearings are going to look like this is what's going to be discussed and this is when they're going to happen and I'm kind of give council the heads up before we started rolling out with the public meetings yeah and the hearing that I'm the additional hearing that I'm kind of referencing to is is really an opportunity to get some input on the various topics that we've brought up today and to get that before you know we start this process so I don't know if the maybe you know the second of the much will be interested in us having an opportunity to have a public hearing prior to this coming back to us just to allow the public especially given that you know again we're hearing this at you know three in the afternoon on a Tuesday more of an opportunity to just understand the process weigh in and then before this comes back to us in August I'm sorry can I just have something really I think a quick question I think some of the reasoning for the timing too was related to because the focus again is on the maps and getting input on the maps was the time needed to prepare the maps and to collect the data so that was in part driving the timing and at some point the census data was delayed again the you know whether making them sooner will allow for the maps to be available and drawn and then you know which is the main purpose of the hearings so that's that's was the reason for that and I don't know if uh if Ralph or Victoria you know whether that can be accomplished because of the work that the demographers doing so that's so the yes the purpose of the meetings is to specifically focus on the maps and on the election schedule these other you know rank choice voting independent voting commission at large election is something different and so that could be a different process but yes are the reason for those meetings to be after our August meeting was as Ralph said and and to account for the census data and to come back to you with an updated schedule based on that yeah and I'll just clarify that I totally understand that you know for the purposes of the mapping but I think there's another question around process and having opportunities for the community way and on the process we're adding things for consideration you know creating another opportunity between now and August for the community to weigh in it doesn't necessarily have to be a council meeting it can be a time when you know members of the public are not at work which is I'd say majority of people are probably working right now so I'll put that out there again as another family member if there's the opportunity to have a public hearing for the for community members to weigh in on the process and all the alternatives under consideration before our next meeting and before this comes to us in August Mayor may I jump in? Sure Absolutely make sure the motion thank you councilmember Cummings I'm sort of going back and forth I appreciate your comments and and also would like to see a meaningful public engagement process one of the reasons when I'm going back a couple reasons I'm going back and forth one of them is if if staff is going to come back with more information the public can weigh in and give inputs with more informed right so if if we get information from then the public will be will be also receiving that information and then a public hearing after that will be everyone will be more informed so that's that's one thing and then the other thing I'm thinking about is when will this happen? I know that lots of folks are there's a lot of moving pieces in summer months so we would just I just want to make sure the timing is such that it's through work for community members to be engaged and involved if staff and counselor are gone in July that seems like an unlikely month and then is it feasible to happen in June? So those are some of the questions that's that's why I'm not sort of jumping in to say yes or no I'm going back and forth and trying to weigh what are the benefits of waiting and what are the what are the challenges there to drawbacks of not I wonder if as mayor I can maybe a potential solution is that I know a staff mentioned their contact information to be in touch I wonder if we could do maybe some like virtual outreach in terms of our many lists serves to solicit input in between now and then and then in August we visited this discussion given that the concerns that were raised by council member Calentari and trying to balance that but also a recognition that the office generally closes in you know the month of July as well as a number of people are out of town I think that summer month is kind of an off month for a lot of people so I also just know that council member Golder had her hand up for really long times I just want to acknowledge that she hasn't had a chance to speak as well Council member Golder Mayor if I could really quick before we move on too far into the weeds was that friendly amendment not accepted? Yeah it wasn't exactly not accepted but it wasn't accepted either because I'm I'm I know you amended it to instead of like a schedule do like a virtual outreach to the community to involve the community not schedule it the scheduled public hearing as a public hearing I think what's clear is that we would like an additional either public hearing or some form of meaningful outreach around these three issues that we're exploring that's separate from the maps I think that's clear that's what I'm hearing from council member Cummings is that we want a separate opportunity to engage the public around the three topics how we do it is the question and council member Walot can suggest that we do some direct outreach maybe virtually I know we're getting in the weeds so yeah it makes sense when you guys are talking about it but putting it on paper it's in this manner is difficult sure it's okay we can we'll watch the video you've got the toughest job Bonnie so thanks for being patient with us if I could also just clarify as well though but I I also want to add that the district election process also getting input on that is something that would be incorporated into that outreach so and maybe if it's helpful I can try to just clarify that this will be providing direction for staff to conduct additional outreach could be in the form of online outreach or a public hearing on district collections independent commission direct elect mayor and rank choice voting prior to this coming back to us in August of 2021 does that sound like you kind of I'm okay with that then there's some flexibility for staff to figure out what's feasible yeah thank you I thank you let me just check with staff is that is that doable yeah I think that's something we're going to have to look into if we do have an outreach meeting with a public I think we want to be informative and to be able you know have speakers that are really informed on the subject on these subjects that could answer questions they might have instead of just you know the lifting questions or gathering up and all of that so it's something we can look into and those are three topics that are very different and that would require different approaches and then try to build them all together would be quite quite a challenge before August but it's up to the council and I see Martín jump on too yeah go ahead Martín yeah I was going to say we can I think you know we'd have to do some some work and research on some of these topics which we haven't really you know really dealt into at this point and focus has been on the the distributing process that we can certainly at least perhaps just to call for input or comments or that sort of thing but I think to expect a robust process that we normally do would be and we'll use them we'll give it the time frame and and all of the other constraints that were noted thank you for calling Derek Johnson do you do you want to direct or council member Watkins something either virtual or a way to because I do I do think that there's a little bit of kind of separate separate components going on but obviously voters don't separate these things and so I understand the intent you know a voter who's being asked to change a way that they've been voting for their entire since they're 18 is you know something that's very important to be able to explain and there's a lot of other ways that people are starting to look at you know for the public it's it's really it's that lens of you know how is this going to affect the way that I that I vote for who I want to you know be on the city council so I'm wondering if there's a way that we could to martine suggestion you know either do this virtually maybe initially through some surveys or I I'm not sure how to manage it but we're all we are and then under an obligation whether you like it or not we are to obviously move towards district election so it's sort of a little bit of a you know slightly different sets of questions that could be asked so I'll look to the motion maker and then I do want to get to to council member golder so maybe the maker of the motion council member called Dory Johnson sure yeah we're complicating this and I certainly don't want to make it not feasible for staff to accomplish what needs to be accomplished so let's let's go with what council member Watkins suggested is that we do some engagement outreach virtually and if that's feasible and doable then we return in august with a more robust discussion I'm comfortable with that as a seconder sure yeah and I was just I was just going to say that since I've made the the friendly amendment I was just going to say to I'm I was just trying to be very inclusive given that there are multiple topics it makes more sense to focus just on the district elections at this point in time for that feedback I'd be fine with that well and with the independent commission but if you know it seems like a doing the virtual outreach and coming back with a more robust discussion if that seems like something that's doable I'm all for that too again I don't want to over complicate this but just given that in the the staff report you know it's August 2021 staff will provide an update on the timeline process and any feedback see from from the community to council trying to you know create another opportunity for the community to weigh in where they can you know receive notice and provide feedback on all this that's my intention behind all of this so thank you council member thanks for that clarification council member Golder and then I've got Vice Mayor Brunner thank you who organized the timeline in the process when city schools switched to district elections whether it was the demographer or the school Tony knows the answer to that I wanted to say he's on his way back as I wanted to say that the process was really smooth and there was a lot of opportunity for public outreach and engagement and so I realized this might be the first that people in the community are hearing about this and we've been hearing about it in closed session for over a year and I know council member Brown and several of us have expressed that we don't like how we we got here and you know we found like we're being extorted almost but here we are late and so I just was wondering what process the school board you would know because it was really smooth and successful I'm sorry council member but I don't have that information okay my involvement in the redistricting or the transition to district elections for the school district was really focused on the charter amendment that that came after the district had already converted to district elections in my understanding that that council member colder I attended some of those I believe the school board actually you know was directing and I believe we may even have hired the same demographer for ourselves so I think there's some overlap there and I went to at least two or three of those hearings and they were very well attended and the demographer was very clear on sort of the process and how the four showing maps and then after maps how all of that data had been crunched to be able to produce you know via the intent of the C.B.R.A. was very clear was of how that data was basically utilized to create proposed districts so it was I agree it was well done Vice Mayor Bruner the discussion this is great so let's see we have first a second a friendly amendment my comment is you know council member Cummings brought up the independently districting commission and I just did a quick search on that definitely exactly what that role is and they're established to draw electoral district boundaries and and responsible for determining boundaries of districts so I think the concern to get in front of and to consider as we move forward is that with the demographer and any draft maps before we get to that point understanding if an independently districting commission is needed in that process so that part would come first it seems and I think that was the point that council member Cummings was was trying to address and so looking at the August well we have an August 10th council meeting and an August 24th council meeting and you know it almost seems like the August 24th council meeting would be the the better option to allow time for that public input and you know just taking a consideration today's recommendation is directing staff to move forward with this proposed timeline and I think we've really brought up the key points I would like to really emphasize the communications around this so that landing page Ralph thank you for screen sharing the landing website the city website is crucial as one tool to get this information out and maybe to bullet point district elections elected mayor rank choice voting independently districting committee or commission and brief little blurbs about what that means I think will be really important to you know we can all share that and to consider other ways of getting that information out besides the online website so that as much of this information is in front of everybody so that come August it's not a complete surprise so uh thank you for all of all of the points brought and the discussion great we're running about an hour late so I'm going to call I'd like to just get the vote going we've been on this item for and we do have people waiting some of the public who are waiting for the the green business and builders record recognition so councilmember Cummings you have additional comments sorry there's a lot of car outside my house I guess the one you know to follow up on that would it be worth this you know with the independent redistricting commission if that's something that that we're interested in I'm wondering if we may want to you know have an item on an upcoming agenda in June because if we do want to consider that you know it's going to take some time for us to select individuals and what's that process going to look like because you know is that each councilmember gets to a point an individual to serve on that body I don't know if the staff is responding not at this point so I think I don't well I think I mean what I'm interpreting from the agenda is that you know they want to be back from us and that's something we're interested in doing we can provide that direction and so I think Vice Mayor Bender made a good point that you know if that body's role is to provide to self draw those maps if that's something we want to do my I think you know if we could have staff bring back an item related to that we can have a further discussion on that at that point in time just to not hold up hold us up any longer so you know I'll look I'll look at staff but my understanding was has been hired to basically draw the maps and then yeah you're correct Mayor Myers and clarification might be that these commissions were intended to redraw districts whereas council members they're able to transfer that going to redraw districts in the future to these independent commissions whereas council members cannot transfer the ability to decide whether or not we go to districts with an independent body that's a decision that still needs to be made by the council and to get there is sort of the process we're presenting today which is why many jurisdictions in California do decide to have independent redistricting commissions but to redraw districts with that commission after they have decided to move forward with districts and that original districts are there and then have a very thorough vetted process to determine who serves on these commissions and then getting a lot of feedback from the community to determine if you know in the future with new data from the census or any major population shifts in the city if those lines need to be redrawn but that is definitely the main cues of these commissions look at the jurisdictions and the districts that are already there to see if they need to be amended however the authority to move into districts that's given to the council members and I don't think that's transportable to an independent commission okay thank you so I think we'll go ahead and call get the here I'm just checking on a timing issue with the clerk okay great so we have a motion on the floor by council member Kalantari Johnson seconded by council member Watkins to provide direction for staff to proceed with the recommended next step and propose general timeline to transition city council district elections including solicitation of public input the district map drawing process prior to council considering an adoption of an ordinance in student district-based election system staff is also was also requested to come back with additional information on process around elected mayor and there's been a request that additional public outreach be done as soon as possible virtually to begin to provide into the public as possible on on the process and including information about the roles of independent redistricting commissions and possible other types of of voting including rank choice voting and as I said before the elected mayor I think that's kind of what it is captured is that correct so I will go ahead Bonnie can you get all that I gather just a bit we got it okay council members oh sorry yeah go ahead and call for a roll call no council members Watkins aye calentary johnson brown aye colder vice mayor Brunner aye mayor Myers aye that motion passes unanimously I'm going to go ahead and take item 20 now the green business and green builders recognition I know that we have members of the public actually the awardees in the in our in our attendees today so I want to I want to not tie them up any further we're running a little bit late already and so I will go ahead and take item number 20 we will then take oral communications after this and then item 21 so next up is our our agenda is item number 20 presentation on green business and builders recognition this is going to be a presentation of staff Kirk Hurley our green building specialists and awardees of the green business and green builders recognition we will not be taking public comment on this item as council is not taking action so welcome Kirk welcome thanks for course I'm going to share my screen and everyone see good afternoon mayor Myers and council members I appreciate the time to make this presentation to council on behalf of the green building program the city of Santa Cruz demonstrated continued dedication to responsible and sustainable building practices by providing green building review for over a decade and including over 1100 all electric dwelling units in our development pipeline this fiscal year our green building program identifies projects developed and completed by forward thinking members of the community the award process recognize utilizing the highest standards for techniques and construction and design today I'm pleased to present two new awards for achievement and exceptional design since the start of the program the city has recognized 86 projects with green building awards please join me in recognizing award number 87 for 231 Oregon street owners Heather waltz and Craig waltz the designer and builder Craig waltz at this time I would like to share a short description of the first project receiving an award today this project went far beyond the requirements for remodel stone concrete sidewalk poor containing slag from the steel recycling process in the lower left the reclaimed wall and flooring materials reduce environmental footprint radiant roof barrier assists avoiding interior overheating without resorting to air conditioning formaldehyde free insult improve indoor air quality placement of deciduous planting materials to avoid unwanted heat gains during shoulder seasons further enhances the passive design and resiliency reused wood framing reduce the sensitivity for the project the award plaque for 231 Oregon street and certificate will be conveyed by physical mail at this time the owners would like to express their thanks please join me in also recognizing award number 88 for 192 Hollywood avenue owners Ventalon and Luke Ventalon architect Peter Spellman and builder Scott Rogers SLR construction at this time I would like to share a short description of the second project receiving an award this project went far beyond the requirements for remodel the owners specified a suite of electric appliances to reduce the environmental impacts heat pump conditioning and heat pump water heating significantly reduces natural gas usage and shifts energy consumption to electricity pervoltaic panels installed help offset daytime electric loads and battery energy storage helps reduce peak load reliance for grid import electricity especially during weekday evenings sun tubes increase natural lighting efficacy and reduce electricity use for artificial lighting the award plaque for 192 Hollywood avenue and certificates for the project team will be conveyed via physical mail at this time the owners would also like to express their thanks in closing I want to remind our community that the city of Santa Cruz is still a leader in the push toward the new era of sustainable communities which are also affordable we have chosen to recognize the importance of quality and climate resilience in our built environments there is this is especially important as we enter the era of neutral energy and positive energy buildings the green building program is motivated by our continued leadership role to inspire through engagement with the creative minds with our community as we work together for a more secure future thank you thank you Kurt and uh just want to I'll open this up for council member comments I'll take a quick one myself I just want to congratulate the all those involved the designers the builders lucky enough to live a few doors down from Craig and watched him put all his heart and soul into that building project and watch his kids love to play in that garden with the deciduous trees and great to see little bow in that picture so special congratulations there Craig and and also as Kurt said and you know the city's been a leader in this for over a decade so many communities are just getting their green building programs up and running in terms of climate change and we've been leading the way for quite a long time so congratulations to the Vatsalons and to Mr. Rogers and thank you for doing this with your homes it's a great example for for ability to really put their put that green building concept into reality and for people to be able to see in their neighborhood so thank you for all your work I'll see if any council members have and thank you for your patience and we're a little bit late today um I'm happy to have any council members make comments as well count coming thank you mayor and uh congratulations to you all and and thanks for making these green buildings a reality I know many people want to see these come forward and I just had one quick question which was um you know a lot of times people are curious about the difference in cost between traditional building materials and these green materials and now oftentimes there's you know benefits that come with the green building materials and how they help save on you know energy with you know if you don't have insulation you can you know you don't well I'll reframe frame that but you know in terms of heat exchange throughout the day that oftentimes some of these green buildings are much better at that and so I'm just wondering if you can speak to some kind of the benefits of these green buildings how it relates to costs currently sure I I can I can speak to that briefly so in evolving the green building program as we have a increased emphasis on electrification I've taken some of those measures in place that can help reduce the total occupancy cost the building by avoiding electric rates during hours where electricity will be more expensive there's also materials that many of our builders are learning about like re fabricated remanufactured paint some of which is made in our own state in Sacramento that can save 12 to 15 dollars a gallon for a mid-grade paint so just a couple examples of things that change the equation for first costs which generally people are more sensitive to what's the upfront cost before I move into the building in the example of the paint and then those things which have longer economic you know time frame to them that that you you have a savings based on initial investment that that you realize by reduced utility bills there there are many new features as as we're going to time abuse electric rates dated a year and a half ago which will be seen people adopting things such as heat recovery ventilation interfaces so your utility can communicate rate information with your appliances so there's a lot of things that we have now and that we'll see implemented going forward great well thank you all again and program so glad to see more buildings in our community receive these awards council member colder I just wanted to congratulate all the recipients and then also acknowledge Kurt for all of the work he does behind the scenes in the city to promote sustainable growth and green building so thank you right and vice mayor Brunner you for sharing those photos award number 87 and 88 does that mean there are 88 green buildings in the city of Santa Cruz or in the county how are those numbers related to those award numbers so the green building program has two different award levels the awards that were to two awards that were granted today are at the highest level of the city's building program and the total sense the beginning of the program all today's award 88 does that answer a question is that within the city of Santa Cruz within the city of Santa Cruz that's correct okay thank you great well congratulations again and thanks to staff and to our community members and congrats those clocks on your houses take care okay we will go into oral communications next and this is for members of the public who are streaming this meeting if you want to comment during oral communications now is the time to call in instructions are on your screen oral communications is an opportunity for members of the community to speak to us on items that are not listed on today's agenda if you're interested in addressing the council press star nine on your phone to raise your hand you will have two minutes to speak when it is your time to speak you will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted we request that you clearly and slowly state your name before making your comments so that we can accurately capture it in the meeting minutes however it is not required to state your name for the record please remember this is a time for council to hear from the public we are not able to engage in dialogue with each member of the public but when we are able we will address the questions raised after oral communications has been completed so again this is oral communications I see two members of the public Mr. Garrett you're up first Hi this is Brett Garrett and I'm very happy to see the city of Santa Cruz listed as an endorser of the Save California solar campaign I hope you'll take this a step further and pass a resolution to oppose AB 1139 which is anti-solar legislation at its worst AB 1139 claims to be an equity that will hurt everyone by increasing transmission costs and by reducing distributed resources resulting in less resilience and more environmental damage AB 1139 obliterates net energy metering by changing the basic solar production compensation from a retail rate to a wholesale rate and it imposes a monthly grid access charge that will actually result in some solar customers paying higher utility costs than if they never installed solar in the first place fixing the duck curve requires more batteries not fewer solar panels net energy metering reform should be oriented toward encouraging more energy storage not discouraging solar panels please pass a resolution to oppose AB 1139 and closer to home central coast community energy formerly mbcp is proposing some very bad changes to their rate plans it's sort of a reverse robin hood take more money from the smallest residential customers who don't use much energy and provide excess savings to non-solar commercial and agricultural customers please oppose the fixed monthly charge of four and a half dollars which will disproportionately impact low income customers and please oppose all provisions that will harm solar customers i'm very concerned about pre-ce's so-called cost of service plan the general concept seems okay but the details concern me thank you very much thank you and next up is caller with the phone number ending 3158 please go ahead uh yes first i'd like to say that by changing the order of uh who who who to speak uh tells a little bit about the mayor's priorities but anyway uh i want to talk about the child care impact fee from the last couple of meetings and uh was suspiciously lumped in with the developer fees but those are the charge developers for city services they're receiving but not yet paying for otherwise because they're unfinished construction sites or are charging a city services directly done as part of the construction child care impact fee is neither the argument new developments create additional child care impact is and saying any population increase has an impact well any population increase does have an impact yeah on everything we have a tax that takes care of population growth impact on government spending oh yeah the property taxes sales taxes and taxes etc that uh additionally you seem to forget we'll be paying uh in with the new developments in full forever exactly exactly in the same way relation just like everybody else pays for it now you may slather this with sympathy and pity for the poor children but those who can't afford to have children but that's like slathering mayo on a bologna burger if you single out who in this town or an undeservedly politically unpopular growth called developers who are no more responsible for near and dear social programs than anybody else and contribute plenty maybe more than most into the economic attacks system this woke gen version of equity is building an awful future if that is an example the county's smokescreen expensive study trying to calculate the child care cost per bedroom comparing residential and non-residential developments uh that you relied on is grossly flawed because only parents cause the need and only they receive childcare services for their children buildings don't in fact have children seems simple to me but not the politicians have spent baffling the public with expensive sheepskin data latent consult services to justify whatever they're paid to justify is an old trick in business and government grandparents trusted parent co-ops parent qualified independent preschools or preschool options thank you thank you next step for oral communication for on the agenda is Sabina hello can you hear me we can thank you I'm calling today to request the city council opposes the sweep of the harvey west agreement camp sizing force it's quiet clean and it codes this well in that space I've heard rumblings that traditional families don't like seeing the camp but I have a traditional family and I think that it's a great thing and we need that space and it's working I think from what I've heard that you're looking to sweep them into the benchlands and increasing that that doesn't seem very tenable to me and I think it's an opportunity for the city to test and refine the emerging model in the interest of moving away from the move along policy and into solutions and I would love to see you try I know that there's other things that are on the agenda but I think this one is really important and I'd really love to hear you guys talk about that when you're going over that thank you thank you that is Edward Estrada for oral communications items not on the agenda hi everyone this is Edward Estrada I'm the current president of the UCSC College Democrats so I've met most of you it's great to see you all I wanted to bring to your attention SB 379 it is a bill that the college democrats have endorsed that ensures that you see health not discriminate in provision of health care to provide gender affirming care as well as as well as reproductive health care like you know a wide range of services so I would love to see the council sign on in support of that it's a really important thing to our UC community especially as students are coming back onto campus and many students rely on UC health care and I also wanted to add what the previous person said about the Harvey West Harvey Westland encampment I'm a bit concerned about you know pushing more and more encampments to the bench lands and the increasing population there and I hope that we can look into better solutions for our homeless community but thank you all for listening you next we have Joy this is for oral communication so for items not on the agenda go ahead please hello I am calling also in support of letting the friendship gardens agreement camps stay where it is especially in light of the and of people living at highway one and nine most of those people did not have a clear place to go the vast majority did not have a clear place to go which is just horrifically stressful for them and the people who are trying to help them a few of them did go to the Benchlands area and were forced to squish in between the already crowded sites that are in that space being told that the small area below the pedestrian bridge was being reserved for people from Harvey West who are anticipating being dislocated very soon the small space that is available to the Harvey West people is it's really it's really too small the space should have been let to the people who are displaced first the 80 to 100 people from highway nine it's absolutely disgraceful that all of those residents were displaced they had community help but there wasn't a good place to take them and there's already been a 911 call reporting that some of those highway residents were moved to an unsanctioned location the criminalization of these people continues and moving people from where they're where they're making do on difficult circumstances is just inhumane absolutely unforgivably inhumane so please let that camp stay at Harvey West it's working thank you thank you okay I don't see any other members of the public in the point in time so this will conclude our oral communications item I'm going to take just a 15 minute break before we come back to begin item number 21 I apologize to those who are queued up but we have been back in session for several hours and we all need a little bit of a break so let's go ahead and take a 15 minute break we'll start seeing those of you who have called in you're welcome to stay on the line we'll come back in at 515 thank you and we'll be here starting for item number 21 which is the ordinance on the new camping services and standards ordinance we will go ahead and get started again I believe Vice Mayor Bruner sort of in transit so she let me know she might be a little bit slow coming back on but we'll go ahead and get started so appreciate everybody again another short break so I'm going to go ahead and restart the meeting we are now on agenda item number 21 this is the ordinance amending chapter 6.36 of the Sanchez Municipal Code relating to camping services and standards for members of the public who are streaming this meeting if this is an item you want to comment on now is the time to call in using the instructions on your script the order tonight will be a presentation of the item by staff followed by questions from the council we will then take public comment and then return to the council for deliberation in action please note the following for this item public comment will be limited to one hour each person will have one minute to speak and the groups who have requested extra speaking time will have two minutes and those groups will include the sea bright strong will be first for extra time next will be the Santa Cruz Business Council third will be stepping up Santa Cruz and fourth will be west side cares those will be the folks with the extra time I'll take you first at the beginning of the public comment period okay so I will go ahead and we're going to turn this over to the staff and just for council members tonight I will try to just try to manage as much as possible the amount of time you know that we spend you know with our deliberations just so that we have enough time to to really get through the item at an hour and respectful of people watching tonight in terms of the outcome so I'm going to try to try to move away from a lot of the extensive extensive back and forth if we can and I'll just be sort of watching to make sure everybody's queued up and got enough time to do what they need to do with regards to asking questions and making comments so that there's enough time between all of us to get our thoughts and questions out in a timely and hopefully efficient manner between all of us so with that I will go ahead and turn this over this is item 21 the ordinance amending chapter 6.36 of the San Cruz municipal code relating to camping services and our presenter tonight will be Lee Butler the director of planning and community development and homelessness response thank you Lee thank you Mayor Meyers and good afternoon council members I am going to share my screen here okay can you all see the presentation yes we can great thank you all right this evening we are talking about the new camping services and standards ordinance and I'm going to focus on number of things first off providing a bit of the context around homelessness response I'm going to talk a little bit about city services and investments I'll provide an overview of the ordinance and I'll do a brief series of next steps I will try to go through this quickly to reserve a lot of time for council deliberation and public input so the county of Santa Cruz a new division and they are working on a five-year excuse me three-year plan for reducing homelessness and they have goals of reducing the unsheltered population by 25 by 25% over the overall homeless population and 50% for the unsheltered population by 2024 and you can see the main categories on the slide here of how they are proposing to accomplish that and of note they estimate that to achieve all those goals they do have about a 35 million dollar shortfall right now and funding is a significant challenge across not just the city but the region and the state and federal levels and we'll talk about that in just a moment here as we talk through a little bit more about their three-year and six-month work plan including a range of steps to help address the data collection to help address the individuals who are currently housed that are at risk of losing that shelter because of the COVID-19 funding that's going away there are a variety of shelter programs that they are looking to fund they're looking at permanent supportive housing for example and how that can be funded and with respect to that 35 million dollar shortfall that I referenced it's worthwhile to note that just today the governor released a statement that spoke about a 12 billion dollar statewide package that the governor is releasing to address homelessness why that was just released today and so we'll have to see how that impacts Santa Cruz but it's a great step in the right direction because funds for these facilities are just really really needed it's important to to distinguish the different roles that the county and the city have and the county is related to health and housing and human services so mental health services and addiction services and medical services those rests with the county the city's roles and responsibilities are more on the property management of the city's properties and regulation and enforcement the rules that are in effect and we serve as a conduit as a pathway to the county services and some of what this ordinance has included does actually achieve that goal of facilitating connections between homeless individuals in our community and the county services our county offers some of the things that we do as a city we invest in outreach programs primarily at the county but also in non-profit organizations specifically in the city like the downtown streets team we invest like rental assistance money and we invest in infrastructure like the hygiene base at housing matters and shelters in safe parking affordable housing development and of course federal and state advocacy and all of these are pieces of the puzzle that we in our role to support as a means to provide services to and assist those who are homeless in our community so moving to the ordinance itself there are four primary goals eliminating the impacts of large encampments in a time place and manner for how camping can occur again helping support people on their path to county services and then making sure that we've got a ordinance that is both effective and legally sound so we have a couple of updates the first one was really a part of the prior ordinance as well but it is it's paired with the second one differently so the the prohibition of daytime camping remains when a storage program has been put in place and the biggest change as part of this proposed ordinance the draft that's before the council is addition of nighttime camping throughout the city when there are available alternative sleeping locations that can be offered to an individual and so that's the primary change and that has changed a number of the sections mostly 6.36.040 related to prohibited areas and 050 related to permitted areas for camping we did receive a wide range of comments on the ordinance and we've got three proposed edits council's consideration that I'll talk to you quickly about here the first is related to personal effects we we heard a comment coming back saying hey shouldn't clothing be included there and so under subcategory 5 under the definition of personal effects we've added in recommendation to include clothing here for the council's consideration then under 6.36.080 J this section says that when a encampment has been noticed for a week and belongings remain that the city would be able to go in and remove those cataloging them without their if they're essentially considered abandoned we are recommending based on comments that we receive that this subsection be deleted so if there are personal effects in the location even if it's been noticed for for over a week this notice to just the items to be thrown away would not be allowed so we're just proposing to delete this section and I can go back if if you guys want to read this in detail but that whole section is proposed to be deleted and then the third one um we heard from the council to when we establish this and I'll note this is existing text just to declare it we we heard from the council when we established these 150 shelter or safe sleeping spaces in the city that they shall not be located adjacent to residential neighborhoods or schools and we when we added this language we specifically stated safe sleeping and we received some comments about a subsequent section where this wasn't identified and our first review was that okay the first but this just says safe sleeping so what we're recommending is that down here where we talk about these again 150 spaces again that and but here we're talking about shelter managed camp and safe sleeping spaces again city owned or operated properties or facilities and we're suggesting that this be added facilities noted in this subsection shall not be located adjacent to residential neighborhoods or schools so it's the same as what we've got up here and that would be a clarification that it also includes the managed camps or safe sleeping spaces again on city owned or operated properties or facilities that changes that we have responding in response to comments that we've received but we wanted to take a moment to talk a little bit about the new city services that are included as part of this and they relate to that last change the safe sleeping program minimum of 100 spaces that as I'm as I mentioned would be not in residential neighborhoods or schools and the way the word the way the wording is read is listed is adjacent to residential neighborhoods or schools which can also equate to it not being in I think you might hear a question or comment from the public about wanting to add in as well but 150 spaces would be established there would also be a daytime storage program established we anticipate that wherever we have a safe sleeping program we would also have a daytime storage program they work together but that may or may not be the case you know there may be shuttles for example to from one place to another and the storage program may fit best at that shuttle location so that's still yet to be determined but there is certainly a synergy between those locations whether the transportation locations or the physical storage location with respect to those storage facilities and safe sleeping as well as manage encampments and some other services that I'll talk about in a moment we are in the midst of preparing a request for qualifications we were just working with some of the other departments today on getting some of the finishing touches put together on that and what we're asking for is for providers to respond with their background their experience their outcomes their operating costs for how they would operate these facilities in a manner that is compatible with the goals and objectives that we have of serving the unhoused population and limiting impacts within the community we have identified in that in addition to the things that I mentioned before also indoor shelter operations typically shelters are operated and funded by the county but there could be for example a shelter operator that says hey I've got a facility and I want to operate this and I want to do it and we may want to explore that independently from the county similarly hygiene services the restrooms hand washing showers clothes washing we would hope to have a county partnership on those kinds of things but there may be instances you know we could for instance contract with a group separate for safe sleeping site for have one operator providing the services at the safe sleeping but another operator providing the hand washing and restrooms for example so we've got those separated out in there and then the council specifically has in the ordinance directed us to include outreach to individuals and to aim to precede enforcement activities with outreach and so we've got some provisions in the RFQ that specifically focus on what's sort of the city side of things and not the county side not the health and human services type outreach but more on helping individuals understand what the rules are without an enforcement that's typically associated with the police and then finally someone may have locations they may not be an operator but they may say hey I've got this building where I think you know it's a vacant warehouse and I think we could have some of these facilities here so we open up those opportunities for responses as well and by by broad possibilities for engagement there is a expectation that's spelled out in the RFQ that the service providers will be facilitating connections to the county service providers who we expect will be regularly present at these facilities and then there was also some related to community engagement and we want to learn from the experience that others have in operating similar facilities and so we're looking at getting together an advisory group on the facilities that we are looking to operate and then anytime that we are proposing a a location for these facilities we will be doing site specific neighborhood outreach to the surrounding area understand their concerns to figure out how we can maintain constant communication with them if they have any concerns as it gets up and up and so forth two more things here we have a general services and standards webinar that we'll be hosting on the 20th at 11 a.m and that's a broader audience that we're looking to attract and it's really a higher level overview of what we're doing and then we'll have a pre-submittal RFQ Q&A and that's really geared towards those organizations that are looking at submitting so that we can have that dialogue and the questions that they have and the ideas that they have for the response to the RFQ and I believe the last slide is next steps council has provided this is the fourth time this ordinance has been in front of the council in the last few months since late February and council has provided a whole range of recommended steps and I wanted to be clear that those steps are still valid and that we are looking to move forward with those and so that includes things like a quarterly census of the homeless individuals and effectiveness review of the ordinance so taking a look and seeing how are we doing with this what things do we need to change what's working well what's not how can we make this better and then a semi-annual review of arrests and citations that occur pursuant to the ordinance we are also pursuing a lot of the items that council has directed us with respect to outreach and integration of the safe sleeping and managed encampments that we do any shelters that we do how we integrate that with the continuum of care and we've already had initial conversations with the county about that and the council has requested that we come back and provide updates on the restorative justice approach that they have suggested so we'll be back in June related to that and that is something that our police department and city attorneys have already been having conversations on and they are they've already pinged the DA with some questions there and then also with respect to longer-term solutions there are a range of things that the city council has requested we collaborate with the county on like a navigation center and I want to close by saying that in one week's time we will also be hearing from the county with respect to their three-year strategic plan and six-month work plan on homelessness and so that will be another opportunity for the council to engage the county and to hear their feedback on the long-term approach and the short-term steps that they are taking in order to achieve that long-term approach and so with that over to the mayor and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have right thank you Lee yeah I might just say a couple of comments in the context especially Lee with the with the last few slides that you shared and I think it's really important that you know the public understand that the ordinance is really the beginning of a much broader management strategy that the city is rolling out including committing to providing 150 safe sleeping sites every night but more importantly it provides many ways where the county and its services provided for outreach for healthcare for getting people you know resources in terms of shelter or you know methods to get people back home or it provides all of that because we actually have much more touch points built into this management system than we have without you know you know with with versus sort of like an encampment that's unmanaged or sort of on its own so I also want to really recognize the work that the staff has been doing on the RFQ you know service provision is such an important part of the success of moving an individual or a family or someone in need is really the level of service provision the capabilities of our service providers all of that really comes into play in really the success ratio of really actually helping someone move through the system and hopefully into more secure to a more secure situation here in Santa Cruz and I think it's really important too to recognize that the governor's announcement today of $12 billion for homelessness in the state of California is nothing has ever been done like this on a national scale this is the largest investment in homeless assistance through the United States I note specifically in his list that he's actually making $15 million available for encampment management in particular and that's a really a recognition about how encampments are really places where people are not succeeding and you know they're very difficult to manage for permits for local communities so his commitment and his call out of $50 million to really address the the you know this difficult issue with encampments is I believe really telling and so I'm pleased to see that the city is you know on the verge hopefully of really setting a management policy that then helps us cue to these other investments which include housing assistance actually you know even employing people to look at how public rights of ways and even potentially other public lands may be used to do some job training and other activities so I would encourage the public listening tonight to really look at this package obviously includes tremendous amounts over $1.75 in dollars to build new housing as well as other care and other services for homelessness so I think it's important that the city is as chewed up as possible with our policy framework to be a partner with the county but also to be competitive as our own local government to look at these potential types of resources coming in from the from the governor so I think this policy is a really step tonight and I really want to recognize our staff's work both our city attorney's office as well as Lee and the city manager's team these kinds of policies are incredibly difficult to do and they're you know they take a lot of time and a lot of thought and I want to also recognize our community and how vocal they've been about when we got it right and when we got it wrong and I another sign that people are engaged they want to see solutions they want to support folks in our community that are suffering from homelessness but they want to really understand and see some predictable management techniques that you know move people towards more stability in their lives so I also want to just recognize our community tonight because they continue to be involved they continue to provide feedback I still get a lot of emails and calls and media and still a meeting with folks and so I think our community is really ready to to try to figure this out and so I think that's a good time to really look at completing a policy that takes that initial step forward so again I want to thank the staff I'll open up this now for council questions at this point regarding the ordinance and Lee you know I'm sure you'll be poised with any of those changes that I think you put up just in case council member have questions of those so I'm looking for any questions from council members at this time I'm not seeing any hands up okay council member coming thank you Mayor Myers and I just want to echo the you know amount of work that's really going into us trying to figure out ways you know to support the houseless community and also mitigate some of the negative impacts that works that our community is experiencing because ultimately we need to make sure that our community is a place where everyone can live and be supported and for people who are experiencing whether it's mental health substance abuse or they're just down in their luck that we can really provide them and connect them to services that they need so they can improve their lives I do have a couple questions related to some of the comments that were presented in the staff report in the presentation and also thank you Lee for that presentation and then other things that came up in in the agenda report my first question is I'm just curious so you mentioned that staff is still putting together the RFQ for the safe sleeping sites and for the storage program I'm just kind of curious what the anticipated timeline for you know getting the RFQ out identifying a provider and then rolling this out and in addition to that kind of combined with that is what's the sense of you know what funding is available and what sources of fundings could we tap into because I know there's some COVID relief that's coming but whatever we're setting up we don't want it to be a one-time thing that's just funded with kind of emergency funds we really need to understand how can we long-term so I'm just curious about my first question is those two items which is the timeline for kind of rolling this out and then where the funding where the funding is going to come from and also costs for the anticipated costs thank you councilmember Cummings great questions first off we are targeting this week we're still getting comments for the release of the RFQ I should say we're still getting comments back we are working with our Office of Economic Development today and with our risk management team and finance and then we still need to get that back in front of the attorneys for another final review but we are still hopeful that we'll be able to get it out this week if it's not exactly this week then it's you know imminently forthcoming following that but we're really close dotting the last eyes and crossing the last T's we are anticipating that we allow for probably a little over three weeks in that response at time frame and so by the beginning of June we would have that first set of of responses back and hopefully we'll we'll have you know a wide variety of those from a lot of different organizations so that we can understand and compare and contrast those and that gets to the cost that will give us a better idea of what the costs will be we've provided in prior presentations to the council some estimated costs based on you know if the city were running the facility and we were paying $19 and now estimated hours and estimated costs for restroom facilities and so forth but you know we are we're very curious to see what we get back as part of that rfq and to see how those providers are proposing to staff the facilities and then with respect to funding we are looking at a variety of sources CDBG is one the special COVID relief funds as you mentioned are another and then of course you know we do have a substantial amount of general fund resources that go to things like encampment cleanups and and so forth and and so you know we'll be looking at a mix of funding and it's it's going to depend on the cost in terms of how much of a mix we have but we are looking at leveraging those grant dollars to the extent that we can and then a follow-up question to that so in terms of the process around citing and identifying a site would that happen concurrently with the rfq process or would that happen after someone's been identified so that you know working with the provider they'd be able to say what sites you know they'd be able to work with versus sites that you know are incompatible for them to work with and then also along with that obviously there's going to be you know community outreach and where this can and can't you know happen where the community is okay within where they're not that's yes so I think there's going to be somewhat of a parallel course there you know we've been focused on the rfq and we haven't done any site specific outreach but we may also get sites back from the rfq where we say hey you know this this wasn't on our radar but we could you know lease this vacant building and it would be a a good opportunity for us so we do anticipate having somewhat of a parallel path on those once we get that rfq out the door then we can start looking at individual sites and start doing outreach to the surrounding areas okay and then I just have a couple of the questions regarding the family so there was there was a in the agenda report there was an item that came up regarding family shelters and really trying to deal with you know how are we gonna well one direction around prioritizing homeless families and then you know at one point we talk about 150 safe sleeping sites and then towards the end of the agenda report it talked about breaking up those sites into potentially like three sites with 50 individuals at each site and so I'm just I guess this is more of a comment than a question but it might be worth us considering you know that approach and having one site where it's families and children since that's a concern and that's one of the groups that we're really targeting or if that's not the case you know is there a way for us to provide hotel vouchers because I know it was mentioned that the county is really trying to prioritize and I think it was like 120 families this year and so if there's a way first to work with the county and provide hotel vouchers for families and then really connect them to services to get them into programs that might be a way to address those issues around trying to you know to prioritize homeless families thank you for those comments and questions and yes we do think that the county will play part in prioritizing those families that are here and who are houseless and and you know they've got a great resource in the Reveley family shelter and that of course is a much better setting than if someone is in a a safe sleeping location and so that's where as part of the agenda report we're just requesting a little bit to have a broader approach to the prioritization of families so that we can you know have the county resources in the county's prioritization potentially take that family and get them placed in a location that is a more long-term setting that concludes all my questions thank you thank you councilmember I have councilmember brown and then councilmember commentary Johnson thank you thank you for the presentation and for the materials we received in preparation I I have a few questions and the so I just want to start with the so the discussion around or that comes directly following the RFQ discussion in our staff report that we received provides you know it talks about various services and how they might be handled and who might handle them and it's pretty vague and I understand that there's a lot up in the air right now and that you're working hard to have those conversations and I appreciate that I the question that I have on costs you've answered with councilmember Cummings question but I guess I'm wondering how you how you're thinking about the scope responsibility question for these various services is it are we thinking what we're just going to see what we get and whatever people can offer or their you know have included as possibilities that they can offer as an contract operator and then we'll see what else we need or is there some kind of underlying kind of even if it's a you know just hope our hopes and aspirations kind of plan for how that will will go and then another question related to the budget are the costs I'm just I'm wondering you know what do we have a plan for trying to make the actual costs and and budget legible and transparent to the public or really even the council members you know I feel like you know we hear we spend a lot of money and here are the general areas or you know it's too much we don't have the resources for it we kind of talk about and it's like really really big generalities and you know I'm still hard pressed to be able to say how much money the city spends in you know the various categories you know it seems to me that much of what we much of our cost has been and if we move forward in this way it's likely continue to be dealing with the fallout of you know houseless you know people being in spaces that are not managed that are not cleaned up where there isn't adequate you know refuse removal waste management and and so that's where we spend our money and I don't know how much money that is and you know and I don't so in terms of comparing that to how much money we might spend for these proactive you know models sanctioned encampment sleeping zones which I obviously support I've advocated for my whole time on the council but in terms of weighing you know where the money is going and helping the public understand I think it would be really great to get some of those numbers in broken down in greater detail so I'm just wondering if that if you've talked about that is there any you know more detailed information we can get I don't want to micromanage here but I think that there's some pretty significant differences among the categories of spending sure thank you for those questions councilmember brown and let me let me tackle the second one which is the budget info so first off we have been you're you're absolutely right it's tough to get a handle on all of those expenses because there are a lot of things that are done just on a daily basis to run the course of individuals work that isn't necessarily category a homelessness bucket or homelessness response and you know we've got a team from you know five six plus departments that meets every Wednesday and you know I don't think anyone's tracking their time for that and that's just you know one of many many meetings that we have but we are aiming to be more deliberate about how we track this and so we've started looking at how we can break that down and how we can look at that moving forward so that we can get a handle on not only what we're spending now but what's a better way to spend that money and that's what gets us to the RFQ and how when you're saying understanding those expenses some of those will be direct expenses the direct expenses are much easier to track you know that's like yeah we paid for servicing of a restroom facility and it was $5,000 a month for you know five months and there's $25,000 the staff line is more challenging but we are looking at how we can get a better handle on that but the RFQ will have some of those you know direct costs that are very transparent invisible so that's that's something that you know we'll be able to share and we've got some information on our website and the homelessness response page but you know if we don't have that comprehensive view that we're trying to work towards and thank you for that but that's something we want to do as well and then with respect to the RFQ you had some questions about that and how we're going to sort of engage those responses that come in so one of the things that we really so we've got some of the standard things like you know okay what are your qualifications have you won these things elsewhere but really want to look at it you know what were the outcomes you know how how successful were you you know how was this accepted in the community what did you do to interface with the community to address any concerns that arose from you know the person next door or you know and how do you address problematic behaviors we've got some questions in that RFQ so that we can gauge how these providers are going to fit into the community and of course we've got costs in there and you know are you able to provide the staff in in this location even Santa Cruz to operate these facilities those kinds of standard questions but then we really want to look at how this is going to fit into the overall community and and hopefully there'll be a good a good mix of those because you know it might not be a one-size-fits-all here you know we may have councilmember coming to talking about multiple locations and there may be like oh this operator might be good for this location this operator might be better for this location you know we're going to have to wait and see once we get the responses back but you know you also mentioned like things being vague we also want we are kind of intentionally being a little bit vague so that we can get some of those creative responses back you know we don't want to necessarily dictate that someone have to provide these this level of service 24-7 you know we want to understand how they're going to address services the entire time but let's let's hear how they're proposing to do that rather than saying you know this is the dictated way in which it must be done Thanks. If one another question and then I'll stop this is related to the interface between the the ordinance once it is goes into a and the alternative you know spaces that we can direct people to or the city could direct people to or you know people will be aware of I realize that the you know we are not what we're what we're doing here is not intending or trying to address the the issue writ large so you know if we have like 1200 give or take people unhoused people in our community and we're setting up 150 spaces they're probably I mean they're going to be get full right so I guess I'm I'm I'm just still trying to understand that how that that interface will occur so that we ensure that enforcement when people actually have a space so I'm just trying to figure out how kind of as I'm sure you all are you know in how that's going to work on the ground in real time and I know there's no you know definitive answer but I'm just I'd love to hear how you're thinking about that a little bit thank you yeah I'm happy to share and you are you know but in terms of that but what I'll say is we've talked about things like you know all right can we get an app that provides real time information that each individual location then specifies that here's how many spaces we have available right now in real time and then individuals out in the field have access to that and they can swap specific individuals into those locations and so that's that's how we've been talking about it you know we haven't gotten to the point where we are you know making that a reality but we think that you know that may be the approach that we ultimately move to but you know really that is sort of a next phase conversation and it's it's one that we've touched on to make sure that yes we do need to do this is there a way that we can do it yeah we can do something like this but well most we still need to implement that and we still need to to figure out a lot of those logistics and and ideally you know we would also have you know the county or if there is a non-profit operator that isn't the city facility that we get them connected into into this you know the county has their own um intake procedure for for some of those but there there still may be opportunities through that so we we need to explore all those avenues and if you know the city rent facilities that's going to be the easy part because you know we've got we've got control over it but like if if we have a co-owner out there that's running these like are their barriers to entry for example that we need to be aware of and so so it it starts getting a little more complex and we'll have to work through that as we as we move forward thank you me I believe councilmember commentary Johnson is next and then I'm going to try to get us out to the public before this thank you I'll be brief I have many comments that I'll save until after public comment I do want to just take a moment to acknowledge you Lee and the whole team of I won't name all the names but that you've worked with what you guys have accomplished in the last few weeks is incredible so want to take a moment just acknowledge that I have one question can you describe what the selection process will look like for once we get the RFQ because hopefully we'll get a good number of providers that will be interested what does the selection process look like sure so what we're anticipating is that we have a short list of vendors that we can then go to and say all right we've got a location at this location starting at this time can you run a safe sleeping and then we'll get the more specifics on here's how much it would cost and then we can weigh those options say here's here's the location we are working to make sure that we are if we want to make sure that we maintain grant eligibility for these and so you know we're working through some of those procedures now that's that's how we're envisioning that process and subject to change as we work through those grant requirements but that's that's what we're trying to do as part of is as some of the finishing touches on this to make sure that we can still use for example CDBG funds as we roll these out and and while I've got the floor I'll take the opportunity to go back to Council Member Brown's question just broadly speaking this year we this year is is a little bit different because of the COVID dollars but roughly four million dollars this year that we've spent with about three million and services and about a million and clean up and hygiene and thank you so much Lee Council Member Condor Johnson is that the only question you had at this time that was thank you okay thank you okay we'll go ahead and take this out to the public if you are interested in commenting on this item what is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen and please press star nine to raise your hand when it is your time to speak you will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted for for those who have been approved for extra time there's just four groups I'll have you speak and then I'll go out to general public comment and again the timer will be set to one minute for general public comment so first up under approve the extra time for groups is see bright strong and I believe that is Tom Brown I see your you're unmuted there Tom so go ahead and we'll set the timer for two minutes great thank you Mayor and good evening City Council I think the draft is a really good start to a very difficult and in trans again problem but I think it is the right approach I do though have a few comments I had three comments in particular Lee Butler address one of them with respect to section 6.36.050 D which was the permitted camping section and excluding camping in residential areas there or schools solves one of the really big problems that was in the draft ordinance and so with that amendment I think see bright strong would be quite supportive of the amendment of the ordinance the other place where I think we have an issue is in 6.36.050 C D basically says permitted camping is city owned or city sponsored camping on city owned property is what it addresses C addresses private in cities having camping in residential areas and right now it does not preclude such camping in private areas I believe that's a gaping hole in the protections that the neighborhood were looking for from encampments and safe sleeping areas and so we strongly suggest that C have the same addition that Mr. Butler proposed for D okay so that's the two comments to the permitted camping areas we also have one comment on the prohibited areas which is 6.36.040 and our is to A2 and what that section says right now is that camping is not permitted adjacent to residential neighborhoods but it conspicuously leaves out the words in residential neighborhoods having maybe been jaded by lots of litigation in my lifetime I would if what we mean is that we won't permit camping in neighborhoods or adjacent to neighborhoods we say the words in or adjacent to neighborhoods and that concludes our comments thank you next up is the Santa Cruz business council and that's I believe phone number ending in let me look here sorry I've got too many notes tonight see I know it's 707 area code there's only one if it's in work work I see it yeah I see it and yeah phone number ending in 4546 this is for Santa Cruz business council you'll have two minutes good evening Santa Cruz city council members can you hear me yes we can okay great thanks for hearing from me tonight my name is Robert Singleton I'm the former executive director of the Santa Cruz county business council but this was a pretty important issue so I wanted to go ahead and say a couple words about it so before I talk about why I support this ordinance I want to give a little context for folks especially folks out in the public this is a major issue that's not the city of Santa Cruz or Santa Cruz county recently I've been traveling and speaking with a lot of city councils all over the Pacific Northwest and western United States this is a major issue that every single jurisdiction big or small is facing so we absolutely need a unified concerted and state and national efforts if we are to really make a dent a major problem so this I support the tolo ordinance as as stays here I want to talk a little bit about what this ordinance does right so this ordinance does provide more housing options for unsheltered folks and what we had previously had I know there's been a lot of back and forth about where management can't but the fact that the city has has gone and listened to neighborhoods gone and talked to a lot of people and identified these clear sites is a big step in the right direction I provide this ordinance provides a daytime storage program which is extremely needed when you actually talk with folks experiencing homelessness in the ground level about the things that they most need it's a place to store their belongings so they won't be stolen or impounded by the city so I applaud the city for going forward and moving forward by developing a program this program collects better data by going out and actually talking to people who are going to be in these management campsites we will hope to provide greater insight into what we're doing right and what we can do better having that quarterly census is going to help us better refiner services and better tailor them to need for people experiencing the ground so I support the ordinance to get the step in our direction and I appreciate the conference council come up with thank you thank you next up is Stepping Up Santa Cruz and I see Surge is on the line hi good evening can you hear me yes we can go ahead Surge good evening my name is Surge Cagno of Stepping Up Santa Cruz in a time when bring focus to marginalized populations bring focus to the systemic barriers against achieving equity and success this ordinance continues the marginalization of those with mental health challenges suffering from trauma and those suffering from poverty trauma informed care is a required practice for nonprofits in contact with the county and those funded the state and federal dollars through the homeless action partnership trauma informed care is the idea that people suffer trauma through their services offered should have sensitivity and flexibility should be intrinsic in their design they should not perpetuate trauma not all people who are homeless are criminals they're living in poverty have medical mental health domestic violence and trauma issues they have high numbers of adverse childhood experiences known as ACE scores they often grew up in poverty from unhealthy home lives and very often from foster care they deserve being treated with dignity and sensitivity to support healing trauma informed care is the best practice because it's more effective and cheaper hiring people in the middle of the night to go to an available location without a requirement of providing transportation is setting them up for failure this ordinance does not take into account our responsibility for our role in why people who are unhoused will not make use of our shelters and our programs many many people are banned from ever returning to our shelters this ordinance does not take into account our minimal level of support and lack of offer of management for encampments there are innovative programs in other cities doing outreach and incentivizing picking up trash around one's campsite and for signing up for benefits and services any population camping without management will get out of control whether that's people with three hundred thousand dollar RVs at a state park for people who are unhoused this camping band makes it more difficult for non-profits and county services to engage build trust and to offer services I applaud creating safe sleep locations in a storage program yet we all know they're based for everyone then why is this ordinance making being homeless illegal criminalized crime don't criminalize being poor and homeless please note no work group city work group has ever indoors the camping ban thank you next up is westside cares and I do not have a phone number but if the westside cares person somehow indicate who they are the Bonnie I'm not quite sure how to do this but the only thing I can think of is if I lower everybody's hand and you have them for hand let's do that so the westside cares person we're going to lower everyone's hand and then we'll have you raise okay um just the westside cares person that asked for extra time the bean are you the westside cares person okay go ahead hello I'm calling on behalf of westside cares neighborhood group in opposition to the new camping services and stand ordinance which will criminalize the existence of unhoused people using methods that have long proven to be expensive ineffective and harmful camping bands elsewhere have been marketed as a way to create services while enforcing with a light touch however research shows that when these types of laws are passed the increase in services tends not to materialize but finds citations and arrests increase then when shelters continue to be overburdened and affordable housing not available people are forced to break the law by either sheltering in public and risking harassment from the police or finding more isolated and hidden locations to avoid moving camp daily this worsens public health by dispersing people in their belongings to more remote areas of the city but nowhere to discard trash or bodily waste much research demonstrates that camping bands do not inspire people to leave town instead they travel longer distances every night in search of shelter and move more frequently between neighborhoods the nature of having to pick up and move every single day is a well-documented destabilizing force in people's lives team police report on homelessness and emails acknowledges that quote resources to help people just aren't there until we fix that we're going to continue to move them from place to place or incarcerate them which doesn't seem to be a good solution in anybody's book end quote it is widely acknowledged by experts that redirecting funds towards productive and preventative solutions is one of the most cost-effective weapons we have against homelessness this means providing people with meaningful support not proposing bare minimum services in order to justify criminalization an example of what we would like to see or as the Harvey West agreement camp by choosing to close it rather than support it is clear your only intention is to sweep the unhoused under the rug rather than lift our neighbors out of homelessness we believe we are capable of employing creativity compassion and critical thinking to lift people out of homelessness instead of punishing them instead of wealth research policy this ordinance was built from fear and animosity towards people who are unhoused it ignores experts evidence in the city's own point in time count it's enacted we can expect to see increased police budgets trapped in human waste but more most importantly human suffering thank you for your time thank you that concludes our available extra time folks and now I will go ahead and take people who have their hands raised just in the order that I see them you'll get one minute and the first person is joy go ahead hi this is joy shambled becker from sanitation for the people this new ordinance continues to criminalize houselessness while offering the most paltry and vague remedies and is misleading people living outside are not camping they are living and often working without housing allowing people experiencing homelessness from seeking shelter in parks and open spaces day or night effectively privatizes public land from them if essentially all land is private or privatized where can people go day and night storage are important programs that should be put in place but they do not replace the need for a resident to establish a home for themselves or to have the tool in their workplace often their tent or vehicle it doesn't add up where will the several several hundred people not served by safe camping find sanitation and waste management how will you ever be able to enforce this ordinance when you have so few spaces 150 safe sleeping spots is woefully inadequate sanitation and waste management are still not adequately addressed and too vague stop criminalizing houselessness next up is an s go ahead please this is an simonton and I want to thank surge for their comments I agree completely and wholeheartedly with their comments it's very important for the city council to hear their comments the major goal of this city is to eliminate large encampments why are you creating the bench lands which is will be like the Ross camp again and we need managed camps I don't know how you can hear this but what we need is managed places for people who are working and living outside like the woman just said and that we need to create something like friendship or agreement camp this is incredibly important the city spent four million dollars with little or nothing for us to see as what have we done what has been accomplished moving them around and sticking them someplace else it's very disturbing it's disturbing that you can't come up with a policy that will allow safe space groups and you know nonprofits to create not trauma informed care thank you so much for your work I know it's not easy but I appreciate you listening thank you next up is caller with the phone number ending in eight four four three this is Altera Hatton thank you for taking my comment today I'm here today if I've been many times because I'm deeply concerned about your proposed ordinance agenda item 21 the house or unsheltered population you are again proposing ways to penalize their behavior you are targeting behaviors that are inescapable acts of daily life and you're creating a criminal class for this are simply survivors why has been occurs refused state funding to probable house of population in hotel rooms during this pandemic you put our whole city at risk not to mention denying our house of population the transition to permanent housing which has helped so many others pandemic across California why do you repeatedly introduce ordinances which violate Martin versus Boise it's very nice sounding for you that the city and county have an agreement which places a responsibility for care outreach and housing with the county but please understand that Santa Cruz is no longer a small town we have a hundred four million dollar city expense budget and a great many of us do not this city is simply a neutral mediator between the houses and county program thank you very much next up is Bob you press star six there you go you're unmuted go ahead please hi yeah I have I want to comment on two kind of aspects of this one is just that the city's approach to this ordinance has really fomented a lot of the wrong attitudes towards this problem by going forth with criminalization and trying to hide this deep structural issue in our society we're teaching our children to dehumanize the people that are negatively impacted and our house lists and second as somebody who has survived whose family has survived a wildfire barely the commute this groups that have sprung up in support of the especially adopting you know name of locality strong it's been a gross misappropriation of that sentiment of community strength and sticking together and looking out for one another and we should be leading with compassion next up is phone number 4931 we can hey i'm calling as a registered nurse in lower ocean neighbor i work in oncology i give chemotherapy to people from regularity i give chemo to people who are unhoused maybe living in a car maybe with a friend occasionally camping outside so we do our best to get people the housing that they deserve many don't want to use an available shelter options most often this is because they don't want to be separated from a partner or a pet but whatever reason it is it's a valid reason so i wonder when you pass this version of tolo and we all know in our hearts that you're going to pass it even though we're desperate that are called to empathy evidence and humanity will reach you when you pass this new ordinance i hope you think of my patience and the horrific impact that you and your ordinance will have on the little stability they may have in their lives when they have to pick up and move the stuff every day or else risk arrest or be forced into shelter that likely won't ever materialize but certainly is unlikely to provide anything they actually need maybe instead i can send them to renee golder's house no money in the budget says it's on the police budget if you put people in houses you won't have to pay the lease to grasp them you won't have to be so grossly it's by having to look at poverty as you drive around town thank you next up is sarah star six you can unmute there if you're available if you press star six you should be able to unmute and then you can speak i'm going to move to edward estrada and have edward go and we'll see if we can get sarah to to be able to unmute go ahead please edward okay hi this is edward estrada president of the college democrats at ucsc i want to highlight the qualifying disability section of disordnance my mother is disabled with an invisible disability severe chronic pain proving disability even to physicians as a woman of color is difficult and many physicians have not believed her i highly advise you to change the requirement that invisible disabilities require physician notes due to our disability for many years we lived off of five hundred dollars a month and lost our home if it wasn't for family support we would have been one of the many unhoused people surviving on our streets these people are just trying to live and criminalizing their survival is not a long-term solution for them our communities i stand with the aclu of northern california in opposing this criminalization of homelessness and i urge you to look into further solutions to build more affordable housing in our communities thank you thank you Sarah will try you again if you press star six that's correct right bonnie star six is unmuted is what we folks can unmute with okay sarah you're up you have to press star six on to unmute yourself okay well we're going to move to the next caller which ends in uh phone number seven nine oh wait sarah there you are you're unmuted go ahead please no i don't yes okay okay okay there we go go ahead sarah sarah we can't hear you will sarah i'll come back to you i'm going to catch the next two callers next caller will be phone number ending in nine seven my name's debora and i wanted to make a comment um the statistic i heard was that we have 1200 unhoused people so proposing 150 safe sleeping spots is obviously inadequate and we really need to do more i think at the county level we need to change the building ordinance to make it easy to build tiny homes identify county land build and manage tiny home villages managed encampments follow the models that have been working in other places like washington oregon oakland santa barbara we can do this if we have the political will and the moral courage thank you thank you sarah looks like you're unmuted so you can go ahead there are you using your ipad or um other streaming device or are you on your phone you need to be on your phone and then you should mute your television or streaming device if you are calling in using like an ipad or something like that because we won't be able to hear you if you don't mute those by i'm not right i'm not quite sure how we help her but i'll move on to the next caller the next call in person is user get slash or underscore two not sure and please press star six to unmute yourself hey my name is maryland garan and i also oppose the criminalization of homelessness as a retired teacher i think of that bumper sticker that says it'll be a great day when the schools have all the money they need and the air force has to have a big sale that applies also for all social services housing parks if we could take the approximately 50 percent money that goes to the military what we could do with that i also think of experience i had in 1966 to visit the former soviet union and my second cousin there they paid about five percent of their income for housing and a little apartment near a park we have a structural problem here it's called capitalism and you need something something better that provides for everyone that's my comment thank you thank you okay uh we'll try sarah again looks like you're unmuted sarah we still can't hear you okay um we're going to move on to the next caller which is three one two three ending in uh four numbers of three one two three hey this is mark helsey i'm a resident of this area and uh i wanted to echo my tom brown support for and thanks for the work that lee butler and the planning department have done to revise the ordinance and offer um an improved new ordinance regarding camping uh and i support fully support the council um adopting this ordinance with the improvements lee proposed and those also that tom brown suggested so i think it's a very very much a step forward and will be very helpful to community thank you thank you any other attendees tonight wishing to to speak i am not seeing any oh there's a hand um a couple other hands uh i have a caller with the name with the name uh skirt hi council members um this is skirt bonnigut formerly the Santa Cruz derby girl and i just wanted to call in and um thank council member brown for her questions thank uh lee butler for explanation of you know the app the interface um i am i'm still just sad to think that some you know council members will probably likely want to move forward with this measure um you know without a clear understanding of you know i still understand how the city will avoid criminalizing the 1050 people who will not be served by the you know safe sleeping sites and i'm just really sad at thinking about walking to work every morning and you know passing by people lugging their belongings behind them you know all their things and that i walk to work at every morning i'm just really sad thinking about having to you know witness that and just wishing my neighbor as well thank you uh next up is phone number ending in six seven nine eight please you should be able to speak we can't hear you have you press star six to unmute yourself there you go press star six to unmute and they should be able to go there you go we still can't hear you um if you have your tv on you should be muting it or your streaming device you should be able to speak you're unmuted on our end but we're not hearing you okay it looks like you're unmuted but for some reason we're not hearing you bonnie do you have any suggestions no except they can email the council with their comments that they would make and it would be submitted as part of the public record part of the record okay i'm sorry phone number ending in six seven nine eight we can't hear you even though you're unmuted so please go ahead and email the council and with that it looks like we've concluded um those members of the public i'll bring it back to city council now for further discussion and deliberation i've got councilmember walkins with our hand raised thank you mayor um i'll just make a few comments and then i'll um see if our staff wants to clarify some of the stuff that was brought up in the uh by the public um i i too want to just really thank our staff for their hard work on this and our community for ongoing engagement um and just really recognize the really large complex societal issue that we're really trying to do our best to address in the context of also learning from what we get right along the way changing what we don't get right along the way but continuing to solutions to support the health of those who are unhoused in our community as well as the health of our entire community as a whole i'm really encouraged that the state is uh stepping up and hopeful that we can advocate that for small cities like ours to get a good amount of funding to support the need here and uh also really looking at prioritizing additional programming and restorative justice programming thinking about a navigation center and ultimately really trying to find ways to support individuals either into supportive living environments or on a path to their independence and success in our community i understand the concerns and i appreciate the input to help us refine that um and i know that we've also spent a significant amount of time on this on this topic as well and so i feel confident that um you know unless there's any major major questions still pending from my colleagues uh i'm prepared to move the recommendation with the additional changes i would also just add how i want to echo what uh council were coming spread up and really prioritizing families and seeing how we're continuing to align our interest in supporting families into the county's prioritization of families into the continuum of care and however that is built into this recommendation as well and encouraged by thinking creatively around things like how an app or technology can be part of our solutions too in terms of really uh on the moment time of what's available to get people housed and in better sheltering i also want to also recognize the the value of the next steps that were outlined particularly around tracking data identifying need and refining and potentially expanding based on need and so i think something that we're going to continue to see brought forward and continuous improvement has to be our north star and so uh but also balancing the need to do something so with that i'm prepared to move the recommendation with the changed language as suggested by staff member walk-ins uh i see councilmember commentary johnson has her hand up i'll call yes thank you and i'll i'll second that uh motion with one um friendly amendment um i heard see by strong mentioned uh section look at my notes 6.36050c and to make the same addition that added to 6.360.050d so if um you're okay with that council member walk-ins to add that as well to the staff recommendation i'm okay with that yes okay and and i did have some comments um i too want to thank again the staff for your incredible work what you you accomplished in the last few weeks is is really truly i'm enough that was a lot of and i know that there's other other opportunities that you are working through with service providers in the community that haven't quite formulated yet and i want to thank the members of the community for your letters and your emails and your phone calls um and staying engaged on this very important issue um i i brought this up in past meetings around this issue and i'm going to bring it again it's just passion that is used all the time um one definition i've heard of compassion the word compassion in sanskrit is caruna and and how that's defined is that my heart is broken to act um and and that is what i truly see us doing right now is we are acting we are in action it's not perfect it's not complete and it never will be because we can't do it alone um robert singleton said this is an issue that's happening in all jurisdictions up and down the coast um mayor meyers uh spoke to that as well um we're not alone we can't do it alone um and yet we have to take action we have to be moving forward um and what i see that's shifted in the last couple months this is a justice issue is that we truly have um afflicted so that we're focusing on services we're focused on um solutions and we're focusing on contributing to the larger spectrum of services that are needed um no 150 safe sleeping sites is not enough and we know that there's going to be more that's going to happen um one caller mentioned we want we want managed camps we want faith communities and nonprofits to be involved um that's exactly what we're pursuing with the rsq process um the city posing to do um to do this by themselves because we can't we can't do by ourselves um and we also will hear more about this next week from our county partners but we know the county has a work plan the six next six months that really truly ties into what we're doing what we're doing is aligned with the county we heard that the governor approved dollars for homelessness um as a grant writer i know what it takes to be competitive as a community funders want to see communities that are in action funders want to see that we are capable of moving forward with solutions and so this is the stuff in that direction and so when the state sees that we have made progress and um we have set up 150 safe sleeping sites in a matter of months they're going to want to fund us because they're going to want to see see our effort um progress and and expand um so those are those are some of my comments um one other comment about public space um I just want to reiterate what Chief Hayduk said at the very beginning of this council meeting so some of our listeners may not have been on that uh one of the number one maybe the number one source of fires um are are unmanaged encampments in and we all remember what happened a year ago it was way too close and so these efforts this ordinance um are to mitigate the negative impact that can cause harm to all members of our community including those who are on house um so i'll just keep my comments to that but um just remembering again is my heart broken to act um and i'm happy to see that our community is acting thank you thank you council members so we have a motion um to by councilmember Watkins seconded by councilmember counter johnson to um to go with the staff recommendation with the additional additions um i do have one motion maker there was also a suggestion for section 6.3 6.04 a2 um it's adding the word in or i did check with lee butler he does seem to be supportive of that can that be part of your motion as well yes absolutely and then i'll i i just have one quick and then i i see council member Cummings and council member brown um the one thing i just um didn't recognize in my earlier comments was um i also just want to recognize my colleagues because um we've had this before us i think four or five times now um we've had you know literally thousands of letters we've had hundreds of people show up um to the meetings not everyone has been able to speak um we've also just individually fielded uh literally hundreds of calls and hundreds of emails um met with hundreds of people um and you know i looked back through my binder um today and i see that every councilmember has actually been a part of building this ordinance there is language from each and every single one of you in this ordinance and so that is what it looks like to create a law together um and i think that needs to be uh really recognized is that it may not be perfect it may not be what all of us want but this is an ordinance that has been through a process of deliberation and addition and um i want to just recognize my colleagues that you have all tried to add what you think are the most important pieces to this and i think that it is is to become much improved it is um very much focused on service provision and being able to do outreach and some of the things that i think have been missing in past camping ordinances and in past kinds of efforts um that i don't think really acknowledge that unfortunately because of the severity the issues we have we do have to spend resources to help people who um are experiencing homelessness in our town and so um we have to balance that with a lot of other investments that we also need to be doing with our local businesses and into our parks and for our families so that they can take our parks and rec programs and go to the team center so it's a balance for a little city like us but um i do want to recognize that everybody's had a piece in this and i appreciate everyone's work on this and um uh just want to so um next up i have councilmember coming there if i could interrupt before we get too far what was that friendly man what was your friendly amendment what my family amendment was to add um for section six three six point oh four oh a two in the last sentence it would say uh safe sleeping facility shall not be located in or adjacent to residential neighborhoods or school okay thank you thank you thank you mayor and i want to thank the members of the public who chimed in tonight um i had a couple questions and then i had a comment um my first question i remember a member of the public reached out and they will this is a question for staff they were wondering and i know it might not be this might not be the time for this conversation but they were wondering if there are going to be any kinds of barriers for people being able to um you know um utilize these safe sleeping sites so certain shelters for example have certain conditions for being able to gain access to those shelters and they were asking whether or not there would be barriers in place and if so what those barriers might be so i just thought i'd ask on behalf of this member of the public sure thank you for that question so we want to have as many low barrier locations as possible that's not to say all locations will be low barrier um you know we may have organizations that offer to run um facilities in a very effective and economical manner and they excuse me they themselves may have certain thresholds that people need to meet with or certain barriers but we want to as part of our facilities um have um as low a barrier as we can um so long as you know it's it's remaining a safe location for people to uh to be great thanks and then um i just had one other question because this really um gets to the the comments that we've been hearing around um sites going into neighborhoods and so like in or adjacent to neighborhoods and maybe this is for the city attorney is there a clear definition of what is considered adjacent to a neighborhood because it's something that i'm trying to like really understand like when we i mean Santa Cruz is like i feel like almost everything is adjacent to a neighborhood in Santa Cruz and so um when we're when we're considering citing and saying that you can't be in or adjacent to neighborhoods um i'm wondering if you can help clarify in terms of proximity what that would mean so the ordinance does not um contain a clear definition of adjacent to and the thought is that the establishment of these safe sleeping sites and any managed encampments will be an iterative process and so uh through being with the community to um to to bring forward uh safe sleeping locations as they're identified um you know what we expect to hear about it if it's if i mean uh a safe sleeping site is is set up in a way that intrudes upon uh an adjacent um residential area so so that's the intent we didn't want to be too specific because you're exactly right in that case um you know the the exception start this rule so so that's the reason for that okay thanks um i just have a few comments and i actually um have a a substitute motion that i'd like to make and i just really want to appreciate the mayor's comments um you know around us being able to provide input into this and i think that um you know that's that um you know we've all been able to provide some level of input into this um but the one thing that i've been hearing from the community and that i've been expressing throughout this process is that many people feel like they that there hasn't been enough outreach and opportunity for community members to weigh in and so um i don't have um i have more concerns around the process that we've uh had with bearing in this board a number of members of public contact in me and you know this is a new for many people they feel like this is a new ordinance that's coming before them and they haven't really had a chance to look it over and weigh in and um in while i think that you know we need to find a balance in the community around um you know what we're gonna like in the impacts of homelessness um but then also trying to provide services to people i think it's also really critical that we're providing people with an opportunity to weigh in in a meaningful way um it's based on the conversations we've had i mean we started this conversation back in february it's now may based on uh some feedback we heard earlier from city staff it doesn't seem like this is going to be up and running until probably late june possibly even july and with that i wonder just based on the timeline for the rfq identifying provider signing contracts you know getting everything up and running um it's it's likely going to take you know at least another month and a half possibly even two months until we actually have something up and running and i feel like within you know for members of the public who have expressed that they would like to have more opportunity to weigh in um it seems like we could use that time to provide um more outreach and more engagement with the community uh especially seeing as how what's before us tonight is you know the first reading of an ordinance and we agreed that we weren't going to bring forward you know what we previously had so i think for a lot of members of the public you know they feel like if this is something different they've only had a few days to kind of look it over um and so i'll i'll see if bonnie if you could put up the um substitute motion that i'd like to make so i i emailed over some language bonnie oh is it not sharing and well we just yeah your word word screen uh