Welcome to the 9 a.m. public portion of the closed session of the June 23rd, 2020 meeting of the city council. If a member of the public would like to comment on items that are session now is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen. In this part of the meeting, the public council will see full testimony there after the public closed and inaccessible. Please mute your television or streaming device once you call in and listen through the phone. Please note that there's a delay in streaming, so if you continue to listen in television or streaming device, you may miss your opportunity to speak. All council members are participating in this meeting remotely. I want to thank the public for staying home to be today's city council meeting. When it is your time to speak, there will be an announcement that you have been unmuted. Time will be set to two minutes. You may hang up once you have commented on your item of interest. I would like to ask the public to please call the roll. Hey mayor, council member is Byers. Council member is Byers. Here. Matthews. Here. Brown. Boulder. Here. Watkins. Vice mayor Myers. Here. And mayor Cummings. Here. If there are any members of the public who would like to comment on items on our closed session, again, now is your time to call in. And Once you are on the line, you will be unmuted and you will have to move. I think no. Members of the public would like to speak on this item. I'll turn it over to we're going to go into closed session. Good afternoon and welcome to our 12th 30th session of the June 23rd 2020 meeting of the city council. I have a few announcements and then we'll move on to our regular meeting. Today's meeting has been broadcast live on community television channel 25 and streaming on the city's website cityofsanacruz.com. All council members are participating in this meeting remotely. I want to thank the public for staying at home to view today's city council meeting. If you wish to comment on an item, on an agenda item today, call in at the beginning of the item you are wanting to comment on using the instructions on your screen. Please mute your television or streaming device once you call in and listen through the phone. Please note there's a delay in streaming. So if you continue to listen on your television or streaming device, you may miss your opportunity to speak. When it's time for public comment, press star nine on your phone to raise your hand. But if you're time to speak during public comment, you'll hear an announcement that you have been unmuted. The time will then be set to two minutes. You may hang up once you've commented on your item interest. And with that, I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you mayor. Council member fires. Here, Matthews here, vice mayor Myers and mayor Cummings. Here, we begin today's meeting. I just want to acknowledge a very tragic and unfortunate event that took place in our community. On June 25th, 2020, Alison Ender was struck and killed by an alleged intoxicated driver in the Seabright neighborhood. Alison was a public servant who was committed to fighting structural inequalities. She's worked for many Santa Cruz elected officials, including former assembly member John Laird and county supervisor Ryan Coonerty. Has worked on numerous campaigns and will be remembered as someone who is dedicated and passionate about fighting injustice and supporting her community. My heart goes out to all the Alison's family and friends because I know she will be dearly missed. In honor of her life's work, her life's work and dedication to our community, the city will be flying the flag to have staff in coordination with their funeral services. And before we hold a moment of silence, I would like to offer an opportunity for other council members and staff if they would like to share any words of condolence at this time. Council member Watkins. Thank you, Mayor. You know, I just, I want, I want to thank you for taking the opportunity to have this moment of silence and to honor and remember Alison. I had an opportunity to meet her about five years ago and just an incredible human being and when I had questions about things like trying to figure out how to do a children's fun when I first started City Council, she was always available to be a thought partner. And I think your comments around her commitment to the social justice and Santa Cruz, it's evident in everything she did. And it's absolutely tragic for her family. And I know that they're looking at doing a few memorials or remembrances for her. One at Galt Elementary, which she loves dearly. And I know both her daughters went there and other ways to give to the family. So feeling kind to support support either of those causes. I'm sure it goes really appreciated. So very tragic. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council member Mathews. Thank you. I think everyone who knew or worked with Alison is still this reeling from the loss of this, this beautiful spirit. Who was so dedicated to the public good and pursued her work with graciousness and seriousness and was just a joy to work with on everything. Whether it was really complicated public policy issue or just getting, putting together the Galt Street Halloween parade. I mean at every level she was just such a gift to all who knew her. And she will be truly missed. Thank you for acknowledging this. And I look forward to supporting efforts to keep her spirit alive. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor, coming for taking the time to recognize Alison today. I just, yeah, I just want to express my condolences to her family and all of her colleagues. And just seeing a lot of the sentiments expressed about her by people from all over the county and, you know, even broader than that, she just had such a large impact on so many different people. And, you know, she's leaving a legacy of it as a public, public servant that, though not an elected, she, she guided so many successful outcomes for people in our community. So my heart goes out to her husband and her daughters. And thanks for, for recognizing her today. Thank you. Yeah, I would just echo the comments made by my colleagues about what a special, what an amazing person Alison was and her contribution to the community. I met her, it's been almost 30 years now. We were working together on, you know, various electoral campaigns. And I, you know, I just appreciated so much her enthusiasm and her engagement. And, and then over the years, as she then moved into work for elected representatives in this community, she just always maintained such a commitment to being responsive to the community, to constituents. Her, she was, she was such a positive person, you know, her equanimity and her positivity just really, really will be missed. And I, my heart goes out to her, her husband and her daughters and to everybody in the community who loves her. And I just, in following up on Council Member Watkins, I know that family has asked for contributions to be made to Gold School through the Santa Cruz School's website in her honor if you're inclined. So thank you very much for the opportunity to reflect on Alison's contributions. Thank you. With that, I'd like to ask that staff, council members and members of the public join us in a moment of silence to remember Alison. I'd like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Oaxaca-speaking UP tribe. Some moments in tribal bands comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to Mission Santa Cruz in San Juan Batista, Transmanus colonization of the Central Coast. It's today working hard to restore traditional land stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma. On our agenda, it's a proclamation declaring July 2020 as Black Lives Matter. Now there's been a lot of physical and social unrest around the continued events of African-Americans in our country and people of color in general. There's still discrimination against women all the way through sexual orientation and given the fact that we've been seeing Black people at the hands of police officers who are using excessive force, I just thought that it was an opportunity for us to acknowledge that there's still work to be done to bring about meaningful change in justice around the community and our country, one and two, and two, claiming July as Black Lives Matter month, to remind our community that we are still fighting for human rights and social justice for all members of our community and that we should never forget that. And so with that, I also invited Joy Flynn. I'm not sure if she is on the line, but I invited her. She is a member of the public who led the first action after the death of the murder of George Floyd, which really brought our community together to begin speaking out about this here in Santa Cruz. It was an opportunity for us to come together socially distanced and truly reflected our community's desire to come together. And so I invited her today to receive this proclamation. And so I'll read some of the warehazards. Whereas Black Lives Matter is an international human rights movement originating from within the African American community, which campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards Black people. And whereas on July 13, 2013, hashtag Black Lives Matter was founded by Alicia Garza, Patrice Cullers, and Obo Tometi in response to the quiddle of George Zimmerman, a white private citizen who's responsible for the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. And whereas Black Lives Matter Foundation Incorporated is a global organization in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene and violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. And whereas the statement of Black Lives Matter is not meant to highlight the fact that Black Americans are two and a half times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police and is a call to the end of systemic racism, violence, and the oppression of Black people. And whereas on May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chalman in active violence that sparked outrage across the nation in a demand for justice, acknowledgement that Black people are not treated the same under the law, and demand for police reform. And whereas Santa Cruz police chief Andy Mills has openly spoke out to condemn the actions taken by the Minneapolis police officers that ultimately resulted in the death of George Floyd and it's called on police departments throughout the country to put an end to systemic racism, discrimination, and excessive force used in police culture. And whereas on the morning of May 30 of 2020, Santa Cruz community member George Flynn Wall led a peaceful action that brought our community together to honor the life of George Floyd and bring attention to the continued fight of Black Americans for equal treatment under the law and ignited numerous actions to bring about change in the Santa Cruz community. And whereas during the weeks after George Floyd's death, members of the Santa Cruz community have come together through peaceful action to acknowledge the unjust treatment of Black Americans and people colored by law enforcement in our criminal justice system and to demand an end to systemic racism and policing and police violence. And whereas Santa Cruz mayor, police chief, and city council are committed to working with the community to improve the relationship and secure trust between the Santa Cruz police department, the Black community, and other underrepresented communities and end systemic racism, excessive force, and discrimination in police culture. Now, therefore, I, Justin Cummings, mayor of the city of Santa Cruz, do hereby proclaim the month of July 2020 as Black Lives Matter month in the city of Santa Cruz and ask all residents to listen to and acknowledge the voices of the Black community members and support the continued fight for equal rights and treatment under the law to ensure people with diverse, inclusive, safe, and stable communities. So at this moment, I'd like to invite Joy if you'd like to say a few words. Thank you, Mayor Cummings. And the city council, I am honored. And, you know, I did that because I wrote here. My intention was to break the silence of the Black community and allow us to come together and start a conversation and have that conversation move towards action and have the people of color in Santa Cruz be seen not only by one another, but by our White community members as well. So that there is an awareness of our presence here and of our collection. And I'm so proud and so honored to be a longtime community member, Santa Cruz County community member. And that that action was not in vain. And that we figured and that, you know, there's been movement and movement still. So thank you very, very much. Again, I'm very honored. Thank you. All right. With that, we'll continue through our meeting. We have a very long meeting today. And so we'll continue moving on. But thank you, Joy, for joining us. I have a few announcements and then we'll move on to our regular meeting. Today's meeting is being broadcast live on Community Television, Channel 25 and streaming on the city's website, cityfantacrues.com. If you wish to comment on an agenda item today, instructions are provided on your screen. We will provide these instructions throughout the meeting. Whenever we move into an agenda item, they'll be opened up for public comment. Please note that public comment is heard only on items the City Council is taking action on and not on regular updates and reports. Items will be open for public comment during today's meeting and our numbered items to read through 38 on our agenda with the exception of item 35. So I'd like to start by asking the council members if there are any statements of disqualification today. Councilmember Mathews. I will be disqualified on the single business issue in the evening meeting, the decision, discussion, decision on the library. So I will be watching as a member of the general public, but I will not be participating in any way in the council discussion or vote. Thank you very much. Is there any other disqualifications? Seeing none, I'd like to ask the clerk if there are any additions or deletions. There are not, no. Oral communications announcement, which is that oral communications is an opportunity for members of the public to speak of items that are not on the agenda. We will do our best to respond to any questions once oral communications concludes. We are not able to engage in dialogue with each caller. Oral communications will occur on around 6 p.m. and will be held for 30 minutes. Next item on our agenda is a report on a closed session from our city attorney. Good afternoon, Mayor Cummings and members of the city council. This morning's council meeting commenced in a closed session at 9 a.m. with the following items to be discussed, which are also identified on the posted agenda. Item A was a conference with legal council involving liability claims, the claims of Linda Badarini and Nina K. Deal. Those are also listed on your consent agenda this afternoon as agenda item number 13. Council received a report from its labor negotiator on the following bargaining groups, police officers association, fire IASF local 1716, fire management, police management, OE3, mid manager and supervisor employees, FEIU local 521 and unrepresented employees. For the police management, FEIU 521, the mid management, OE3, mid managers and supervisors, fire local 1716 and fire management. Those are also agendized this afternoon on your consent calendar as item 14. Council also received a report from its labor negotiator on an economic hardship program that is being discussed and developed. The two items of pending litigation, first item is a matter entitled Jane Doe versus the city of Santa Cruz, Superior Court case number 19 CD 03688. The second item was ocean street extension neighborhood association versus the city of Santa Cruz, case number 18 CD 03212. On the latter item, the ocean street extension neighborhood association item, council received a report that last week the petitioners in that matter filed a notice of appeal of the trial court judgment to the sticks the pellet district court of appeal. And the council voted to join in a cross appeal being prepared by the real parties in interest in that matter. The action was taken on a 4-3 vote with vice mayor Myers and council members Watkins Golder and Matthews in favor and mayor Cummings and council members Brown and buyers voting in opposition. And then there were also two items of anticipated litigation involving significant exposure to litigation in which the council received a report from legal counsel, but there was no reportable action. Great. Thank you. Next up, city manager report. I'd like to call the city manager report, provide any updates about committee council on events and business. I don't have a report today, but there'll be one at the next meeting on July 2nd. Next item is our council meeting calendar. I'd like to ask the clerk if there's any updates to the calendar. Nothing from what was added to your packet, but just a reminder, we have a special meeting on July 2nd. I'll circle back to item number 34 on our agenda. I know that that item got continued, so would that be considered a deletion? That is continued, no, because it was agendized as continued. So yeah. Our agenda is the consent agenda. These are items 3 through 29 on our agenda. For members of the public who are streaming this meeting, now is the time to call in if you want to comment on any of the items numbers 3 through 29. I know that there are members of the public who are wishing to speak to items to item 5, and I'm wondering if we can provide those instructions in Spanish to ask people to call in. We do have Peter on the slide for translation. If you'd like to call in, please dial the numbers that are on your screen. Please remember to mute your device and then press star 9 to raise your hand and listen for the cue saying that you have been unmuted. All items will be acted on in one motion unless an item is pulled by council member for further discussion. Are there any council members who would like to pull items? I just have a question on item 20. I won't pull these items. I just have a comment on item 8 and item 24. When I mentioned in closed session that I'd like to see it let into two different sections of residential and commercial on item 5, and I don't know if that would need to be pulled to do that? While we pull it, it might be for the discussion on that. Sorry, thank you. My question was having also related to number 5. I'll just raise the issue now and we can deal with it later when we have the discussion. But it seems to me that, as Consent, it said consider additional potential options, which is very open-ended and that seems very similar to what we're talking about later on in the afternoon agenda. There's a lot of overlap there. So I don't know whether we want to focus on it for this item or I think it's 26. Not sure the number, but it seemed like practically the same item in two places, or at least a lot of overlap. Maybe that language wasn't removed and should have been part of the conversation later this evening. If we could not have the same conversation twice. I'm sure I'm not muted. I also just have a comment on item number 14, just a comment. Thank you. I would like to speak to items. Well, actually I guess we could start with the comments, questions, and then we can move those items along and then circle back to item number 5 after we move the other content items. So why don't we start with Council Member Brown. Do you have a question on item number 20? Thank you, Mayor Cummings. I am just wondering, so I appreciate getting the update on SB1 funds. And I know that the lift that we got as an attachment, which is required by the CTC, just has kind of general road repair and other and striping and other items that are allowable under the SB1 funding conditions. I'm just wondering if, because we don't have a list of specific projects, and I know that's not really possible to provide a list that's definitive that every pothole that's going to be filled. But I'm just wondering if you could give us a sense of maybe some examples of what that money is going to do. I think it's really important for the public to kind of know I do this with respect to Measure D as well, but these funds have really helped us move forward. So I see Mr. Schneider is here. Perhaps you could give us a few examples. Sure. Good afternoon, Chris Schneider, Assistant Director of Public Works. The SB1, which is the increase to the state gas tax, which was approved in 2017, has been used in the last two years. And this coming year that's identified in the Capital Improvement Program is to pave streets for street reconstruction and the rehabilitation of catch basins and corrugated metal pipe storm drains, which are over 50 years old. They're failing. And so it's been an ongoing problem for the city. We, when we come back to council with the authorization to advertise and paving projects, you'll see the list of projects that we're going to do at that point. Currently, we're looking at Fairmount pretty closely. It's in bad shape, potentially Chestnut, if we can find funding for the storm drain, which is having some big issues and a number of other streets. But you'll see the list, as well as the list of residential capesial projects in probably in the fall. And I hope you're welcome. Okay. Do you have any further questions? I don't seem like it. So we'll move on to Bison and Myers. Would you like to share your comments on item number 824, 814 and 24? Yeah, I just wanted to recognize our staff on these items. I, on item 8, this is the pursuing a revolving loan fund program county-wide as needed because of the COVID-19 impacts on our local businesses. Our county, our city staff is taking the lead on organizing this application. And I just want to recognize our economic development staff for this work. And also our partners at the county. I think this is the kind of leadership that we're showing in terms of really pulling together as a county and a city to try to do what we can do to bring resources back to the city and the county as quickly as possible to help our local businesses. So this is creating a revolving loan fund that would be accessible with a successful application. So I just want to recognize the efforts of our economic development department in doing this work. I also pulled item 14. This is the item recognizing and basically approving the cost reduction agreements with our bargaining units, the executives and the city manager for fiscal year 2021. The city is facing a significant budget deficits. And I just want to make a personal thank you to all of our staff and all of our units that they came to the table and we were able to get this done before the end of our fiscal year. And I just really appreciate all the sacrifice that people will be making. And just want to publicly recognize and thank everyone for their work on that. And also our HR director as well and our city manager in helping put those items together. And then finally just on consent item number 24 just for purposes of again recognizing the way that our city staff and the way that the city is supporting people in times of need. This item which is a little bit buried on the consent agenda is recognizing that the economic hardship that's ahead for many, many people in our community will be deferring our water and wastewater rate increases for a full year in order to help people offset some of the costs that they're experiencing due to the issues of COVID-19. So I'd like to just recognize our water director, Rosemary Menard and our public works director, Mark Dettle, this generated out of their own initiative and just a testament of how our staff is really thinking and considering ways to help people offset these impacts from COVID-19. So just wanted to also thank those two departments directly. And that's it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. All right. Are there any further comments from council members? Hearing none, looking for a motion to move the consent agenda with the exceptional item number five, oh wait, no, sorry, we have to open up for public comment. So this is an opportunity for members of the public to speak to any item on our consent agenda with the exception of item number five, which we will get back to after we have moved the other consent agenda items. So there are members of the public. If you haven't already called in, now is the time to call in. And when you have joined the meeting, please press star nine on your phone. And we will unmute you and allow you two minutes for public comment. Seeing no members of the public interested in the comment on this item, I'll bring it back to council to move the consent agenda. And so I see Council Member Browne at the hand up. Yeah, I'll move the consent agenda. Thanks. Okay. Motion by Council Member Browne. Council Member Golder, sorry to hand you up. So we have a motion by Council Member Browne. Seconded by Council Member Golder to move consent agenda with the exception of item number five. And I'll start to do a roll call move. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Byers. Vice Mayor Myers. Aye. And Mayor Cummings. Passes unanimously. So we'll bring it back to item number five that I think was initially pulled by Council Member Golder. So I turn it over to you. Just want to acknowledge that residential and commercial leases are two different animals. And so I'm just moving forward. We should maybe address them separately. And so I don't know if it needs to be pulled up or I don't know where to really go from here. But just that I know with, you know, if you have a business and like I was saying this morning in closed session is just I'm so sad to see some of our local businesses closing up shop. I was talking with Jocelyn Dubin who has a she's a black woman business owner downtown in their closing shop for good. And it's just so heartbreaking to hear that they weren't given any opportunity or, you know, and I just, I don't know. And so I think the business one might need to be a little bit longer or different than the residential. And I don't know. So that's the point. I just wanted to acknowledge that. I think two things. What made me a council member Goulders referring to is something like economic support or negotiating a reduction or something this has to do with simply adopting the ordinance preventing evictions due to nonpayment of rent, which is different than a business's decision to close. So they're both important. But I think your issue probably has to do with the item we'll be dealing with later. What are some of the measures that city could take? So just the clarification on that. And then regarding the item two here, considering additional potential options, I do want to raise again the question whether it would make sense to just eliminate that second part from this motion and deal with that issue in the afternoon. That's a larger question. So if that were the case, I would be prepared to make that motion. Move the adoption of number one and delete number two. And I think that that might have been, as I mentioned before, an error when we were Yeah. Yeah. It's a technicality. Yeah. Yeah. And I do want to ask the city attorney, given our item that's in the evening, should the council want to take further action? Would it be possible at that time, given the public conversation? And the fact that that was a report and there wasn't the direction for the action in item number 36? Just bear with me a second here. I think that should be, I don't see that being a part of the evening session agenda. But I think there is an item later in your agenda where some direction could be given. And I would assume that it would be in the nature of direction to return to the council that a future meeting with some specific measures or for the council to consider. So I do think that there's an opportunity to give that direction at some point later in the meeting. Yeah, go ahead. Just to continue on that. For item 36, the recommendation just for the benefit of the council and public receive a report on actions to date to assist local residents and businesses and provide direction and potential action on consideration. So it seems to me it's entirely consistent and duplicative. I agree. And I just, I suspect that the agenda report for item five was prepared, contemplating that it would not be on the consent calendar. And it was just an oversight when it was, when the decision was made to put it on consent. Yeah, I wanted to ask the question again just for the benefit of the public regard that I asked in closed session regarding changing the expiration date on this emergency ordinance to August 13th. This is a request I've made. I think this is the third time now that I have requested that we just move it to that date because that is the next time the council will meet after our July 2nd meeting. And our emergency, local health emergency is set to the extend for 60 days. And that goes well beyond August 13th. So I'm just kind of hoping that we can use that date rather than July 30th in order to just make that clean and know that nothing really, nothing could really happen to change the trajectory while we're on break. To the attorney? Yeah. So the question is, what's our, you know, the legal exposure related? Sorry, I didn't ask the question. I already got the answer. But so do you think that this would put us in a vulnerable position to just change the date? Yes, the current draft, the senior packet was written to coincide with the governor's executive order relating to local measures to protect residential and commercial tenants against evictions in the COVID-19 emergency declaration. And were the council to extend the date beyond, and just for more information, the expiration date is in the current draft of July 30th, or if the order is extended by Governor Newsom, then it would correspond with the date of the extension. I don't see a high degree of risk, should the governor allow his executive order to expire. And then in the 11 days subsequent to that, before the council can consider further measures, I don't see a great deal of risk associated with that. Thank you. Any other comments from council members? Seeing none, we'll turn it over to the public for public comment on this item. So if you're a member of the public, now is an opportunity to call in to comment on item number five, which is an extension of our eviction protection for residential and commercial tenants. So you'll call a number on your screen. Once you've called in, please press star nine on your phone. And when you are unmuted, you'll be able to comment on this item. Okay, so there's one member of the public who's called in. So who has a hand or a session set? Okay, you are on the line. Hey, good afternoon. I'm here coming to and council members. My name is Jorge Savala. I'm a COPA leader with Holy Cross Church in Paris here. We wanted to express our support for this to extend it. You will hear from other members from COPA later on today and leaders in our community that have been connecting with hundreds, about 100 families so far. They've connected with 81 families out of the 281 that we're calling that have visited a food pantry in the last months. I've managed the food pantry in the last three months. The volunteer, coordinating other volunteers, there's a lot of need. We've been able to feed people, but they cannot pay their bills. And they're slowly returning to work at this time. So we do support this extension and also looking forward to speaking more on item number 36 of the agenda. Thank you and have a great time. Great day. You have my time. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak on item number five? If so, now's the time to call in. And you'll need to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand.  Seeing no other members of the public who would like to speak on this item, I'll bring it back to council for action deliberation. Councilmember Brown. I'd like to move that we adopt the extension of this ordinance. And I, but with the change that we include August 13th as our expiration date, rather than July 30th. And that's in section six of the ordinance draft, the bottom of page four. So that is my motion. So just to, sorry for interrupting, but just to be clear, the language would state that the ordinance shall expire on August 13th, 2020, or until executive order number 28-20, issued by the governor, is further extended or rescinded. I'll second that motion. Okay. I'll second that motion. To the motion by councilmember Brown, seconded by vice mayor Myers to extend the emergency ordinance temporarily extending moratorium preventing residential or commercial evictions for nonpayment of rent as a result of economic losses related to the coronavirus with the change that the date will be, the date for expiration will be changed to August 13th. Councilmember Mathews. And just relative to the motion is restricted simply to item number one and does not refer to item two. Standing for the discussion from council. None. I'll turn it over to the clerk for the roll call vote. Mayor, councilmember Byers. Aye. Mathews. Aye. Brown. Boulder. Aye. What? Vice mayor Myers. Aye. And mayor Cummings. Agenda, consent public hearings. These are items 30-33. And for members of the public court streaming this meeting, any of these items are ones that you would like to comment on. Now is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen. Are there any council members who wish to pull items 30-33? An opportunity to comment on items number 31. If you'd like to comment on these items, please call in using the numbers on your screen. Once you've entered, please press star nine on your phone. We will unmute your mic and you'll have two minutes to comment. Any council members who wish to do it on the line? I think there's a delay. I think whoever it is, it's listening to maybe the stream. And so there's a delay because I can hear you in the background. The following item is a comment on items number 31 using the numbers on the screen. Once you've entered, please press star nine on your phone. Is it the last digits, four digits? I mean, number 6401, you're on the line. I think we're going to move along with this. So unless the person with the last four digits 6401 would like to speak to items numbers 31, 32, or 30 during our public hearing, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand. Otherwise, we're going to move back on to our regular meter. No one wanted to comment on those items. We'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation on items numbers 31 to 33 on our consent public hearing. Council member Matthews. I will move the consent with the exception of 30. Okay, so we'll motion by council member Matthews. Council member Watkins. I'll second the motion. Okay, second by council member Watkins. Bring it back. Are there any further comments or questions on these items? Seeing none, we'll bring it, we'll call on the clerk to do a roll call. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Byers. Aye. Matthews. Aye. Brown. Aye. Boulder. Vice Mayor Myers. Aye. Mayor Cummings. That passes unanimously. Consent, our consent public hearing, which is the second reading and final adoption of ordinance number 2020-13 amending chapter 6.91, Canvas retail license to allow license transfer. I just wanted to comment on this, well, comment on this item and potentially see if there are council members willing to take additional actions on my behalf since I can't make motions. But one of the things that I thought was really good was that myself, council members Watkins and Brown were able to form the subcommittee that was going to address the percentage requirement to allow for license transfers to kick in for businesses. And throughout that process, I felt like we worked really well together with the industry to come up with what we all initially agreed on, which was option number one. We then worked with staff and received more feedback on option number two. But then when we had our discussion last week, it was pretty apparent that one of the conditions that we wanted to raise was one of the conditions we wanted for approval was worker owned businesses. And with option two, that would mean that any change in ownership would trigger a new application process. And so personally, I just felt and after hearing from other members of the industry during the comments that day that there was a desire for us to have this application process kick in with changes more than 50% like to bring it back to council for consideration that the language, you know, all the other conditional languages, the changes that we made last week, that those don't change, but that we do increase the percent that would require the cannabis business to reapply for the city license. So we would increase that from 30% to 50%. And then the cannabis businesses, we need to inform the city of any changes to ownership under 50% as it was described in option one. So I wanted to just put that out there for my colleagues to consider. We can open it up for public comment or if some of them have questions, I think now it's time for them to ask, but if there aren't, we can turn it back over to the public for comment on this item and then bring it back to council for action or version. I see that Katherine Donovan from Planning has raised her hand to speak on this. Katherine, you can go ahead. I had trouble unmoving muting. I just wanted to point out that changing of employee ownership, generally there is a block that is owned by employees 20% or 40%, you know, some given number that the corporation allows as employee ownership and individual changes in the employees that are part of that block would not trigger a new application. And one other item is that we tend to think that 50% means if there's a less than 50% change, then it is not a change in the overall influence of who is making the decisions, but if you have a business that's owned by two people and those two people sell 50% of their share to one other person, then the person who owns 50% is now the majority shareholder and has the ultimate say in whatever happens with the business. So while 50% appears to be a number that keeps the business in the same ownership, it is not necessarily the case that that's how it really works in real life. Thank you. I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any questions. Okay, questions from council members? Seeing none, I'll go to members of the public. If there are members of the public who would like to comment on item number 30, which is the second reading, the final adoption of ordinance number 2020-13, emitting chapter 6.91 canvas retail licenses to allow license transfer.  Once you've called in, please press star nine on your phone and you will have up to two minutes to comment on this item. The last word is or 1-8-1-0, you are on the line. Yes, this is carrot. Phillip, I'll go through it again. Is there no amount of explaining how absolutely awful and misguided your requirements are for new cannabis licenses? Again, see one of the possible required elements of obtaining a license is the other factors, 6.91.090, license requirements, review factors. See, a majority of the business is minority or woman owned, even though you don't really describe what a minority is. But this means if you are a white male, you cannot qualify for this requirement. It is 100% in the hands of the council or not to discriminate on the basis of gender or race, and it appears you have taken that route. While racism is classically defined as a belief and racial superiority combined with discrimination or advantage of one race over another, this is nearly identical, but the opposite. It implies racist and gender inferiority of the same kind, assuming the gender female and race's minority that is non-white are inferior and cannot compete on a level playing field. This is an awful insult to these peoples, and I cannot see how you live with yourselves for asserting this. Since everything is in your hands, this is not regulation of others' behavior, i.e. is not justified for a matter of action, but outright reverse racism and sexism. All of you who voted this forward to today need to explain your vote on this matter. This is permanent law, and how you figure punishing people who's only wrong is being the wrong color of gender, according to you, is beyond comprehension. I would like to quote Jordan Peterson. The idea of collectively held guilt at the level of the individual as a legal or philosophical principle is dangerous and precisely the kind of danger the people looking for trouble would push. A cursory glance at 20th century history should teach anyone who wants to know how unacceptable that is. And that's it. Bye. Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak to us on this item? If so, please press start on your phone to raise your hand. And once you've been acknowledged, you'll have two minutes to speak. Hearing none, we'll bring back the council for action and deliberation. Council Member Brown. Thank you, Mayor. If I understand correctly from your comment, what you're interested in reconsidering is in, for a second reading of this ordinance, under 6.91.160 license requirements, that we on the number... I'm looking... Now I thought I had it, I had it right here that we changed the requirement from 30% for a new license from 30% to 50% plus one. Is that correct? Okay, I had it right here. So I would go ahead and make that motion. And I'm looking for the number within that... 6.91.120, number two. Number two, thank you. I thought it was number five and I just kept looking at it. So yeah, number two. So just with that one change from 30% to 50% plus one. So motion to Council Member Brown, Council Member Watkins. I'm prepared to move forward with the original. So I'll just vote no on that motion and we can revisit that at this time. I'm not seconding this motion. Okay, I'll second the motion. Council Member Brown, Council Members on this item. Council Member Mathews, I'll handle it and then... Yeah, not a question. Have we heard from the public to the extent that we are? Yes. Okay, yeah. I'll just say I prefer the original one so I won't be voting for this one, just YI. Okay, Council Members. Seeing none, we'll bring it to... I'll turn it over and see if we can roll call vote. Thank you, Mayor. I do just have a quick question. Does that change need to result in another first reading? This would be considered first reading. I will come back first, second reading. Okay, so that it'll be introduced for publication ordinance with that change. All right, Council Member Byers. Aye. Mathews. No. Only clear about the difference, the change in this one. Well, if there's a change in ownership of the campus business, that can result in more than 30 percent change, then the applicants would have to go into a process where they'd have to reapply for license with the city. Right. About 30 percent. But the motion is before us, it's only 50 percent, which is what was originally agreed upon by the subcommittee. And so anything below 50 percent would need to be reported. Any change below 50 percent would need to be reported to the city. Any change above 50 percent would require that the business owners and the interested parties would have to go into this process of reapplying for license. Council Member Golder. Yes. Watkins. No. Vice Mayor Myers. Vice Mayor Myers. Unmute. Sorry, I'm no. And Mayor Cummings. So that motion fails with Council Members that the Mayor Cummings voting in favor and Vice Mayor Myers. Oh, and I'm sorry. That happens. Yeah, I was thinking passes. With Council Members Golder, Fires Brown and Cummings Mayor Cummings voting in favor. Council Members Matthews, Watkins and Vice Mayor Myers voting opposed. So that will, this will be a first reading. So the first reading will come back at the next meeting for the second reading. And Mayor Cummings will have to come back at the first meeting in August for the second reading because the Charter requires the ordinance to be finally adopted at a regular meeting. On our agenda. So item number, I'm going to say item number 34, which is 914 and 916 Seabright. This item has been continued to the August 11th City Council meeting. And additionally, item number 35, the fiscal year 2021 proposed budget adoptions. Just so members of the public are clear, this item has also been continued to the live second 2020 special City Council meeting. To our next item on our agenda, item number 36, COVID-19 pandemic response options for consideration to assist local residents and businesses. So members of the public court 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 screen. The order will be a presentation of the item by staff for the council members who brought forward the item followed by questions from council. We will then take public comment and return to the council for action deliberation. Over to Bonnie Ellipscomb, director of economic development to start this item off. Thank you, Mayor. And good afternoon, Mayor and members of the City Council. I'm here today with Rebecca Unitt, who's our business liaison at the City and Economic Development, and we're going to co-present this item. But I did want to acknowledge actually the hard work of multiple departments and portions of the data that's going to be presented today. And of course, in some of the concessions and the work that they've done to lessen the burden on our businesses and residents from the impacts of COVID-19. So a lot of this information today really stands to all of the departments across the City. And as was discussed earlier today, if we're also going to be talking about additional commercial or residential tenant protection specifically on this item, obviously that will involve and engage the City Attorney as well as planning director Lee Butler as well. So I just wanted to acknowledge a broader discussion. We're focusing initially in this presentation on specifically on what we've done to date around support we've done around businesses and residents. And then we'll open it up for a broader discussion. Okay. Some of you will remember you've seen this before. I just wanted to briefly touch on the three stages of resiliency support and where we are right now. I mean, we're still, now the businesses are largely, not exclusively, but largely reopened or allowed to reopen. Some of them haven't been able to reopen. But we are in the survival rescue march through May and just starting to go into stabilization. And of course, there's a lot that goes into that. I think some businesses are starting to feel the recovery and some are just not there yet. So these are not exact time frames, but they're general enough for our discussion today just helps to frame our discussion. So a lot of what we've done today will be in this sort of dark keel category, survival, rescue, immediate needs, deferments, other business assistance, CBBG CARES Act. And then we're starting to move more into the stabilization, south door expansion program, some other grant long-term, larger grant programs and some loan assistance. And then longer term, late 2020 and beyond, we'll move into some of those larger capital needs, permanent working capital, fixed assets, and some of the work that the recovery council, council subcommittee will be working on as well. So what have we done so far? We have done residential and commercial eviction moratorium. You discussed that earlier today on your agenda as well. Emergency rental assistance for income qualified residents, and I'll give a recap of that in a little bit. Rent deferment for almost all of our city of tenants, so that includes businesses on the war and the parking garage in downtown, some of our former redevelopment agency tenants, cafe extension areas, et cetera. City utility and parking fee payment flexibility, alternative city tax payment schedules. This is our DOT moving from monthly to quarterly collections to allow some relief for our hotels. The city's executive order limiting delivery fees on food delivery from some of the independent companies have really, really helped a lot, heard back from a lot of residents and restaurants on that impact. Resolution supporting business interruption insurance to the state commissioner, and then community support platforms like Right Out the Waves, that have really made such an impact in our community to support local businesses while they were closed by being able to purchase gift certificates and others. I'm going to turn it over for a few minutes to our business liaison to talk about some of the resources on our website. Hello, Rebecca and our business liaison. So, beginning on March 13th, we first launched our information for businesses in response to COVID-19 page on choosesantacruce.com, our economic development website. This has become a really valuable source of information to the public and it's been utilized county-wide. We've actually received inquiries from businesses throughout the county based on the information that we've been able to provide. Since the launch of this page, we've had over 6,700 page views since March 13th. So, it's really getting out into the community. And when we launched our micro loan program on April 20th, we had over 800 page views just on that day alone of people interested in that program. And all in all, we've had 11,000 new visitors to the website since that initial launch in March. So, this has become really valuable. Next slide, please. Built out the website to provide new information as we've gotten new guidance from the state and the county and as well as the new programs that we've developed internally. So, when you go to our ToSantaCruise.com slash coronavirus website, you'll see this section that provides the different topic areas that we've created. So, providing the latest news on the county and state executive orders about rule changes, financial resources provided by different agencies, then the preparing for reopening and the temporary outdoor expansion programs where we've been spending most of our time lately. So, providing information about what industries are open now, that information was changing really rapidly over the last two weeks. So, keeping that up to date for businesses. And then our temporary outdoor expansion program providing the application portal there and all the information for that program for businesses to go to access it. Next slide. So, also in stage one, as Rebecca mentioned, we implemented the Santa Cruz Resilience Microloan Program. And this was funded through our Economic Development Trust Fund. It was $500,000. And it really provided critical funding to cash-strap businesses. Easy online application. In the first two days we had it open, we received over 90 applications. And given the amount of the funding, we actually had to close it. So, close the online portal and we were able to review those within a week and award the funding within two weeks of the program. And part of the focus of the program was really and it really was an emergency response. It was trying to help businesses who had applied for PPP funding but they were caught in a waiting period and they didn't know if they could continue to be open or they were closed and they were not sure if they could make payrolls. This is really sort of a bridge gap funding for many, many businesses out there. So, there were a few of the businesses who actually took advantage of our really short-term bridge financing three months, no interest, just to sort of bridge this gap until their PPP funding came through. Also, we were really looking at businesses not well served by other lending programs and so we had some flexible financing as well. Specifically, on looking at statistics, just in the first two days, we received requests for over 700,000 and loans requested. We were able to loan an award fund to 500,000 of that. You should mention, and I would be remiss if I didn't, this was with an incredible partnership that we developed with Center for Community Credit Union. They are amazing to work with. They're actually doing all of our loan servicing now. So, we vetted and approved the loans on our end and we deposited our 500,000 with Center for Community Credit Union and they're doing all the monthly servicing for us and they have been an absolutely great partner. 51 businesses were funded, 4% in entertainment, 25% restaurant, 33% retail and 37% service. This geographic distribution, I'll show that in a second, and 59% of the loans were granted awarded to women-owned businesses and 25% were minority loans. And this is just to show you sort of a snapshot of where the loans were made city-wide. As you can see, it's largely along from our major commercial corridors, obviously a big concentration downtown. Some on the east side on Soquel, Seabright, Harvey West and the Sashmill were where the majority of the loans and a few on the west side. Here are just a couple of quotes. Here's one from the crate place that is definitely heartfelt and really made our team feel good about the impact. And then here's a few more from Homework, Childish Toy Shop and John's Electric Motor Service. And we can do a fuller debrief, those of you who are interested, we've been definitely in response mode ourselves, but we do have a lot of information and details about the program to share if any of you are interested. Now I'm going to turn it back over to Rebecca to talk about our Jumpstart Your Restart Kit. Thank you. So our Jumpstart Your Restart Kit, we were able to acquire hand sanitizer from Smith and Van Beter in Watsonville and floor signage from community printers, as well as printing some posters for businesses about social distancing that we also had printed by community printers and masks through our 10,000 mask program. We had supplies. We anticipated being able to give out possibly 200 kits based on the supplies that we had and we've actually been able to give out close to 300 now. We still have some supplies that we're recirculating out into the community. So this has been a really, really successful program and something that's had a tangible impact as businesses have been reopening. And we have some pictures here from our initial give-out day where we did a drive-by pick-up for the kits, which was a really great deal. It connects with the business owners and we have a really brief video of that activity as well, so I'm going to show that. You know, I'm challenged with the video of Rebecca because they've put in the wrong spot there. They've put in the wrong spot. Yeah, we can not go on. So we just want to provide a bit of positive feedback as well from the community. As you can see, people are really appreciative of the support and being able to provide these really essential supplies because a lot of the supply chains have become really impacted and limited and so the businesses were able to utilize these resources when their normal suppliers didn't have the supplies that they needed. Next slide.  The applications began being accepted on June 8th. This was a result of the executive orders that Shane Manager Martin Bernal issued. We have so far permitted 24 businesses through this program and we have about 12 in progress and continuing to do outreach to businesses as they're interested. We've provided a map here to see where the distribution is so far and it's largely in the downtown right now and then quite a few businesses. There's actually a the cluster over there is the Swift Street Courtyard being able to provide some extra space for the wineries over there. So there's been a lot of strong interest and a lot of appreciation from the businesses about how we've really been able to streamline that process for it and be creative and creating new opportunities for them. And so we also have the street closure as active on the 1100 block of Pacific right now and then last week we opened up the eastbound lane of Calf Park in front of Blue Glow and Hula. So next slide. I just want to provide some images there. So this is the most recent closure on Calf Park. You can see Hula's end on the left and Blue Glow on the right. And just been really exciting. I saw from Blue Glow over the weekend that they filled out food the first day just had really great demand and it's been really successful for them to be able to reopen their dining in service. So I'm looking forward to seeing that continue to be successful for them. Next slide. And this is the Pacific Avenue closure, SNAP Taco and Piontees. And it's been really great to see the creativity of how the businesses have been able to set up these spaces and lots of good feedback from the community as well that has a really appreciating these closures and the opportunity to use our shoes a little bit. Definitely. Next slide. So we're definitely still processing applications and interested businesses are encouraged to visit our website for this program to standardcrews.com.com. And I'm always happy to be a resource as well to walk people through the process. And then moving on still to survival. One of the early feedback we heard from a lot of businesses who particularly during the closure were those that had no online presence. And so they didn't have a way to continue and communicate to customers about their business. They couldn't sell online. They didn't have that platform. And through conversations with the local tech entrepreneur, Toby Corey, of course you all had a presentation from get virtual at your last council meeting from the students. So I won't go too much into detail on this because you recently just had a presentation but how this came together and the support and connecting the students at UCSC to local businesses has been such a huge impact. And we're continuing to hear appreciation. They have over 100 businesses now in the queue. They've completed websites and e-commerce platforms for more than 40 businesses now. And they do need some further assistance. This has been done all through the university for the coursework. And then through some volunteer donations actually Toby Corey donated 20,000 to keep it going. But they want to continue for those students to be able to work over the summer and early fall to get the rest of those businesses in the queue up with their websites and e-commerce platforms. So this is making a huge impact locally with our businesses. And I'll tell you in a few minutes about some of our survey responses and existing needs out there. And having online infrastructure and support to develop that is one of those things we're hearing about. Here's just a list of a few of the businesses that are being helped. And I said there's over 100 in the queue right now that GetVirtual has agreed to help. And being able for local businesses who aren't familiar, this is out of a comfort area for some of them, being able to use virtual tools having really straightforward simple e-commerce platforms has made all the difference in the world. And it's been an incredible experience for the students to be able to make that, really that direct connection to what they're learning at the university and the programming and seeing that impact local businesses. It's been pretty incredible. So moving on from that, I'm going to switch gears a little bit to some of our CARES Act funding, CDBG funding additional assistance on top of our normal CDBG allocations that you approved a few months ago. So there are seven. We received 283,000 through the CARES Act CDBG allocations. They're through Community Bridges, Media Action Board, Second Harvest, Santa Cruz Community Health Center, BNCIS, Farmers Market, and Hope Services. I'm briefly just going to describe a little bit about each of those programs because we didn't have a whole lot of time when the pandemic, we were first experiencing a bidding when we came to council. It was emergency, we approved it. And so I received a lot of questions on what this funding went for. So I wanted to just explain a little bit. Community Bridges was awarded two grants. One was for the Elder Day Program. And this is really to develop daily enrichment activity for senior services to really reduce the isolation, particularly since they're a most vulnerable population right now. So Community Bridges created the Elder Day Program and expanded services to help them as well as expanded their at-home delivered meals for older adults, 60 years and older, for on the Meals on Wheels Program, impacting 500 participants. Community Action Board, additional 30,000. This actually allowed them to leverage some additional home funding that we were able to grant to them. And this allows for the tenant-based assistance program for extremely low, very low and low-income residents who cannot pay their rent due to unexpected job income loss. On this administrative side, on the home side, we were able to give them 200,000 to implement this program for rental assistance. Santa Cruz Community Health Center, 30,000. This is to provide medical visits for COVID-19 and also urgent care for non-COVID-19 services, testing, tracking results, as well as a food pantry and expanded food distribution services. 30,000 for Santa Cruz Community Health Center. Deantis providing low-cost dental care. This allowed for continued emergency care and implementation for safety protocols and measures for continuation of services to 28 underpatients during the pandemic. And so 46,000 to be in this for that. And then the Santa Cruz Community Farmers Market, 30,000. I think initially in their application, we were just looking for the month of June. We've actually been able to leverage this 30,000 to go through the end of this calendar year. And this is actually going to provide expanded supplemental nutrition assistance, commonly known as the SNAP program, by providing fresh food purchasing assistance at the Farmers Market. It's a three-to-one value for low-income and non-income individuals and families. And this is serving 400, currently 404,000 participants at the Farmers Market each week. Second Harvest Food Bank, 51,000. And this is increasing the food distribution to 25,000 individuals and families in our greater community. This is a tripling over their usual distribution. Services, close to 18,000, which is really helping transition their clients with developmental and intellectual disabilities to distant learning service models. Those include providing internet connectivity at their home, Chromebooks, laptops, tablets, headsets, and really support for home setup for approximately 57 clients in our community. And then also on the CARES Act side, some of the leveraged funding and with our home and Red Cross funding, we were able to provide to the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Cruz 125,000 from our home funding and another 11,000 for Red Cross through our security deposit program. And this is paid directly to the landlord and at least 90% of the households must be at or below 60% of area meeting income. More than half of those served are actually below and generally at the 30% of area meeting income. And at least 50 families or households are expected to be assisted with this funding. And then the Community Action Board, this is the program I was referencing earlier with the leverage from the CARES Act 30,000. This is 200,000 in home funds, 30,000 in community development block grant and another 11,000 in Red Cross. And this extends existing eviction prevention program to our existing program with CAB to provide up to two months of direct rental assistance to income eligible households. That's those earning 30, 50, and 80% of area meeting income. Additionally, we have 20,000 to California Rural Legal Assistance to provide tenant legal assistance and another 20,000 through our core program. So 40,000 for legal assistance. And then through this year's CDBG allocation, we also have 457,000 for homeless prevention infrastructure in our current year budget. And an additional 35,000 in CDBG for homeless program services. Okay, I'm going to shift gears again to talk a little bit about some of the community outreach that we've done around issues related to the pandemic. And this first one is just a really brief snapshot. I know we're coming back to council later with a fuller debrief. There is a survey that's been out a little over a week and a half for tenants and landlords. And right now in today, we have 119 responses. So as a protest to the mayor and some members of the public, we are continuing to keep this survey open. So we'll provide a more robust response of some of the survey responses in the near future. But I thought it was really interesting to just share this right now. Of those that have responded so far, 81 are renters, 29 are landlords, and 11 are either of those or are outside our community or homeowners that are not landlords that responded to the survey. And of those that did respond to the survey, 61% said that they had not lost their job as a result of COVID-19. Almost close to 40% had of those that responded and asked whether they had experienced a reduction in pay or reduction in income. Over 67% of those who took the survey said yes, that they had experienced a reduction in pay or reduction in income. As I said, we are getting some really interesting responses. There's actually about 11 questions. And so we will come back to you when we have, you know, when more members of the public are able to respond. And this is just a snapshot at this time of some of the data that we're getting in. Additionally, we've been doing, since May, another actually pretty detailed survey on businesses and industry outreach. And so we have some detailed information. I'm going to, again, just highlight some of it today. It's pretty dense. And we are continuing to keep this open. We are doing targeted outreach and to different sectors in our community business sectors, industry sectors, and gathering information and feedback. And so we have some interesting data to share with you today. So far, we have 90 responses to date. Approximately two-thirds of the respondents had five employees or less. And I think that's interesting when you just look at the snapshot of small businesses in our community, about a third of those were sole proprietorship owners. So in our community, 59% or 57% of respondents had had to lay off for furlough workers due to the pandemic. Three businesses out of the 94 that have responded to date actually have had to close permanently. And obviously, I know we each have heard of many other businesses in the community. So again, this is just a snapshot of those 94 that have responded at this time. We are actively reaching out by industry sector on getting additional data. So we will have more to share in the future. This is just showing you representative of who's responding and what businesses are being covered as far as our industry outreach. So you see anything from cannabis to construction, retail, medical, hospitality, and tourism, personal services, ports and recreation and creative services represent who's responding and really is representative of the industries that we have locally in our community. This is just, there's a section of the survey where they could provide qualitative responses of what their top needs are and how we as a city could help them. And a summary of some of the top needs that we heard time and time again from those in the food and beverage industry has been and not surprising as downtown is now reopening, but needing more foot traffic downtown and being able to assist in whether it's marketing, getting the word out. And part of this can be something we've been working on at the county level and with the community foundation and the local businesses on the Economic Recovery Council. But in that pledge of it's safe to come downtown, it's safe to come to the east side or the west side or it's just safe to come to our businesses. The businesses are making a pledge on safety protocols and procedures. And now with the governor's order to wear a mask and the public and places of business, how to in a friendly way really demonstrate to the community that their employees are following safe practices and encouraging any to come into their store to follow them as well. So that people feel safe actually going into brick and mortar retail, going to restaurants and eating outside. This is Rebecca sort of outlined in our Outdoor Expansion program. A lot of feedback on needing assistance for outdoor seating and eating. This is some of the feedback we had early on that really prompted us. But quickly working on trying to get and working with, I will say, and acknowledge our planning department and our public works department, our fire department who came and filled all the payrolls and parks and rec department who was there to help whenever we needed anything. I mean, this has really been a whole city team effort to make the Outdoor Expansion program successful. And we've had great feedback on that. Rebecca shared some of it and will continue to reach out to businesses and areas. One area that we have guidelines for but we haven't received any applications for is expanding into the alleys. And we do have some guidelines that are hoping that we can do some Outdoor Expansion into the alleyways as well to really help activate those spaces and draw more people downtown and outdoors. We've received quite a bit of feedback on commercial rent landlord assistance. We do have from some of our just, you know, listservs, templates for how to negotiate with your landlord to work out payment plan rent for Barron. Again, you know, we're not trying to provide legal assistance. We want to make sure we're staying away from that. But there are a lot of models out there and their resources. So we're sharing those on our website for those templates that are available and making sure that we participate in webinars and with our agency partners, you know, at the Chamber and SCDC to make sure these resources are getting out for businesses in our community. And then back to the city again, feedback on sort of city cost control of water, garbage fees, infection, expedited permits, et cetera. And I think as a city, we've been really responsive on that just including the staff recommendation that you approved earlier today to deferral of the planned water and wastewater rate increases as well as the hardship of being able to delay utility payments and not having utilities shut off, reduction of garbage services, reduction of parking fees downtown. Summary of needs for retail, really needing to get that traffic. So sales through events online and in-person events, one of the virtual assistance models they provided for Pacific Trading Company was being able to have sort of these concierge online services where you could enter sort of like a trunk shopping service of various information and how the owners come back with recommended clothes online for you to sort of go through and then set up a special appointment where you can come in and try those on. So really creative ideas like this are different things that are happening. Assistance really saying trying to balance those safety needs. Again, it's sort of that wanting to make sure they're communicating to the general public it's safe to come to the businesses and then also at the same time wanting their employees to feel safe. Like how do you manage that if a customer comes and doesn't have a mask on? And so providing some assistance and best practices around that is some feedback that we're receiving. Again, assistance taking on new business models, going to more online platforms, online infrastructure and signage and communication about reopening for some of that information that we had in our business kits as well as working on this pledge with the Economic Recovery Council. Services and other industries including hospitality. Again, across all of these sectors including we're hearing employee and customer safety is really a top priority with proper protocols, additional supplies, particularly early on needing bulk sanitizers and masks. We're still, as I said, handing out those where we had extra and could provide those. We're providing those back out to the community. Request for rent abatement for small businesses anything you can do to assist. Looking again we've had some feedback on the micro loan program assisting with new modes of operations such as website content writing and again enhanced marketing and advertising to reach a new client base and refine offering. This is something that we definitely is an area that we can help with as far as collaborating with different organizations, BTA, Eastside Business Groups to really help them with their marketing so something that we see coming out of this that we'll want to do. Rounding out what we're doing in sort of this current stage that we will be on for the next you know five, four, five months is the what you approved earlier today was the application for us to partner with our other jurisdictions and the county in applying for a revolving loan fund program through the Economic Development Administration. We've had a really good working group as we're working through what some of the program details will be who will be our administrator underwriter and working through match requirements with our EDA rep has really been a good process so far. And then at the last council meeting you approved moving forward on some infrastructure that we needed on the war and so we've actually already submitted that grant now following the last council meeting so we're just responding to questions from EDA at this point we're really hopeful we'll be able to move forward with that infrastructure. Additional two other things you approved today is the local housing trust fund match. This is the program where we take what's in our local affordable housing trust fund and it's a state program they have 50 million statewide and we're really hoping that that fund amount increases we're eligible to get a full match which goes up to five million but it really will be dependent upon state funding availability so that was approved by you today and we'll move that forward without application this month. And then our permanent local housing allocation is 1.5 million that will be over a five year period that also will go into our affordable housing trust fund and we'll be able to use that to leverage affordable housing development. We have a number of projects that we've been working on over the last couple of years per se metro project is one of them. One of them is the first phase of that which is really looking at property that we control plus an adjacent assemblage that we'll be bringing back to you next week on July 2nd. And then depending on what happens tonight on the library next week project the recommendation is to include 50 units of affordable housing. If that's approved this could be another project that we could use for some of this affordable housing funding. And then continuation expansion of existing programs definitely see the outdoor expansion for restaurant and retail expanding potentially additional treat closures that must be some piloting of an alleyway just working through case by case some of the special needs that are out there. And then there's quite a bit of legislation and bills that we're following in addition to there's a number of them outlined in the staff report but they're both for residential tenant support as well as some overall relief for economic recovery, housing development and homelessness prevention. So there's a number of bills that we're tracking very closely. And while I don't have it in the recommendation today it would be great to have direction or have council direct staff and really put out support letters for some of these bills that are currently at the state level in the Senate and the Assembly. They're really worthwhile bills that can provide a lot of relief to our local residents and businesses. Stage three, we're not there yet but I did want to highlight a few things that I think really could make a big impact on our recovery and rebuilding efforts starting sort of into this year into the next couple of years. And obviously the work of the Council Subcommittee Recovery Committee will really guide a lot of this effort but capital improvements including mixed-use affordable housing development, downtown revitalization. Downtown's changed and it's across the country it's not just in Santa Cruz. The pandemic has really changed and that are people that feel comfortable coming into brick and mortar stores. So downtown, east side people are seeing people and loyal supporters but we need to do everything we can to make people feel safe when they're coming to our commercial areas. So supportive existing projects from the pipeline getting more people living downtown and living in some of our commercial corridors will really help provide some of those essential services that really keep businesses thriving in times like this. Really looking to our partners you know we're all in this together so creative partnerships with ECST like Get Virtual Foundation Monterey Bay Economic Partnerships some local tech companies and other companies and non-profits Community Foundation. All of these partners are working hard to address issues related to the pandemic. And working together I think we'll be able to do some pretty impactful things. We currently have our Go Santa Cruz program we may consider an expansion of that and some additional community reinvestment funding working with local banks. Obviously the revolving loan program if we're successful on that could have quite a bit of impact. And I think additionally we've had an NRCIP budget for some time some funding from our former redevelopment bond funds that have been set aside for reinvestment for key commercial areas. So we have some for Ocean Street some for downtown revitalization we've been trying to time some of that some for the farmers market. So being able to invest and revitalize will really encourage reinvestment and support our local businesses. Finally just to the recommendation again we're back to to stage two where we are right now and beginning of stabilization you approved earlier today the EDA revolving loan grant application consideration is one recommendation of around two of our microloan funding. You know we definitely heard back from some businesses we had one of their criteria criteria that you know we gave more points for business who had been in business for longer than a couple of years and the rationale behind that is obviously the first few years of whether or not a business you know can be successful or not. And we just from a risk perspective we chose to emphasize more points for those that had been in business longer and I think as we're looking for a potential round two microloan funding that could be a criteria where we make sure we focus on businesses across the spectrum even if they're new businesses. It's 500,000 it did go quickly there's definitely need for more so that's one consideration and recommendation following looking at the work that management partners is doing for the city with the slot team and with the council committee budget committee looking at that forecasting model and seeing if it makes sense to recommend an additional commitment from our economic development trust fund for microloan funding. And then a consideration of 30,000 and again in the economic development budget from the ED trust fund to allocate to getvirtual.org to enable that program for those businesses that are already in the queue with Get Virtual to be able to complete those online web presence and e-commerce platform through the fall is a recommendation. And then finally to direct staff to return to city council in August with an update and preliminary overview of longer term recovery recommendations along with the work that is commencing with the recovery committee council assembly. And with that that concludes our presentation and we are available to open it up for the larger discussion. I know you also want to talk about tenant protection as well. So open it up for the larger staff team here at the city to respond to your questions. Thank you. Great. Thank you for that presentation. There's a lot of information in there and a lot of useful information for our community. So thank you for kind of pulling all that together and compiling it in such a clear way. I'll turn it over to council members for any questions they have. Vice Mayor Myers. Yeah, thank you. Bonnie and Rebecca for the presentation. Really great to have all of it in one place and really thankful that you're doing so much work on gathering so much information and really helping our businesses express sort of the different things that are affecting them. So it's really helpful to get both the industry breakdown in terms of the needs and also the kinds of problems that we're starting to see surface with either businesses or residents in stabilizing themselves here in Santa Cruz. So thank you for all that work. Not quite sure where you're finding all the time to do all of this but just want to appreciate the work that you guys are doing. Quick question on some of the recommendations and I think you might have just answered one of them on the microloans on number three under your recommendations. So you are suggesting that that we do that through the forecasting model by management partners and that would come back for example in a later date since we sort of have this we sort of have a working budget approach right now is that is that sort of what's captured in your number three. Yeah I wanted to be sensitive to the fact that you haven't had the opportunity yet both as a counselor away on our budget since that's being considered next week and then budget council committee also really wanted you to have that information of what the forecasting model is what our revenues and expenditures prior to us making those decisions about our overall budget just felt like you needed that information I think you need that information before you committed additional funding with that said this is a recommendation from our economic development trust fund so it's not general fund money but I want to be sensitive to the process and your evaluation of the budget and then my other question Bonnie is and I'm sure you're doing this either through the countywide economic committee or just internally there at Edd but I know the the governor just finished the budget are we also are we also obviously trying to mirror or assess any opportunities through state through the state now that the budget has been settled and maybe if you just can explain a little bit how your staff processes that information so that you know we can look at how that might hit here here locally because it's unfortunate obviously that are the you know the the fifth round of the federal support has not is not being acted upon so just curious about how you're evaluating and looking at that state those state times of opportunities and those are my questions thank you yeah I mean we're following closely and just actually with the budget just coming out really just starting to get deep into and through the governor's budget and those recommendations to see how they're going to impact we're still tracking down trying as an opportunity to follow up on that additional three billion of CARES Act funding that's supposed to come through CDBG as an opportunity you know there was initially a lack of clarity and still sort of continues on what amount of that funding may be available at the local level and so in working with our lobbyists and working with representatives and actually through the mayor's assistance as well and getting those phone calls with our state you know and federal legislators and trying to make sure that you know if there's funding available that we're aware of it and we can apply for it and bring it home you know just tracking you know whether it's through the leads you know Caled and our local economic development statewide program and lead organization on different bills that are out at the state level different you know bills that are at the national level we're tracking those you know and we're also working with our planning department who's tracking those also on that side as far as you know permitting and getting development moving forward so we're looking at it from all angles and that's kind of you know what we're doing at this time I don't know Rebecca if there's some other things that you want to share you're also participating with the Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance and so there's a lot of good information that's coming through there also of opportunities of what's happening at the state and federal level so we're communicating sort of across our various with serves our neighboring jurisdictions and really trying to partner and leverage and share information where we can thank you yeah I think it's particularly important for our community to understand the balancing act that we have right now with our own budget deficits and you know employee furloughs and impacts to our own to our own internal needs and also trying to be creative and provides as much support as possible so it's easy to get out of balance and unfortunate you know with but the unknown length of time that we're faced with with this so just important for our community to understand that we can do we're trying to do as much as we can obviously you guys have done a huge amount so but we also have some real real damages to our to our own budget as well so thank you thank you to Bonnie and your whole team for all the work that you've been doing to support the community with this I have three questions the first one is how would one know about the survey is there a way it's being advertised other than just being on the city website landlords and tenants in addition to being posted on the main city page we also send it out to all of our partners so we send it out to the housing authority we send it out to who else do you send it out to cab we had it translated into Spanish so we've been distributing it out to the community it's out there pretty broadly for the industry outreach survey again we have it on our main page under COVID resources page and then we are actually we divided up based on our business licenses lists by industry sectors so that we can get a good sampling and we are actually outreaching to them individually and council member Matthews is helping actually on the hospitality side and we have room for more if any of you are interested in making calls but it's a pretty detailed survey actually if you've had a chance to look at it it goes it goes deep into each industry sector and really tries to pull out you know questions on their impacts and what would help them move forward so that's that's what we're doing we're also sharing it with our partners you know whether it be the chamber you know at CDC some of our other other partners to get the word out that both both the surveys are available and then okay and then oh sorry that's a good one I also add sorry we're also sharing it on social media we're doing some targeted ads as well for that okay and they spend on the city Facebook page and the economic development Facebook page as well so just trying to get as much of a reach as we can thank you so my other two questions one of them is coming to me from people asking what they can do if they feel like a business isn't following the social distancing guidelines or can't follow the social distancing guidelines like what can they do as a citizen or an employee yeah we we've had questions about that too I mean we'll do a courtesy call we've done a few of those if it's an actual code violation we would work with planning and the code enforcement division on that but we first start with just doing outreach and making sure the business has you know some of our information on the six foot distancing for queuing and the new you know requirement to wear masks before with the recommendation is now a requirement the posting of the safety protocols you know those posters you know we if if they don't have them we'll make them available they're also available to downloadable on our website under the resources available for reopening so you know we're we're really are there to make sure that the businesses feel comfortable and members of the community feel comfortable as well thank you and then my final question I promise we'll shut up is is there any talk about how we can support businesses that are not going to survive through this and meanwhile while they're not closing up shop yet they have months of back rent that they might owe to their landlord and other expenses and how can we help those individuals that own those businesses transition out of business ownership you know without being a huge financial debt yeah I mean that that's a real need you know we're just starting to have some of those conversations from some of the businesses that will not be able to reopen it's a really it's a really tough a tough position to be in that I think if the months go on we'll hear more businesses in that position there are a number of state and federal resources as well as HR benefits and assistance that are out there so we're guiding those that are in need that are reaching out to those basically resources and services that are available there's also some legal assistance for how to go through that at CDC has some webinars for some businesses that are available if they're in that position now so I you know we're at this point we're going to have to handle that you know as information as we get requests on a case-by-case basis thank you very much I'll come on Matthews and then I'm going to insert myself in the queue and then it'll be Councilor Brown and Watkins so Councilor Matthews thank you for this report you guys are just spectacularly hardworking and productive I'm just amazed at so many levels so I had I'm going to jump first of the recommendations on our agenda report you have five items and I just want to confirm what's the direction you're looking for right now it looks like we've approved the grant application for the revolving loan program and then the grant application to support get virtual is that an action we should take with with this item here well did we already do this like it well I think for that for the get virtual that one was one I mean you could approve it today if you I do think the impact is huge and it would be a relief for them to be able to continue but you know in the recommendation it does say that we would come back you know potentially we could come back after you look at this is for specifically also the micro loan funding yeah yeah so for the micro loan funding I would say since it's a bigger commitment that we would come back after the council reviews the budget forecasting but for the get virtual if you could approve that today for 30,000 this would be part of next year's fiscal 21 funding absorbed in our budget coming from the economic development trust fund so that they could continue through the summer and the fall getting those businesses online and with the e-commerce platforms that would be that would be great so that's the financial ask today directly in the recommendations before you okay I would like personally to do that because it's on the scale of things are relatively small amount and it seems that that is that piece that so many businesses that kind of cooked along pre-covid is that leap to virtual that it's not in their wheelhouse to do on their own and that's so critical and I'd like to just see that get going so that would be items two and four to act on and then considering the micro loan program from the trust fund would defer to budget discussions if I understand correctly we would and then directing you to return in august that's obvious yes let's do more and then a comment that I had just in addition to the fact that even those businesses that are continuing it seems like so many either have or or must evolve their business models and what kind of help is available are you turning to SBDC for that other outside consultants et cetera yeah I mean that's something that we're starting to get information on as well from our survey industry outreach so SBDC is our main partner that we we work with regularly on business planning business models and changing and through the funding we provide them they're actually investing in more consultants to help with that programming particularly as the need has increased through the pandemic so that's one of our our main partners I would say through the SEDS the community economic development strategy report that was just completed and submitted to EDA that does allow for us as a county to look at needs and again responding to the pandemic that's what's enabling us to apply for the revolving loan program so I think there are other opportunities that have been identified in the SEDS that allows us to work together countywide on the initiatives that benefit benefit our local businesses so I see and one thing that's changed with the pandemic is you know we and all of our partners probably across the country but locally are doing a lot of webinars and people do seem receptive to them so being able to find the experts in the field and put those panels together to really walk through the businesses of you know this is what you do in this situation here's the practices here's different models for your business that you may want to consider now so there's a lot of information out there and I think one of the one of the the things that we're working on together is how to kind of go through the massive amount of information that's out there right now to really get to what our businesses need locally and how to navigate that because they don't have time to you know they're just trying to make a business alive and survive they don't have time to pull through all of the information that's out there I did want to comment on the CARES grants to the safety net providers obviously in some instances when we do grants like that we restrict them to city residents in this case it was just the providers but when you think that really I think 50% of our workforce doesn't live city I mean the city's workforce generally I mean we're really that's an investment in broader community wellness like to the health center and the food bank and that sort of thing so those those were just I happen to know just incredibly essential grants to those safety net providers just made a huge difference finally in terms of getting people back downtown just my observation and so many people comment well I'm wearing my mask but I go downtown I mean let's not even talk about the beach but I go downtown you know people aren't wearing their masks I mean what now the governor's directing that people aren't doing it should we be passing out paper masks on the street and saying folks or maybe having the screaming hand I mean really safe we'd love to have you but use your brains you know and I think that's part of the comfort because I know people say I'm not going downtown yet there's too many people walking around without a mask it's busy now in a way but it doesn't feel safe yeah and that's that's the feedback we're getting through our industry outreach as well is that they want assistance in being able to in a friendly way but communicate how important safety is to you know their businesses and communicating that their restaurants are safe their following safe practices and they want that's what this whole pledge idea at the county the economic recovery council so there will be a marketing campaign around that to try to get the word out locally both to our residents but also information out there for our visitors as well but we take this safety very seriously in Santa Cruz it's almost not a big deal it seems more necessary for the visitors in a way yeah I also want to add that I don't know if you have been downtown lately you might have noticed the new banners that have been put up the DTA actually has some banners specifically around masks trying to make a friendly welcoming message about that and so we're trying to attack you at all the different angles to to get that message across for sure but even have give a bunch to the stores let them or you know whatever I'm done yeah we've also talked with DTA we've also talked with DTA about using the visitor kiosk as well yeah exactly yeah some potential collaboration there cool comments do we know if any of the businesses that have received lots of any of those closed their doors or are all of the businesses that receive the bonds that is still going okay you know we'll have to go back and look at as I said we gave 51 loans out so we'll go back and look at those and check I don't I don't have that right now Rebecca I don't know if you have any information on that yeah I don't either I'd have to confirm but nothing that I've heard yeah but I will add to that though that the majority of the businesses that received some of us did use it for payroll to really bridge that gap to their PPP loans came in so you know we'll we'll we'll get information on them because there's also you know we'll get our monthly reports coming up now one month then from the community credit union so we'll find out about loan servicing and and sort of what the status is of those loans right on the next question is related to the SNAP program with the farmers market so is that so if somebody has benefits do they then if they want were to go to the farmers market for identifying whether they would meet the needs for that program yeah so that um so nation and you know they're each week at the farmers market downtown and I think they may have expanded it to west side as well now but they're handing out the tokens related to the SNAP program so that you can leverage and you get that and you said that you know 4,000 residents are taking advantage of that each week I mean that's pretty it's pretty incredible and impactful okay great yeah it's fun to make sure so that we can communicate that to residents who may be on uh next question I was wondering if you could just speak a little bit more about what program that's helping with bill payment or if someone has trouble paying their bills on what where they should go and kind of what can be covered are you specifically talking about like utility bills garbage this type of thing if you go to Santa Cruz municipal utility on our website and we also have if you end up on ours Rebecca's not in on our website on choose Santa Cruz we have links to that as well and that's what this is and residential is it just for residential it's for any utility payments garbage utility water hardship declaration form just so you know what to look for and then that question I did I didn't have a question this came up on a different discussion but I thought I might want to bring it to the attention this is for the city attorney I was just wondering if there's any just so the public might be aware or a question of we might be able to raise this in public is there anyone or any potential for filing a lawsuit against the federal government for failure to protect and defend general public tiring state of emergency I bring it up just because you know we're not getting the resources that we need from the federal level or it's taking a lot of time and as a result we're seeing this negatively impact you know businesses are closing people aren't able to afford their rent and mortgage and they're you know we're trying to protect them from losing their homes but they're going to be shouldered with a lot of debt and so I'm just kind of wondering if anything has been happening at that level excellent question mayor Cummings I'm not aware of any litigation challenging the the response of the federal government to the COVID-19 epidemic those types of actions are typically brought by a coalition of attorneys general on behalf of state governments and there are a handful of cities that maintain affirmative litigation practices that such as Santa Clara county city and county San Francisco Alameda county that oftentimes will bring their own separate litigation and and city of Santa Cruz is involved in one such lawsuit brought against the quarter nine major petroleum and carbon energy based industries whereby we are essentially riding on the coattails of the of the entities that have significant resources devoted towards affirmative litigation certainly will be continuing to monitor that and exploring opportunities to you know to to join in litigation that might be taking a shot at the federal government's you know complete inaction in terms of effective responses to the the COVID-19 pandemic and will certainly keep the council informed of any opportunities that may arise great thank you I'll hold up on my other comments until after the return so I'll move over to councilmember brown but thank you for that information Joni thank you for the update thank you for all the work you've been doing in economic development and across departments I had a question about the survey that was distributed that you suggested was going to stay up for a while longer and that had been distributed to stakeholders can we get a list of those stakeholders one it was is that possible to get kind of where it's been not right now but just sent to us and then how much longer do you intend to leave it up I'm wondering because I saw the survey prompt come from mayor Cummings but I haven't seen it really circulating through some of the e-networks that I'm involved in and I'd like to kind of facilitate that but I don't want to be duplicative so just wondering how long and can we get a little more detail on who it's gone to yeah absolutely and I think the amount of time to keep up right now I think it's fairly fluid I know that it's really mostly being dictated by our desire to get the information back to you when we have opportunities to present at council so we're happy to just continue to bring you snapshot analysis and keep it open for longer if that's what you would like we can you know they're really good questions we're getting good good information so it's really up to you of how long you want to keep it open we can continue to collect the data and then we can give you a list of where it's gone and I think the more people who see it so I don't think being duplicative is a problem I think you can send it out as widely as you can we want to get the responses okay great I just I also wanted to just say you mentioned that council member Ralphies is helping with some of that industry surveying our region you asked if other council members would be interested I'd happily sit down and make some calls if you want to give me a list or maybe meet in advance we have lists oh I think right now this is great yeah we need calls we need the system thank you you can add me to the list too great thank you wrong one I won't repeat some of the questions that it already been asked but I just want to thank you for your work I appreciate the comments around the resources to our most vulnerable and then just the ongoing need to support our businesses one of the things that came to my attention recently when thinking about reopening schools is just the need for child care for staff and I'm wondering how that has played into the conversation around opening up businesses or needs for business owners and you know I'm not sure I mentioned that in the survey results but that is actually one of the responses that we got from some of the businesses is that needing reliable dependable child care so obviously businesses are reopening some of those are reopening as well but that is an area of need so we need to do we need to figure out how we can help in that in that area but that is part of the industry specific feedback we received with how critical that was for businesses and their employees to be able to come back to work safely definitely so however I we can support that work and and making sure that we're connecting that industry because it's all interconnected in terms of our needs as a functioning society I think it's really critical that we do so and I know that there's also just constraints in terms of the capacity and cohorts and so on so really wanting to make sure that's covered so that we can get everybody up up and going safely and successfully thank you I had a couple comments I just wanted to think before we go to the public one thing I think would be really great to understand is how these street closures impact businesses over time because I know for some I don't know there's been some hesitation around which blocks because some say that it could impact retail because you don't have as many people able to pull up to businesses but it seems like if you create a space for dining and people are you're attracting people in that way the retail might still be okay so it's kind of understanding how it impacts these businesses where we just shut down streets the other item I had and I'm sure we might hear about it in our comments is that I've been meeting I've been I had multiple meetings with members of the Latino community and one of the things that they mentioned just so you all know is that a lot of folks a lot of folks in that community it varies obviously but there's a sentiment that a lot of people don't have computers and they don't have internet and so the use of computers and internet skills aren't that high for some members in that community and so it might be worth even whether it's with the different food pantries or identifying who's going to have connection with that community whether there might be a way to partner those organizations with the city so they can distribute surveys where they can make calls to those individuals that take surveys and I think that some of those some members in those communities people who are doing work are already already have some service that they're distributing as well so it might be worth some communication with COVA and and so we can kind of a lot of efforts around getting information from that community as well but I think I think those are all the comments I have just thank you mayor I just one follow-up on your first comment on the street closure that has been something that we've had a lot of discussion internally as well as far as how to you know making sure we're balancing and trying to be responsive particularly to the restaurants that really need to expand into the street and or you know into the public right away in order to even make it financially possible for them to open and balancing that with you know retail stores that traditionally recover you know really rely on parking and close proximity to their businesses so we're trying to to balance that as best we can that the two pilot closures that we did we did choose the 1100 block primarily because there were a lot of probably that's the the densest block in downtown with a number of restaurants on that block so we're trying that and you know working with businesses and receptive to feedback on how that's impacting them and then on Kathart you know as you notice it's just a partial closure so you can still get that traffic through working again with the businesses between Lupalo and Hulos just to make sure that that's working for them and then you know as that goes forward looking at it on a case-by-case basis and making sure we're balancing those needs and have that feedback from the businesses and the and the property owners as well so it is it is a balance and we're you know and regularly in discussions also and on safety you know with public work and with fire to make sure that you know as we contemplate closing a street that we've thought through all of these issues so that we're safely closing them so for those that are in cars and for our pedestrians that are on the streets as well. Great Oh and then I remembered I did have one other question which is I wonder I don't know at what point it would get to this information but I think it would be good at some point to understand how many businesses have closed permanently due to COVID-19 because I've been walking around downtown and I feel like every week I see more and more store fronts that are empty and so it would just be good to get a sense of how many how badly we've been impacted and I think that will also help as we're you know really trying to to have these discussions with our state and federal representatives that we're demonstrating with them that this is having a really big impact and we need resources so that would be great as well Council Member Matthews Yeah a couple quick questions or comments relative to your observation about people that don't or families that don't have access to computers it seems to me that many individuals have cell phones even if they don't have computers in the home and this are our surveys and so far they're those cell phone friendly or is that another way to reach out that's a really good question we'll we'll see if they have a if they're if they're have a mobile platform I mean there well we're about to I think you you can you can just get to a whole lot of people yeah okay great thank you if you have a smartphone yeah yeah yeah on the closures it would be very valuable I mean I agree with your observations useful to know how we're comparing with broader trends I know that that's one thing does it Santa Cruz does in its statistics is how it's Santa Cruz county comparing with state figures with our comparable jurisdictions and so forth because truly this is hitting all communities but how is it hitting us and what can we do to make a critical difference for survival and recovery yeah that's a that's a really good point and I think our partnership that we have with the Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance as well as with Caled on the California level you know we're communicating you know more you know almost daily with you know what's happening their community versus ours and we share weekly information on that so that's something that we can we can touch base with other jurisdictions in the Bay Area and bring some real information back to you and and comparable communities could include our visitor comparables as well because so much of our retail and restaurant is visitor related so different a different lens thank you counselor Matthews so if there's no further comment at this time from council members I'm going to turn it over to the public so if you are wanting to comment on this item which is COVID-19 pandemic response options for consideration to assist local residents and businesses if you haven't already called and please call in at this time using one of the numbers on your screen if the number on your screen is busy please try a different number until you get through once you've entered the meeting you need to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and after you've raised your hand you will be unmuted and you will have two minutes to speak for those members of the public who are calling in who speak Spanish for the purposes of translation we'll give you an extra minute and we also have Jorge Zavala from COPA who was given four minutes to speak to us on the title and so Jorge when you if you're listening when it's your time to speak please let us know who you please identify yourself so that we can then increase your time and with that I'll go to the first caller you are on the line Buenas tardes mi nombre es Gloria Palomo y soy participo en la iglesia de Holy Cross y soy miembro de COPA estoy unida a este grupo de promotores y estoy muy impactada con las historias que hemos escuchado de personas que hemos hablado con ellos ahorita están en el problema de cómo es posible que puedan pagar sus rentas y los problemas de que están aislados por falta de comunicación en como en estos grupos que nosotros hemos estado conversando y estamos viendo la posibilidad de cómo ustedes se puedan unir a este grupo para que escuchen ustedes especialmente estas historias que nos impactan y a ver que es lo que se puede hacer porque pues es trabajo que ustedes y nosotros tenemos que hacer para poder ayudar a estas familias hay niños de cinco a 13 años y personas que ya están así desalojando sus casas porque no tienen ya para pagar y los dueños ya no pueden esperar yeah i'm here do i speak on my phone or how do i get how can i get back we can we can hear you okay so let me across translate for her so she's affiliated with Holy Cross and she just wants to share that she's been very impacted in her community and especially what she's trying to see is like she seems to have like a little group of people with them and they obviously with copa and they want to see and they've had several family members and several member of the community have joined I've reached them and they would like to see how they can break with the city their frustration and problems and how they can both unite copa and the city is pretty can you unify to respond they've had several families with members of their family who are five year old to 13 year old that they're in the brain to go on the street because they cannot pay any more the rent for loss of income and they're just you know they've been isolated and they just wonder how they could get help and she's reaching out we'll see you and estamos formamos este grupo de promotores para poder ir hacia los hogares por medio del esto estos del teléfono para hacerles esas preguntas como se sienten como están que necesitan y las personas están ansiosas por querer que los escuchemos en esas necesidades que esta pandemia está dejando en todas esas familias por favor yo les pide encarecidamente que se unan a esto, a este grupo para que podamos darles esa luz a esas familias que están en estos momentos en crisis, por favor. So she'd like to, she's begging and so that's one of the things that she's been doing is through the, she's been knocking on doors and kind of doing their own survey of how people are doing and she's asking for as much help as possible to unite and to help them attend the needs that they've been doing going to door and that these people are very anxious to get some kind of help. Thank you for all of you who have listened to me. Hello, my name is Mereida Robles. I'm a social worker. I work for Santa Cruz City Schools. I'm also a co-founder of Penderos, a non-profit organization that serves the Latino community and I'm also participating in the meetings that Copa has with the Latino president. As I've been living in San Cruz for more than 10 years, this pandemic has affected all of us in general. In our community, the low income families and the new families, the immigrant families are heavily impacted. People have no work for more than three months. Santa Cruz is a place, it's a tourist place, you know, so the jobs are mostly in restaurants or hotels and our low income community has lost their jobs. They are, they owe two or more months of rent. They're getting in debt to losing their jobs, you know, loss of income. With my job as a social worker, I heard many, many stories from the school district families and from the Penderos family. I'm asking for the City Council to support extending to the moratorium because this will bring a huge relief in the community. As I say before, this pandemic is affecting everyone, but it will affect a lot our children and youth in many ways. The stress and anxiety can affect their mental health and their education as well. You know, it will also send a message, the moratorium, it will also send a message of support and empathy to the low income families. I work directly with people. I call them, I text them, and I just would like to remind all of you that are listening right now that low income families or immigrant families do not visit websites. We, please, City Council make the services, please, agencies are out there listening. Make services acceptable for people. You know, just for an example for me, I struggle with making a phone call to you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Jorge Savala had been out there for four minutes and then I was going to be here. So if that person is watching or listening, please call in. And if there's anyone else who'd like to speak to us on this item, please call in on your phone screen and let's find out on your phone what you're going to be doing. And you will be given two minutes. First thing on the line. Good afternoon. This is actually Jorge Savala with one of my leaders here, Tariq. Go ahead and start now. You're coming from Yes. I would like to introduce Stephanie, which will be speaking for the group. Can you go ahead and start the timer for four minutes, please? I was going to say, if there's going to be translation, Bonnie, why don't we give them at least six minutes so we can have time for translating back and forth? Or actually, better yet, when we have the translation, we can just pause the time so that we can allow for translation to occur and not have that even to the top of that. Stephanie, could you go ahead and tell us a little bit about what you're trying to do? Let me see. Go ahead. Okay. My name is Stephanie Vasquez. I'm the leader of the Holy Cross and the Senderas organization. I'm also one of the promoters connecting families with resources and hope during these difficult times. Here, together with the COPA organization, I would like to give you the opportunity that all of you with COPA, please, present yourself and print the number nine on the phone. I, as many as we are, are leaders of the Holy Cross, involved in the Ministry of the Holy Cross with André. Here, I am with the leaders of COPA and we are allied in this effort to support our families and we support agenda number five for the protection of the development of immigrants in our community. Alcalde Cummings and members of the council have heard the stories of the community. Families are indebted or have wasted their savings because they did not know that they have rights. They are afraid of the political climate. Families are forced to pay for their rent or with many that have already left the area with fear. Families are working very hard because they are barely seeing some businesses. I think Peter could, since you're listening, can you translate what you're sure you're still listening okay in this medium? Okay, so this is Stephanie Vasquez and she's also affiliated with Sandero and the group COPA. And she's asking the member of the other Latino community who are also listening to us in the general public to press number nine and add more comments. And then she's also saying she's affiliated with the Holy Cross, with leaders of the Holy Cross. And she's asking that to also please support the issue number five that is brought to the city council. And she's also desperate needs because she's heard already of many community members from our community who have left because they just can't support themselves anymore. And they're also afraid of stalk, especially with this political and the atmosphere that we have lately. So there's a lot of fear for people to talk and just talk about the real issues that are happening these days. La ciudad lanzó una encuesta para involucrar a los residentes hispanohablantes. Diputieron la encuesta en el sitio web de la ciudad. Y creemos que muchos residentes no han podido participar plenamente, tibicamente, en dar su opinión debido a su falta de exceso de la tecnología o la nevargación en la misma. Desde el 14 de junio del 2020 yo y más de 14 voluntarios de la comunidad se han capacitado como promotores y promotoras. Y han comenzado a llamar a 281 participantes de Holy Cross with Pantry y estamos construyendo la base de relaciones de confianza necesarias para tejer un tejido social fuerte que responda a más largo plazo. Los efectos más sistémicos del crisis del COVID. Durante las llamadas realizadas, una evaluación de las necesidades de la familia, mientras obtienen una conversación culturalmente competente que brinda al receptor de la llamada un espacio para compartir las luchas de su familia. La evaluación de la familia se centra en varias áreas, incluyendo el acceso a los alimentos, el acceso tecnológico, la estabilidad de la vivienda, el empleo y otras necesidades que su familia pueda tener. Otro tipo de líderes. Definitely. Necesito decir lo que estás diciendo. Desculpa, te voy a parar y voy a preguntar si Peter puede traducir. Peter, could you translate what she said? Yes. So they have, so she among other people in her group have been training themselves to be promoters and they've basically since obviously the city you know we've heard before the city talking about this survey that has already been started since the June 14th and what they're basically doing is train themselves to try to share with the community and sort of create a space among themselves by phone to talk and they've already talked to 281 participants but she says to just slowly trying to build a trust and a network social network to talk about the COVID crisis and basically we just this is a very important conversation by telephone they need to evaluate how much people are in desperate needs of work and of access to food. So this is what I put up quite a bit on just for clarification where the group is calling 281 families but have made contact with 81 thus far. That's what I put up. Thank you. Thank you much Stephanie. I'm going to talk about the community of families. Until now we've referred to 20 families of carities, catholic carities to receive additional support in terms of PVT and call fresh. Our petitions for you are the following. We would like the city to create an order to allow the residents of the city 12 months after the local emergency to pay for the rent that they owe. We would like the city to extend its prevention moratorium according to the state. And work with leaders. So basically she's with this leader a group of leaders and they're doing a follow-up and basically they're so far have been able to help 20 families to receive some support from the CDBG funds and they're asking the city council if they could extend for 12 months the ordinance not to have to pay rent and then also the extend the moratorium would be evacuated from your house for rent. I'm Stephanie. I'm sorry to declare it to be referred 20 families to catholic carities not for CDBG funding but for access to additional support services. Once we do a needs assessment of the family we then refer them to other partners which we'll be doing the same with Community Action Board and other nonprofits in that area. Okay and I think maybe after like this if we could have an opportunity for translation that'll be helpful. I don't know if you can accept me, but I'm okay. Los invitamos a participar en juntas caseras que nosotros mientras que conectamos con las familias de Santa Cruz para que conozcan sus historias. Estamos haciendo este trabajo con el Departamento de Policía de Guatulio. Mientras del concilio están participando y la comunidad ayudaron a recomendar dos pólitos para relaciones con la comunidad, la ciudad y la Policía. Correct. We're working with community leaders and from COPA and we're trying to involve as much as people Latinos possible and to hear their needs and basically they're trying to create more work and Communicate the extension needs to connect families who are in need and they're also working in the Watsonville with the police department and they're creating two different policies. Okay. She's asking then she's also asking to invite us to have a meeting with the member of the community so we can talk about these issues. Okay. So what she's saying that she like I said she would like to invite us to have a meeting with her then she wants to share a personal experience with them that people you know didn't know exactly how to get help and it's just hard to just be listened to again with this Uncertainties and for example she knows of a member of her the community that just what did you know lost her house and was not able to get wrong Our own anymore and so she was living with her eight year old and a year and eight one year and a half old in her car and tell a family member had pity on her and just decided to have her in her couch. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I said that she should reach me and I know Jorge Sabala has my number and I will try to reach Jorge Sabala to follow up. Next speaker. You are on one. Yes. Good afternoon. And commentaries. If you can stop a moment or enter the different status so that our title can be translated in English. Very good. Okay. And my name is Berta Lara and I am a member that I am going to the church of our Mrs. Estrella del Mar and also a member affiliated with this group that is helping the community. My commentaries are about the help that the government is offering to the families and migrants who do not have documents. They ask if they are working and if they work a little bit they deny the help. Okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. So she's her name is Berta Lara and she works, she's a member of the church of the star of the sea or Estrella del Mar in Spanish. And she's saying her comment is saying that when the folks who are in need of help and government help, then the government, one of the questions they ask them, especially the help of undocumented needs, people who are undocumented and they ask them if they do work, if they actually are working or not. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So what she's saying that she thinks it's unfair that in general they ask the undocumented people if they're working or not in order to receive help whereas the people who have documents they don't add, they don't have any questions. So for the undocumented even though they're working a lot less but they do a little job here and there when they answer that then they don't get any help whereas the other people have no questions asked and she does some things there. I would ask Hisi to give it a go. Hisi, why don't they do the same with all the families? Why don't they help them the same? The pandemic is affecting everyone the same. It's fair that everyone helps us the same. So she's saying she thinks it's unfair and the pandemic, the COVID affects documented as well as undocumented people and she doesn't understand why there is such a discrepancy in this question and to ask please to help her and her community. Thank you very much. God bless you. Does anyone else on the line who would like to comment on the items before u