r to appoint an ad hoc committee of individuals With demonstrated historical expertise in this field To develop a recommendation for an interpretive plaque or panel Acknowledging this incident in the context of early california history Returning to the council on or before The november 26 2019 meeting with their recommendation as to format text and location second uh Need a motion by vice mayor coming seconded by um Councilmember Glover. Thank you, and then um, yes, please. I'd also like to just uh, maybe talk briefly With that motion on the floor about a potentially a friendly amendment. Um, so it was mentioned Uh here with regards to the ma and incorporating them, which is great since that's their recommendation However, do we want to set a timeline associated with it? Just so that you know, because it's an open-ended date in all reality with the issue of this plaque and the commemoration of this Date there has been work for the last decade trying to get some kind of commemoration on that bridge with regards to the Lynching that took place there. So can we add into the motion some kind of Expectation of date and then also the incorporation of community conversation I just want to say that I did include a date the date is november 26 2019 that this should come back to us With the recommendation as to format text and location. I didn't hear the date and it's on or before So if they finish this before november 26 2019, then it can actually come before us then great Yeah, i'm good. Thank you. So you're comfortable with the um motion that you seconded. Yeah, I just didn't hear the date aspect Okay, um councilor crone and then uh councilor matthews. Thanks. I just had a statement I wanted to read from historian. Uh, jeffrey dunne who could not be here today because of a scheduling issue um Dunne says I have spent roughly 40 years researching and writing about this event And I feel strongly that it deserves to be acknowledged and reflected upon by the community A plaque is one way of displaying such earnest reflection This was a significant event in our history and we cannot let this moment of commemorating it slip by I thank councilmember glover and the rest of the council for moving this forward Thank you for sharing Yeah, um appreciate the Thoughtfulness on everyone's part that's gone into this and to the commission. I did speak with most of the commissioners extensively with jeff as well And I know his history on this And uh, I um, I think the direction of um designating a small ad hoc committee to work on this And they certainly have the latitude to involve resources from the mall from the community, etc And I think that that will come up with a it gives a good structure for coming up with a productive recommendation And I also do want to appreciate councilmember Cummings Approach to In some way and I leave it to to this group Including our contemporary aspirations to do better. Let's put it that way Uh And I know that at least one of the hpc members who works With california state park suggested perhaps bringing in some consulting for someone who specializes in Interpretive work. Um, that's certainly a possibility, but I think just um Uh designating a small committee of people really familiar with this field is a good way to go forward Thank you all Okay, council. Sorry. Councilor brown and then back to councilmember clever Yeah, I would agree with my colleagues about the importance of um using this opportunity to um to really reflect on the our The present day as well. And so and I I really appreciate the uh work that the historic preservation commission Um put in to to understand and bring us this recommendation This to me is an example of why we have commissions We have all of this amazing energy in our community and people who are really interested in Helping this council work through issues. And so I just want to you know to really celebrate that as well as the opportunity to memorialize Reflect upon the the substance of the event Thank you. We'll go councilmember clever in the back to councilor matt. Thanks. Um, I know in the motion It says to instruct the mayor to form the ad hoc committee just curious what would go into that selection process. Uh, and how would because oh because You know, uh as much as I would like to believe that there would be a super diverse and intricate process of uh, selecting the individuals that are involved in the ad hoc committee It I'm a little troubled with putting it all in the hands of one person Yeah, so we've had back and speak to this. Um, so we've began conversations with um With jeff redon who has a lot of extensive who's done a lot of extensive work on the subject already um, we've also had communications with uh professor ameritas Pedro castillo Who also is interested working on this or a number of historians have already reached out to us about wanting to work on this And I would actually, you know, um I would actually recommend that if other members of the city council have other historians that they would like to You know recommend to the mayor that they may be sent her an email with names that they would like to be considered for this ad hoc committee Okay You'll have to excuse my hesitant hesitation. Um, the majority of my requests do not get fulfilled. So, uh, when I send them in so, um Just a little Little pause there with concern with regards to making sure that if there was a recommendation that I made that it would actually be taken to consideration and then moved on as opposed to just disappearing into a an email black hole so It's great to know Pedro Castillo and uh, jeff done that you mentioned before when you say they reached out to us Who is us? Myself and in council member matthews had a conversation with jeff redon over the weekend I hadn't formally met him And um, so we had an opportunity to meet over the weekend to discuss this item. Oh great great great Yeah, I didn't get a chance to meet with him this weekend. Okay, wonderful. Well, uh, thank you council member matthews a couple quick comments, um It was acknowledged what a great service our hpc does historic preservation commission This was really out of their wheelhouse. Oh, they mostly deal with historic preservation of structures So I think it took a special amount of effort And research on the part of the subcommittee and thought on the part of the whole commission So I really commend you for something. It was not standard work in trade. You don't need to comment But I just wanted to give you thank you for that Briefly Elemendoza is an important element of this I think she should be considered if she's willing and able to do it to be on the committee That's just my thought. Okay, great. Thank you Thank you Just one more thing. Yeah, so thank you for saying that uh, I do just want to give a big shout out to Eleanor Mendoza Who worked with the different students and uh, educators in the area to bring the Data packet forward to me which allowed and also which allowed for me to craft and create the Gender report which was submitted with the supporting information and thanks to my colleagues for co-sponsoring The agenda item. So a great example of how a young student with a diligent focus on making an impact in the community can Make some impact and change but then also um, I don't know if I guess we wouldn't want to necessarily incorporate an emotion to prioritize Eleanor if she's interested on the on the Subcommittee or whether we should just go through a recommended email I think that the mayor has heard loud and clear. Okay. I mean you'll just have to excuse my expect skepticism But absolutely, so we can move forward Okay, well, okay. Thank you for the motion. We have a motion by vice mayor vice mayor coming seconded by councilmember Gleaver Thank you for the work on this and to The commissioner who is here today to help uh answer some questions as well as staff So all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to our next agenda item, which is item number 22 And that's the role of the planning commission subcommittee at community outreach meetings and associated update to the department Of planning and community development community outreach policy for planning projects And it looks like we have uh Catherine here uh and sarah back I'm back and welcome Good evening Members of the council. I'm catherine donovan senior planner in our advanced planning division And I am bringing to you today A draft guidance for our planning commission subcommittee Just some background on this on august 28th The city council approved the community outreach policy for our planning projects And the policy was based on recommendations from the santa cruz voices how in housing the fall 2017 community engagement report And in that report the public and the planning commission had expressed a need for more involvement in all projects at earlier stages So that meaningful input could be provided Before projects are virtually completed The development completed And so in response to those concerns The policy included the planning commission subcommittee The subcommittee consists of up to three planning commissioners and they are volunteers who work on a six month rotation Um, they attend all community meetings for large or significant projects And we the reports from our early community meetings Included that there was some confusion and uncertainty as to the subcommittee's role We also had an issue of some planning commissioners who spoke out in support of projects at the meetings, which is not appropriate um, and so at their march 7th and 21st 2019 meetings the planning commission Discussed the issues at length and talked about the pros and cons of the subcommittee And whether whether it needed to be disbanded disbanded or if there just needed to be More input on on the protocols and the conduct of the subcommittee at these community meetings um And the issues that came up the pros included how informative these meetings were for the planning commission Like the council normally you get two or three minutes of testimony from each individual Member of the public And and that's not always enough discussion And so the planning commission found that being able to attend these meetings and listening to Really prolonged discussion From a variety of people help them in their understanding of How the community felt about projects and it also gave them a chance to listen to the developer feedback and then to see How developers had responded to the community and whether they had actually made meaningful changes to the projects or not um, it also allows the planning commission to to weigh in early to um be able to Make comments to the developer on a project early on when the developer can easily make changes rather than waiting till the project is Practically completed And it's also a chance for trust building and community outreach by the by the planning commission And the cons that came up were the confusion Um amongst the public as to the role And also potential brown act violations At least in the eyes of the the public there were there were Multiple comments from the public about whether or not this was a brown act violation um, and also about the possible perception of somehow following Recommendations or comments by the planning commission, whether that would give the developers a a Pre-approval or whether they were were required to to follow those comments Ultimately after extensive discussion on this the planning commissioners Indicated that they wanted to continue with the subcommittee But they wanted to have Some established rules of decorum Um, and they voted to have staff bring this back to the city council to ask for direction And given that staff had received This extensive conversation with the planning commission We went ahead and prepared some draft guidelines for you That addressed the both the planning commission and the public's concerns And we have included those draft guidelines In your packet and we would be happy if you had adjustments you wanted us to make To include those in the draft guidelines and either just make them and and have that be approved or come back with a Depending on how extensive those changes were And That's it Do you have any questions we'd be happy to answer Are there any questions for staff at this time comes from Matthew just a trivial one I like the general direction of this so the guidelines are simply a refinement clarification on the existing program which will continue I see the format is that Volunteers on a volunteer basis the commissioners Are appointed for a six month period for the subcommittee. My only thought was maybe at some point there's a Personal schedule conflict. They can't make a public meeting could an alternate be Appointed so three planning commissioners could still attend But they wouldn't be on the subcommittee. It's just right. What we found is that They don't always have three attending sometimes. It's only two Depending on as you say conflicts and schedules But I don't see any problem with adding that in there that there could be an alternative Makes other questions councillor yeah, thanks for the presentation. Um, what in your opinion, what would we be missing? If we didn't have this committee at all the What I personally see as the most important piece of this is the Allowing the planning commission on these more complicated projects to have the more in-depth public input because All those members of the public do reach out to individual planning commissioners Being able to be at a meeting where there's an in-depth discussion And a lot of give and take and listening to the developer respond to the community Is very very different than the formal meeting format and I think that the commissioners get A lot out of that and it it really improves the process It helps inform them as to the community's concerns and as I said before it lets them see How sensitive the developer has been to those concerns In just one more question. It's like what are the rules that govern like the planning commissioners interactions with Developers that people who have projects before them or applications Yet They would like to speak to that Good afternoon, mayor and council members. Yes, and there are distinctions between legislative and quasi-judicial actions for the planning commission And that's why I wanted to to speak to it is because For the quasi-judicial actions the bylaws that are adopted by the council for the guide the planning commissioners actions preclude the conversations between the planning commissioners and the general public and As katheryn mentioned in those instances the planning commission is able to then hear from the community as a large as a whole everyone who's attending those meetings at least and Have a a better understanding of the dialogue that occurs between those community members and The developers who are presenting that those same provisions are not As much of a requirement for legislative actions however We still invite the planning commissioners to those Legislative policy issues that our advanced planning team brings forward. So again, they have more of an opportunity to hear the dialogue Between community members about the pros and cons of different options much more so than you get at a meeting Very much very similar to these where people get up and they they say they're two minutes and there isn't a back and forth and a conversation And I'll just maybe and then I'll go to vice mayor coming to the council You know I being part of the housing blueprint subcommittee. We really talked about how we are Being really transparent and engaging the community early on and doing the best we can to avoid any conflicts Later down the line. So the intention I just want to really acknowledge behind this is to get misconceptions and awareness out there so that we can have more thorough and efficient really process to move To move items or or not. So Council and vice mayor coming to the council question. So can planning our planning commissioners allow to speak with developers Before the project comes before them No the bylaws state that Planning commissioners are not to communicate with either the public or developers for quasi judicial actions So if there is a project a development proposal that would be a quasi judicial action that is going before the planning commission The bylaws state that planning commissioners should not be having conversations with either the public or The developers in advance So the the community meeting serves as an opportunity for the commission to hear from the community and from the developers presentation and then convey that information back and Admittedly we've we've had some hiccups as Catherine alluded to during the first year of implementation and We're learning from those and I think that this Set of guidelines is a good first step and I think If the council has suggestions on how that can be strengthened You know we're we're open to those and I think that the planning commission would be as well they want also to have A clear understanding of the role and expectations that they have Just to follow I asked that question because I was at a meeting regarding development and The planning commission subcommittee committee spoke to the entire audience about the project and so Um, maybe that's one of the hiccups that occurred early on But I just wanted to that's why I brought this question up because that was concerning to me since I've been in a meeting where I've seen the subcommittee speak about a development that is still kind of in the process of of You know them applying for the application so and that's one of the things that we would appreciate any council Comments or or questions on there are pros and cons to the planning commissioner speaking Certainly is speaking in a manner that Would advocate for or against a project I would not see as something that we would expect from a planning commissioner. However I'm expressing questions about a project or Identifying issues that may be of a concern early one of the advantages that we saw of the planning commissioners early involvement is at at one Community meeting for example a planning commissioner spoke In front of the group and said that they had concerns about the the corner element and Uh, the presentation of that You know, whether it's materials or placement and that can be looked at in a number of ways If it's interpreted as oh, well if they address that You know if it's interpreted by the public I should say as well if they address that then they're going to get the account the that planning commissioner support That could be viewed negatively However, if it's viewed as well That could help improve the project and it's something that early on there is an a larger opportunity To make those modifications Whereas the project hasn't been finalized that could be viewed in a positive manner And so setting that framework up front That was one of the things that we tried to do with the guidelines Is put that framework in place so that those expectations are clear for the community and for the commissioners And that they're stated at those meetings So if it's the first time someone's attended a meeting and they see a planning commissioner speak up and have a question about You know, I'm not really Comfortable with the way that the building is addressing the street. Can you speak to? How your approach was in In designing the pedestrian realm there and then That upfront conversation and that upfront setting the stage for the community can help to Keep that as a neutral statement and one that doesn't come with Expectations of well if you address the pedestrian environment then that commissioner is going to support your project So I think it is a balancing act And I think that there are positives and negatives and those I tried to articulate how you know They could be perceived in the community and to the extent we can set that stage Then hopefully we're addressing those Community concerns while also providing a valuable opportunity for the planning commissioners If they choose to do so we've also had Planning commissioners say they weren't comfortable speaking And I think that that's fine as well If they want to just Absorb what they get from the community and report that back to the planning commission because that's an important part is Reporting their observations back to the full commission so that the commission gets a better flavor for how those community meetings went Thank you I just Oh, sorry. Okay. Okay Councilmember brown So my question is Also for director butler Is there Is there anything that precludes planning commissioners from attending these public meetings as members? I understand they can't meet individually behind closed doors, but is there anything that prohibits that there isn't anything that expressly precludes it certainly we want to be careful about brown act issues and so any time we've got For planning commissioners for more planning commissioners at a public meeting then it raises potential brown act concerns and so There are ways in which that can be addressed in terms of setting the the Expectations for them. However, I personally advise sort of a cautious cautious approach to that and Say, you know, it's best if four commissioners aren't present at one just to avoid the perception Of brown act issues even if they are following the regulations in terms of not having individual conversations with one another about the the project Just the community perception is one that we also want to be cognizant of Do you have any other questions? Sorry, director butler I'm just curious if Are other communities doing this similar kind of process is this sort of becoming the norm with regards to i'm just curious about You know and just curious if this is happening in other communities at all and I mean it does place a lot of pressure. I feel like on the commissioners because They're being really asked to participate in a way that's Not completely clear. So i'm just curious if if this is starting to become more more You know more common with communities Sure different communities do it in different ways and Some better than others I had a I've seen a community where for example two of the commissioners actually Is sit on a decision making a lower decision making body the the two planning commissioners sit on a lower decision making body Along with a council member and that raises concerns about due process and future Items getting appealed and so I would not recommend that approach however, I think that there is certainly a Push to involve the community earlier in the process and Many cities are looking at ways in which they can do that and so I think different cities do it in different ways but certainly the Earlier we can get folks involved The the better opportunities that they have to to shape the future development applications Any other questions for staff before we open it up to public comment Please see none. We'll go ahead and see if members of the community want to address us on this item You'll have up to two minutes. Please come forward Good afternoon scott-gram I think there's a perception among the public that a lot of these developments come forward completely fleshed out and that the Outreach to the community is basically just a dog and pony show and that the Planning commission is just basically rubber stamping everything that comes along so personally I would like to see the public involved at the earliest point possible to add input into developments so that it doesn't become the developer just Foisting something on to the community, but there's actual community involvement in what's being done here Thank you Through any other members of the community Okay, seeing them we'll return back to council for action deliberation And I think I'll just go ahead and sort of restate what I think you know is is evident here Which is that we do want compatibility with neighborhoods and community involvement early on and so as we're starting to learn the best approach to that I appreciate This potential process So with that I'll go ahead and look at council member crone councilor matthews council member brown Thank you mayor My concern is doing the public's business in public and I was at the same meeting that the vice mayor was at. I was at two other meetings Where this you know you had strong advocacy Uh On the part it seemed to me by by commissioners. I would like to make the following motion In the interest of fairness and the removed taint or bias by city officials From the review of land use development projects the provisions in the develop in the department of planning and community development community outreach public policy for planning projects for a planning commission subcommittee tasks With attending community meetings shall be deleted Second The motion by council member crone seconded by council member brown. I believe it was council member matthews than council member brown Um I'm actually kind of Agnostic on that. I see the the value of the subcommittee. Um, I I certainly support the direction that has been taken to um, have a graduated Matrix of expectations of public outreach and involvement and it's certainly valuable for particularly on the higher profile or larger projects to Um, have these kind of earlier Outreach efforts meetings with the public and encourage planning missionaries to come Whether or not they should be required to come. I think that's a different issue. I should also say Regarding whether four of them might want to attend Um, I don't see I don't think there should be a prohibition against that. I don't think you quite Suggested that but there again it is there is a different dynamic at a public meeting So it can be quite useful if you anticipate that this is the early stage of something that's going to have a lot of community visibility to go and observe and I think The important part of the guidelines here Um, it should be almost whether or not There's a subcommittee that if you go to one of these meetings It's kind of like when we meet with labor representatives. You are listening You're not you're not uh Projecting conclusions in advance. So I think that's the value you go you get the dynamics There may be the opportunity to ask a non leading question How are you handling such and such? And get an answer. So I think there's a value in in In the early outreach efforts and in Encouraging planning commissioners to go but but being clear on the guidelines. So I think that's the bottom line is the attack I tend to agree with council member Matthews about this and um, so You know, I really believe that As council member crone has suggested that Having planning commissioners attend these meetings in an official capacity Has caused us problems and I'm not sure that written guidelines are going to prevent that I really appreciate staff's attempts to To to do that to help clarify and I think that they are useful and ought to be Used as guidelines for planning commissioners in general and so I'm wondering if the maker of the motion would Agree to include that in the direction What's the exact wording that to to use the proposed guidelines for the subcommittee or the proposed protocol Whatever the terminal attachment three. Thank you That those would be adopted as guidelines for planning commissioners in their participation at public meetings Should they do so? What is it 22 15 sorry, I don't have page numbers And if I could Those would have to be modified because they refer to a subcommittee structure So if you just strip out that and just say Should planning commissioners attend an outreach meeting? These are the guidelines and expectations I as you were speaking. I was totally agreeing with you. I I do go back to when you said they ask leading questions. I would um Rather have As many planning commissioners who want to go to public meetings just like council members But not but to observe and not necessarily participate because as you know A lot of our actions can be perceived by different ways in the community and I'm totally in favor of four or five Planning commissioners going to a meeting To observe and to see what the community debates about but I would prefer if we could maybe send this I don't know how you put it in the resolution, but if we could they could not like necessarily ask questions or you know applaud or Um, I I don't know by some air coming to you want to respond. Okay. Go ahead. Well, I mean, yeah Yeah, I mean, I I am sort of operating under the assumption that um as council members are expected to do We that that is the responsibility of planning commissioners to Act accordingly. Um, I so if the goal is to say Planning commissioners can't ask questions at public meetings should they attend and include that as an additional guideline Is that what you're Suggesting I'm not I will take that one ask questions and provide input related to city's land use of design policies I would I would take that out But the others I like learn about the project listen to public discussion Report back to the planning commission and I think that it's it's really good for us to make clear just like we should make it Clear to ourselves that more than three of us can attend meetings It's just that we cannot communicate with one another and the sense of it looks like we're making a decision And I would expect planning commissioners to do the same Vice mayor Cummings and then council member matthews I'm just gonna um speak to my support of this just because of the fact that um I think that it's really important that planning commissioners want to go to meetings and what's been reiterated that they should be able to go I do think that it's problematic if they're going in an official capacity And so I just want to um voice my support for the motion and also that um under the guidelines that have also been included around You know the intention of them attending these meetings is to learn about the project Listen to the public discussion and then also report back to the commission. I think those are all Valid things we would want our, you know, planning commissioners doing at these meetings And I think that the time for them to weigh in is when these items come to public hearings And so I think that um, I just want to say that i'm in support of motion A question of staff um when these meetings are held. Is there always a staff member who attends? Yes, so really that kind of alleviates the need for um the Oh now I've lost it the function of providing input on city procedures or something. I mean if some member of the Public says well, I don't know how xyz is going to be handled. You'd turn to staff and staff answers that so We're not losing anything on that. Yes And then I just also wanted to comment um Sometimes on these Developments of various sizes. There's a lot of public interest Curiosity opposition Whatever support And a lot of emotion And in fact the project meets the district requirements. So there's not necessarily as much latitude or You know possibility to require changes as Members of the public might think and that's good to know Well, I am I'll just say that I support Absent a formal process having an interest in wanting our planning commission to engage with the community early on to hear their concerns to help that It's a preventative policy, right? I mean, I think the approach is to really try to mitigate the things before they Escalate in a way that doesn't feel like they've the community has been heard or their ideas have been incorporated So, um, I'm supportive of the direction and um, if you're happy to I'm wondering if pardon me. I apologize for the interruption. I'm wondering if The motion could be restated. Sure. Why don't we have you restate the motion at council member chrome Thank you for that and then we had a second by council member brown Can we also put um the a b and d in there too? Would that be appropriate to um, what um council member matthews Alluding to wanting people to participate and be there and observe But not but we have staff member to answer substantive questions about city policies and stuff the motion In the interest of fairness and to remove any taint of bias by city officials from the review of land use development projects The provisions in the department of planning and community development outreach policy for planning projects For a planning commission subcommittee tasked with attending community meetings shall be deleted Okay, so that was a motion by council member crone seconded by council member brown But I ask for clarification of that Is the motion to approve The draft guidelines with that modification So that was the My request was to amend the motion to include uh The draft planning commission subcommittee guidelines provided in attachment three of our agenda packet that those Would be Approved as guidelines for planning commission revised and approved as guidelines for planning commissioners Who choose to attend public meetings with the exception of Where is it um Number can you remind me to see member crone to see thank you to see What is through the merit may I ask a clarifying question sorry council member crone. Yes, go ahead. Okay. Um, so basically what I'm hearing is that we would The direction would be to disband the commission But retain the guidelines subcommittee. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh my goodness. Yes Yes, yes, yes, thank you the subcommittee And to revise the guidelines to be applicable to any planning commissioner who attends a meeting Deleting asking the section about asking questions and providing input right, okay And this would actually involve revising the policy itself because the policy has the direction for the subcommittee That was kind of the direction. My question was going is it sounds like there's What the council is discussing Is modifications to both the existing policy and the draft guidelines. So the direction would be to have you revise that Based on the input you received from the council today. Okay. Does that feel comfortable for the council staff Okay. Yes clerk. Did you Feel a clear. Okay. So these are any you're feeling good? I'm just going to ask if the council would like the revised Guidelines and policy to be returned to the council perhaps on a consent calendar for further council review. I'll be fine. That's fine. Just to make sure we're clearly capturing it. Right. Great. Okay. So we'll see that at a future time on consent Thank you. Thank you. Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That passes unanimously Okay So we'll go ahead and move right on to our next agenda item, which is item number 23, which is the resolution endorsing the green new deal And this was an item that was continued from the prior meeting And that's item number 23 I'll go ahead and ask staff. I mean, I'm sorry I'll go ahead and ask the city council members that brought this item forward if they'd like to present on The agenda item before I open it to see if there's any questions amongst the council and then go ahead and open it up Thank you, mayor Yeah, so this was a continue from last time like you mentioned That was due to some Additional language that had been added by myself and brought forward for some potential amendments to include the Senate resolution as well as the house resolution For our message of endorsement, but then also some language in it that Made it a little bit stronger in my opinion in the opinion of community members and some people involved in environmentalism locally and fighting climate change To hold specifically corporations more accountable and then also make sure to bring in language with regards to protected communities the issues of labor the issues of transitions from existing fossil fuels over into a green economy and some other items so you can find the language in your packet and happy to answer any questions or clarify okay Well, I guess I just have maybe one clarifying question is This was an item that was brought forward by council member brown vice mayor Cummings and council member Glover and then Revisited to have a conversation. Is this an item that you are in? Support of as a committee or was this Just the updated version that was originally provided just for clarification council member brown. We had a meeting the as The three of us had a meeting and with Tiffany wise west and the outcome of that meeting was that this would be the Version that was brought to the council. Okay And was this the version that was is this version supported by tiffani and our city attorney or Did they have any input or did Our city attorney is not weighed in but I don't I don't have any concerns about it from a legal perspective Yeah, laura's here. She can comment on that Forishment interim assistant city manager. I think from Tiffany's perspective She is extremely supportive of the Green New Deal in general and she worked with the council members offline And so she we leave it to you at this point as far as the details of the conversation Okay, so in concept but not necessarily in specific specificity. Okay Okay, is there any other questions for the subcommittee members? Just want to also add one thing First I want to thank tiffani for all the work that she's done on this. She does tremendous work for our city Helping us become more sustainable and meeting the reduction in greenhouse gases Which is something that this community very much cares about and I just want to be clear that from the last meeting there were a number of the of Be it further resolve clauses that Weren't in the initial proposal that was brought to the city council Which is part of the reason why we wanted this to be reviewed. So I just wanted to make it clear that Tiffany in no way removed those and those were reintroduced that those items were New items that came forward at the last meeting and that's part of the reason why we wanted to go over this before It came before the council today. So I just wanted that to be clear Thank you for the clarification okay councilmember clever, I'm a little confused So That is true that there were additions that were not in previous Versions, however, it is also true that the language that was present in the one that was in the last agenda had been altered from the original language Which had changed the language around businesses and corporations So there are where there were additional clauses that were out of you're absolutely correct But it was also reintroduced because of some reintroduction of some original language There's but I guess the only thing that I would respond is that Some of that I know that some of that language had been reviewed by the city attorney's office and that there were Um recommendations that were made around that language and that that original version had been agreed upon to be included last time And so that was another so I'll acknowledge that that is something else that Councilmember Glover Was hoping to have changed in this and it has been included in the current version that we have before us Absolutely along with the additional clauses that it weren't that were introduced at the last meeting absolutely councilmember Myers I'll support the resolution, but um, I yeah, I guess also I just want to congratulate tiffany and the city staff on An award that the city received this week called the beacon award, which recognizes that the city is well on its way in our climate change and Climate change efforts and Will be the city as a whole will be recognized in october for that so Just important for our community to know that um, the city is actually a leader in many of the things that are that are Cited in the resolution. So I believe that we're working hard and i'm happy to Let's call the vote We have to we have this is questions and then we'll go we have to open it up to public comment first Did you have any other questions before we open it up to public comment? No, no, okay Okay, uh, we'll go ahead and open it up to public comment and then we'll come back for the for the motion go ahead And you'll have up to two minutes to address the council Um Hi, elise casby here environmental activists for the last about 40 years So I just want to say that the politics of climate change is well underway sadly Very very sadly for the american people And the green new deal for my understanding has been pretty greenwashed by corporations I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the definition of greenwashed What I hope the general public will start to realize is Most of this has have been sadly very misled about the scale and scope That climate change is about to impact all of us and is already impacting People around the world indigenous people who live Up on the ice ice fishermen and women up there Around the world. It's well established and it's well underway. It looks like we might have 10 feet Of sea level rise possibly as early as within the next 10 to 20 years Possibly earlier 10 feet sea level rise here So I just want to say that um, I have a book to recommend by dar jamil Dar jamil is one of the most excellent investigative journalists in my opinion. That's alive and working today I became aware of dar jamil when the politics of The iraq war were underway and as we all know weapons of mass destruction were never found there Our reason for going into iraq was pure and simple oil for the oligarchs here in america and around the world Dar jamil presents a very readable book. It's called the end of ice It documents many of the different Ecosystems that will be impacted by climate change not only sea level rise, but forests and so far We are way behind this green deal is probably way behind everybody needs to get up to speed. Thank you very much I care at philip This is an example of one of those, you know, false crisis Anyway, the false climate change narrative disingenuously spun by the lustful filthy lucre grabbing or anti-american principled socialist change activists Must be opposed in the strongest terms or be one of them by your silence and ignorant support Their narrative is chocked full of lies real scientists Would tell you that lie number one is that science is at a point where is is not at a point where it can predict climate 10 to 100 years into the future Climate is an example of one of the most complicated systems to model there is and the current understanding is Beyond us by orders of magnitude models of equivalent complexity would be like predicting the timing of earthquakes or the exact location Category and landfall of hurricanes a month from now or 10 years from now Light number two is that co2 a single contributor to climate that is estimated to influence climate in the 2% range Man's part far less is a lever that can control climate meaningfully Line number three is that alternative replacements will magically appear to any of the things they wish to tax Up the yin yang including all carbon-based things or dependent things including oil coal paper iron steel cement glass aluminum They will simply be taxed a zero effect on anything except the ill effects on those who pay for this ignorance Your particular support resolution contains repugnant intentions to violate the sovereign rights of individuals The phrase future policy will help create high quality union jobs Which pay for veiling wages blah blah and guarantees wage benefit parity for workers affected Indicates a decided preference to deny citizens their absolutely identical right to negotiate for themselves without unions Show a preference for central planning of all kinds and shows an unwelcome rights interference in labor negotiations A reminder you should not be representing unions But only on the behalf of all people's right to fair negotiations on the side of the people in public union negotiations You are too far on the wrong side of this My motivational guess is vote pandering if you don't think the reality is a small percentage Thank you Good afternoon. I'm brett garrett and I just want to say thank you so much For hopefully unanimously endorsing the green new deal. It's very important It's one of the ways that that santa cruz is a leader on these issues Um, I strangely have a point of agreement with the previous Speaker the scientists can't predict what's happening a hundred years in the future and at every turn we're finding that their previous predictions Were too conservative that the climate is getting worse faster than anyone predicted and That appears to be likely to continue And we just have to do all we can and thank you so much for endorsing this green new deal resolution Hello, my name is dr. John Conway I'm an environmental scientist and the head of research at the romero institute And I would just like to thank all of you and particularly tiffani wise west for your leadership on and climate action and sustainability Um, because it's very very clear that if every city and county and State and country in the world does not undertake actions like this and faster And very soon then we will have failed as a human civilization And and I would like to see that not happen. So thank you very much for your leadership And I encourage you to all vote to support a green new deal. Thank you Hi, my name is ania. I'm 19 years old and I live in santa cruz I am here on behalf of sunrise. Um, which is who proposed the green new deal originally and the national level of I think endorsing environmental legislation and getting the environmental legislation through is absolutely essential to create the livable future I feel as though if we do not take a major environmental action now It will create the future that is not good for anyone And with that said, I think environmental legislation needs to be just for all people and for all people to live And one person said here That's we are well on our way to climate change efforts in santa cruz I do not believe we are well on our way to climate change efforts. I feel scared when I go to bed at night I cannot sleep at night because i'm scared for my future And my children when I have children their future and my friends cannot sleep at night I have my best friend who cries to me at night because she's scared of her future We are fearful of our future and we have a right to be fearful for our future We already see climate change affecting our futures now. We see islands going underwater. We see wildfires I cannot move back hardly to my hometown because i'm so scared of fires being able to go through the hometown I live very close to paradise and it's one of the towns most likely to be Effective and so I really hope we take more concrete action in the future and support more environmental action Because this environmental action is not enough alone. But with that said, I think it's a stepping stone for our future. Thank you Hello, can I submit a document for the record?  I'm 21 years old and I'm the hub coordinator of sunrise in santa cruz I'm here today to let y'all know that We do endorse this green new deal and we certainly hope you guys do as well A special thanks to tiffani wise west as well as councilmember glover and his interns and the people at his office for drafting this vision statement We support climate action and we see this resolution as a building block in which our city will develop a concrete green new deal in word and deed We want to see a just transition for the displaced workers and the unemployed By creating thousands of green jobs through infrastructure retrofitting buildings and new public transit construction solar installation And an emphasis on smart agriculture with sequestration emphasized We also want to see an emphasis on social and racial justice in this green new deal in this region Additionally, I would just like to say This is a really serious crisis and I appreciate the council recognizing that But we have a long way to go and the youth are definitely waiting and the youth are definitely looking towards you for guidance And we will continue to be here to pressure you until we see it. Thank you Are there any other members of the community who want to address the council on this matter? Cassie, then you'll be our last speaker Good afternoon scott-gram I think that it's imperative that We support the green new deal and that the city itself work on implementing as many of the projects and Other things as possible On a timely manner because the time is running out. I mean we don't have 100 200 years to work this out. We have a short period of time to Reverse what is going on or at least If not reverse it Haulted in its track so it doesn't go any further um So I don't I don't see any reason why we can't just uh endorse this project There's a lot of conservative People out there like rush limbaugh and shawn hannity that are saying oh the green new deal We're going to have to get rid of all the cows. We're going to have to stop using airplanes and You know all these other nonsensical things that they're pushing against the green new deal and it's all it's going to cost You know trillions of dollars It's actually going to create so many jobs Implementing these things that it's going to pay for itself And the fact that these people will be working and paying taxes and So forth and so on and it'll create new industries So I hope that you're all supportive of this. Thank you Yeah Okay, we'll go ahead and return back to the council at this time councilmember glever councilmember brown and then vice mayor Cummings councilman thank you Yes, thank you. Thank you for all the speakers from the community I think as was illustrated in the comments and also with especially the news in recent weeks with the heat waves and the arctic and the amazon rainforest on fire that we can Hopefully come together unanimously and move this resolution forward with the goal of Acknowledging all of the fantastic work that we've done so far in the city of santa cruz to address climate change and Mitigate the impacts that we'll see from that but also As a statement of the hope for our future endeavors that can be ideally even more ambitious with the direction that we go and the roles that we take so I'd like to make the following motion that we Adopt the resolution endorsing the green new deal house resolution 109 and senate resolution 59 as well as Direct the mayor to send a letter of support for house resolution 109 and state resolution 59 to the city's congressional delegates I can buy councilmember crone and the I believe it was councilmember brown vice mayor Cummings and then councilmember raphews So I just want to make a couple of comments having been involved in Bringing this before the council And primarily what I want to say is that Given that this is a resolution that's advisory in nature And it took some time to to get it To us, you know, I think it's important that we we Are supportive and that we make uh, we We communicate that support excuse me to our congressional representatives um I um could Word Smith some of this language a little further And we unfortunately didn't have an opportunity to do that at our last meeting So that said I'm supportive of it Coming to us now as it is What I really am interested in though is the important work that we need to do to actually um Create policy and programmatic changes the the things that we need to do to actually address climate change I see this as an important step to acknowledge it to let Our congressional representative know that we're supportive And hope that he will be too at the federal level that it is a much bigger Challenge than we can deal with alone in Santa Cruz, but we certainly have our part to play and I want to thank Tiffany wise west for working On this with us And I really look forward to working with her and with the community and my colleagues As we move forward with things like building electrification And and other policies and programs here at the city I just want to echo um what councilmember brown just said because I don't think that our work stops with just moving this resolution forward today I think that as has been mentioned by many members of the public that we do have a lot of work to do having Been working at the front lines of a lot of these issues. Um, I've Did my phd work in Panama? I've worked on climate change issues in the Everglades and Continue to work to with youth for them to understand the impacts that we're having on our environment and to help um Educate and promote future leaders to become Leaders in the conservation movement So I'm deeply committed to moving forward policy and working with the members of our community to make sure that we are Moving forward with implementing change and I think that after this Resolution gets gets adopted and as we mentioned we weren't able to wordsmith this as much as we were hoping to at the last meeting But um that as this moves forward that we as a community continue to move forward taking action In the form of policy to make sure that we're actually continuing to stay ahead of many other cities when it comes to Trying to draw down our greenhouse gas emissions and become a more sustainable community Council member matthews. Thank you. Um, I uh do support the uh green new deal. I have just a couple I know people don't want to wordsmith. I have a couple what I think pretty minor Changes I would like to suggest here. Um, the text in the whereas is Make it clear that this is an aspirational document and um, I just have a few on the very last page I consider these tweaks and I hope they'd be accepted as friendly At the top be it further resolved that I'm dropping out local that businesses organizations and corporations Should be held accountable through policy and regulation for the environmental degradation Caused by their products and practices and recognized for their contributions to environmental sustainability So I I hope that would be acceptable um And that's on uh for the do you want to go through it and then have this um to be Individually accepted. I'll I'll just read them and then people can react Okay, so I'll go through all through all four through We'll go through all of them and then have a further discussion And just to clarify. Thank you. There's the clarify. This is the first be it further resolved on the second We're third on the last page. This is I think it depends on how your page lays out Yeah, in the packet. So there's four pages in my packet. Um, that is on and posted on that Be it further resolved that local businesses. Okay. And so your suggestion there is I'll read it again Yeah, and just a second be it further resolved that businesses organizations and corporations Should be held accountable through policy and regulation for the environmental degradation caused by their practices and products And recognized for their contributions to environmental sustainability So as opposed So can you just let me know why you want to take out local businesses as we are writing a resolution for our local Area, uh, and then also is there a reason why you wanted to remove out the language Environmental degradation caused by waste and pollution generated through day-to-day business and products they sell Just curious I I thought practices and products was more general That's all I'll just if I could maybe and I'll weigh in, you know, I um I support the removal of local businesses I think, you know as the representative of the city going to the national conference of mayors to advocate that multinational corporations, particularly big oil Be held accountable for their contributions to kind of clump them together with local businesses that I think we really try to work with to become green businesses feels sort of um Trying to mix a positive potential approach with a negative run, right? So we I think fully want to support National big oil like those there needs to be accountability there and right now they're seeking immunity And so I think that's consistent with that And so for me, I think that's where I sort of see feel a rub too between that being blended in with the local because they're sort of I mean there's major contributions that big oil knew about for over 50 years and deceived our public about And it's sort of hard to mix the two for me another just another what why I added that last line recognize for contributions to environmental sustainability Tiffany came and presented to the community affairs committee of the chamber and on her climate adaptation plan and Was So well received and taken so seriously. I think we want to include especially at the local level the awareness and engagement Of our business community and our organization. So that was my reason. Absolutely. Um, what, uh, I wouldn't say this. Um Yes, I totally agree with everything that y'all just said And if it's just the removal of the word local as to assume that businesses and multinational corporations Compass as well the local then I'd be okay with removing the word local I do want to point out at the last meeting it was cited that there were somewhere around 500 green businesses in the In the area, um, but in some further investigation the city's green, uh, business department Or what not reports 190 green businesses in the city of santa Cruz And then looking at all of the other businesses that exist and the business licenses some for example are like yacht charters or mcdonald's or All the apartment complexes that we have here in santa Cruz. So Those are not Green businesses and our have a you know, in my opinion, there's not very much accountability with regards especially like lane charters So they're dumping Stuff into our water because of the how much they use their engine all the time So I hope that we can understand that yes, there's a green business program. Yes, we're working with our local businesses Yes, there are 190 great green businesses registered here in santa Cruz and we want to appreciate them Also acknowledging that we have a massive amount of other businesses that are not green businesses Some of them multinational corporations and some of them directly impacting the environment for example Um, if you saw in this previous week's good times the photo contest winner, did anyone see that? Just anyone on the dice? No, um, it's uh collection of plastic beach balls that have found their way on the San Lorenzo river and Jam themselves underneath the overpass at the base of ocean view park So the question that begs then is what are we doing or what is the boardwalk being held accountable for? For their toxic plastic waste that they are emitting into our marine sanctuary That is documented now in the um in the good times But I have to be honest I who used to live up in the east side area by the park would walk that consistently and notice the inflatable hammers that you get at ticket Booths and all of the other garbage and trash that's accumulated as a direct result of the boardwalk being there Not to mention all of the oil that comes off of their machines in a marine sanctuary Not to mention the noise pollution or the car and exhaust fumes from people driving continuous circles around looking for parking to stay there Um, so there's a lot just in that one corporation with regards to environmental impact And so I want to make sure that we're having strong language in our resolution Even though it's not binding having strong language in our resolution so that then we do look at future policies We can seriously take into consideration the impact that our even our local corporations have on our On our environment, so if it will make you more comfortable I'm happy to remove local Since businesses doesn't compass all of that But I do think that we should be very clear that there is environmental degradation and waste Generated by this work. So I don't feel comfortable removing that that language. I'd love to hear from my colleagues about it However, though on this on this line Councilor Matthews It's a journey You know, I'm I'm not going to take this meeting till 6 30 I would like to strike out the local. I think add the word organizations because this just talks about business. There are plenty of other Responsible parties and I would like to add the term recognize for their contributions to environmental sustainability If that's acceptable I Yes, I just loved I'd like to hear from at least the seconder of the motion or my colleagues in your opinions on on this and the language and where specifically because Do we want to recognize specifically those that have achieved their green business certification and are Proven to be environmentally sustainable because if we just say hey great job everybody then You know, it just loses its Like what do you mean? We want to congratulate those that have been doing the things. Where is that benchmark? You know, so This is general and there are so many benchmarks for so many different endeavors. I'll just say the other two I wanted to suggest And then I'll be done Two Resolves below that be resolved that future policy. We should guarantee that these new jobs. I would say aspire And the very next to last be further resolved that through the climate action plan we commit to align I would say aspire And again, I I don't think I mean this is described as an aspirational document and I would just like to Modify those two words I saw councilmember brown's hand Yeah, um Well in terms of the non substantive Language changes. I'm agnostic. You know, I what whatever people we can we'll get us to the finish line here um in terms of the I you know, I think it is important to suggest that we're recognizing uh, and you know kind of affirming Where positive practices exist and we kind of do that with our certifications and the you know Recognition that the city gets the work that we do. So it's happening. I don't think that By saying it here. We're suggesting good job everybody and but you can always improve There's continuous improvement in some cases and in other cases. We have to push pretty hard. So Um, and then in terms of the so on the other ones, you know aspire, you know, I'm fine I'd be fine with aspire work, you know work to You know work towards these jobs, you know something like that because I don't think we can't I just don't think it's possible to guarantee We can't I think um, you know, I don't have a problem with you know, just I don't think it's weakening it I think it's just kind of reflecting reality All right by smear coming. Um, so I agree with that and then I think the other piece where um in the First be it for the resolve that we were discussing around organizations Rather than local business. I think that that's appropriate and multinational corporations And then striking Santa Cruz the reason being is that we want to encompass all organizations and multinational corporations In and beyond Santa Cruz To make sure that everyone's being held accountable I don't think that we should focus directly on Santa Cruz because we want to I mean the statement that's being made is that We want to make sure that organizations and multi corporations everywhere doing their part And so I think that striking in Santa Cruz Would be appropriate and then I also think that the other changes would also be appropriate as well House member clever. Thank you. I just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing is We're just going to strike local but leave businesses comma organizations and multinational corporations want to clarify And then uh, then we can make the other suggested changes. The only thing um is the The the union Jobs question of you know the word guarantee I think it says that we should guarantee now doesn't mean that we will Guarantee it. It's that we should guarantee it But if there's a different word that you would prefer in there as far as we'll strive to You know, uh that through future policy we strive to Uh Strive to okay wonderful That at least Creates the language of effort, you know, we're trying to as hard as we can to do it, but we can't guarantee And then the last modification was commits to a line You change that under the second to last further be it further resolved To aspire is that correct? Okay. Is that accepted and just Be it further resolved that through the city's climate act climate and energy action plan 2030 and health and all policy programs The city aspires to Align with state goals pertaining to emissions reductions Similar with the other yeah, yeah, that's just so that we can all be on the same page. Why not? Yeah I would just add Sorry But if if it's if it's of interest of the council just to incorporate in multinational big oil just to call out big oil specifically because patrol their Significantly responsible, and they should be absolutely held accountable because they've Continue to contribute to this crisis and deceive the policy makers and the public And so what would that language read again just one more time? Sorry to add it to him after multinational if you want multinational corporations and big oil. Okay. Yeah, sorry I like I like that Okay, I think are we there? We're there. Okay. All right. Do we have clarity for our city clerk? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. All right. Any opposed? Okay. That passes unanimously Okay, why don't we take five minute transition break to the next item Good job everyone Oh, that's right because you know, yeah, I'll just I'm just gonna Just item 24 Really I think I can go see if I have a quorum I think hopefully some folks will come to kind of trickle in so we'll go ahead and get started again And I gave a kind of a heads up to the people in the back. So we have now on our agenda. We're on item number 24 Which is vision zero and so we have a presentation from staff and then we'll follow it up with questions public comment and then Action and deliberation So we'll head it over to you. Good afternoon. My name is Jim Burr and I'm the transportation manager and uh, Claire Fleeceler is here with me a transportation planner and uh, I just briefly I just wanted you to know that the transportation division is Really committed to transportation safety. Um, regardless of your action today, we will continue to be committed to transportation safety for all of our roadway users we believe we're Making efforts in all the right places This city through their street smart program Through engineering for sure and through our OTS grants with with enforcement stings We believe we're doing all the right things. I think the numbers are agreeing with us I'll have the traffic safety report out later this year and I think we're going to see some really great trends In particular, I believe bike collisions have dropped greatly Like over 50 percent since 2015 And I'll back that up for the report again later this year so, um What we've laid out here for you today. I believe is one way to say yes to You know another ask of our very small division But uh, Claire will explain more about it. Thank you Good afternoon, mayor and council again I'm Claire Fleeceler transportation planner with the city and before I get started I also want to recognize that we have phil butel the chair of our transportation and public works commission here As well as tracy and lauren from the county public health department Through the community traffic safety coalition who's been working regionally on vision zero efforts most recently Really really lending a hand to the city of watsonville in their undertaking Today we're we have a brief presentation for you. We're going to go through generally what vision zero is the The actions from the transportation public works commission, which I'll abbreviate tpwc frequently that got us to this point A general discussion and then move towards our recommendation So vision zero started in sweden in the 1990s and has become a worldwide effort The overall goal is to reduce and eliminate serious injuries and fatalities on our roadway This happens by changing the approach from traditional to vision zero approach Which recognizes that serious injuries and fatalities on our roadway are preventable That human air is inevitable and that we should we should plan and address our roadways through A systematic approach to really address the fact that human air will occur and to continue to improve traffic safety for all of our roadway users This is the most up-to-date map from the vision zero network of vision zero cities in the united states As you can see those coastal cities have been taken as on in middle america not so much But uh, we're not the first and we won't be the last that's considering this Why are we taking this on the primary reason is because bikes and pedestrians in our community are Disproportionately likely to experience serious injuries and deaths on our roadway Proportional to the percentage of roadway users. They see much higher rates of serious injuries and deaths And this is based on the american community survey five-year estimates of mode share and the statewide integrated traffic reporting system sweaters um collision data The uh in order to adjust this the transportation and public works committee formed a subcommittee which met over a six month period With their primary objective to do a deep dive and make a recommendation on if A vision zero undertaking in the city of santa cruz was an appropriate response They spoke to internal city departments including city manager's office public works planning police fire They spoke to external agencies that are doing vision zero including city of watsonville fremont and others And they worked closely with the health services agency mainly with theresa rogerson who's in the audience here They met over six months. They did 17 meetings and they spoke to 21 individuals who have have been or would be involved in vision zero efforts They identified many concerns and areas of opportunity Primarily as as jim identified and as you all know We have a very very small staff and we're very busy. Um, and this is one more project to add to Our plate. Um, as you know when you take something on there's something else. It doesn't get taken on So really identified that as being one of the big things. It's a resource limitation to implementing this Um, additionally, I believe it's attachment for that you have our existing strategies on collision reductions One of which is street smart switch is now in its third year. Um, just launched last week You may have seen the press release Um, and it went from a successful citywide program in years one in year two to a countywide program So we do have an in an education arm of this already in existence Um, additionally A desire to have a overarching policy that focuses all of our efforts on traffic safety One of the things we say in our department is that safety is kind of our north star of how we approach our projects And one of the things we always bring to our commission is that we don't propose the second safest alternative Which is often why you get neighbors coming before you that are a little upset that the safest alternative is slightly more Inconvenient so being able to have that policy approach there that says safety is our number one objective And those are going to be hard choices for you um, also Looking at efficiency at cooperation and coordination because it's an interdepartmental effort Public works is the main player here But it also impacts police for enforcement fire for response times the city manager's office as the overarching You know arm of the city in that coordination And then looking at the big picture and how do we really address our roadway needs and our overall Transportation system in order to achieve reductions in reduction reductions in elimination of serious injuries and fatalities on our roadways So looking at this the tpwc subcommittee identified these as elements that address the concerns that they heard looking at the staff burden and thinking about Going after existing grants that exist for vision zero development Pending your action today. There are some existing grants that we could pursue to assist with this effort Utilizing the existing model we have for the internal climate action team that we have that is represented of almost all city departments And really increasing interdepartment communication on on transportation issues recommended not making changes or minimal changes to the street smarts campaign And really recognizing we're thankful for this it's daft does excellent project work We have a long list as you know, I say this number all the time We have 17 million dollars in grant funded and programmed projects for specific safety improvements that we're going to be doing between now and 2021 we're really proud of that and it's as a result of our prior planning efforts that really identified and prioritized by combinatorate our active transportation planning network and The tpwc subcommittee really identified that this would be a new set of project prioritization tools So with that, this is just a pretty highlight slide of some of the projects. We've done recently The b4 to creek path the pacific avenue conch flow lane the felker street bridge the beach street bike way really Within public works our priority is to increase separation increase safety and put forth the The treatments on our roadways that do have the highest rate of safety That's why you see so much effort from us coming towards completely separated facilities Including the rail trail, which is taking up a lot of our time and we're really excited to move that to the next phase So in conclusion the recommendation coming out of today is that council adopt a resolution In support of a vision zero policy for the city of santa crows And direct staff to form vision zero task force beginning in 2020 To identify what this would be the first task would be an internal audit of our existing programs to identify What it is that we already do so again attachment four highlights some of those things And then to prioritize what those gaps are what are we not doing and how can we step into those things and make a More holistic vision zero program And then as a result of that after that internal audit to develop a vision zero work plan Which would be reviewed at the transportation public works commission before coming to you at council for deliberation and action And with that we're available for any questions Great. Thank you very much. Are there any questions for the staff from the council council member mires Just have a couple questions on the staff report under the fiscal impact section It talks about redirecting Some of the work that the department Currently does annually Specifically it talks about grant writing for transportation projects, which of course i'm assuming Also include trails and an alternative transportation, which again goes towards our goals of trying to reduce emissions in the city Do you have a sense? for example I don't know if you do four grants a year and you're going to only be able to do one or Sort of kind of what is the scale of that so in other words? Just to be absolutely We apply for every grant that we are eligible for over the next i have them written down on my phone So sorry if i'm being rude looking at it Over the next six to eight months We will have the recreational trails and greenways grant program, which is a great program for rail trail Multis paths potential river walk enhancements We'll have caltrans planning grants, which we could go in for a wide variety of projects looking at continued transportation planning highway safety improvement program, which sounds like highways, but what we've used it for is sidewalks Protected turn lanes to enhance cyclists safety intersection improvements surrounding city schools and identification of high collision intersections and needed countermeasures there The active transportation program cycle five, which is the biggest bear of a grant i've ever taken on each one of those applications takes about Two months of my time And office of traffic safety grants which last year we were successful in partnering with the police department to get expanded overtime hours funded to Really target school bell times high collision corridors and weekend night drunk driving enforcement, so You may or may not know this but within public works within the city I do most of our almost all of our transportation planning grant writing and project grant writing with support from our engineering team, but It's primarily just me So it's a lot of grants that we go after trying to implement the projects that we have on our existing project list right, and thank you for that and I'm just curious it mentions in the staff report too that Looks like the city manager's office would be doing the zero The vision zero task force implementation or organization. Is that correct? Right that was that was recommended by the I think the commission that we help coordinate the coordinate that yes Okay, and is there is there staffing available for that as well? Well, I think that's one of the reasons why it's recommended to do the 20 this started in 20 2020 Could I just clarify something that I think that stood out to me? I don't want to sure. No, I think i'm done for right now one of the things that I See as you know completely Synergetic is the connection between vision zero and health and all policies And I know that works coming from the city manager's office So as we move forward and I know it's referenced in the agenda report the the The best way to marry the two In terms of timing and efforts seems really appropriate and consistent with each other's values And I'm sure other just jurisdictions have done the same likely so I'll go ahead and return back because I interrupted. Did you have any additional questions? No, I I mean I'm I'm supportive of of the effort for sure I'm just trying to understand sort of how it fits into the workload and the programming And certainly certainly see That we do a lot of work already, but I'm just trying to kind of weigh all that out Right and and we did the same and that's why we want to put off implementation until 2020 we would We are hoping for not a full-blown public Circus of a project we did extensive outreach for the safe routes to school complete streets master plan Just for five years ago and then roll that into more outreach for the ATP plan. We have 200 and over I don't even know 246 projects or something on the books You know ready grant ready if you will and so Current projects will not be impacted, but the next the the next projects we want to go after will be impacted in other words The grant writing which funds all these projects is is one of the key pieces Additionally, this is the same staff that works on our parking programs And so all of the TDM that we're doing Is also comes comes out of this staff and we have a number of ideas that we want to do above and beyond the TDM in in in terms of new parking programs downtown we want Some on-demand Permits we want some residential permits and so we we have a lot of ideas, but Anyway, a small staff to take that on so it's not current projects, but future Yeah, if I may expand on that just in one thing the things that are on our plate right now as you guys know we have a very very Small amount of discretion in our CIP and most of our the heavy heavy heavy majority of our transportation projects Are entirely grant funded and what that means is the projects that we're currently working on Have grants scopes Schedules and budgets and we can't simply set those aside and remain in good standing with those funding agencies Who we depend on for those future projects that we use to implement roadway safety projects With that said, we're really trying to find a way to say yes to this in the the constraints that we all recognize councilmember brown Yeah, thank you for the presentation and thank you for All of your work and and trying to Happen I know it's something that a lot of people in our community are excited about Certainly the transportation Mission has put in time as well. I appreciate that A question I have is in fiscal impact you It's suggested that implementation of existing plans for bike and pedestrian safety projects programs and initiatives might Compromised yeah, and so but you know given the visions the intention To me I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about that. Absolutely and then really quickly. Is it okay if I ask a question of Yeah, to what you said and to our small staffing levels We we depend on all of us to kind of go all in on the projects we have our entire engineering staff is full up with the Implementation of projects that we've gotten prior grant funding for so moving through the design phase to the construction phase to the completion phase In terms of upcoming projects primarily those fall onto my plate to do all of the Grant writing and preparation for that in order to obtain the funding to implement that next round of projects In the the coming year with putting if we move forward with this with putting vision zero Primarily in our public works division that will fall onto me That means that I will have less time available to pursue those continued grant opportunities To fund the projects that we have on our existing project list from our active transportation plan That's what that that's what that means really we want to try to do everything And our big goal is to try to implement as many of those projects as possible to continue to improve roadway safety And so it's it's kind of taking a pause on that seeking funding for implementation Or just not having as much time to aggressively pursue all of those opportunities because we're spending time on the planning phase Which is not wrong. It's just a a reality of kind of the staffing levels that we're operating within Do you have additional question? I have a question for commissioner boutel go ahead So if it would be helpful to hear a little bit more Come on if you would is that okay? I know what I was supposed to talk about. Okay great Thank you for all the work you've done to Pull this together and And really the energy around it I am wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about the rationale for having a task force and we the city We really love our task forces and They take a lot of time and then that's additional staff time. And so I'm just I'm just wondering It task force Comprised of whom you know timelines etc. I understand the start date would be and I appreciate the kind of recognition of our staff constraints But if just it would be helpful to hear a little bit more about that sure so our Again clear outline kind of our process that we met with a bunch of people over six months. And it was pretty extensive Um, we went into this I was on that subcommittee along with a couple other commissioners Not knowing much about the program side the process of it all how a city would adopt it We just knew that other cities successfully did it and one of the biggest lessons we learned was kind of the the best practices out of all these interviews all these cities that have done it and Most of them said don't adopt something right out of the gates It's going to take a lot of stakeholders a lot of buy-in and making sure that everybody We wanted a very successful program at the end of the day and that meant not forcing anything on to anyone and it meant really a collaborative effort and establishing some kind of task force to you know, I guess from our Our understanding kind of all we're allowed to do is make a recommendation to you guys's council to make policy And the specifics of that policy we leave up to you But we also recognize that if it came straight to you council might not be ready to adopt A very specific thing and there would be some development time in there So and I think all that coupled with We think our our number one partner in this was of course public works and transportation staff and we wanted to be a partner together in that and So we recognize maybe it's a slower step than we take and like you said task force take time and they take effort and stuff But I think the end We want a city that or we want a policy here that everybody in the city can stand behind So in terms of again, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around the like the pieces of the puzzle and you know How much time and who and when and all of that? And I know that's to be worked out, but I guess I'm just thinking Again because this is something that the transportation and public works commission has been very interested in pursuing And we really rely on our our commissions to to really roll up their sleeves and do some of this work Or a lot of it in some cases Um, is this something that the commission could kind of Do some of the the heavy lifting to help with the staff time burden and resource burden To facilitate whatever process it is that is needed to have those conversations and develop the policy I think uh, I'll say subject to brown act limitations of only three of us being able to work on it outside of meetings and stuff I think you would probably be pretty easy to find three commissioners that would be on board to to help support this effort as much as possible um That being said You know, it's a we left our commission thinking like there's a lot to develop here We we knew it and we decided not to go down that road at at the Into those weeds of the policy level But if that's the direction you want to send back to the commission for us to Further pursue. I think that could be one avenue to do it Is that address your question? Yeah, thank you. Thank you Other questions. I have vice mayor coming. That was your question. Okay Then I had councilor matthews within councilor crowned for questions. Did you have a question? Um, yeah, I'm looking at this report. Um drawing on existing resources um I did wonder about under the auspices of the city manager's office I I hear that the bulk of the work is going to fall on public works But you guys will coordinate with other departments. Is that That's right to help to help coordinate, right? And I think particularly if there was going to be a A community group that was the other sort of reason for that Yeah, and and there again we get into the capacity issue correct Just leave it at that statement Is it anticipated that with the formation of the task force in early 2020 that the Action plan would be delivered. It says within a year of adoption, but within a year or so Yeah, I would anticipate that uh early 2020 and really the 2020 timeline is pushing it out so that in the fall and You know throughout the end of 2019 We can spend our time in transportation really getting our tdm program off the off the ground Which is launching this fall and so a lot of activities around that so looking towards when we will have some staff time opening up Um, you know, I think the first activities as recommended would be to do an internal audit and really talk about what are the things We already do and identify where those gaps are. I think we do already do many of these activities It's just a rebrand of many of them and bring them under one umbrella of a vision zero program I think a year-long timeline is probably sufficient with the caveat that if the public process gets more robust than that Which it may it might take longer than that Just a comment. I have been on some committees and task forces in the past where they just say You got until this date and you have eight meetings Work it out So I know I mean it exerts a discipline on the process I do not like the idea of you being pulled away from grant writing that seems like uh Not as not Not a good choice. Um, I see here that there's the statement some existing and anticipated projects may be need to be filled with outside help So that would be pulling in consultants or contract Personnel. I mean, what do you mean by that? Um, yeah, we can build more uh outside consultant help into our into our future projects Again It's not a solve all because consultants need a lot of oversight and they don't have the same ownership Uh, I never see the same kind of ownership of the consultants. I do with city staff. Yeah And um, so it it helps but it won't but it's not going to solve the problem And just tearing off that This is one that usually would be you know celebrating and cheering what a great thing And we're just trying to recognize like how can we make this happen within the constraints that we have So I recognize that we're presenting you kind of a difficult A happy thing that is in difficult circumstances and I I don't expect an answer but um to the extent you can um Compromise to the least extent your grant writing because that's just eating your seed corn, you know I hear councilmember crone and then councilmember mayers for clarification to hear correctly that ideally You would want to wait until january for the implementation in the beginning of this to happen So that you could have the rest of the fall to finish grant writing No, uh, the rest of the fall to launch our tdm program for downtown So we have a lot of activities coming up september october november december And then we'll still have a lot of activities but at least then we will have initiated them all and hopefully they're in a more Uh stable place at that point Councilmember crone and then councilmember mayers. Thanks. My question was asked. Thanks Um Kind of a clarification. I think from councilmember browns question When you asked if the commission could be involved where you and kind of envisioning sort of a role for using the commission as a task force in a sense I mean in terms of I'm just a little clarification on that. I mean were you looking at that potential I well I was I didn't have a particular You know crystallized vision about that. I was just trying to think about the potential for the commission to have some official ongoing involvement as a way to you know Get to or get us to a policy a recommendation to the council So I'm not like specific to that. Yeah, okay. Thank you Maybe um, well, I guess I'll reserve my my comments until after we hear from the public Do you have any additional questions? Is there any additional questions at this time? I have one additional point when you're considering making a motion the sixth whereas includes the word accident traffic accidents If we could change that in the motion to um collisions That's my oversight Whereas traffic collisions disproportionately impact bicycles and pedestrians That could be reflecting I think um, it's appropriate to open it up for public comment at this time Do you want to be our first speaker for public comment? Okay, why don't you go ahead and get started Any additional members of the community who want to address us on this item? Please light up to my left and you'll have up to two minutes to address the council. Okay So I'll just add to some of the discussion that came up one regarding grant writing One thing we heard from jurisdictions municipalities that had taken on vision zero and adopted it They also recognized that it was a staff burden. Certainly every one of them said that but one tradeoff That nearly all of them pointed out to us without us asking is that they had Increased success in grants because vision zero adopting vision zero give them extra I guess safety points or something within the grant writing process And again, this was highlighted as a specific tradeoff So green salt there And then as far as development the the only path we went down it was mentioned in claire's presentation as far as Not necessarily how we would develop the program But we did look to the the climate action team within the city here as possibly a model because that seemed like an Interdepartmental cooperation thing where there's multiple stakeholders recognizing that It's not just one group. It's definitely not just public works doing it In vision zero, you know the parallel is it involves police department and certainly involves fire department involves public works There are all these groups So we thought it even if we don't know the exact content of what that Group would do at least there's some kind of model for how they work together again We had suggested on the auspices of the city manager if that works out if you can find a way to make it work Thank you Next speaker, please You want to speak? I'll just go ahead and just acknowledge you'll go after um bright here. Okay. Good afternoon. I'm Brett carrot and uh Yeah, I strongly support vision zero and um as part of the health and all policies I I think this is very important and I want to echo something that mr. Boutel just said because I had it in my notes as something to say that I've heard Vision zero makes it easier to obtain grants for those projects that enhance bicycle and and pedestrian safety And well in safety in general And those are the projects we want to be prioritizing anyway. So Yes, whatever we can do. I definitely want to be a supporter for bike and pedestrian projects And I I'll we have a Pretty dismal record of bicycle safety in this area and I'm Relieved to hear that it is improving. I look forward to seeing that data I I am one of those uh pedestrian safety statistics because uh in 2012 I was hit by a car Crossing the street as a pedestrian in capitol So that's one of the reasons this is close to my heart to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety um Please support. Thank you very much We'll go ahead and pause for a second. Uh, sir. I'm going to go ahead and pause you for just a second I just want to acknowledge the uh woman in the front who indicated she wanted to speak but needed to say is that correct? Yeah, my name is gerry. Why don't you come on? Yeah, come on up if you can and we'll go ahead and have you uh speak for two minutes and Well, um, I'd just like to say I'm sure that you maybe some of you know that Seattle has banned that orange Bicycles out there the electric bicycles and There's been over 2,700 Accidents in san francisco. They're seriously considering banning the The bicycles and I've heard people that they're kicking the bicycles. They're mad at them. They turn they turned off when they're Oh the money or they're charging their Charge card or whatever they went too fast. They can't control them. They can't control the brakes. They can't control the speed I know that they go really fast and Even children are allowed to drive them I saw a guy leaving the bus stop and he said I haven't been on a bicycle since before the 60s and his Kids were going well. Follow me. Let's go around the Santa Cruz And I thought some wobbly old woman like me wandering around with my loaded garbage Like, you know someone like that and I are just like destined It's just as scary I just wonder if you if you ever consider At least making them go 15 or 20 or something like that or you know asking people Have you ridden a bicycle lately or because I thought the guy was totally saying oh, I guess I'll figure it out like stepping on the gas So that's all I have to say about that. I thought we were talking about the buses and I want solar lights put on all of the The buses for women's protection Thank you I'd like to uh, my name is bill cook Uh, I'd like to thank city staff They they uh, they work really hard and they do excellent work That said, uh, my thoughts are that um Uh vision zero is a different concept entirely It's uh, it's been uh to my observation extremely successful elsewhere in the world This is a cultural change this would that that we're embracing with this idea. Uh, it's a shift of paradigm It's uh vision zero has been uh 30 years in the making It's successful Embracing success is a heck of a good idea So i'm here to encourage that it's it's the It's not primarily an infrastructure solution Fundamentally the speed limit is 20 miles an hour wherever bicycles and pedestrians are Sharing space with motor vehicles In addition, there's all kinds of physical infrastructure speed bumps Chicanes and such like there are brought to bear on the problem of calming traffic That seems in my In my view, uh, that seems like low hanging fruit that seems like that's reachable We are this to fully implement this it's a generational thing that In my view, we could reduce our speed limit in most of the areas where cars Pedestrians and bicycles are sharing space to 20 miles an hour. We could do that Seems very doable and that would um reduce fatalities dramatically if if there were a way to enforce that Thank you On the next speaker Hi, mayor mottkins and council members. Thank you for bringing this item to your agenda I'm teresa rogerson as claire mentioned from county public health and we've been You know helping different jurisdictions around the county to adopt vision zero Our first city was watsonville to adopt vision zero and so we've been assisting them And I I think of it as a way to help All the departments involved especially public works and the police department that we've been working with closely To kind of focus their efforts and create more efficiency So i'm hoping that in the long term this actually saves some time And we're also available to assist with grant writing And with the city of watsonville, we also assisted with public outreach and Developing their action plan And doing some data analysis. So we certainly would make ourselves available To the city of santa cruz as well and we'd be happy to do that So you have some free consultants. I guess is what i'm saying Anyway, so thank you very much and we appreciate you considering this item meetings council brett snyder No longer resident of the city, but I want to talk about the jump bikes a little bit Because I think she made some very valid points. You're talking about how traffic like problems with with Traffic disproportionately affected people on On foot and on bicycle Electric bikes are on that continuum of motor vehicle and it it is kind of a nuisance and as someone who doesn't really Care to have a smartphone because of the the the frustration and annoyance Factors of it, you know, basically i'm completely excluded from ever using a jump bike and I feel like you guys have engaged In you know, kind of like Committing a lot of civic space to something that you know, I frankly don't think I'll ever use I've had an electric bike They're fun, but they also are quite dangerous. Thank you Good afternoon, mayor Watkins and city council. My name is jeena coal. I'm the executive director at bike santa cruz county Um, I'm here to express my support for pushing forward with the vision zero policy in your city Again, as Teresa had said Watsonville is moving forward with vision zero policies It is a belief that we can have zero traffic fatalities and zero serious injuries As a avid cyclist and as a bicycle commuter from Watsonville I'm on the road a lot and I'm on You know rural streets that thank you to smartphones and maps are those rural routes are now becoming very very popular as means of shifting off of the highways But that is really greatly impacting all of Again rural roads like larkin valley Where you wouldn't expect to be passed by 35 cars in less than a quarter of a mile, but I I am And also on the surface streets so if A policy like this that can be put in place That is going to slow traffic down because we all know that speed is Where it's at speed is what it makes the difference between what's a fatality and what's an injury um, and if we can put into place infrastructure and buffered bike lanes and calming circles And what have you that will Help folks slow down. They're not going to do it on their own. They need they need guidance That we can create a safe and healthier a safer and a healthier community here in Santa Cruz What I really love about the city Is that it is very bikeable It is very walkable, but I see close calls every single day And if we can reduce that More power to us. Thank you. Thank you Are there any other speakers who'd like to address the council? Okay, you'll be our last speaker Hello council east casby again. First of all, I want to just praise the street smarts educational program I believe that it has definitively Saved my life I live very near the intersection of pacific and laurel streets And so I go through that very major intersection usually several times a day That's like three or four times a day So recently I was almost killed because um I was moving into the far lane from downtown moving across the street and a SUV I don't know how it fit in that far lane, but it basically blew through the red light And if I hadn't been extremely cautious and I have been Worned by those street smart signs in the buses. I'm a total pedestrian bus Taker I have no car and I don't ride a bike yet. So, um, I just want to say I went to speak to that person who was a woman at wall mart or wall greens rather in the parking lot and told her You know, you just almost killed me if I had taken one more step. You definitely would have hit me I'm concerned because my friend is extraordinarily tired. He doesn't get good sleep and he works really hard And I'm afraid he's going to get killed at that intersection. So again, I think this program is extremely important, especially street smarts Oh, sorry But I am very concerned. There's other things I want to talk about pacific avenue. The safety is deplorable I almost get hit every single day by skateboarders and bicyclists. I'm really worried about that Okay, I'm extremely concerned about the implementation of this program. I believe that the um, I just know his name is deadl Mr. Deadl is an anti environmentalist He is absolutely dead set against doing anything. Uh, that's environmentally friendly Uh, when we brought in that parking, uh, consultant who was so helpful patrick. Somebody. I don't know his last name Mr. Deadl just said all his data was completely different and I really have concerns about the police also as a partner in this In this uh, collaboration. Thank you very much All right, then you'll Good afternoon scott ram. Um, I'm in favor of vision zero And uh enhancing the safety of pedestrians and bicycle riders and one of the things that would actually help the most would be reducing car trips The the fewer car trips there are within the city The less likelihood that there's going to be an accident or a collision of some type Whether it's between other cars or car bicycle car human So I think emphasizing the reduction of car trips is a very important element of this entire program Thank you Okay, we'll go ahead now and return it back to the council for action and deliberation I can't make a motion But I hope that um as we move forward the element within the agenda report that has that Timing for initial adoption of this policy can be a key tenet of the council's new health and all policies effort be incorporated because I think they really do have a lot of Potential synergy and alignment. So I'll just sort of put that out there Vice mayor Cummings counts member crone Yeah, that was I think that this is something that um our community could really benefit from and I was actually going to Say that it fits very well within health and all policies and what we just Passed earlier with along the lines of the Green New Deal and trying to reduce carbon emissions So I'm prepared to make a motion That we adopt a vision zero policy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries on city streets by 2030 That we task the traffic and public works commission to develop and implement a vision zero action plan Within one year of adopting this resolution That would gather analyze utilize And share reliable data to understand traffic safety issues To prioritize resources based on evidence of the greatest need and impact And to evaluate the success of those efforts Affirm that no bike or pedestrian projects should be delayed due to adoption of vision zero Request that staff return with a recommendation on what projects would be delayed To divert staff time to vision zero implementation And then we work with county partners as grant writing consultants second We have a motion by um Vice mayor Cummings second by council member crone Would you be willing to incorporate the health and all policies as a potential area for alignment and adoption and synergy um as a consideration? Okay, that's accepted and just a question How do you vision or envision that in in vision zero like an example? I would say that if you were to think of how it would fit is the health and all policies framework would probably be sort of the more broader kind of Initiative that encompasses sustainability equity and public health and vision zero would be a tenant of one of those efforts That would fit and align perfectly in my opinion. Thanks But I think we can explore and operationally how that can actually play out as we move forward Okay Thanks. Yeah, absolutely. Uh support the motion. Um Didn't want to just make sure that the staff request. I know it was Made notes in our page, but I think the sixth whereas change the word accents to collisions Please as a friendly amendment to make that change in the motion So essentially in the resolution at the sixth whereas the traffic instead of accidents It was to be collisions instead. Okay, you made that she got okay got it. Thank you for reminding us Any other comments at this time? Okay All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Did you catch that? Um, Got it. Okay Okay, so we have This is it two hours Hey, you know You never know you really don't So we'll go ahead and reconvene at 7 p.m. This evening for oral communications Well, good evening, everybody. Welcome to our 7 p.m. Session of the august 27th 2019 meeting of the santa cruz city council Before we begin if we do need Overflow we'll go ahead and have the tony hill room available at the civic For the evening session, but at this point it seems that we'll have adequate space So we'll see how that goes. I'd like to ask our clerk to please call the roll Thank you, mayor at councilmember. It's crone Here lover here mires here brown is currently absent Here vice mayor coming. Yeah and mayor Watkins here So we'll go ahead and move on to our oral communications portion of our agenda Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the community to speak to us on items that are not listed on today's agenda I am assuming that everybody who's lined up to my left is here to speak at oral communications And you will each have two minutes to speak and we request if possible to have your Name signed in if you're interested in that it's not required I'll also just remind those who are here this evening that oral communications and the evening item if you're here to address the council We are here to hear you and we ask that you respect your fellow citizens and the process even if you disagree with them If you do speak out and you speak up when somebody else is trying to speak I will give you a warning and if you continue to disrupt the meeting. I will ask you to leave I don't want to do that. So I hope that there's an opportunity for people to Move forward tonight with the ability to have respect for their fellow citizens in this process But want to be very clear about how tonight will flow and go If you do have signs, you're welcome to hold them below your shoulders, but please don't hold them above Your shoulders or in a way that's going to actually impede the person behind you from being able to see If I see you doing that, I'll ask you to please lower your sign Okay, so we'll go ahead and get started so hopefully we can get to everybody Can I get a sense of who is here to speak for oral communications? Okay, so we'll try to get to everybody oral communications is generally about 30 minutes of we can potentially go a little bit over I will go ahead and allow for Since we're starting a few minutes late until 7 40 and so if you need your full two minutes You're welcome to take it But if not and you want to get your point across in less than that it will allow for other people to speak So let's go ahead and get started. Um, please stand. Uh, go ahead and get started on my left And you'll have up to two minutes Thank you. My name is Elise Kazby. I am here wearing a Red Cross emblem because Democracy is under assault in Santa Cruz And so I just want to say first of all the sentinel misrepresentation of our two council members Where they put a large headline conduct inquiry reveals misdeeds and then they have their pictures prominently positioned Is so deceptive as to be a full on lie Really really sad for democracy here. I would recommend that I want to stop short of the b-word Which sounds a lot like cottage cheese b blank pot Let's not go that far But let's make sure that the sentinel knows that we will not tolerate a misrepresentation of the truth because In fact, the rose report Largely completely Exonerates our two council members from any wrongdoing What is happening in this city when Cynthia Matthews, martin Bernal, Bonnie Lipsk and mr. Duttel of public works jim burr of transportation with their completely reactive and anti-environmental policies Their contradictions of top-level consultants who try to tell the truth about the number of parking spaces and so many issues When our mayor is the first mayor in six years to shut down our public comment to 30 minutes Which by the way, she will count her after I sit down She is the first one I've observed in six years And whereas all the other mayors were willing to give every member to the public at least some time to speak A pointing handpicked people to push their anti-democratic agenda direct the library into a five-star parking garage Six dollars for a recall signature while lying to the signature gathers Folks, let's demand that we get more fair and true representation on council and in the media I think we need to depose the elite cabal that is trying to absolutely Exchlorate our fairly elected officials Yeah Okay, next speaker All right Yeah, I really hope tonight that the city council Speaks forcibly against martin brunos vicious smear campaign against Drew Glover and that goes hand to hand with all the other illegal and corrupt things that we're witnessing here by the property speculator supporting council people here and it's a it's I really urge you to go on netflix and watch The edge of democracy And the edge of democracy you will see some very shocking parallels to the what is in that movie To what we have witnessed a sense the new council has been in office Every single playbook by the fascists To subvert democracy has occurred here in the city council Since the beginning of the year every single one of them Lies on on recall petitions A smear campaign by martin brunel to claim that it's unsafe to communicate With drew glover who's got to be the gentlest most compassionate person that has ever sat on this city council And that is outrageous a leading star Our community to be trashed in the media and and to manipulate events so that Oh, they're what uh when take back santa Cruz likes said, you know spread a rumor about drew being angry And then martin brunel uses that as a way to smear drew in the media No mention in that in the media smear campaigns about the six dollar signature Over and over again every one of those poor kind people that I meet that are Doing the getting signatures for the recall are having to get To get six dollars To to live Okay, that is really really outrageous that we have to do that. I hope it's really It's quite upsetting. You're gonna need to leave. That's your warning next time I you speak out or go longer I'm gonna ask you to go ahead and leave. I'll have our Our haver sergeant of arms escort you out. So you've been warned next Interruption will have you escorted out. Okay next speaker democratic to me Hi, my name's sarah manilde and I I'm coming here completely independent of all of this I didn't know any of this was happening So I guess it's important to me to say something without Because my style is a little different than their styles I came here to support mr. Glover. I I had the experience of leaving Trader joes and having somebody I call it assault, but they were very aggressively giving me this recall petition And I tried I talked to them a little bit and I said no I don't you know this that the other thing and I thought about it for a very long time and basically what I feel is that I voted for mr. Glover. I support mr. Glover completely And I think the city council cannot Function as a democratic unit unless we stop having every time someone has a position We don't agree with Recall campaigns that produces this like Chaos rather than government And I can't believe it I live My federal government has a leader that I completely 100% disagree with I don't get to recall him I have had to live under governments that I don't agree with and so I am so Offended that people who take a different position No matter what your position is what you think the homeless Situation is good or whether you think it's bad or whether you're a homeless advocate or whether you're not You have no business trying to recall mr. Glover and I 100% support him. He's one of the few people I have voted for That are Representing me right now. Thank you very much My name is Lee Broca and once I start reading every word will be from this report Watch in statement to the public 2 12 19 7 o'clock page 10 quote I'd like to speak to the perceptions that are floating around in the community There are perceptions that my colleagues both council members grover Glover and crone are intentionally bullying me because I am a woman I say this perception out loud not to validate its truth But rather to stand alongside my fellow council members staff and community members who may feel pushed around or bullied page 14 Mayor watchin's father Who is county superintendent of schools for many years and other men and women? She respects have suggested to mayor watchin's the council members Glover and crone would not interrupt her every Question to every decision she makes Or try to overwrite her if she were a man rather than a woman Page 52 footnote 32 vice mayor Cummings, thank you, sir Vice mayor that was editorial Vice mayor Cummings told me he believes the complaints leading to this investigation may be politically motivated to undermine And make less effective some of the policies Efforts and those of his council members crone and Glover slandy brown investigating alleged political motivations Complaints are beyond the scope of my complaint recommendations page 89 council members All members number three all members of city council should immediately participate in professional mediation and conflict resolution I support you too Yeah, hi bruce thomas I'm 18 year resident of do4 street, and I'm here on behalf of do4 neighbors We presented a petition a year ago after the openings of starbucks and blaze pizza at 1901 mission street, and I want to Reiterate that there are ongoing problems contrary to a report that was posted in the meeting The addendum of last week's two weeks ago is meeting council meeting agenda So i'm soliciting help i've got some help from ralph of the City manager's office, but it's been really slow, and i'm going to ask The council if they can help intervene to try to make sure we can finally get some meetings going or something Where we can draw a solution the one of the key problems is A bank was split into two two fast food franchises and no loading zone was specified So after the fact a very ineffective one was put up and it doesn't get used it can't be used because people don't honor The neighbors have a lot of ideals we want to help It would be really good if someone on the council could help bring us together And have action items that are responded to we had action items from a meeting last october And by and large they were dropped and some of the ideas those action items were actually would have been very helpful So again do4 neighbors are soliciting help from the council to help us try to get a solution That's going to be long term and effective. Thank you Hi, uh, how was your bike ride on the 24th? You can go ahead and pause it This is a chance for us to hear from you. Okay. Uh, yeah, I just I just I think I think they're kind of parallels to like public comment To like your bike ride. I think like in some ways you should consider Letting people talk longer. Um, I mean it's a little thing to ask If you look at it in the larger in the larger picture Um, I wanted to say something about the library Concept of the parking garage above the library. Um, I think that that idea is so bad. It belongs in north korea it's it's utterly remarkably remarkably bad and It's offensive to people who love libraries so I think you guys should consider because uh the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center cost about 13 million is what I've heard and that's including the land it was built on and that structure Is is only slightly smaller than you would need to make a really nice library for a community this size and you wouldn't have to put A ridiculous parking garage on top of it and and you wouldn't have to use up I mean if you look at this parcel over here that the library is currently on With the parking lots that are adjacent to it the whole thing Would um, you know easily support a new structure Um, you know the footprint of that area would support a new structure and there's plenty of um, you know parking garages and things nearby So I think um, I think that would be a better option. Um This winter, uh, you're going to have uh holiday shoppers and uh by that that's a euphemism for uh the campers But uh, you know, they're they're a little bit like holiday shoppers uh Looking for aggressively advertised substantial bargains on popular merchandise, but um, they um I think they deserve amenities. Um, because in in some respects They're just looking for a little tiny slice of of the american dream. Um Next speaker Next speaker. I'm not sure there's any paper Okay Whether it's not okay next next speaker we'll go ahead and I'm sorry Oh, you're speaking to the agenda Okay, this is oral communications reminding you who um is in the audience that this is for items that are not on today's agenda So if you're interested in addressing the council on the item that is not on today's agenda Please line up to my left and we'll try to get through Everybody who is here to speak on any item not on our agenda Within the next 25 minutes or so, please Good evening. My name is becky steinbrunner. I'm a resident of rural aptos And i'm here to speak to you. I was not able to come to rosemary minards earlier presentation to you today about the mid county groundwater agency and the draft Sustainability plan. This is it and I would like to ask that uh you and members of the public attend tomorrow night At 7 p.m at the simkins swim center the question and answer period with the mid county groundwater agency board Regarding this plan. This is huge. This is huge It is biased for uh support of uh, soquel creek water districts pure water soquel Project, which will inject 1.3 million gallons a day Of treated sewage water into the drinking water supply aquifer Nobody's giving a vote on this. They're just doing it and pushing it through The last time I spoke before your council It was to make the agreement with soquel creek water district regarding the tertiary treatment plant at the wastewater treatment facility And again councilman crone. Thank you for pulling that item off the conceit agenda that day Mr. Basso that day, uh, who is the attorney for soquel creek water district told your council that i am the only one That's complaining. That is not true I am the only one that has been able to have the time and the energy to Put forth a pro per litigation against the district for a very sham of an eir on the project But I represent Hundreds and many people are thanking me for trying to take this action because many people feel it is wrong And and they worry about the long term Health effects that are unstudied as to low levels of endocrine disruptors and pharmaceuticals in the water Which cannot and the facility Operators know this it cannot all be removed. Corollo engineering has told the water district this Your time is up. Thank you very much speaker Hi, sherry sherry peterson. I'm here to speak about image can Well, I've been visiting over there lately I've been going over there for 35 years since it started and um, You know, I I do art and There's a denizen calling make breakfast on monday And I just wish that you'd listen up the the police is outside and he's wondering What am I doing here because everyone says oh good morning and we're all very friendly and we We get along well and we watch tv and there's a lot of groups in there and things to do and I just wish that you would think of other daycares for the it's Coming it's going to be a cold winter. I feel and there needs to be more things open to people Just even if it's just an open building with yarn in it or something simple like paper with color crayons or whatever it takes, you know showing people how to Become carpenters or there's a million things that the city could do to help people Get better an image can helps people in a million ways. It's helped me and it's also a Doesn't allow any alcohol over there and that and that's really good So drop-in centers would be really handy It would help people around here that I notice too many people are on alcohol or drugs And they have have something else to do and I wish to even think about that in your budgeting making room for other daycare programs and also Letting loose image chance restriction Where we can actually take food out of there because like 50 to 70 percent of us are homeless And it'd be really nice to take a bunch of grapes out of there Today, I had to eat five bananas because I wasn't allowed to take two home Thank you Hey, hi garrus philip. I um It's going to cut into my time that thing I really wanted to speak about but uh, I do feel compelled to say as a member of Seneca who's united that uh, nobody's getting paid six dollars a signature for anything. It's a grassroots effort We're all doing it for free Okay, you do it You know, well, I I know no one I'm gonna go ahead and pause you can I'm gonna go ahead and pause your time at least That's a warning next time. There's an interruption. I'm gonna ask that you please leave Uh-huh next, please continue without disruption whether or not we agree with you we're we welcome your okay Yeah, and and the narrative for the reasons for the recall for me personally are up to about 30 minutes So there's a lot of reasons I suggest that the public listen to the reasons And make up their own mind whether they are sufficient to justify a recall or not and not listen to The grievance monger fan club that so far as I've heard hasn't doesn't have any, you know actual reasons not to Uh, anyway, I'm gonna continue Generally, I'm not in favor of the city engaging in large social program funding with city money for select special interests Livers of the population to start the tax base of the city isn't intended or suited for such things Federal and state taxes are progressive and based on profit. No profit. No tax As long as all the profit is not taxed the economy pie grows and prosperity ensues The fed has constitutional authority to provide for welfare. The city does not Normal property taxes sales taxes other fees depend of the economic pie and don't respect profit if too large They damage prosperity They are properly intended for residents to collectively buy city services such as streets parks libraries police fire And no barrier public municipal offerings and improvements that all can access National social problems are beyond the scope of the city to solve and should not use such funding sources The use of false oppression narratives to justify higher taxes rent control or the outright theft of personal wealth in rumored transfer taxes and business Licenses of minor housing providers are ill-conceived economic and political attempts at violations of individual liberty Individual liberty approaching oppressions of their own making Even worse, for example, is when the social engineering goals of the council advisory committee on homelessness Did not unbelievably include explicitly at all whatsoever the specific goal of reducing homelessness by some measured amount Over time that we may judge their effectiveness Next speaker, please The the gentleman in the left is waiting for the evening's item. You're welcome to come Pat kiddle santa cruz um I bring up a subject frequently because I feel that it's very fundamental And most people are afraid to bring it up even though it affects just about everything that we try to accomplish That is specifically the israel lobby The israel lobby basically intimidates people and actually confronting them with facts If you do confront the israel lobby with facts, you will be um Unpleasantly treated I can speak from experience But that does not intimidate me because um I just figure hey if you can refute what I say about israel or the israel lobby or anything related to it I will apologize And I've made that offer to everybody who doesn't like what I say about the israel lobby But the fact is nobody ever tells me What it is that i'm wrong about they just hate me for stating facts about the israel lobby One fact i'm wearing a t-shirt right now. I don't know if this is going to show up on tv Anyway, um This goes back, but the israel lobby's uh nefarious activities goes back further than 1967 When they actually israel actually knowingly attacked an American us navy ship And they did it with the intent of getting the united states to start a war with israel's arab enemies so that uh Israel won't have to do it themselves. This is customary practice with the israel lobby sucking us into Wars for israel so israel can take over the mid east And I say if you look into the israel lobby And speak up you'll be doing us all a favor. Thank you Please my name is sarah smith And I feel like democracy can't function without respect for all people Our community is in a crisis with a pervasive lack of respect Our government will be dysfunctional until we regain it again and policies matter and behavior matters I've learned about standing for social justice throughout my life In west africa in alabama in india In mexico and at home I'm working on a movie called the boys who say no who said no about the draft resistance movement of the 60s It was our movement and we used nonviolent action to bring about change and stop a war We felt betrayed by the policies and actions of our leaders and we took a stand Today, I take a stand and ask our leaders and all the members of our community To show deep respect for each other Stop name calling and make serious efforts to work together for the good of all in our city and our country We have a big job ahead of us to build a stronger nation That takes care of all of its citizens where mistreatment of people in any situation is not condoned David harris a leader of the draft resistance said clearly you don't change people's minds by calling them pigs I say don't call people names and ex