pect to change anything I want our community to stand for respect and justice. This is who we are In 1965. I marched in the streets of selma, alabama With 60 other white people who clearly said we stand for the rights of black people to have full voting rights It was scary. We were surrounded by white people yelling at us throwing things and we marched on Many of us in this community have stood up to oppose racism and stand for social justice I walked with martin luther king in montgomery. Time is up. Thank you. You're welcome to submit the comments Our next speaker, please come forward next speaker You're welcome you're welcome to come forward Well First of all, I really do want to save our library over there in that beautiful setting With the view of the the city hall here Unless we maybe we can move the library into the city hall and move city hall into logo's old building It's just not fair that we keep threatening our parking lot, which has that beautiful farmers market Which is the one big beautiful thing that our community manages to do every wednesday It's a beautiful thing that farmers market and we need to keep it And we need to keep those trees that are over 200 years old that have been sequestering carbon for us for over 200 years It's just wrong They've set up a little shop in the farmers market trying to push the library and the parking garage but they never actually Tell you what the outside is going to look and they never actually show that the trees are going to be gone And it's just going to turn our city into a Nazi worship worshiping thing downtown. It's just wrong Okay, and we need more bathrooms And why do we that beautiful san lorenzo park has that that shindig for alcoholics? Always at the last of the month 40 dollars they charge 40 dollars a person On saturday to go in there and drink tequila and tacos And they do it on the last few days of the month because they know poor people can't do it They can't afford that and they're just drunks and and people what happened to the wham festival We haven't had one of those for 10 years. It's just wrong We need to have something good in that park every weekend It's a beautiful park and we need to let the gay pride people end there too and have a beautiful celebration And the farmers market needs to stay in that park Good evening council and synthia with center cruise tenants association A person who's collecting signatures for the recall told me that they received their paycheck from planning commissioner robert singleton Is that true? Maybe that's not true, but I did tell them that they were paying 40 dollars a signature in alameda And they were just shocked their jaws dropped and hit the floor So regarding district elections santa cruz will soon have district elections or if fought a ranked choice system Which would be a hundred percent more fair difficulty So the drawing of electrical district lines is contentious those who are in office have a strong influence Over redistricting decisions political leaders will often influence the drawing of district lines in ways that help perpetuate their own power Or the strength of their group. For example, if If a counselor wins an election by a narrow margin He might have the lines of the district redrawn it drawn an attempt to exclude a neighborhood that voted against him If a surround if the downtown is surrounded by if if a multifamily downtown is surrounded by a single family neighborhoods People in power might try to redraw district lines in a way that chops up the downtown area So that several single family home districts each swallow up a small piece of the downtown district Or thereby leaving no downtown voting district at all or no ucse district more likely Can also allow politicians to separate wealthy populations from poor ones or to make racial divisions Um So white white districts were ruled to be acceptable while a majority african American district and a majority latino district were ruled unacceptable This was in texas The ranked voting or distributing multiple votes could be useful changes That might get us away from the all or nothing winner takes all electoral system Which encourage people to vote against someone rather than for someone in ranked voting Which is used in in uh, Cambridge voters get to assign ranks to all the candidates not just one in their district The other proposed system of distributing multiple votes would allow each voter to have for example seven votes Okay, let's see if I got this right so you decided to have 18 thousand Spend 18 thousand dollars to do an investigation are two most progressive city council members There are about I might have this a little off with seven allegations all unfound Almost all unfounded one substantiated for a sarcastic laugh And one was a substantiated because a conference room Comment about a conference room leaving late So really 18 thousand dollars to find out you need mediation Mediation that was asked by chris andrew on multiple occasions Really 18 thousand dollars you could have done the mediation without the 18 thousand dollars and the 18 thousand dollars could have gone to people such as Maybe our homeless population The real reason this witch hunt was started is because these two people On the city council do not play the game of i'll vote for this if you vote for that They represent what we voted for they have not changed their views They stand strong And the headlines on k i o n and jessica york. I'm really disappointed at you sometimes you do good But that one you mentioned you you do the wrong doings you mentioned that instead of most of the allegations were unsistantiated The real headline should be anti anti homeless and pro gentrification city council Spend 18 thousand dollars Trying to get rid of their fellow progressive city council members instead of mediating So in the end i would like to dedicate this shirt to you And Okay, i will wait i've got to wear it every single day your time is that while you are Our supposed okay your time is that as whole mayor Okay, so you've been warned and next time there's a disruption. We'll go ahead and ask you to respectfully leave I'm going to go ahead and close um before we get started I'm going to go ahead and close oral communications after the person with the hat on and the flower in the and the hair You will be our last speaker. We have an evening item before us. That's it I just didn't want to stand my foot hurt. No, i'm sorry We're going to have you have other opportunities to address us We're going to go ahead and close oral communications after the person with the hair with the flower in his hat You're too late. I'm sorry We'll go ahead and remind people that even if you don't agree with what they have to say We're going to respectfully listen to them and we're going to respectfully Hear them even if I don't agree with what they have to say I will respectfully ask that they have the respect of all citizens to be heard without disruption So I asked you to respect your fellow citizens and those with the signs I ask you not to disrupt those behind you and to please lower them So that the people behind you can see please you have your two minutes Hi, alisha cool president of the santa cruz chapter of the california homeless union As we know all people that were living at the ross camp were not adequately housed and so we have Homeless encampments all over the city right now. So on behalf of the current situation I'm asking you to consider agendizing in the near future Another plan for a transitional homeless encampment To be set up sooner than later a winter is fast approaching And so I have great concerns that people are outside. They're unhoused. They're unprotected right now And in the interim, I'm also asking you to consider their basic emergency needs And think about distributing things on a regular basis such as motel vouchers and laundry vouchers It's going to be really hard in this rain and fog For people to get their needs met. We don't have enough shelter availability And so I'm asking you to consider You know placing those things in place immediately do the data do the research I mean, I think it's clear that we need those things and and those are things that you can immediately do To help our unhoused individuals And I would also like to thank drew and chris for all the work that they've done For all the time that they've taken They represent voices that often don't get heard in these matters. And so I appreciate all the work that you guys have done Thank you very much Hi council I thought I'd tell you a quick story and ask for your help. So I was at choppers corner three hours ago I was approached by a petitioner for the recall campaign My name is mica posner And I was informed that the reason we should recall glover and crone is because they don't support transitional housing for people And then I was told that councilmember glover had Had verbally assaulted someone at city hall recently When I asked the woman why this wasn't in the exhaustive report that I just read she said, well, I don't know, but I know it's true I'm sure it's true So the people are gathering the petitions are lying And then I said, well, why are you doing this and they said we really need the money So they're getting paid and then they're lying. So my ask of you Um and especially Cynthia Matthews because I know you care about civility and I respect you for that and mayor walkins because I also know you're calling for civility is go to go to shoppers and ask them Why you should recall these council members and if they lie to you then tell the newspaper Or use your position ask them not to do that because you know, I'm not claiming that my side doesn't stretch the truth either or whatever But all of us it's coming on all of us to try to keep the dialogue truthful and civil And that's not happening with the recall campaign right now. So I'm also asking you to do that. Jessica Just go ask them, you know, just go ask them why and if they lie to you then, you know Put in the newspaper You're welcome to address the council at this time if you want to address somebody else on it on a different time You're welcome to do that on your own time. I just including your opportunity to address the council. I understand And I I was asking you to do that. So I hope you do so thanks for your help I hope that we all work on You know having a civil and truthful dialogue and I know I'm going to do that when people Say erroneous stuff about you know people that I'm not allied with and anyways I hope we all work on this together because the other speaker that march with Martin Luther King is right Things have gotten to a new low and we really got to work a little bit harder. Thank you We'll go ahead I'm going to go ahead and ask you to please lower your signs for the last time No higher than your shoulder if you're not interested in doing that You can go ahead and stand in the back if you're still not interested in doing that Then I'm going to go ahead and ask that you stand outside It has to be lower than so you're not disrupting Or Not allowing the people behind you to see Okay, they can see that This person is saying they can't see or can you see okay? No higher than that a place that's they're not going to be able to see mr. McHenry the same for you, please go ahead You can go ahead you have two minutes and It's very disruptive right now to have so much People not having good harmony with each other Let's try to be together more, please. Let's have more love and cooperation with everyone Passion of course is going to come into it and every time you add one more person it exponentially makes problems, right? So let's just try to work on it and let's just keep working forward and The main thing I want to see right now for everybody to forget all the problems And we need to look at our planet and our universe And we got to start at the bottom here and we got to do introspection Retrospection and set in the backwards order and future spectrum is the word I want to add to that if it isn't already there And we need to work for our planet more than all the rest of this stuff Other stuff is kind of moot if we can't keep our planet together Species extinction is a very real thing that's happening right now. We got to work on that tying into that Is a sacred ceremony of village site Where the almond moots and people that were here originally that knew how to steward this land in a very excellent way with spirit With knowledge with working on the land not just destroying it We don't only destroy either but they really could teach us a lot about how to take care of land and steward it And give us all strength and soul We're going to have a walk to support them In two Sundays from now on the 8th of september Everybody's invited one o'clock to six o'clock and San Juan Batista. We're going to walk five miles for those who can Otherwise, we're going to take people on we're going to have you know Talkers and you know ceremonies at the beginning and at the end we're going to have a big feast at the Beddable RV park. They're hosting it which is right next to the sergeant quarry Proposed site. So what they want to do is take their sacred land and make a quarry there So please Members of the community and city council It's public record though not reported by the sentinel that the city's motion to dismiss the ross camp lawsuit Has not been dismissed Instead the city and the ross camp refugees have been directed to return to federal court in october After some substantive meetings to resolve real problems Huff one of the parties of the lawsuit calls first for a public apology to the community of Santa Cruz This would admit that most of the residents of the ross camp were not offered alternative shelter Nor are they sheltered now We demand immediate action by city council to rectify this by implementing delayed stalled and buried plans For survival homeless encampments as well as safe rv and vehicle lots to be opened no later than november 1st Considering the coming winter Considering the current violations of the martin versus boysy prohibitions on punishing homeless people in public places for simply being there City council must declare a moratorium on the enforcement of all ordinance has shown to unduly impact Homeless folks that have little to do with health and safety these include but are not limited to obstructing the sidewalk being in a park after dark being in a closed area and no trespassing on public property Considering the city's continued seizure of homeless survival gear City agencies must make tents and blankets available Expand to reasonable business hours times when confiscated property can be recovered and distribute laundry and motel vouchers To unhoused individuals particularly for the disabled and elderly until affordable housing is more than just talk Make survival tents available more closely monitor the seizure of tents and homeless property is abandoned Expand police hours for reclaiming property provide regular Distribution of these vouchers as mentioned before end the sweeps of existing homeless camps Unless actual shelter alternatives are available prior to the destruction of the camp. Thank you for not interrupting my sentence i'm going to go ahead and have our last speaker unless did i see that you switched out with the woman in the Okay, you'll have two minutes and then you'll be our last speaker after Hello, my name is alex laundose. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak I've lived in this community for 30 years and I value the opportunity that we all have to speak to you So all of us in this audience everyone here everyone watching in our community We have different opinions and we want to express that we want people to listen to what we have to say and There's a lot of issues. There's a lot of important issues that we deal with here in our community Locally regionally and internationally and I think we're just getting distracted from the main issue And i'm going to reiterate go over what the last gentleman said Right now we're going through the global warming tipping point and we're headed into the sixth mass extinction We're um, all of the this is just such a misprioritization Of resources for us all to be here all the people that drove vehicles that walked here the road bikes Producing this through the tv. It's just such a bad use of all the intelligence here when we should be Redirecting all of this to help make the world a better place. There's a lot of important issues But we should be prioritizing climate change environmental issues. There's um, we're passing so many different thresholds Animals are going instinct. There's a continual increase of parts per million greenhouse gases in the atmosphere The earth is warming at an exponential rate. We're seeing more global heat waves more forest fires Superstorms the glaciers are melting and the ocean level is rising I don't understand why we're doing any of these new construction projects when we know eventually the ocean's going to rise And we're going to have to relocate cities like other communities around the world I've lived in this community for 30 years. I've known drew and some of the other members um on this board for quite a while I fully support drew glover and justin and I think that they are very progressive and they're dealing with these important issues Not all this drama that I don't even know what's going on with everything in this council I just know that we're here and we're not addressing environmental issues We're not addressing the homeless population We're not helping animals or this this just seems like such a waste of time and priorities And it's upsetting that we're all in here and this is what we're talking about So I hope um that I can continue to support drew and justin the best that I can Yeah, thank you. Okay. You'll be our last Speaker for oral communications and then we're going to go ahead and close oral communications after you Hi, uh, I'm greg bankson. I'm a resident of santa cruz. I'm a registered voter I was a ross camp resident and council member whatever that means, but um, nonetheless I did witness and we have it on video of um, you know, um Jason hyduke who's a person I do respect a heck of a lot Saying stuff about our camp and about its safety, etc And then I have video of him saying hey, we fell down on that. We're we're human We just we're so sorry and then the police didn't communicate with us and they put up these um nuisance signs And so it totally tore apart your Things um drew a glover, you know, he's accused of saying that the camp could save itself Yeah, it could have if somebody would have fallen Onto their word and actually carried things out Justin Cummings came out to the camp and had awesome I appreciate that and people I mean you came out there. It's real People, uh, you know undercutting you now or whatever, but I mean it's politics. I understand that.  That's a badass dude, um His just because of purple shirt drew a glover Nonviolence, um, nonviolence is power my people nonviolence is power Martin, um, we haven't had time to talk. Um, but I mean we need to bring this place together We need to stop this. I mean the stuff that's happening here is ridiculous. We don't need to be a fiasco Um 14 seconds left I'm gonna yield the floor and just say, um, let's let's get it together Let's be people. Let's be Santa Cruz for gosh sakes. We can do it All right Oral communications will be closed at this time if you are here for our evening item I will go ahead and um allow you to stay it doesn't seem like we'll be needing our overflow space here this evening But um, that was available. So we'll go ahead and um continue to have all of the Folks here who are interested in staying for the evening item to stay in the chambers And we'll go ahead and have staff come forward And if those that want to leave after oral communications now would be the time So please come forward and we'll go ahead and get started All right. Good. Good evening, uh, mayor and city council. My name is tony ellie direct of parks and recreation For the city and forgive me. I've got a bit of a cold here. Um, but yeah tonight, uh, as soon as this presentation comes up here Just one second Tonight in general what we're talking about tonight, um as is on the screen access and hours of parks and recreation and public facilities Uh this evening and so this encompasses a couple big things the existing ordinance under the city's code This is 13.04 0.011 and this is regarding the department's authority to regulate park hours Park and facility hours within the the parks and recreation purview. So that'll be a big focus of tonight We'll talk about a few options on that and the second piece of it Will be really i'll call it a case study but kind of an example of Of this policy in action if you will at the loud nelson community center So we'll look at that specifically as well All right. So the history on this on february twelfth of this year the city council directed staff to return to a council meeting with updates and responses To a few different items here three key items status and reasoning of current park and facility closures Uh possible ordinance change for park and facility hours. This would be an ordinance change to 13.04 as i just mentioned And then the loud nelson center restroom policy Staff returned to city council in february 26 with a project charter Detailing exactly kind of what we were going to go through the process. We're going to go through To bring this back to the city council We did review this matter with the parks and recreation commission On july 1st, we have a few commission members here tonight that i believe might speak to this issue As well at the parks and recreation Commission meeting i think i'll reference that here just a little bit about what happened at that meeting So just to start status and reasoning of current park and facility closures. So as kind of on a high level Our parks and facilities really are virtually all open at this point as we'll talk about loud and nelson We've got a limited access or restricted access policy in place But we do not have broad closures of of parks at this point So as a whole kind of a snapshot of what we do in parks and recreation We manage 50 parks open spaces and beaches about 1700 more than 1700 acres and 35 miles of trails We have 20 restroom facilities throughout our park system And in addition restrooms at the civic auditorium and loud nelson community center So we we often close parks we often close parks for a few different reasons and those are based in operational and environmental reasons so Maintenance and repairs we talked about the harvey west playground installation earlier This morning as part of the city council meeting. So we'll close aspects or parts of parks For capital improvements repairs maintenance, so that's a very common thing Protection of the environment iran a gulch is a great example. We have closed off areas to the public To rehabilitate and restore and hopefully save the tar plant at iran a gulch Public safety there's an area of cal's beach that's been closed the past few weeks because some of the cliffs are unstable and collapsing So we have areas of cal's beach that is closed due to public safety because of the the collapsing cliffs So we close areas of parks often And this is really part of that authority that's established by the municipal code to allow for that for these environmental reasons maintenance reasons and public safety In very rare cases We will close restrooms or parks or areas of parks For some of these issues that are also Enabled through the city's ordinance and that would be things like number one on the bottom So response to ongoing situations such as vandalism That inflict damage to a park facility Or require repair rehabilitation or number two ongoing unlawful activity. So in the city's ordinance, this is a key part of it Um, essentially cease or prohibit Unlawful activity in the parks. And so this is rare This is rare that we would close parks for or close parks or facilities for this reason And we'll talk about that a little bit more in just a moment Um, so just for reference here's the code. I've referenced a few times. Um, I'll just read this out loud here The parks and recreation director may by regulation Establish hours during which any park park road trail grounds building or facility is open to the general public Said hours shall be established for the purpose of protecting park properties park roads trails and other areas from acts of vandalism And to prohibit the general public for engaging in unlawful activity. So that's currently what is on the on the books So I wanted to share just kind of a brief operational perspective before we get into some, um Some more details here. So I'll just read from my paper here It's a key priority for the parks and recreation department to provide open accessible safe parks and facilities As I mentioned, all parks and facilities are currently open In the case of the loudness and community center, which we'll discuss in just a moment It's open on a limited basis to individuals using the facility for classes programs and activities The parks and rec team maintains and cleans restrooms each day Without fail across the park system to ensure that they're open to the public And despite ongoing incidents of vandalism and illegal activity and virtually All of our park restrooms across the park system. They remain open. We we make that a priority to keep the parks open The community is acutely aware of the issues in our park restrooms. And so each week we hear from members of the community That demand that our restrooms be closed. So we hear this in neighborhood parks all the time close the restroom Close the park. It's not safe. We hear this every week But also we hear every week from members of the community that say In really demand that parks and restrooms and facilities be open so we hear both sides of it and Again, I say that to just sort of acknowledge the complexity of this that we're trying to figure out how to how to best operate Best serve the community, but we do hear from both sides every week So the following slides that we'll get into What we did in preparation for tonight is we did a two-week subset a two-week assessment Of restroom maintenance in our city parks And so this is This is sort of standard operations. This is literally from the first two weeks of the month of august And just kind of a heads up on this some of the the images that we'll share and some of the details are a bit graphic So just a warning on that So over the past two weeks this august 5th to the 18th a snapshot of our parks We spent 344 staff hours cleaning restrooms, and that's about 13 percent of our park maintenance labor hours in total In those two weeks we had 226 unique incidents In our restrooms eight encounters with blood 35 clog toilets 66 instances requiring removal of graffiti 12 needles found two observations of active drug use In detail august 5th, and this is just a snapshot of a few just a handful of them Garfield park on the west side the toilet was plugged with a drug cooking can august 6th Sandlow san lorenzo park Men's toilet clogged with the flannel shirt toilet paper feces watermelon in the urinal and sink gar needle in the garbage can Missing toilet paper august 10th blood splatter on the wall in the women's restrooms fireworks set off in the sink Blood and needles found in the sink and on and on graffiti Trash debris left and this is just this is a snapshot.  I'm just briefly. I'm not going to describe exactly what's going on here But these are some of the the examples here blood splatter on the wall and floor Syringes in the trash can a variety of different items in the in the trash cans here again Syringes needles these are some of the older pictures. This is going to lead us into the loudon elson discussion some of the graffiti and items that we found at the the Loudon elson restroom when it was open prior to february of 2018.  So these are these are just ongoing issues again In a two-week snapshot. I just hope that paints a picture of what our staff Is dealing with and managing and I guess before I move to the next slide I just want to say a quick thanks to the parks and recreation staff. This is a hard job And every every day Parks and rec prides itself on being a can-do department. We're going in we're managing these things. We're handling these things And in all of these contexts. So all of these things that I mentioned over two weeks All of these restrooms are still open. We're not coming to the council We're not coming to the council saying we should close these we're not We're not enacting this authority through the municipal code. So we we don't abuse this. It's very rare cases And so between the police department between and the enforcement side the parks and recreation side I just want to give a thanks and kudos to the parks and rec staff who deal with with these things every day So, okay, so moving on here one of the other questions that city council had for us In the february meeting was was really to come back with some pricing In terms of what it would cost to have attendance at our restrooms And so what we did is we broke this down in terms of we looked at a temporary maintenance worker aid In terms of what it would cost to staff our restrooms. And so we broke it down by restroom in the different needs at different restrooms The one that's not included in here Actually is loud nelson But we would expect that would be very similar to san lorenzo park that you can see in green About 150 000 dollars per year. So In in total as a possible solution or a possible mechanism to help curb some of these challenges that we face with restrooms It would be about two million dollars per year To staff up our restrooms So that's just a snapshot. I'm happy to talk about that or answer any questions that that you all might have associated with those costs So shifting gears to the ordinance change and park facilities in hours. Again, this is the existing municipal code 13.04 Um, and we read through this just a moment ago But just for reference and we can come back to this as we discuss This is the existing ordinance that allows for the authority to set hours of operation in parks and park properties When we went to the parks and recreation commission on july 1st of this year The recommendation from the parks and recreation commission was unanimous A unanimous vote for to recommend these four items to the city council So i'm bringing these forth For your review and this is all included in your agenda packet as well So the direction or advisement that we got from the commission was to create a set of health and safety And environmental conditions under which the director has discretion to close either partially or entirely a park open space or facility Notify the commission and the city council within 24 hours of an emergency closure of a facility Or within seven days before a planned closure and estimated time for reopening Establish a 21 day requirement Um or the closest city council meeting to present an update Uh to the city council after a closure to receive additional direction And the final piece work with the county's health services agency on addressing syringe litter Um As well as public urination defecation in parks and open spaces So that was the recommendation from the commission that was a unanimous recommendation to the city council So one I think one policy decision really this before the council tonight Is in terms of the the updated language to the city's code to the municipal code A couple options that the council could take should the council wish to update this language In accordance of what the in accordance with what the parks and recreation commission recommended So the council could direct us to update the municipal code With language that will review here in just a second or as an alternative mechanism could Require staff or recommend the staff Update the the council policy, which is 7.1 in either case either mechanism will create a mandate for city staff To adhere to council's direction. So either the updated code or the policy in this case Will give us direction and and will be be that solid mandate from the city council At the bottom, we have this plus plus a complimentary administrative procedure order an apo To create greater transparency consistency and openness of the process This was important to us because um the uh The the motion that was made back in february and the direction that we got from city council What we read between the lines is that we needed greater transparency of the process We needed greater openness of the process. So if we are utilizing this authority Why are we using it and so in either case if the city council? Directs us to update the code or a council policy or or no update What staff is is doing planning to do is craft and we've got a draft of this apo tonight Craft this apo to provide guidance So if any member of the community or if the council or anybody said, why are you closing a restroom or why are you? closing off A riparian area or why are you doing this? We can go through that apo and said we evaluated these criteria and we're closing something for For these reasons and so that apo really is just a step in transparency Lending toward either the policy or the municipal code update So the draft language for the code, this is included in your packet as well Really just encompasses the direction that we receive from the commission So 24 hours within an emergency closure seven days before a planned closure Or in reporting back to the city council for any closure lasting longer than 21 days The council policy really is the is the same thing. So very similar language virtually identical language But just codified in council policy rather than the ordinance. So again, these are the two options that council could choose from And in the apo again mirroring the same language This is the intro in the apo that just references either the code or the policy And then here are some of the criteria again as we talked about operational criteria environmental or public safety So these are some of the different things that we would look at and going through that process to Decide if we are to restrict or close something. So again, it's part of that process Again just referencing these are the two options for city council And what i'd like to do now in talking about the loud nelson community center in particular in the existing policy that we have Again recapping that policy that the restrooms are open at loud and nelson community center. They're open to people using the facility For programs classes and activities But what i'd like to do is invite up our loud nelson supervisor isaeth ray and then following Isis will be robert acosta who is our recreation supervisor who oversees the team center At loud nelson. So without i'd like to invite up isaith Good evening council and mayor My name is isaeth i'm the supervisor I'd like to start off by just giving a very brief picture of who i am Then what the the center is and then experiences we've had I am a person that at the age of six started participating in community theater with my family My mom and my brother I learned what it was to Be a part of a community Create something and then give it back to the community being part of a bigger picture And and and part of the community at the age of eight. I ran home told my mom. I have to play soccer I want to play soccer She not being an athlete or ever having participated on team sports did a little research and got me on to our Hometown recreation department soccer youth league which ended up being a wonderful experience for me led to A lifetime career of athletics led me to college Uh at college I'll be honest. I went there to play basketball, but while I was there they said hey, you need to pick a major I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do But when I reflected on the experiences I've had the positive influences in my life I recognized the opportunities that had been provided to me through recreation and community and I decided that's how I wanted to Focus my career and give back to my community. I Received my degree in recreation administration And since that time over 20 years. I have dedicated my life and career to providing quality And enriching programs to the communities that I have been a part of it is a passion of mine Um the laudan nelson center Started out as a school laurel street school. Um, there'd been a previous building from the 1800s, but the current building now Built in early 30 31 opened as the laurel street school in 33 and served as an elementary school To which many members of our community attended as children and was such for many many years And then in the late 70s I think it sat unused for quite a while But then in the late 70s There was a joint use agreement between sanderfew city schools and the city Parks and recreation department and they decided to Make at a community center and it was named You know the the historical story of laudan nelson. It was named after him to honor him and his contribution to The school children of sander cruise At the center We provide an array of social recreational and cultural experiences. It is a hub for our community many of the classes that we offer Range from the mom and dad and me ballet class where some of our youngest participants are less than two years old to The meals on wheels lunch program, which our most seasoned attendee is 102 years old We also house the county office of education alternative ed high school class Which operates year-round during the regular school year as well as summer classes We have multiple 12-step programs who utilize our facility to Better their situations and get help with challenges in their lives We have the teen center. We have the senior center in the senior computer lab Many of our senior center classes are free to the attendees or they are for a very very small suggested donation We also offer annual events to the community Mostly with a family focus also some of the cultural focus Fungus fair juneteenth wacky water day halloween festival frosty funfest And then additional services that we provide to the community where we partner with outside agencies such as project scout Where we offer free tax service for low-come individuals High cap where we offer free health insurance counseling and advocacy free blood pressure screenings The meals on wheels program again offers Free or very low cost if the individual has it Meals monday through friday at the center We partner with community bridges Additionally to lift line to provide Free transportation to the center and access to all the programs to anyone in the county It's not just limited by city residency We offer we partner with hospice of santa cruz to offer free grief support for individuals experiencing loss in their lives Outside of the programs that we offer myself and staff on a daily basis provide outreach services and and do our best to connect Those in need and those that we identify not only in the building in the programs But also in the park with the appropriate providers Such as encompass Community bridges senior network services homeless services center second harvest food bank adult mental health services Family service agency of central coast monarch services walnut avenue women services And um other services such as offering to provide sanitary incontinence Products measure what those are called but you know we we do outreach. We are there for our community. We are trying to help the people that we can Unfortunately When I when I became the supervisor at loudon elson in february of 2017 I was so appreciative to step into a thriving community center that offered wonderful programs and services But something else that I noticed too An experience on a daily basis along with my staff with some really outrageous unhealthy unsafe conditions that were occurring in the restrooms These included daily instances of staff and patrons witnessing drug and alcohol use in the bathroom in the stalls discarded paraphernalia Sometimes still containing the substance that was being used such as needles alcohol containers Um marijuana leaves like on the ground the dispensers the toilet paper dispensers foil with burn Ashton it Frequent discovery by staff and or patrons of unconscious individuals in the stalls Uh in september of 2016 a newly hired rec to recreation to it's a um entry-level position Walked into the restroom to found it find an unconscious man in one of the stalls with a needle on his person Uh staff called 911 and and staff tried to revive this individual while waiting for paramedics to arrive And they were unsuccessful as were the paramedics and the gentleman was pronounced dead at the hospital He had overdosed from drug use And this had a profound effect on the staff and the patrons and and this was during teen center operating hours And this was something that we That was the one tragic end, but there were so many instances of individuals who were Engaging in the type of behavior that could lead to that circumstance We had daily occurrences of intoxicated individuals using the restrooms um Not only being disruptive and and intimidating to some individuals, but also um Not intentionally, but just as the state of their condition missing the mark when trying to use the restroom In addition to that there were several instances of people who clearly were intentionally spreading or or spraying urine or feces around the restroom For for whatever reason or whatever condition Staff was subjected to individuals with aggressive disruptive and at times physically threatening behavior We have an instance of an employee who was chased out of the restroom stall of which he Approached someone who was engaging in illegal activity who was able to see a um Injection kit on the floor of the stall and a gentleman Chased him out of the restroom with a loaded syringe and and my staff member had to run out from the men's restroom Down the hall behind the front desk and into a senior programs office where he could get behind a locked door This was in uh 2015 There's also been examples of violent vandalism in which two uh Brand new partition doors that had just recently been purchased during a renovation in 2017 Were torn off the hinges where the hinges were literally snapped in half Just the week prior to that um Paper towel dispensers had been torn out of the wall And on and on in addition paper towels and toilet paper were routinely Taken or hoarded and frequently we would walk in To individuals just pulling the paper towel into their backpack repeatedly Also a graffiti often gang Gang tags I guess they're called In the restrooms And then the frequent discovery of inappropriate sexual acts Either with another individual or by oneself, but visible to people attending the restrooms Um one example in june of 2017 A man was discovered inside the women's ad a stall with his clothing partially Removed on the floor of the bathroom engaging in a sexual act with his his luggage We there's been questions about the documentation of all these instances We have some documentation. We've provided some we've provided pictures There's been some that we have that wasn't Captured in certain in public records requests due to the timeline But the truth of the matter is that these instances were becoming so routine for my staff That they stopped being noteworthy. It just became This every day occurrence where Our main focus was just to mitigate the issue immediately and get back to what we were there for which was to provide programs for our patrons in a safe environment The center's mission statement Is to seek the miss the center's mission is to seek a balance between social recreational and cultural services To the diverse communities of Santa Cruz The center strives to create a space that feels welcoming comfortable safe and accessible to all who use it I do understand that there is a need for additional services for individuals who don't necessarily have A restroom of their own to go to I do not believe That the Loudon Nelson Center is the place for it due to the many populations and the many groups who attend our our center That could be threatened by the activity that was going on Thank you Thank you All right, I'd like to introduce robert acosta who has a part team center Thank you council. I appreciate the time. I always People don't believe me when I say this but I I like presenting in front of city council. So I thank you for the opportunity You know, I didn't know what isaeth was going to say So it's funny because as part of my conversation. I like to give a brief introduction about myself as well I was raised by a single mother who eventually became A heroin addict and I can say that now because she's very successful. She's a drug counselor a retired drug counselor um, but The reason I mentioned that is because of That much longer story than what I just said I've always wanted to create a space Um that I didn't have when I was growing up when I was a youngster growing up um And that was that was very important to me the teen center as many of you know used to be located at where wall greens is at downtown and And in 2010 we moved to the current space at loud Nelson, which apparently used to be the kindergarten class That's what some of the people working on our re when we rebuilt it were saying And part of the reason that this subject to me Is so heartbreaking is because I work directly with staff who Really do care about This community and they don't they don't just care about it. They're like truly passionate about it. Um You know, I I appreciate you guys in this council even if Even if you didn't do any of the stuff that you guys do in the community if this was the only Thing you did for the community I could not have more respect for you and I do know for the fact that you all do much more than Than that and so that's the passion that our staff has as well And it's the same kind of passion that many of these people here have for the non-housed community of Santa Cruz um, I understand passion Making sure that teens Thrive and survive is one of my passions. I've worked directly with some of you and still work with some of you On on many of these things the staff that works for us Is not doing it for money We want our money don't get me wrong, but that's not why we do it. It's done because They care about Santa Cruz the people that work in this community care about Santa Cruz people with the degrees that That our staff have Could be working for a lot more money over the hill Um could be working in the private sector But when I ask pretty universally the answer is because we love Santa Cruz That's why we want to do what we do here in Santa Cruz um And it's it's unfortunate that these people who I care about who have the passion for for This town and for the people in this town and for the community Are having to deal with members of the of the public attacking them personally It's it's something that has started at our highest office And it's unfortunate that the people I work with are having to deal with name calling from our community From our community that they will still go passionately and work hard for even after that So that has always been Something that is heartbreaking to me. Um They love Santa Cruz and they want to be part of the solution to the city's problems um And all of us just want things to be better to so to get specifically to the teen center And why this is such a big deal to me. Um The teen center is very important to me because it's a place where Where our youth come and they can hang out with their friends. They can just relax. They can just chill out um And they can spend time with the positive mentors that we have working at the teen center You know often One of the things that drives us crazy about in our profession is well, it's just a recreation program and true We are just a recreation program, but the teen center is a big deal and no matter what someone's going through we have the resources to get these youth To what they need from our from just our recreation program Some of the things that our teens are currently dealing with right now Um outside of their regular teen angsty. Oh my god. Why do you hate me? Things that teens just do Um We have teens that are dealing with drug use that whether it's them using drugs or their parents using drugs We have teens that are using drugs and don't want to stop using drugs We have teens who are having a struggle to quit the drugs that they're using And and we have teens that are just dealing with who they are with their sexuality and we have our resources that we can send them to um We have trained teens that are treated badly because of their skin color and yes, it's not as bad as it might be out of california Um, but it but it does happen even even here. It's it's we're lucky that it's not as bad as elsewhere But it does happen. Um I have teens who From all walks of life that come to the doors of our teen center teens who live in two million dollar homes And teens who are homeless living in their cars and or living at the shelter um Teens are dealing with abuse both physical and mental and the last time just a few days ago that someone called To make a report because teenagers are being solicited sexually from their guardians Partners These are the kind of stuff that the teens talk to us about That we send them on to the resources or that we just have conversations with them about And they know that we will guide them through those cps talks through the police officer coming into the teen center Um, they know that that's what we are there for um Before the restrooms were closed at loud nelson these same teens that i'm telling you about Had to deal with walking into a rest literally cloud-filled restroom, you know marijuana Um And teens Offered hard drugs offered meth try it. It's right here do it We've had teens walk into the restrooms and be told to get the f out of here because they came in mid transaction to somebody selling drugs um And sorry for the graphic nature of this but we've had teenagers open the stall door to two men One giving the other oral sex while the other one was shooting up at the same time That's what our teen saw at the teen center And some parents stopped letting their kids come to the teen center Because because of some of the things and I will tell you it's night and day since we started this new policy night and day There is not There there is not It's just it doesn't happen. There's no hassling anymore and I will tell you there is there is It is in the we the staff at loud nelson Is very It's a policy. It doesn't a target one population. I had a friend coming looking for me I wasn't at work that day when I saw them later said they wouldn't even let me use the restroom and my answer was good I'm glad they're not supposed to let you use the restroom. I've had people say to me that um Come on robert if you just give me the code come on. I just needs to go use the restroom give me the code And then I can joke around and say well if you sign up for a parks and rec class Then they'll give you the code and you can go ahead and use the restroom, but it's something That is important to us. I know you guys care about our space. I know that you showed it during budget hearings You showed it during one-on-one meetings. I've had with some of you I know you guys care about our space and our teens are counting on things staying the same that the way they are now Um, again, they have not been hassled since this process started The last that except for one time one of my teens A few weeks ago went to use the restroom the woman's restroom And she was hassled by people protesting the bathroom She was told why do you get to use the restroom and not other people and she had to come and talk to me and say Why are these people bothering me? And that's the only time since we've started this process that my teens have been hassled So this is why this is very important to me and thank you for your time All right, thanks to isith and robert For their testimony here today really appreciate that from them from them just really quickly to conclude and then we'll Move it move on it's in back to city council here. I just want to say So in summary tonight, we're seeking policy guidance from the city council related to park and facility hours Also seeking for your direction related to this existing restroom policy loud nelson Um staff's recommendation tonight is consistent with that of the parks and recreation commission To uphold the existing policy at the loud nelson community center And should the council wish to include new mandates for park and facility closures We would recommend an amendment to council policy 7.1 To establish that mandate to staff With those new provisions that we talked about earlier I do want to mention we Robert touched on it briefly. I want to mention that um In this conversation tonight, we're really only looking at parks and recreation restrooms with a focus on loud nelson um And I think one thing that that robert or isith didn't mention is that we have a resource at the front desk at loud nelson So if people come in and need to use the restroom, and they're not part of a program or class or activity We have a resource list of nearby restrooms in the area For people who who need a restroom in that moment. So we provide that resource to people who are coming to the center What is the closest area? That has an available restroom Big picture. We know that the big picture. We know that there are We'll go ahead and pause it. We're going to have an opportunity for it to hear from the community We're going to go ahead and conclude the presentation We'll ask questions Then we'll be the opportunity for us to hear from you at that time We'll respect you and your of your opinions and we ask that you also respect our staff as well as our opportunity as well Please continue See again the resource that I mentioned But I think this discussion tonight again is very focused on parks and rec and on loud nelson And I think we recognize that There there's a need for public restrooms. There are public restrooms all throughout downtown in Parking garages portlets different locations. And so that really is beyond the scope of parks and recreation How many restrooms are needed where they're located? And that that could be I'm not sure exactly what the the council advisory committee on homelessness is reviewing But that may be a bigger discussion in terms of where restrooms are. What's the inventory? How are those run and managed? The budget tied to that and so forth So again tonight I just want to kind of put that in context that we're really just looking at loud nelson And to reiterate what robert and iceth said again our request is That the council uphold the existing policy because of the intersection of these different uses both at the community center And at laurel park. So I think the idea of a portlet at laurel park is from our standpoint We come with the same recommendation to uphold that policy to not have a portlet at laurel park because of that same intersection With different activities and uses. So very similar to loud nelson. I hope that makes sense Finally moving forward. I I know this is a Heated topic, but I just want to ask that we move forward tonight and really focus on on the policy and on the process There have been claims about about staff and I would just respectfully ask that We don't demonize or attack the people and the human beings as part of this Let's attack the process and the policy and figure that out. So I would just respectfully put that out there The parks and rec team is a very very dedicated and passionate team And we are again, we hear from the community on all sides of this issue in many issues And so that's why we're here at council tonight to get your direction your policy direction And addressing this it's complex, but we are a can do group And want to do everything we can to make sure that the parks and facilities Can be open but also safe and serving everybody. So I just wanted to say Thanks to the council for the opportunity to to share here from our perspective and happy to answer any questions Well, we'll go ahead and first I want to just thank you for your presentation this evening But above and beyond that Just your commitment and your dedication and your authenticity is very clear in terms of the presenters here But your entire team so I just really want to acknowledge that and acknowledge the work So as I mentioned earlier now will be the time for questions of our staff and we'll Go ahead and have an opportunity to hear from the community after that process and then return back for comments and Council action. Are there any questions for the staff at this time? Okay, council member brown Council member Matthews vice mayor Cummings council member crone council member mires customer Yeah, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for being here and really thank you for all the work you do. It's Really just it's it's an honor to Be able to work with you all and know that That people who really care that much are Working and all that great stuff is happening at loud and elson. It's why it was my favorite park when we were asked So I have my question is related to The report back on the cost to staff all restrooms with attendance and I realized that was the Request that we made for information. I'm wondering that if Have there been conversations with the Parks maintenance staff about What they think might be helpful for them and you know, I mean, there may be something that's not Like an attendant at every bathroom that Could be help them Get their job done That and I'm just wondering if there's any of those conversations have happened I personally have talked with parks maintenance staff who talk about the you know The the other challenge that are one of the other challenges they have which is cleaning up feces That's out in public because In part because we don't have sufficient facilities So that's a workplace issue just like these other issues or workplace issues. I take that very seriously And we'll talk about that later As we proceed with our deliberations, but I'm just wondering like what what are the people on the ground They think what might be work might be helpful Yeah, I definitely want to lean on icith and robert here from the perspective of Operating the facility at loud and I think from the park maintenance team. These are all discussions that we have Continuously, we I would say we don't have a solution. I mean, we don't have a recommended path. I think staffing the restrooms is It's certainly an option and I think that would give staff A level of peace of mind. I think one challenge for staff is going in in the morning Place like grant park and you don't know exactly what you're going to encounter or what you're going to find In that park as you go in in the morning. And so in a lot of cases they're facing threatening situations or Different scenarios that that you know could could threaten their own safety. Obviously there's the the The side of it that you mentioned the cleanup side of it. I think that's just a bigger a bigger discussion I mean where again, we have got 20 20 restrooms in our park facilities and You know, sometimes they're used sometimes they're not and so I think we I would say that we don't have a great recommendation or strategy on how to handle that. I think the the restroom attendant is one of the Is one of those options out there, but it's very expensive And and yeah volunteers couldn't could Could do that potentially, but I think yeah, who's managing those people? How does that work exactly? There are a lot more questions we have than than answers in terms of how to manage that Councillor rex I have just kind of a Technical question here. The recommendation before us is to accept recommendations from the parks and rec commission regarding access and hours of public Facilities and direct staff to incorporate recommendations as appropriate to update The municipal code 13.04 etc and or council policy 7.1 and I we had this conversation. I just want to clarify Either one of those achieves the same end for you. Is that correct correct? Yeah, and Updating the municipal code would take a couple of readings updating a policy would be a single action and Would be simpler to modify At any point in the future and then is there an apio? I'm kind of flipping back and forth between my that's in addition So you'd want either the code Adopting the code or the policy plus an apio. Am I administrative procedure? Am I Reading that correct and and we can as it's an administrative procedure or policy order we can do that in-house Administratively and we're committing to doing that regardless of whether what council decides to do So I think the decision for council is yeah the code or the council policy The recommendation from staff being the council policy as you mentioned it gives us a direct mandate And it's effective effective tonight essentially and giving direction on that assumes action on the apio. Is that correct? Correct, so they don't need to give additional direction on okay. I just want to get clear on that. Thank you Vice mayor Cummings This was more of a question for I think probably the city manager's office so Recently and we received an email And I think it was from food not bombs interested in paying for and contributing financially to the city for the installation of porta potties Porta let's have you want to call them and I was just wondering is there any potential mechanism for If members of the public would like to donate money to the city For the installation and maintenance of these types of structures. Is there any type of protocol for allowing that? Well, I think it just depends on what the particular Request is the location the hours the need all that has to be evaluated So we did get a request we did forward it to the appropriate departments to review But I think generally it just depends on on what the what the request is and and whether It's able to be compatible with wherever their request is and all those factors. So that all has to be taken into account I just want to also say thank you all for this great presentation and we're taking the time to be here Share with you're with us in the community your experiences at loud Nelson Councilmember crown Myers and then Glover Yeah, I'm just wondering um Tony um What constitutes a patron at um loud Nelson because I know I've played basketball for years there and Always use the bathroom not all the basketball players use the bathroom Well, I don't think it's an official program, but are they how do you judge? Someone who's using the facility If I may I'll let isaac speak to that Hi so anyone who is attending a class a program an event is using purchasing something at the Little cafe that's located in there someone that's there to do business It is not related to us receiving revenue. It's anyone, you know, they're yes, we have revenue making programs there But we also have free programs there the we also extend the access to the restrooms to Children playing in the playground who are there, um, you know from the neighborhood Most likely who are there accessing the park. So if they're accompanied by an adult Also as well as individuals who are Come to the park at times part of hope services or other agencies that have individuals with developmental disabilities Who have an adult attendee? We welcome them and that's based on The notion that a young child or someone who might not be able to communicate Their need to use the restroom before leaving their home or nearby area Is not able to identify and communicate that at their previous location That's why that's extended. So the basketball players can or can't use the restroom. No And neither individual is using the ping-pong table or the chess table Tony I have another question For you. What were you called that? Port-a-let, where did that word come from? That might be my midwestern roots. Oh I was like What would be the problem if Well, first of all, would you be willing to use volunteers and what if someone if we did a Like sort of a prototype six month Bathroom that was staffed by a group of volunteers for certain hours Near the basketball court Yeah, I think that's a good question. I think I think in general, I mean again what we Would want to do a loud and and at the park nearby again because that intersection of uses Would be would be to not have public restrooms At that location for the the issues that we've talked about tonight Now in the broader discussion Looking downtown where the closest restrooms Could we have some in an adjacent area? Could we have some in a nearby area? I think we would be supportive of that so that you don't have that intersection of uses youth and meals on wheels and different things like that Where you could have kind of a pilot program if you will and staff it with either volunteers or Or paid staff As we talked about you know from a from a costing standpoint So I said this coming up. So I want her to speak to it. But again, I think We would like to I think generally keep it away from the the property and maybe run a pilot in partnership with public works and other appropriate departments um one item I'd like to add that I didn't cover in my initial presentation and it's a Very real and ongoing and established situation is that Um for over a decade now there has been a well known Open drug market so to speak on the corner of Laurel and washington street. There has been police involvement many times. There's been a sting operation prior to my Involvement at the center. There's been various attempts to mitigate that for whatever reason I don't know if it's some sort of vortex that corner Has had ongoing drug dealing if we put in public restrooms in that location We've just provided a one-shop stop for these individuals. They buy their drugs. They go into the restroom and use them I'm not being dramatic. That will happen. That is what was happening In the restrooms at loudon So I I do have very real and justified concerns about that about putting the restroom there and and um What that will attract again to as tony mentioned the intersection of our activities That we're there to provide to the community and and those activities last last two questions. Um, so you really sincerely Don't think that a Having an attendant there would Could be eyes and ears on the street as well as um willing to clean up The restroom and make sure it operates Are you are you referring to an attendant at a port of potty or in at the restrooms inside at the port of potty? um I don't know. I can't I mean I don't I haven't seen that situation. I do think that the um It would take a very unique volunteer to to put in that time and that commitment and and uh be able to To Interact and intervene with those situations and um, they would have to be somebody that is thick skinned Physically comfortable being threatened, you know, but I I don't know because we haven't we haven't had that specific instance. Thank you Last question is um, I'm gonna go ahead and interrupt you I'm gonna go ahead and ask that members of the community reframe from speaking out at this time. Miss cool I'm gonna go ahead and ask that you please uh Wait and you're tell it's your turn and we'll have an opportunity to hear from you at that time Right now is the opportunity for the council to um ask questions of our staff You'll have an opportunity to speak as well. We'll go ahead and consider that a warning Please continue of council member chrome with your questioning. I hear different things about the pd. Uh, the police department community room restroom our people Have the ability to use that restroom. Is it open or is it only during like community events that go on in that room? Um, our understanding and what's been communicated to us from um, pd. Is that it is generally open however if there are trainings being held Police related trainings being held in the community Room or if there are like the teen academy If there's vulnerable groups who may be there attending something at the community room We have the calendar of what's going on in the community room so we can look at it and say, okay It's open and then it's open during their their front office hours. It's not 24 seven access But we do offer that Service to look at the calendar and let them know if that one's an option. Thank you. Thank you mayor Council member Myers and then council member Glover and then vice mayor Cummings Thanks to the staff and um, most importantly, thank you for running an amazing community center and serving It sounds like everyone from 101 102 down to uh, very young and uh, just being mentors for them and and being a safe place For our community to be so thank you very much for whatever you guys do I have a couple questions about some other facilities. Um The depot I know uh the carriage or carriage building there Is that does that have restrooms in it or is that available at all? I don't know enough about that facility to know what's there or not there Except I vote there so Yes, it's open. Um, I believe park hours is all it's open The travis is not here to to speak to that from the park side But I think it's just park hours that that's open So that would be typical park hours as in as in any other sunsets. Okay. And is that similar at the restrooms? Both Both of the restroom facilities down at the beach Correct correct, uh, and really the same with virtually all of our restrooms So grant park the same thing we open those up first thing in the morning. Um, near lagoon near lagoon. Yep as a restroom Yeah, and um Downtown it would be civic center probably civic auditorium would be the closest and civic auditorium and there are public restrooms as well Um, I won't get all these right but uh through parking garages and porta potty's porta let's um Yeah, a variety of restrooms downtown as well. And have you had cause to close any of the other? Um restrooms such as the one at the depot park because of anilism or other things like that Yeah, we've closed sand excuse me san lorenzo park Temporarily in the past year. We've closed grant park restroom Handful of times in the past year And those have been relatively short durations. Um grant park in all cases It was due to vandalism and maintenance needs repair needs Um similar to san lorenzo where we find a lot of syringes Kind of jammed down toilets and in different debris jammed down toilets to Uh to clog thank you To clog up the plumbing and so in a couple cases sand low in particular We installed essentially new infrastructure kind of a new daylight in the a new access point in the sewer lateral So that we could snake that out rather than having a contractor come in and pay a lot more money to do so, so Yeah due to vandalism Yeah, a lot of syringe use Graffiti those type of things both grant and salarins have been closed At least a handful of times in the past year has neary or the beaches or The depot site park been closed that that you can recall Not that I can recall Not that I can recall. Okay. Thank you We have councillor Glover, vice mayor Cummings and then I'll come over to councillor. Thank you Was that one of the resource pages? That's the list of all the restrooms restroom hours Including hours and Okay, thank you. That's what we also provide at the counter. That's what the resource list. Okay. Awesome. Um Yeah, I'd love to see that when you have a second. Maybe while we're here in public comment um, so what's the just what's the Closest bathroom that you recommend people go to was that we just say that's depot if say the police department's closed There are some kind of in different directions, but um PD is one of them depot is one of them um There are other known um Businesses but we don't necessarily because they're not city ones. We don't necessarily Say it out loud, but there's like the bagelry um the laundromat the La jacienda mexican restaurant is is um frequently open possibly not always, but um Yeah, so that's what this list is for. Okay. Thank you. Um the I appreciate the presentation for the research that was done as well as the sharing of your personal experiences and your work over at the the center It's just What are your policies for people with different levels of ability and mobility? Specifically if they come let's say at 405 on a weekday when the police department lobbies closed Are they forced to go and find alternative? Bathrooms and if that is the case if depot park is the closest one It's about 0.3 miles away for an able-bodied person. That's not that bad, but for someone that has uh mobility issues that could be five miles, uh, so What what's the policy around people with mobility issues? If they're not there to attend a class or a program or an event At that time then they would not be given access to the restroom The one the one exception like I mentioned is for individuals with developmental disabilities with a with um An attendee. Yeah, um Because there was um It was also interesting to hear the statement about the young children that can use the bathrooms because I had a mother come And tell me that she wasn't allowed to use the bathroom because her even though her child was using the the the Play structure So unfortunate to have that account, but maybe it was just a mistake or oversight or something With uh The Policy at the center. I mean I brought you know, I was one of the counselors who brought this forward So it's really important for me personally with regards to access to bathrooms for people. Um, what does it take to get involved with one of the programs? Can you walk in and say hey, I'm a part of what's going on in room C And as long as you go into room C and spend An hour 30 minutes five minutes. What's is there a policy specific? Specificity with regards to participation program that to pay if it's a free program Can they just walk in and say I'm part of that program? Um, I it depends on what the program is and who's facilitating the program um So some some of the programs or classes that are offered are by private parties who have leased that room and then are Are given a presentation Or class or service. Um, there are certain programs that are for specific groups seniors teens toddlers There are Some groups some classes that are pretty much wide open Um But you know so say for example, um the high cap group which is there to provide insurance counseling theoretically someone could walk in and Maybe who wasn't actually there to seek those services and they could go in and Engage with those individuals that does seem like it would be Disrespectful to the facilitators of the class because then they're You know, I'm engaging that person and taking their time and resources Um, but you know, we we do trust people. We're not looking to catch people in lies Or you know, we're not looking to to put people in a situation where they're going and and Misrepresenting their purpose in a class or or a program Okay, thank you. Um, and then uh, I'll look forward to seeing the the list that is distributed to people. Um The concern I had there And it was just the statement That sometimes they're directed towards other businesses Because I think statistically looking at businesses and how we've seen in Santa Cruz with all of the messages of no restroom use for non customers And I think there's there's an article out of washington dc That cites like at least 65 of the experiences of people trying to use the bathroom if they're experiencing homelessness experience oppression so just You know thinking about just access to bathrooms if someone that had mobility issues came to london nelson and needed to use the restroom, but then was told to go Point three miles away or try across the street at la hacienda But if they turn them down then they're forced to then have been delayed that much longer and get to where they're at so There's just a lot of problems, uh, but I but I do want to figure out a way to address the issues that your staff is facing with regards to the impact and also an acknowledgement of the Issues concerns potential dangers and impacts it has on the youth there to figure out a good solution around there Outside of I mean this was I think was asked before a little bit, but has there been any other kind of creative outside of the box problem solving besides the Uh attendant on every bathroom and the two million dollar price tag with regards to just some other things and it's okay You know, I mean this was a thing, but just wondering No, but if you hear anything let us know please. Um, I think again We're looking at parks and recreation facilities tonight. I think big picture looking at the downtown I think if there's a broader inventory, uh, both city owned and publicly provided and then You know again a question Do we factor in like the restaurants and those things does that is that part of that inventory kind of a master plan? If you will of what's available when did available That I think could be could be a first step and then how do you staff that to support it? But but yeah, no necessarily, you know innovative ideas tonight work on it together and then uh one last question You mentioned the issue of needles I mean there was a bunch of stuff you mentioned with regards to like firecrackers and all other kind of stuff Which is always unfortunate, but needles are a big concern Do you and the parks department support the implementation or the installing of sharps containers in all public bathrooms? In all public bathrooms, no no, uh, we've got really Really detailed data and we're working with county health services agency right now In terms of their litter reduction program There was part of the direction that we got from the parks and recreation commission There are places. I think where they could be well used But to put them everywhere that the data doesn't support it I don't think there's necessarily a reason to put them everywhere, but we do have really detailed data We found approximately 4500 syringes in parks beaches and open spaces last calendar year And expect to find that same number this year, but they're targeted in specific areas So my answer to your question would be no for all parks and restrooms. That's a wonderful answer with regards to the Fulness of it. Um, and I would I look forward to working with you on identifying those hot spots for sharps containers. Thank you Had another question that's probably more for the city manager's office, um Have there been any what kind of issues? Have you all had any reports about with the portlets that are around town because I see people using them when necessary and I just want to understand whether or not we see the same levels of vandalism that we find occurring at Loudon Nelson Center You're referring to the ones that the the ones downtown in the parking lots. We have we have three three sets of those We do have, uh, you know, quite a bit of a high level service Parks may have actually some some more data than than I do and we do have incidents of vandalism periodically at those We work really closely with the vendor to get them replaced or fixed as quickly as possible But we do have challenges with those but however those we do keep open 24 7 In addition to the two in the parking garages downtown that are open during the day Up until the early evening hours. I don't know if Tony if you have any more information on the toilets, but you know, we In general, um, I think they they we do a really good job of trying to keep them open as much as possible Or maintain as much as possible, but we do have incidents as yes Thanks and then one more question, um Are there with my understanding is that that, you know, the Laurel Street Park, which I guess is adjacent to Loudon Nelson that We have a wide range of people who use that park including members of the homeless community Um, so I just wanted to see, you know, what in terms of people who are going there to recreate versus people who Maybe experiencing homeless who use that as a place to rest If you can just speak towards a kind of ratio of people who are hanging out there and um, I I don't haven't run those numbers recently. Um, I would say we have far more individuals Coming to the building to use the surface the the center for a specific purpose, but we do have a fairly Regular set of individuals who are coming there for a safe place to sleep during the day and hang out and also socialize, I think On average, I would say there's usually about 10 Individuals 10 to 15 it kind of ebbs and flows But um in terms of like you can count on them every day It's about 10 that are usually there in the park um hanging out Do you have a question councillor matthews? No, okay. Um, I think we'll go ahead at this time now Open it up to public comment. Thank you. And we'll probably have some more clarifying questions or discussion After I will go ahead and see if there I have I'll go ahead and allow the gentleman who's been waiting To speak first for up to two minutes And then I'm going to go ahead and open it up to anybody who wants to adjust the council Very briefly in one minute And after that we'll have our group presentations and then a two-minute public comment So we'll go ahead and Yeah, you'll have your you'll have your opportunity as a group presentation to Present after people who want to speak briefly for one minute go first And we'll start with you and if you're up for did you want the one minute or were you up for the Just make us brief. Yeah Yeah, I really appreciate the director's comments and and also the director of loud and else and Their report was thoroughly graphic and I think we can really see what kind of problems that are going on there It's really important that you Safeguard those participants. These are kids and seniors and they cannot be subject to that type of Traumatic and dangerous environment that's being imported into that center One thing I would say is you you folks are incredibly lucky to have those people working for this city I was an employer for many years here And one of the important things is if you're going to give people Responsibility You have to give them the tools to be able to have the authority to deal with these things They can't be coming back over and over to you With you know going what are we going to do? You you have to give Authority along with responsibility and they they're certainly are handling their responsibilities and they're asking for the guidance And the authority to deal with them And you really do have to cede them that authority to some extent by giving them proper policies to deal with these these issues Is there any other member of the community who would like to address the council in one minute briefly? I can be in one minute I think So I have a huge concern when an innovative solution has been proposed and yet we still hear Would you like to open the bathrooms? No Um, I kind of think after this conversation we might consider taking the word community out of the Loudon Nelson community center It's not okay when I hear untruths being said as well people who have small children at the park do not get to use the bathroom I personally have been told that my kids can't use the bathroom when people have potty training children That that's an issue when people have mobility issues.  It's it's unacceptable We need bathrooms because everybody goes to the bathroom if you put an attendant in those bathrooms It will be a lot less likely that they're going to be violated in some of the ways that you that you heard Which we can't even prove whether or not they're true because there's very small data on that Anybody else briefly, um, you'll have one minute if you're interested in speaking for one minute Can I have a longer if I wait longer? Yeah, you can Is there anybody interested in addressing the council within one minute briefly? Please come forward and you'll have one minute I'm mike reos and i'm from loudon nelson Meals on wheels program manager It is a safe environment now The bathrooms are safe for everybody and that's why i'm here to let I know some of my folks will like it But that's what we're here for a safe place for people and it is Thanks um So it seems like the uh proposals today don't solve the problem. They just kind of redirected It seems like some more long-term solutions might be safe injection sites And obviously these kinds of policies are targeted at the homeless population And we all know that the solution to homelessness is housing So if we could at least spend the same amount of time discussing long-term solutions, I think that would be great Thanks Would you like to address the council in one minute? Okay When I say it's a complex challenge like said before and that we can do it as a community And a respect park labor is being won in watsonville for about six months as a substitute um I think one idea Could have some type of rules and agreements signed in by time To hold people responsible if they want to use the restroom at loudon another idea and just uh public restrooms around has Develop some kind of art That can discourage inappropriate behavior Inside and prevent vandalism And how art is very powerful in that way And that's it. Thank you Okay, seeing no additional members of the community wanting to address the council briefly in one minute We'll go ahead and um return back to the presentations and I have um the first presentation being mr. Norris from huff Please come forward. You'll have up to four minutes I hate to say this but I have to use the bathroom So we'll have the second presentation being um conscious in action and I believe we had steve But it seems that we have um Uh phil posner here And I have only three presentations and the next will be uh jay and brown And you'll have four minutes Thanks Good evening mayor and city council. I'm phil posner founder and co-chair with steve pleich of conscious and action Perhaps you saw my letter to the editor in today's sentinel, which Is germane to some of the stuff we're talking about this evening We are an activist group that addresses issues that have to do with justice and suffering in our community Including the need to increase 24 hour access bathrooms In that context last week we organized a petition to you Which I have handed to you just now And those here assembled also have it However, I do want to read the first lines as they are statements from individuals who stood at this very podium within the last year I'm 81 and homeless.  I'm here asking for your help closed quote I have a prostate problem. He said and sometimes I pee In my pants In three days last week Our three homeless activist organizations the board of the association of faith communities Hadesha main new synagogue the local aclu five downtown businesses The united service agency and the local chapters of veterans for peace all signed on to the petition Which you now have in your hands. Imagine how many more others we could have had signed if it we had more time We understand that the city is facing an ongoing financial crisis and that both council and staff Are limited by time and energy in their efforts to address pressing Community problems and we understand that government alone cannot solve all of our community ills as reflected in Tony's Sharing with you. However, we also believe that good government must prioritize issues that have to do with human suffering and discrimination And I'm going to cut out the stuff that I gave handed to you about the state section Our concern is discrimination We understand that there are not nice people But what about that lady 81 who had no place to pee? What about that man who had to pee in his pants in other words? Why does the city in this case parks and rec particularly with loud and prioritized Of some bad individuals and therefore discriminated against all of the other innocent individuals Who have no place to go to and tony. I respect you very wherever you are. I respect very much his work, but tony We came to you. We met with you at least twice and we gave Out of the box eight suggestions that we thought were pretty creative And tony said to us I will get back to you. We never heard from him And I said you the other day said to me. We're considering some of your proposals I didn't hear any proposal having to do with monitors Signing in and other things that we have suggested now for over a year Council persons as you know, our community is replete with occasions when ordinary citizens and their government have to come together to create A public-private partnership for the good of our community We believe that the privates privations suffering and lack of basic dignity caused by the presently existing lack of sufficient bathrooms In santa cruz is such an occasion as our petition indicates We would prefer that you direct parks and rec and other relevant city departments to open more bathrooms So that people don't have to pee However, indicative of the fact that the city has a moral responsibility Okay, I'll stop. Thank you. You have the rest of my talk. I hope you look at it. Thank you very much Okay All right, mr. Norris is the opportunity for you to speak on behalf of pass And you'll have four minutes. Please come forward so Who will change city councils dirty diapers at laudan elson and city hall clearly not the city council unfortunately Or maybe not. I mean, who knows what can happen Some activists are posted adult diapers around the city as an iconic and ironic reminder That bathrooms here at city hall and at laudan elson remain closed during business hours and this has gone on for months or years hence the parks and rec It's claim that it's going to wants to be accountable is is not really accountable at all It is in fact taken the choice of closing bathrooms here at city hall For political purposes because there were protests here around the sleeping band and similarly In the laudan elson center these those bathrooms became closed after the closing of the san lorenzo park when people had to move there or move to the different parks and We had supervisor isaeth ray who you heard who spoke to earlier She directed her staff to refuse access to these bathrooms Even though laurel park is a part of the center We're hearing this classist and and sort of suspiciously racist aspect Where people who are in the park using the park Are conflated with people who are drug dealers or Masterbaters or i don't know what else But there are plenty of actual people needing to use this who use that who play basketball who can no longer use these bathrooms Clearly discrimination that doesn't doesn't say black only it doesn't say white only but it says Only people who are paying and coming to paying events are at the discretion of the staff Because sometimes staff members let people go there sometimes It's ironic that isaeth ray spoke out about the wretched conditions for renters and workers For herself and her family at the last city council meeting. She was right And she should not be put into position of having to force people to piss in their pants to do her job And if she's initiating this then i'm sorry to hear that too We have ourselves those of us who are concerned with opening these bathrooms Taking direct action and we will take direct action again in order to make sure the community can exercise its true voice City council Bernal's memorandum attached to this whole issue, which you have Is a reprint from 2018 He hasn't presented you with any new data other than the verbal anecdotes of isaeth ray and tony elliot There is no series of stats Particularly about particular abuses and and costs So-called vandalism in the bathrooms. You don't have any indication of what the real costs are Compared with normal upkeep costs elsewhere in the city I also of course as was pointed out the solution seems to be The feces on the grass solution There's no cost to what what's the cost of cleaning up all that stuff that was raised by by mr. Crown here It's an obvious question And there's been no answer to it from mr. Bernal or anybody in the city because the purpose here is really more of A class notion That it's okay to exclude a class of people in this case people who are drug users homeless poor wash their clothes in the sink then to Deal with those issues the way to deal with them is to exclude them to deny them to lock them out Well, I tell the community and I ask the community we must resist this and not through this council Unless they unaccountably take action tonight We must resist it by getting those codes Sharing those codes with anybody who needs them and using those codes on september third We will be at Loudon elson a week from today at 130 opening those bathrooms to people who need them That I believe is what's going to happen. Thank you The last group presentation is um, we have jam brown coming up and I think it's on behalf of the parks and rec commission And you'll have four minutes as well Then we'll go to open public comment for two minutes and we'll see the light on the left Good evening mayor members of the council. I'm jay and brown chair of your parks and rec commission I'd like to acknowledge the other members of the commission who are here this evening vice chair. Locatelli Commissioner meo commissioner don's got norris and commissioner christina kincaid glavis Um as stated by the staff a commission unanimously passed two recommendations at our july 1st meeting One is related to facilities closures and restrictions in general and a more specific recommendation around further study For the loudon elson restrooms. I won't repeat what's in your packet But I do really appreciate the opportunity to provide you more information about the discussion that the committee had that led to those recommendations In crafting these recommendations the commission really sought to create a balance between the desire to make our facilities Safe and accessible with the need for greater transparency about how those decisions are made We thought it was important to preserve the discretion of our parks and recreation staff to use their best professional judgment about when conditions of a facility Be it a restroom or other portions of a park or open space Necessitate closure in order to reduce harmful conditions or address an emerging environmental need such as restoration or fire prevention We also felt it was important for the council and the commission to receive timely updates about those closures as well as an estimated timeline for reopening And that's why we structured our recommendation in such a way that would create clear guidelines for the parks and rec director to use When deciding whether to close a facility and then to create a communications protocol that provides notification to the council and the commission This recommendation was specifically crafted to provide the council with an opportunity to receive an update And provide direction no later than 21 days from the beginning of a closure or at their next regular council meeting And the commission of course can be updated by email and provide input every other month when we actually meet here in person I think I speak for all of us when I say that the commission joins the parks and rec staff in wanting our facilities open to the greatest extent possible Under safe and well-maintained conditions It's clear throughout the city that staff are entrusted by the council to use their professional judgment To properly maintain other infrastructure such as roads and water mains and close them when conditions necessitate doing so for health and safety reasons Parks and rec should be no different Our parks and rec staff provide a testimony to the commission Much of which you also heard this evening about some of the deplorable public health conditions That they and other members of the public have been exposed to in restrooms and other areas of our facilities We also know that from time to time Non-emergency conditions such as the need for restoration and repair is require restricting access So we felt it was important that our staff remain empowered to serve the public By having a transparent process for temporarily closing facilities when conditions justify Lastly the commission also discussed the importance of differentiating between behaviors that necessitate action To reduce harm versus the identification of any particular groups of people We do not as a commission support limiting access to our facilities based on any real Or perceived identity or status But rather as a result of behaviors and conditions And we do not see a correlation between a person's housing status and behaviors that are in violation of our rules and regulations As we all know bad behaviors can come with the hands of people who have shelter and people who don't We have a beautiful parks and open space system that we all want to be free of public health hazards So we hope that the city can partner with the county's public health agency To address what really are countywide challenges around needle waste and human waste With that, I thank you for your time and I'd like to invite other members of the commission to share any individual comments They may have I'll just echo uh james and all of our uh recommendation to you and I felt it very important because Because we oh, is that done? You know what? I think we'd be more appropriate if you wanted to add any additional comments that you can do So But I want to thank the commission for being here and thank you for your service Tourcity in that capacity as well. Sorry. I guess it was confusing. We were told the commissioners would have two additional minutes They can have two additional minutes after that's right. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay So we'll go ahead and have and you'll have up to two minutes Keith mckenry mckenry liked the library I found it interesting and have always found it interesting that there's an open-air drug market across from the police station I went to the uh I rented louden nelson. I went to an appointment to do a sound check with the sound person I needed to go to the bathroom. I have had prostate Operations. I had to go I was not allowed to go I asked why you just give me the number like they do in other restaurants In places like that. They would not give that to me.  That's Really inappropriate. Um, I think if you just have a policy where a person comes up to the front desk and asks to have the code Um, it would probably work out just fine And a lot of the problems that you saw when there was no code Would disappear because i'm sure no one really wants to go through that It turns out that the state of california and the federal government Says that there has to be um Five toilets and hand wash facilities for every hundred employee. I would suggest that's probably according to the um a national I mean the california association of environmental health managers A policy that should be adopted for people living outside. They um Has assured me that that was probably a uh public health crisis and that the city would um be well advised to have Five toilets and five hand wash stations per hundred people that live outside I could not make it to the police station. It was already closed. There was no other places to go I wasn't given like the uh little letter telling me what other bathrooms were in the area So I had to resort to the bushes and I think a great many other people have to do that There are many health issues surrounding going to the bathroom when I was homeless I had fibromyalgia and I had irritable bowel syndrome and it was a huge crisis all the time And it was I felt really horrible that I had to go to the bathroom outside so frequently. Thank you It's I too question uh, how much staff time was spent cleaning up non-bathroom human waste Uh, we do know that last year 94 citations for public urination were issued Uh, it's very likely that we need to have more public bathrooms available with uh extended hours We also need to account and plan for the reality that bathrooms will be vandalized and the illegal behavior is likely to occur in them But rather than closing bathrooms or limiting access to them Let's plan a way to keep toilet facilities open while accounting for and mitigating vandalism and other illegal behavior Let's investigate the best practices for bathroom management Maybe open some new bathroom locations. Maybe install some sharps containers. Maybe staff some commonly abused locations Maybe use volunteers or allow private organizations to pay for public facilities If bathroom if paid bathroom staff are used consider empowering them to refer people to social services If the primary reason to hire bathroom staff is to reduce vandalism It seems like hiring attendance is not necessarily the right solution from a pure cost benefit perspective According to the staff presentation in the in the last two weeks There were approximately 25 man hours per day associated for cleaning up the vandalism spent on Citywide The existing maintenance costs appear to be far less than a far less expensive than hiring bathroom attendance citywide would be If bathrooms are being closed primarily because of issues with public safety Then let's look at how we can address the underlying problem behaviors without limiting the public's access to an important public resource. Thank you I hope we can all agree that these are important issues It's a real balance, you know to staff legitimately are saying this is really really hard And the public is legitimately saying the public facility should be open for the public So and you're the right body to hear this because you do represent the public and overseeing these facilities So the most important thing for me that I urge you to do is to adopt the policy where the council decides When to close the facility for more than 14 or 21 days or whatever The suggestion to use apos and council member handbooks. Let me give you my experience with that as a council member Um, it was huge. It had a gun on it. It was the bear cat So it turns out that when they when the police supplied for a grant to get the bear cat They were already supposed to have talked to the council before they applied for the grant That was an apo at the time, but everyone had forgotten about it, right? I bet you if you had You know 600 hours you could find 50 or 100 apos or council member handbook policies that weren't remembered not out of any kind of you know their election of duty just because That stuff is tiny and minutiae and people don't remember it and this particular issue as you know Is not a minute issue. It's an issue that people care about the staff care a lot about it The public cares a lot about it. Homeless advocates care a lot about it It's not the kind of thing you should put in an apo and assume that you will hear about it if if you want to you have the responsibility to mitigate and referee and balance these concerns and so The the straightforward way to do that is to tell the staff that they can close a bathroom for 14 or 20 days which is plenty of time to fix things or repair things whatever But if they're going to close it as a policy act to reduce usage so as to protect a facility That's a city council decision that shouldn't be a staff decision when these parks were open No one ever imagined no one ever imagined that the staff would close the facility to the public to protect the facility That's not a staff level decision So I hope that you'll immediately Adopt the original language and just to show you how hard it took seven months just to get this issue back to you So you should adopt the language to say that they may not close facilities without going to the city council Thank you very much One of the reasons that this is really important is For environmental issues too as far as i'm concerned the parks Are an open spaces are going to be really important and view of the climate change Park and rec should have the possibility to close and protect an area when necessary So also, I think hearing from the city attorney in regards to How other cities and the state law is in regards to open public Uh public owned bathrooms will help this discussion So thank you very much and That's it Next speaker, please Hi, my name is Elise casby and i'm furious and I don't have a lot of respect for any of the officials in the city I'm sorry But I was a respectful citizen for decades and I said slowly investigated the truth The situation that homeless people are living in not only in santa cruz, but in other cities And other aspects of our so-called burgeoning democracy. I I have just become extremely Disrespectful and it's because people have not earned my respect And I just want to start with these presentations First of all, I want to thank tony for his presentation, especially the apio that he's in asking for on transparency But this report was terribly terribly biased and full of prejudice by any sociological academic standard Both his and liseth's reports. They come up against a background of hate and Amazing awful prejudice against the homeless that is every day Uh touted and encouraged by Not only synthy matthews in this council But also by people who run the homeless shelters in many instances and I've investigated them and I have not written my report I think I might have to do it when I leave the town because I think it's unsafe to tell the truth too much here I applaud councilmember clever's truth-telling and patience I can't understand how he has that much and also councilmember crone and browns But I just want to say liseth interestingly missed the fact that the metro bathroom is very close Maybe closer than the depot park for somebody who's every day in the business of recommending close bathrooms Why did she miss that huge question mark? And I'll tell you why because that report is so lacking in facts As she said some data How about replete police reports to some of these instances? I'm just disgusted by this entire So-called neutral report. It is not it is horribly biased It was stalling from up here. I want information on it and I want it I'm Cynthia with Santa Cruz tenants association. Um, I was just listening to the um Iseth and the head of parks and recreations report and it was very interesting But I feel like there's two visions of Santa Cruz, but one of them sort of more real than the other Santa Cruz is like a Known Sexual trafficking hub. It's had an extreme drug problem for many years and it has an fbi task force, you know lodged here Permanently with the sheriff's department people who work for the city They need to understand what kind of a place this really is and not try to concoct a Kind of an image of what they would like it to be like if only they could and So, you know, I don't know how you're gonna to to get to that, but You know, it's not I and you know the city has 65 fewer children than Watsonville for a reason I protected my son for a reason. I didn't become a drug addict for a reason You know, it's it's all around here. It takes a consciousness To live a healthy life here.  I mean I take care of guys in continent You know, these people need to be able to use the bathroom as do I there's a lot of pre-diabetic people around here They have to pee every half hour, you know, you you you just have to have a little more broader look at people all right I'm gonna get a sense of how many people still want to address the council Okay, we'll have the three and then the individual on the on the end there as our last speaker, please I agree pretty much what everybody's been saying and We need to go preemptive and that should save us the money as well And maybe solve a lot of other issues we have with drug problems or whatever I came to this town. I was I did at least 50 big wilderness tracks way out in the middle of nowhere Nobody was to say where I could go where I can't go to the bathroom I came into this town and had a girlfriend here. We she was nagging for a little girl And we used to go to loud Nelson. This is 40 years ago. These are not new events I don't remember all these years being closed down Now I knew I also was like the stepdad to one of the boys that now is a man who worked at loud Nelson for years and years off and on that had to deal with these issues Same thing. He had to deal with the issues But the center wasn't closed down for people like me who went to go ask to play basketball And I couldn't do it Speaking of basketball playing. I don't go there now because I can't play basketball because I can't go wash Go to the bathroom there. So I'm punished. So you're punishing everybody else with some bad boys or bad girls do That is not fair. We got to keep looking for solutions We can't push everybody away from what we need to do. You have to change the mission statement You have to change that it's not a community center anymore because it's not taking all of the community It's not taking the mission. So I'm gonna go ahead and pause you.  This is not the opportunity to address We're part of the community It's not fair to do that If you want to address the council, you're welcome to address the council Feel free to address us and you'll have your remainder of time Yeah, so I got my back to everybody else You can see that. Yeah, go ahead. If you want to address the council, you're welcome to do that I can't I'm trying to talk to everybody because we all govern together and I'm not trying to be disrespectful of you or anybody But it's disrespectful if I can't talk to everyone else and only you Mr. Norris, I'm gonna go ahead and ask that you please stop that because you've been warned if there's another Outburst and I'm gonna go ahead and that's what you do. It's just selective again. Okay. I want I'll talk to you Okay, how much longer do I got then you're gonna give it to me again Why don't we go ahead and take if you can't we'll go ahead and Yeah, I'll talk to you how much more on you can give me that you want to finish your comments We can go ahead and finish the comments then that Okay, well, we'll go. Okay, mr. McHenry You could okay. Why don't you go ahead and go ahead and leave please we'll go ahead and ask that you leave I have given you a warning The the staff here go ahead and ask You're interrupting the ability for us to be able to do cities business. You can go ahead and go We'll wait until you're able to We'll have decorum back in the council and it's just very hurtful that you won't let me share with everybody in the room Because everybody's the politician here Everybody voted for these people Everybody's part of this community Right, it's just not right that I have to turn my back and not be able to go back and forth to them and you It's just not right. I'll have to say that But like I said, it's just and I used to bring my daughter to loud nelson 20 years ago And it was it was not an issue. I brought my daughter to the mall. I've been hearing about that too How dangerous the mall is that's bull.  I did not intend on speaking But I want to clarify one the parks were closed for five to six weeks The beach has been closed the cow beach the bathrooms at least one of them has been closed at least three times Because I'm there at least five six days a week I go by both the city park and grand street park at least three times a day because I live off of market street I'm fortunate enough that I have not had a place as well as had a place. I'm one of the first 180 180 recipients I'm not a drug addict, but I have worked with addicts all my life. I'm a retired social worker So I pretty much have an idea about a lot of these quote-unquote drug war politics I love santa crux To be honest, it's really kind of disgusting what's happening in santa crux because you're turning into san francisco in five years from now You'll open all the bathrooms just like santa crux had to because you're so disgusted with all the head bang And all this stuff. But right now you're in the process of training people To not have any common sense and decent humanity And as far as loud nelson My grandson I've been turned away three times because when I go to do laundry downtown, which is not that often anymore Because I have to bring my basket You know while our laundry's at the place we bring our basket because i'm not going to leave it at speedy wash to get stolen We go over there to play But since we're not using the facilities because the parks in the basketball court are not considered part of the facilities Luckily, I know how to look people and I make it clear to them how inhumane it is for you to tell me that I can't use the restroom more than my grandson can't I have been allowed to So if it goes against your policies Then you need to talk to your staff because it is inhumane to not let someone with a disability card Or a child use the restroom You know Now the fact I also used to volunteer at the shelter and when I caught somebody using I remembered their face Like I said common sense is not that common for some reason Now unfortunately when you have police officers I don't call them but I am the kind of person that when I bust somebody using in public I do tend to go off because I feel assaulted a needle in public is just like a gun I have no sympathy for it. I have sympathy for the user but not the needle But when an officer says did everyone here has a needle you can't count on them.  I'm so sorry. Okay. Uh, my name is surge and Uh, I want to thank parks and rec 2 and and tony and those guys. I enjoy Poganip I went running there yesterday. I got a tour of the homeless garden project today that what they're going to be putting out there Had a hawk land on my windshield on my windshield wiper got a picture super cool. Um, saw some wild turkeys I've enjoyed community centers my whole life, you know as a kid taking classes Loud Nelson winter shelter 2017 2018 I helped run the winter shelter And we did intakes at loud nelson right about the same time that the bathrooms were closed And we had to walk people to the bathrooms and stuff like that. Um, I I People have to breathe eat defecate urinate whether you let them You're gonna allow them to do it or not Uh, if you don't want them public urination and public defecation Have to give them bathrooms if you don't want to leave trash on the ground You have to give them trash cans if you don't want to have needles on the ground You put out sharps containers Um, there have been votes before by city council of limiting those red Sharps containers around town because they didn't they didn't want them seen But there are very few of those things around that's also part of the problem It seemed to me that there was there wasn't really numbers on the loud nelson of what the problems were There are a bunch of anecdotes a bunch of disgusting and gross things that people who clean bathrooms have to deal with Which is super true But that's bathrooms and that's the public and That's way cheaper than having an assistant to It seemed more that it was the emotional response Somebody had a horrible first day when somebody overdosed on their first day. Absolutely true But to close the bathroom because of that for which really mostly challenges the homeless Who tend to not get the same medical care who tend to have the elderly have the prostate problems and need the bathrooms They're the ones that are going to suffer. I'm proposing you send it to the catch Your time and you keep it keep it open till then I think you your time is up. Thank you very much. Thanks Good evening i'm scott ram I believe there's a state law that says that any public facility Has to have open bathrooms accessible to the public whether or not they're using the facility or not Um Then the issue of people destroying the bathrooms. Well, they have in prisons Indestructible toilets and sinks And we could put these in the bathrooms if that's really an issue we could put these indestructible The fixtures in and that way we would take care of that problem um when I used to live in isla vista The park's district there For the cleaning problems Would take all the paper products out or they had some product dispensers that they could seal up and then they would hose off the bathrooms And they could you know spray it with disinfectant and hose it off That takes care of a lot of problems that way You know that way you're not spending as much time cleaning And you you get the job done much quicker Um If there's an od problem in the bathrooms at loud nelson Why don't they have narcon behind the counter?   Maybe they won't throw them all over town Okay, your time is them Okay, we're gonna go ahead and um, we're gonna go ahead and close public comment I'll just remind the community that It's my job to ensure decorum and it's an opportunity when public comment is to address the council And it's my job to also ensure that the Language use is for the council and not necessarily Directed at any staff or any individuals if we have questions for staff based on your comments We can take that in and we can ask the staff for that but to have Language and questions or a comment directed directly to staff Is not appropriate for public comment. It's a time to address the council and it's my job to ensure decorum at that time I'm going to go ahead and take a quick pause. We're going to have a two minute break And then we're going to return back to council for action and deliberation Story All the council meeting back into session if I could get your attention Okay, so we um are out of time and I'll go ahead and um Remind the community that we had an opportunity to hear from you This is now the time for the council to have an opportunity to To provide policy direction and to take in your input and other Inputs and decide what's best for our city as we move forward So we'll go ahead and bring it back to the council for action and deliberation I think I heard councillor matthews vice mayor comings and then I didn't see any other hands. So go ahead councillor matthews Well, I want to thank everyone for being here and particularly thank The parks and rec staff for their extremely personal and real life testimony about the Conditions that have presented themselves at loud nelson and their mission to serving a very very very broad range of community members safely And I also want to thank our parks commissioners who are here. I think almost the entire commission attended Um, to my mind The The testimony was very Convincing I do also want to say I I appreciate getting a list of referral Restrooms and metro is not on here. That's another one. I don't know. It's not on there In any way, there are others in addition uh, they're actually To my count and I've been actually involved in putting a number of these facilities online Over the years various parking garages port bodies garages Oh, I'm sorry. We we um Had a microphone issue here. So um I think the city has made a serious effort to provide restroom facilities throughout downtown and other places And that will be an ongoing effort and the cleanliness and maintenance of our restroom facilities throughout the city and public places And particularly parks is an ongoing challenge Uh, it's a challenge for our parks staff It's a challenge for our parks users and we will continue working on that Specifically, um, I do want to say, um, I want to move that we accept the recommendations of the parks and rec commission Regarding access and hours of public facilities And direct the staff to incorporate recommendations as As appropriate By adopting, uh, council policy, uh, 7.1 That would be upholding the existing policy for loud and nilson center laurel park and, um Other public facilities as described I'll second it. Okay. We have a motion by council member matthew seconded by council member mires Um, and did you have any further comments? I think that covers the basis. Yes um, my vice mayor comics I know that within the recommendations I was wondering if we might be able to separate these because I would like to Before I can offer a friendly amendment to some of the language, um, around um, changes to policy 7.1 so, um Page 1 Dot 11 And it states that Parks and Rec director shall notify members of the parks and rec Sorry Parks and recreation director shall notify members of the parks and recreation commission In city council within 24 hours after any emergency closure Or facility to the general public Or not less than within seven days before planned closure and provide an estimated time for reopening And shall during such a period of closure provide status updates to members of the parks and recreation commission And the language change that I would suggest is Uh, require the consent of the city council when the parks director intends to close a park or facility for more than 21 days and just to provide some context around that the idea being that Oftentimes when parks get closed and facilities get closed for long periods of time members of the public generally are curious as to Why they're staying closed why they haven't been open and by providing the feedback to the city council for consideration I mean this is something that could potentially just go on the consent agenda and get approved by the city council and not Be something that takes a lot of time, but if there's a lot of community Inquiry as to why parks aren't being open I think that providing a 21 day timeline actually allows for If there's work that needs to be done around maintenance or other issues that need to be taken care of If it's going to take longer it can just get communicated back to us in the public And we can provide the consent necessary for those facilities either to recommendations for them to open or remain closed That's not a family amendment. I I think Actually practice has been pretty close to this is if they're for for whatever reason if it's maintenance damage tree falls whatever Um If there's an emergency, I think this has been a standard practice. I I don't favor every Closure having to come to the city council shell during a period of closure provides status updates to members of parks Right commission and council not less than everyone 21 days thereafter. So the way I'm reading this is You will you'll inform us Us in the commission within 24 hours of emergency You'll inform us seven days before a planned closure and that would include a reason And for a closure as well as a time for reopening And So it's either one of those things these The facilities are closed either for emergency or for planning. Am I am I reading this language correctly? And Vandalism would be an emergency if it's not usable. I mean that's it has to be maintained and illegal activity. So, yeah And you would provide an estimated time for reopening And if the time is more than 21 Goes more than 21 days you would Inform us You would give us updates And the council could at that at any point Ask to have it agendized And I it's my impression that various facilities for various reasons are closed pretty frequently and I don't think we need this level of Agenda action. So maybe you could comment on the frequency and severity and reasons Um for the closures Yes, so to clarify this, I think the intent really behind the the 21 days And I think it's probably worth cleaning up this language a bit our intent in proposing This was that for a closure expected to last longer than 21 days Or lasting 21 days that we would communicate to the city council Via a memo essentially that we would communicate to city council that we expect this closure to go longer than 21 days Or it has gone 21 days In the form of a memo and then the city council could say well in this case, it's um Environmentally related it's preservation of the tar plant or something. So we're supportive of that No need to bring it to council or the council could say uh, this is questionable as a policy a matter of policy And request the staff agendize that item to to bring that back in for any closure longer than 21 days Uh, I think what might be missing here, too is just um some kind of and My guess is you do this, uh A notice at the park closed for maintenance Anticipated reopening such in such a time Um, so maybe some reference to public notice. They're just explaining the reason for the closure Um, but I really don't favor Automatically bringing these to the council for approval So that friendly moment isn't accepted at this time, but now I'll try and think of language about Notifying the public just At the location does that make sense it doesn't I believe that's in the existing ordinance already I believe that's in the existing language is one of the kind of sub parts a b c Do you guys mind toggling back to the? To the original. Thank you Yeah, there already is a Component to the existing ordinance that uh requires that we See Part so part b he had notice of such hours of operation shall be posted conspicuously posted and maintained Well, that's for the open hours, right Yes, that allows you to establish By regulation hours and that you post the hours And we would I see and then the parks shall notify facility closure shall be communicated to members of the commission Oh, that's the same language there Okay, well, let's try and work on that like So at this time, it's not a point. Yep councilor brown and then council member glugger So well, I would support the motion with the Change in language proposed by vice mayor Cummings So while that's not been accepted as a friendly amendment. It sounds like we may need to make that as a motion To amend and vote on it second um Well, I was going to let the um a person with the language in front make the motion but What however we'd like to proceed there, but I also want to ask a clarifying question about Other recommendations because I don't I do want to make sure that we have an opportunity to Provide some direction about some of the other items including You know bathrooms at loud nelson and and I believe You know, I would like to take the some of the catch members off up on their offer to Refer some items to them But I so I don't I just don't want to lose those and I'm happy to make those as separate motions or Here other motions, but I just don't want to have because sometimes we close as soon as we get through this one Motion and I'd like to make sure that doesn't happen Okay, but it doesn't sound like we may get through them all if we put them all together So let's go ahead and try to then separate them out if that makes the most I think they're different Yeah, frankly, so we'll go ahead and acknowledge that and allow space for that after we vote for Councilmember Glover. Thanks. Yeah, so I would Not support the motion as it is currently worded I would support it Potentially with the amended language is suggested by vice mayor Cummings Simply for the fact that the reason why this initial issue came up was because of a lack of Transparency in the process of the closure of parks and restricted access for people experiencing homele