ell as the public. Next. With the C Quick Fix app, we've been able to collect data and reporting and here are just some of the top categories that ambassadors help to manage to get resolve, whether it be themselves taking care of it or finding who can help take care of whatever the situation is. And so it just contributes to the clean, friendly atmosphere.  So in lots of little ways, they are the connector to help manage all of downtown issues and needs and questions. Next slide. Our public works for cleaning the sidewalks. It is the number one issue that they help resolve. So just a little quick overview, that's it. And I will move on to the information kiosk if we can go to those slides. We're hoping for a potential expansion of the ambassador program. And like Abra said, potentially contracting out to another company that does this around other cities and other states. Okay, the information kiosk is in front of New Leaf Community Market. Next slide. Information kiosk, the city is our landlord, and we were established in 2012. And so we just celebrated our eight year anniversary and it was very exciting. You'll see on Facebook for the information kiosk and wonderful pictures that units of our full-time staffers put together to commemorate and celebrate all the wonderful moments. The information kiosk serves around 10,500 visitors a year from the county, regional, national, and international locations. Next question, next sample questions we get at the information kiosk. It's a tiny one-person operation, but definitely mighty. And not only do the staff at the information kiosk showcase promotions or posters, events, music, art, shows, festivals, same-day events, the staff also works really hard to know about things happening in the city and the county to be able to answer questions, provide maps, brochures, directories, even maps to neighboring cities for visitors that may be headed there next. Next slide, please. These are just last year's. We keep track, if anybody's ever interested, we would love to share the data that we collect. We definitely collect data of each visitor, where they're from, and it's really fun to see, for example, in the international countries they're visiting from. And as you can see in this data, for example, we have a lot of county from within the county visitors too that are coming to ask questions. The information kiosk is definitely a central hub for connecting the information in downtown Santa Cruz, providing information on all the area services, the downtown businesses, and opportunities, even to find that perfect lunch. And you'll see on the left are two of our downtown rangers. In the middle is Maverick from Santa Cruz Warriors, and on the right are some international visitors at the information kiosk. And that's it. I just wanted to give a quick overview for them. We're not familiar with either program. We're really out of our staff and people and the impact it's had downtown and with our community downtown. Thank you. Thank you, Sonia. And I'll just wrap up.  But I just wanna reiterate that the kiosk program is amazing. I'm sure all of you have encountered Allen or Venus. They're really at the heart of that program. They're absolutely incredible. And our ambassador program has been just a huge asset to the organization and to the downtown community. It really has allowed for a bridge between our downtown businesses and our organization. We get to hear from them quite often through our ambassadors about what they need and what kind of support we can offer. It's also been great to create this network downtown between Santa Cruz PD and Carter Jones and also our rangers downtown.  So it's been incredibly valuable. And as I've said, these kind of programs are hugely significant in their impacts in downtowns across the country. And if we would be able to expand that program, it would be significant. And one of the mechanisms for that would be the PV that's being proposed. I did wanna mention that to some of the work that the DTA, the Downtown Association is doing during this COVID pandemic, like everybody else had to pivot really rapidly and try to figure out what we could do to support folks. A big piece of that was offering education and advocacy and being that mechanism where information came through. And as soon as we heard about things, sharing them with the downtown community, being available at all times by phone and email and educating them to the best of our ability through our website and our social media. Another piece of that was building partnerships with other city entities or other business organizations so that we could offer those resources to our downtown community as well. And then lastly, one of the big pieces has been a big pivot in marketing. Immediately upon seeing this happen, we just quickly moved and I'm really proud of our staff. Sonya, Marina, Toft and myself are the three administrators for the Downtown Association and it's taking quite the effort to get us where we are but we were one of the first downtowns to be able to shift rapidly and completely change the interface of our website to support what was happening with takeout and online sales and things like that and actually has been pointing to many of the national fronts for a downtown to look to. So we feel really proud of those efforts that we were able to support our downtown in that way. And now of course we're pivoting in another direction. So it's a moving target right now and we're just trying to be prepared. I wanted to quickly just mention our work plan and our budgets. We, I created that probably over a month ago because we needed to have our board vote on it. So you can imagine incredible amount of uncertainty in creating a work plan and budget currently not knowing what we're looking for. I did put in a 20% decrease expected in our assessment budget as our assessment is funded through business. We are preparing that there will likely be businesses that do not come back or there will be businesses that will need to wait and hold off on paying any sort of assessment and we really want to support them to be alive, survive and thrive at this point. So being able to do that. We're also taking a shift over from our route which actually pull a lot of funds and capacity being that that's not something that's realistic at this point away from that and moving that funding and capacity towards economic development hoping to partner more with the staff over there and support our businesses and then also trying to redesignate some funds back to clean, safe and welcoming as I have reiterated I cannot tell you enough the more people on boots on the ground people walking around the more support our downtown is gonna get. So currently we're looking at how do we expand the ambassador footprint beyond its current and how does the downtown association find funding to support that because it seems absolutely crucial at this point. So all in all, we're just preparing as our small staff to just be ready at any moment for any change that might happen especially as these re-openings are rolling out what can we do for our downtown businesses and our downtown community. That's it. Great, well thank you for your presentation for all the work that you all do. All these programs seem really great and with that I'll turn it over to council to see if any council members have questions. I don't. Well, I don't really have a question. I just want to appreciate all the work that you have done and your ability to really be nimble in these challenging times. I'm glad to see the team in charge is taking that very seriously. And I just, I love hearing from you. So thank you for everything. Vice mayor Mara. If there's no other questions, mayor, I might go ahead and make a motion to move things forward but I just want to be respectful to see if there's other questions. Sure, and we also, I just want to remind folks who we need to open up for public comment. Still a comment, right. And we'll click on any further questions or comments. Comments from the public. So if there are members of the public that would like to comment on this item that's before us which is item number 23 Downtown Association parking and business improvement area assessments for fiscal year 2021. Please call in at this moment in time if you haven't already. And once you are in the meeting you'll want to hit star nine on your phone which will allow you to raise your hand at which point we will then acknowledge you and you'll have two minutes to speak on this item to raise a hand. Mayor, I just wanted to mention that the item before you is both a motion as well as a resolution of intention to levy the assessment. Thank you. Members of the public who would like to speak on this item. And so I'll bring it back to council for action deliberation. Council member Matthews, do you have a comment? I'm happy to second the motion. It was made for both the motion to approve the plan and adopt the resolution. I was going to say that, but go for it. Go for it. I was going to say that. I'm going to go back and get back into it. But yeah, everyone to be like, that's the call in what the downtown are doing and throughout our community really. But particularly for downtown who've been going through the Puma project and what's their future and our grand vision and whammo, this thing comes at you. And to see the extraordinary energy and creativity and sense of community coming forward. We understand that well.  Yeah, I'd like to just echo, yeah, my appreciation to the downtown association all your work over the past year. Leading the report, especially just all the amount of outreach and the day to day contact that you took to truly talk with property owners and business owners downtown is really, really appreciated. We don't often do that well enough and just really appreciate all your work and really trying to make sure that everyone was well informed. And I've heard lots of compliments about your process. And so thank you for all your work and we'll see what happens as we move forward here. Hopefully things get better. Thanks you guys. And I'll just echo the sentiments expressed by my colleagues. So thank you for all the hard work you're doing. And there's also a lot of members of the public know because I know we as council members have been receiving lots of emails about closing down the streets downtown. And I know that the downtown association has already gotten out in front of that and has been conducting surveys with the different businesses. And so just really want to appreciate all the work that you all continue to do to try to meet the needs of our downtown and the visitors and residents of Santa Cruz. They're common. I'll turn it back to the city clerk to call the roll. Thank you Mayor, council members, buyers. Please unmute your microphones as well. Matthews. Hi. Brown. Hi. Boulder. Vice Mayor Meyers. And Mayor Cummings. That is unanimously. All right, thank you all for joining us on that item today and for the presentation. Yep. Thank you. fiscal year 2021. And this will be presented by Bonnie Lipscomb director of economic development. Thank you mayor. This is the property based improvement district or PBID that is managed by the downtown management corporation. And the assessment this year is, it's not changed from last year. The contract that we have though was just talked about in the previous item. And that is the majority of this assessment, 204,000 out of the 2018 goes towards the contract with the downtown association for the ambassador program. Additionally, we supplement that for ways to clean up downtown security cameras and other downtown specific pieces. Can I stop for a sec? I'd like to ask, if you're not speaking, could you please mute your microphone on the volume for a few minutes and then I'll be able to present the presentation. So the overall assessment is 218,000. The majority of that 204,000 goes towards the contract with the downtown association for managing the ambassador program. We additionally supplement that with cafe extension area and our kiosk grant to provide additional waste removal services downtown and some contribution towards the trolley as well as our security camera program. So this is the annual assessment. As in the earlier item, we all also are looking at a larger property based improvement district that would merge both the downtown association and the downtown management corporation if that does go forward, that would be on the next agenda. And we would include phase out language both for the DTA assessment that we just discussed as well as the DMC assessment. And those would phase out at the end of December if the larger PVID is approved for consideration next month. So if the larger PVID is approved, that would be effective in January. So we still need approval of both this district for the PVID, the smaller PVID as well as the one that you just approved so that we have continuity of services in the downtown. There is a contribution from the city and this district we do own property within the district. It's approximately 39,000. The majority of that is parking related property. There additionally is the Del Mar and a couple other city owned properties within the district. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Seeing none, I will open up public comment on this item. So the item before us is item number 24, cooperative, retail, management, business, real property, improvement district assessment fiscal year 2021. There are members of the public who are streaming this meeting. If you'd like to comment on this, now's the time to call in using the instructions on your screen. If you've called in and you'd like to comment on this item, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand. And when it's your time to speak, you'll hear an announcement that you've been unmuted and the time will be set to two minutes. Members of the public, council members, this is Robert Norris of Hop Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom.  So although these two items are closely related, the press, I can make these comments. The ambassadors program has been almost universally disparaged and opposed by homeless organizations throughout the country. It is a proto-police agency which masquerades as something that's been with helping tourists. And I think Sandy Brown and Catherine Byer should know better than this. Although Catherine Byer's initiated this whole thing back in 1995, as I think part of a well-intended mediation proposal to deal with conflicts that were involved and are still involved with the police and homeless people in public spaces and that will continue to be involved. I would say before you hoard this kind of assessment and I think you should do a revote frankly on the last item, because members of the public, at least I was not allowed to speak. I think maybe it's a fault in the system, I don't know what. But I think you need to see the stats on what are the numbers of contacts that involve connecting with the police and connecting with homeless people and directing them to follow the downtown ordinances. This used to be a very heavy part of what the host, which is now called the Ambassadors Program did. It's a proto-policing mentality which spends time, money, and the inappropriate use of force to privatize the sidewalks. And while I appreciate what some of the hosts do, the Info Bureau at the Kiosk, I think that's a good thing. I'm glad to see maps and tourist information given out. This other aspect is very dangerous to homeless folks.  But in fact, because of the gentrification process happening in this community, we see less and less public space. And thank you, please consider what I said. Thank you very much. Again, if there are members of the public who would like to speak on this item, please call on the numbers on your screen right now. Enter the code that's at the bottom. Just raise your hand. Okay, seeing that there are no other members of the public who'd like to speak on this item, I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation. Council Member Watkins. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move the recommendation for the item. Okay, so we have a motion by Council Member Watkins. I'll go ahead and second that recommendations by Council Member Watkins, seconded by Mayor Cummings, by Council Member Brown. Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to follow up on that, a comment from our last speaker, Mr. North, to ask if any, is there any data available about when those calls and the resolution of those calls, how many have involved the police? Do you track that? I don't know if that's for Abra or Bonnie or both. But it would be helpful to know if it's available. I'm processing that question. We do have data on both that the ambassadors record as far as the nature of the calls, those that do get referred to either the Rangers and or some actually get called to our mental health outreach. I would say probably more of them get referred to our mental health outreach support downtown. So we do have general data, it doesn't go into the detail of all of the nature of the calls. I see that Abra is back on, so I'll see if she has something to add to that as well. Most of what I was gonna chime in is similar to Bonnie and actually there is quite a bit of data. Sonya is really kind of our go-to around our reporting and I'm not sure though that there are, there is data specifically to every time they would call PD or not. We certainly could do a little bit more.  So that you have a sense of that. But I will tell you that, you know, our ambassadors are trained almost exclusively as welcoming and host-related services to allow visitors to feel like they get what they need downtown and directing people in the right directions and checking in with businesses to make sure that they also have the resources that they need as well. I would add in just one thing is that that was actually the change we made two years ago from going from transitioning from the Rangers back to ambassadors, what so that the ambassadors did have that friendly welcoming welcome to downtown approach. So, you know, I think that is one of the major changes and benefits that were specifically requested by downtown businesses is that they really wanted to have that friendly atmosphere. So that's one of the goals I think successfully achieved by the ambassadors downtown. Thank you. If I could just say thank you. And if, you know, if there is data available, it'd be great if it could just forward it along to us, you know, no need to spend a lot of time, but it would be helpful to have that information, whatever you've got available. Thanks. Happy to. I would just add one thing that's not specific to the ambassadors, but it is specific to the data downtown is that we do have a number of calls for service in downtown. So we do have that data available as well. My roadmap is gonna be about, please unmute. Anna and I both sit on the Downhand Management Corporation Board and we do get reports at every, we meet every other month and we do get pretty detailed data presented and that's certainly available to you if you ask. And I think just a brief phone call reviewing more than just looking at it, but also present at the meeting to give reports in part of the agenda. Someone from BTE, but also social workers, outreach workers, other community resources available. So if you look at the numbers, they're not called out specifically by homeless, but request for information. That's what we'll see from visitors. Reporting of maintenance issues abandoned by the BTE facility to be cleaned up. So that's a huge amount of them. Maintenance needs, connecting to the businesses, informing them of what's happening, et cetera. Collaboration with the other resources. And when we hear, for example, the PV and the outreach worker talking with the hospitality workers, when there are particular individuals who have some previous things, contrary to the impression that may have been given by the caller, I would say the overall intention is to be welcoming and helpful. And when people need services, get them connected. Unmute yourself, Justin. Thank you for those comments. So is there any other council members who'd like to comment on this item at this time? Okay, seeing none, I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll vote. Thank you, Mayor, Council Member Byers. Aye. Matthews. Aye. Brown. Aye. Boulder. Watkins. Aye. Vice Mayor Myers. Aye. And Mayor Cummings. That was unanimously. Thank you, Bonnie, for bringing this forward. Our agenda is item number burdened into reconciliation effort and budget adjustments to the appropriate SBE2 grant funds. The presenters on this item are Sarah Noyes, senior planner, and Matthew Van Hop. Your audio, Sarah, if you've started, Matt is checking in on that. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, we can hear you now. Okay, sorry about that. I've had some trouble with my audio on my, between my computer and my phone today. So I think I've got it sorted out. What we're talking about today is this effort that was directed by the city council starting last August to look at our current general plan, 2030 adopted general plan and our zoning code and look at the differences between those two documents and come up with a plan and a strategy for reconciling those differences. For the benefit of our two new council members, I'm gonna go through just a little bit of the background about how we got to this point of having a general plan and zoning code that aren't 100% in alignment with each other. The city began work on the 2030 general plan in 2007 and with a little bit of background work beginning as early as 2004. And then the final plan that the plan that we currently operate under was adopted in 2012. The general plan was really focused, this 2030 update was really focused on a lot of sustainability goals. So some things that we, that have come up through other topics today on your agenda. The vision of this plan was to focus on environmental, economic and social sustainability and allow, which, when we say sustainability in general, we mean allowing the current generation to meet its needs without forfeiting the ability of future generations to similarly meet their needs. One of the key features of this plan, this general plan was a reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And one of the tools that was used to achieve that goal and so reducing greenhouse gas emissions while also improving economic opportunity and providing opportunities for a variety of housing types. One of the key tools that was used for that was creating a set of mixed use land use designations that were new to the general plan. The city hadn't had any designations that were specifically reserved and envisioned for mixed use. And when we say that, we mean a mix of commercial uses and housing. These then also, so again, in support of these goals of reducing GH greenhouse gas emissions and sort of supporting the nexus of creating good economic opportunities for folks and good housing opportunities, these new land use designations were focused around the primary transportation corridors in the city along Mission Street, Water Street, Ocean and SoCal. So the zoning ordinance that we operate under also does allow for some mixed use, but the standards that are in that, in the zoning code differ from the standards that are in the general plan. The zoning code, typically when a general plan is update, the zoning code is updated, the zoning code is then also updated to match what's in the general plan. That process was never completed for Santa Cruz. And in fact, work was set aside on that project in 2017. And then in August of 2019, we got the council gave formal direction to cease work on that prior zoning effort, which was known as the corridor plan. And to begin work on a new effort that held as its priorities for maintaining the integrity of existing residential neighborhoods, preserving existing local and city businesses and focusing on creating opportunities for appropriate mixed use housing and affordable housing in appropriate locations throughout the city. So this report is the update for this month, for the month of May on this reconciliation effort. And before we get too much further into it, in the past and past updates, we have kind of talked about this effort around a zoning amendment as a little bit separate from any effort we might have around a general plan amendment. And in sort of writing the RFP this past month and thinking through this project, I think it's more helpful to think of this as the reconciliation effort is an umbrella under which there are current, there's currently one project and the potential for a second. So when we're talking about reconciling two documents that govern the development of land that currently don't have 100% agreement, we can amend either of those documents or both of those documents. So we could amend only the zoning ordinance. We could amend only the general plan or we could amend both documents. At this point in time, these are distinct topics, the effort to amend the zoning code, which is our project for which we've applied for an SC2 grant and then a project that might consider changing the land use pattern that's envisioned by the general plan. So I just wanna set that as the context that there is, the project that we have initiated is a project to amend our zoning ordinance and hopefully identify some of these challenges that have caused some angst in the community and also kind of contributed to not very much development happening in some of these locations where we are, where we had envisioned mixed-use housing, multi-family housing happening. And then there's, I wanna distinguish that effort from another effort that might be making a significant change to the land use pattern that's envisioned for the general plan. Both of those efforts are about reconciling the current discrepancy between the two documents. So just my last little bit of background here. In October, some of you may recall that the council directed staff to apply for an SC2 grant, which will allow us to acquire consulting services to create objective standards for multi-family and mixed-use housing. And I'm gonna talk about that a little bit on the next slide, what exactly that means. We have signed the grant agreement with the state. So those funds are coming in and part of this effort today, or I'm sorry, part of the item today is to adopt the budget adjustment of $310,000 into the 2020 fiscal year 2020 budget for the planning department to acquire those services. And then also in January of 2020, the motion from the city council was to refer this item about considering changes to the land use pattern to the planning commission for them to provide some recommendations about how making a change to that land use pattern might impact the local economy and the environment for housing, have them weigh in on the timeline for some kind of a general plan amendment and then consider how best to accomplish community engagement with appropriate breadth and depth from like that. As we reported in February, staff was prepared to take this to the planning commission in March. And because of the pandemic, all of those meetings were canceled, the meeting where this was scheduled to be heard in March was canceled. And so the planning commission has not at this point were provided any recommendations to the city council. And this additional time has allowed us as staff to really think through what's the best way to make sure that the planning commission really adds value to these processes and that we keep our public engagement, our community engagement really clear about the processes that are going forward. So we're gonna talk about that today also. Going into this, so focusing first on the zoning amendment. So this is a project that is launching that we are moving forward on. This is a project for which we have applied for grant funding, as I mentioned, the goal of this project would be to create some objective development standards that would apply to all multi-family housing. So multi-family housing, that's residential only multi-family housing that is part of a mixed use project at a whole range of densities. And previous council members will recall that there was a change in the state law at the beginning of 2020 that made this creation of objective standards much more relevant for all jurisdictions across the state. Essentially we can't use subjective design criteria of which we are accustomed to using in Santa Cruz to change the development capacity of a site. So if a site is zoned to allow 10 units, we have to have standards that really allow 10 units to actually be constructed on a property. Because we don't have very many in our code, it's very important for us that we get these created, that we make sure they're really strong, robust to the right standards we wanna have and that then we incorporate them into our zoning code as quickly as we can. So we've released the request for proposals, the RFP on this project and we're expecting our responses or the responses are due, I should say on June 19th. We're looking for proposals that really bring some creative points of view to a process like this. Because what we do know about our community engagement process given the current situation is that it's not gonna look the same as it looked last year. So we still are very committed to creating equitable community involvement. And so we're gonna be looking really carefully at these proposals to make sure that they're finding ways to make sure that we're reaching all the sectors of the community that will really be affected by the decisions that come out of it. These projects mixed use in multi-family projects, they really set the tone for a lot of our built environment. So it's important that we hear from everyone who will. Live in these homes that are built, who will live near these homes that are built, who will move through these neighborhoods where these multi-family homes are built. So as we move into that work, one of the initial phases of that process will be establishing sort of a, and then identifying among those parcels, where are we seeing parcels start to redevelop and where are we seeing parcels really, kind of not turn over and not redevelop. As we brought forward in the January update, staff has noticed that there haven't been as many development proposals submitted to the planning department for the parcels that were where the land use designation was changed in the last general plan update to the mixed use high density. This is a map that shows the scope, the parcels that are shown in color are the parcels that were changed to a mixed use designation in the last general plan update. The ones that are shown in orange are mixed use medium density, or in that lighter orange are mixed use medium density. The ones in the darker orange are mixed use visitor commercial. And then the ones that are shown in brown are the mixed use high density designation. So as I mentioned earlier, the 2030 general plan created these land use designations and the intention was really to focus new growth, both economic and housing into places where transportation options could be maximized and creating both employment opportunities and housing opportunities while maintaining the existing single family residential neighborhoods that kind of surround all of that with established homeowners and renters. So in looking at this map and thinking about how development has been happening under the current general plan, staff has noticed that only one of these mixed use high density sites has been entitled for development. And we're wondering why. Part of the process of doing this zoning amendment is gonna kind of dig into what are the challenges that are happening on these properties? Like why aren't we seeing them? Why aren't we seeing any interest in redevelopment? Because we are seeing that in the mixed use medium density and in the mixed use visitor commercial, we are seeing inquiries, we're seeing applications, we're seeing new housing get entitled and ultimately we assume it will be built, but they're bringing forward proposals at this point. We do anticipate that the planning commission will discuss these issues as we begin to sort of think about how we will address them through the zoning amendment and provide another venue for community input and engagement. The planning commission is really gonna be a component of the community outreach as we move forward with this zoning amendment project. So in thinking about the general plan amendment, as I mentioned, we really have seen this lack of proposals on the mixed use high density sites and we're wondering about them. So one of the, through that analysis, it could be that asking consultants kind of determine that some of these designations are unlikely to produce the housing that we know that the city needs and might indicate the benefit of creating some kind of change to the plan's development pattern, which would be necessitate an amendment to the general plan. A general plan amendment could be handled in a couple of ways, there could be a standalone general plan amendment process, the an amendment sort of reallocating a number of housing units could be combined with the housing element update, which is we're applying for a grant to some work has already begun on that, we're applying for a grant to complete that work that's later on your agenda today and the housing element update will be due at the end of 2023. And then lastly, one option, if a problem is kind of identified, would be to keep that in mind as we move forward into the next general plan update process which is currently anticipated to begin in 2025. Anytime we think about amending the general plan, one of the first steps will be really establishing that scope and determining how far upstream the problem extends. We know that the problem ends with these maps and these land use designations, these are the things that community members have really told us they don't feel comfortable with, particularly this mixed use high density. And also I think that we will learn through the zoning, the work that we do on the zoning amendment will learn more about what we can do to address the concerns and really dig down into what are those concerns. We have this concept of protecting a neighborhood. What does that mean? We held these focus groups in the fall and we had a variety of opinions on what the neighborhood, what does it mean to protect the thing, what are the features of a neighborhood that need to be protected. So there certainly is more work that would have to be done to figure out sort of where does the problem begin? Is it in one of our guiding principles? Is it in the polls, the policies? Sort of how far does it extend? And again, in that conversation, the Planning Commission will play a role as a venue for community outreach and in contributing also, you know, just their expertise and insight as longstanding members of the community. That brings us to our recommendation, which this is printed on your packet. I'll just read it into the record. We're looking for our recommendation is that the Council direct staff to proceed with work on the objective standards for multi-family and mixed use housing for the city's zoning ordinance, including an analysis to indicate the need and utility of a potential general plan amendment and direct staff to report back at key project milestones which require council input and decisions rather than reporting back on a monthly basis. And then second, adapt the resolution amending the fiscal year 2020 budget to appropriate the funds in the amount of $310,000 from the FB grant in order to purchase consultant services. And those of us with audio are here to answer any questions. I think for that presentation, I'll turn it back to council. See if there's any questions for now for staff. What's your members? I was on the Planning Commission for nine years that many years ago, but this is just a kind of deep, what I want to say, gutsy stuff that was policy stuff that was wonderful to work on. And I think I heard you say something that the Planning Commission would be a partner in this. You went very fast and I didn't quite get it. So of course, obviously my question is, what is the role of the Planning Commission, seven people who throw themselves totally into planning issues? So not my question. Sure, yes, I'm happy to answer that. Thanks for that question. Yeah, so I think there are a lot of ways the Planning Commission can really contribute and add value to this zoning amendment process. In the same way that we will be bringing this item back to the city council for comments on, at points when we have kind of a decision to make or when there's a key milestone, I can envision also bringing it simultaneously to the Planning Commission to also have a conversation. And then also many processes like that include a technical advisory commission or a community advisory commission that meets on some kind of regular basis to do the work on the project. And should that kind of a advisory group be formed for the zoning amendment process, the planning, we would assume that, some number of planning commissioners would be a part of that commission. My last question, did this, I'm sorry, you know, I'm surely pushing up on all this stuff. And maybe in the past, did this actual item go to the Planning Commission for comment what we're facing today? No, no, the Planning Commission has not reviewed this. This is our regular monthly update. These updates have been doing, we say monthly it's May and the last time we were at the council was in February and, you know, the month of March and April got kind of eaten up by the pandemic. And so apologies for missing those, but this item that's before you has not been to the Planning Commission. Well, that also answers, I kept seeing these words monthly update and I thought, well, I haven't heard of any. Okay, thanks. Right, right. Yes, yes. I don't have to use it. I might just make a comment for Catherine because you have to stick on to Planning Commission but when the state law changed requiring a more, well, actually requiring objective standards or just taking control completely out of the hands of local government, that issue came to the city council and said, yes. Rather than be given no local control, we get to actually focus on objective standards for review of projects and successfully apply for this grant to bring in the consultants to do that. If we didn't develop the objective standards, then we're just, we have no say, we just gotta approve what's been said. That was the very clear direction that council gave to go back to the department and work on the objective standards as a priority. So, Catherine, here's my question. That's a really quick version. Sarah, as I read your recommendation, it's the resolution to appropriate the funds to get going on the hiring consultant and then to direct staff to work on the objective standards and not to decide at this point whether or not to go for general plan amendments but as to work on the objective standards and move forward to assess somewhere in that process to make sense to also go for a general plan amendment as well. Have I understood that correctly? Yes, that's correct. We think that we are gonna learn a lot through beginning work on this zoning amendment and that's gonna provide really valuable information in determining whether and to what extent we might benefit from engaging in a general plan amendment. At this point, we're not making a commitment one way or the other. We'll say let's launch this project and see how it informs us. Yeah. Questions on this item from council members? Okay, seeing none, we'll turn it over to members of the public for public comment. If there are any members of the public that would like to speak to us on item number 25, the monthly report on general plan and zoning ordinance reconciliation effort and budget adjustment to appropriate SB2 grant funds, please call the number that is on your screen if you haven't done so already. Once you've entered the meeting, you'll need to press start on on your phone to raise your hand and when it's your time to speak to hear an announcement that you've been unmuted and the time will be set to two minutes. Hi, again, this is Candice Brown from East Morrissey. I'm really happy that this is moving forward because there is indeed, as Sarah mentioned, for objective standards, it would allow some level of control and because of the new housing policies. But I also wanted to mention that it's really important to understand why many projects that were assumed would be built along the Kellenwader didn't happen. Part of it had to do with the quarter advisor committee which revealed that these parcels were quite narrow compared to let's say downtown or Ocean Street. There wasn't the 20, 30 year investment in infrastructure to go along with the high density. There weren't parklets, there weren't accommodations for the businesses and the street was where varied and in fact, in order to do a complete street, you would have to basically completely drive the side or midtown is some call it. And that would be impacting many beloved parts of our community. There was petition of 300 businesses owners on ocean water and so Caledad signed a petition in order to pull this back along with thousands of people from the community. So again, I think this is an important step to reflect and from everything that we've learned and also to ensure that there is both business and community involvement from people east of the river on these kinds of projects with you. Thank you. All right, thank you. We'll give another minute for other members of the public to weigh in or listening and you'd like to speak to us on item number 25. Now is the time to please call in. Once you've entered the meeting, you'll want to hit star nine on your phone to raise your hand and you'll be given two minutes to speak. If there's no members of the public who would like to speak to us on this item, I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation on this round. I want to say thank you to our planning staff for trying to work through this, particularly in challenging times to kind of keep us on track. I really appreciate the work you've done and the thoughtfulness about how to develop a process that really does involve the public in a meaningful way. And I think it does, it absolutely makes sense to report back to the council on project milestones where we need to make decisions rather than on a monthly basis. So yeah, thank you for raising that. I also think it's really important to clarify the role of the planning commission. And so I understand that this is a work in progress, but I'd like to try to solidify that today. So I'm gonna make a motion, which and the city clerk has a copy of it. I don't know if it's possible, Bonnie, for you to put that up right now. So we keep people can read along. We make motions that sometimes get a little confusing. So I just wanted to be really clear here about what I'm proposing. So the first part is just as per the staff recommendation to, it's all move that we want direct staff to proceed with work on the objective standards for multi-family and mixed-use housing, et cetera as proposed by staff and to adopt a resolution amending the fiscal year 2020 budget to appropriate funds and the amount of $310,000 from the SB2 grant to purchase consultant services with additional direction as follows. So three, I'd like to request that the planning commission establish a subcommittee to fully participate throughout the proposed process by working closely with staff and the consultant on the task outlined in the staff report. I think that's really important. We have these commissions for a reason and they really do spend much more time than we have available to us to dive into these things. And for, in the consideration of a general plan amendment, I think it's important to reaffirm, we have, the council has voted to make sure that these are priorities in this process. And I think that restating that is important. So in consideration of general plan amendments to in the future, include policies affirming that the city's first priority is protection of neighborhoods and small business and maximizing affordable housing opportunities that those should be incorporated. We're mostly made by Councilman Brown. Councilman Matt, is that sorry, your hand has gone up. Will you, why were you wanting to make a motion to have a question? I was prepared to move the initial recommendation. I was on second, if I may, yeah. Councilman Brown's motion. Council member Byers. You know, I was asking staff at the beginning and my mind was going around because they mentioned something about an advisory body down the road, it just happened too fast. And I kept thinking, well, wait a minute, you got seven people who dive into all these planning issues. Why don't we use them as rather adjunct to this whole process? So I think Councilmember Brown's motion certainly covered that for me. So I certainly, Paul Harley adores it. Having also served on the planning commission for a million years in my day, I appreciate the role of the planning commission. And it seems to me that as the objective standards work goes forward, that is entirely logical that involves the full planning commission. It seems to me that's appropriate. Regarding the general plan amendment, we don't know at this point whether or not or how that component is the objective standards. So I think that, so I can't support that part of it. I just want to move something off my screen here. I would just say request that the planning commission be involved working with consultants in the development of the objective standards. I might even ask the planning directors, does that not seem a logical role for them going forward? Thank you, Councilmember Matthews and Mayor Cummings. Leave out there, I'm the planning director. And we actually had this conversation with the planning commission. The planning commission had a discussion about whether or not they should form a subcommittee. And at that time, they declined to do so. And that was really on the advice of us as planning staff in that when we get these responses back to the RFP, there may be a wide variety of ways in which the planning commission may be involved. Whether it's a technical advisory committee as Sarah Noisy pointed out and a subcommittee of the planning commission could be involved with that. But certainly as a body as a whole, they will also be involved in providing recommendations to the council and also serving as a means by which additional community outreach is achieved. And so we do believe that forming a planning commission subcommittee at this point is premature given that we haven't gone out to hear what responses we get back from the RFP. When we do bring the actual contract award to the council, which is expected in August, we would have additional information at that time that would inform us more about the process that the winning response to the RFP proposes as well as how we would be involving the planning commission. I was just trying to think of the words, but we'll know a lot more in the fall when we get the consultant on board. Everyone's used the word involve the planning commission, but I guess what I'm hearing is you're asking us to wait till then, maybe it will take a subcommittee, maybe it will take the whole commission to come up with standards. That correct? Are you just asking us to sort of delay this decision for this motion? Thank you, Council Member Byers. What I would say related to this is part of what we discussed with the planning commission when they considered this was that if there is specific direction or if the planning commission themselves had already formed a subcommittee, that could potentially limit the creativity that comes back as part of the RFP. So the responses to that RFP could involve some very creative ways to engage the planning commission either through a subcommittee or just as a body during the process in terms of check-ins in advance of bringing policy decisions to the council. And if there were a committee that had been formed, then the responses that we get will likely cater to that format, whereas another format may actually come out. And even if the winning bidder or if the winning proposal doesn't include the creative use of the planning commission, there isn't anything to say that we couldn't take that winning bid and say, hey, you know what, we had a really creative idea for how we might engage the planning commission as a whole or as a subcommittee or as a technical advisory committee, whatever it may be. And do you think you could do that as part of your project? And so that was one of the reasons why we suggested that we don't make that leap right now and that we wait and see what we get from those responses and then identify the best way to engage either a subcommittee or the planning commission as a whole or a technical advisory committee or likely some combination of that all together. I understand that. So at some planning commission in the past few months, they had the idea and you discouraged them. Did they just leave it at that? You discouraged them at this time not to have a subcommittee. Is that what I understood? That's correct. Okay, but we'll wait until the person comes on board. Okay, I understand. And in August, we'll be returning to you. We're expected to come back to you in August with the responses to the RFP and a contract. At that point in time, we should have a better understanding of how we can involve the planning commission and the ways in which we would be doing so. Okay, yeah, I'll give it now. Thank you for the response. You know, I think that, let's see how it is. So reform committees, council committees all the time. I feel like we often end up doing better work when a smaller group of members of the council can get together, roll up their sleeves, work with staff, sometimes others. Consultants, et cetera, in crafting recommendations. And so I don't see why this would be any different. I think nothing that a subcommittee does would be the official line of the entire planning commission. It's just a decision to create some opportunity for the planning commission members who are so inclined to really dive in and be more involved in this process in between formal commission meetings. So I, and I don't see how doing this now would necessarily limit the innovation of a consultant. I feel like that would be worked on together. And so I'm gonna stick with my original motion. I understand the idea that it may be premature, but I don't think it necessarily is because we're not directing them to take a particular position or do anything in particular other than be involved in the process. So the principle is really the same whether we do it now or in August. So I'd like to stick with the proposal to allow the planning commission to or give them the space to set something up. They can begin to determine along with staff how that work would be done and a consultant once they're on board. Yeah, I just wanted to thank the staff on this item. The staff report was really well written and I think it just continues to bring up the, just the difficulty of really what kind of occurred over the last several years, which is a general plan designation, the role at the update to the zoning ordinance and then this lack of cohesion in our community. And I think that the interesting part of the staff report for me was really identifying this diving deeper into really what does it look right? What looks, in terms of these mixed use designations, why are we getting some places where we are getting those kinds of projects brought forward but in other places, most notably neighborhoods on the east side, why those types of proposals are not coming in. And I think exploring that and having the time to really dig back into that is useful. And I think, Sarah, you sort of summed up the staff report with that visual that you put in your presentation, which is what does the future of housing, our housing mix look like? And so I think, although I agree with number four in the motion, I think we've said that many times through various motions over the last year and a half. And I think that overall our general plan policies support these concepts and certainly as we get into our housing element, that will be become apparent as well. I'm also, it's hard to ignore the fact that legislation is literally being written right now. The Senate in California has come forward with another housing package. Housing in general is just a moving target in California, I think, for the next several years. And so I think that the clarity of having the work done by the consultants to get started, have them begin to really dive into the work with the objective standards, with this lens and the ability to do this additional analysis. I think it makes sense right now. So I think item number four on the motion, I'm not sure that it provides additional direction at this time. And at this point, I also can't support the establishment of a subcommittee at this point in time in the process. It's very, most commissions and committees also taking the month of July off, we'll be into August and September before we know it. And I think it's important for the staff to work with the consultants, bringing necessary updates to the planning commission. But I think creating a subcommittee at this point is a little preemptive to the process. So I appreciate the intent and I appreciate the work of the planning commission, but I'd like to see a little more time before we do that step. The remaining parts of the motion as recommended in the staff report, though I would be supportive. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Council Member Mathews. Yeah, I'd like to ask if the makers of motion would consider changing item three to, at the time the RFPs come back to the council for action, at that time reconsider the role of the planning commission, the planning commission subcommittee and or technical advisors in working with the consultants. You get that? I actually feel a little bit uncomfortable with that because I feel like providing this authorization does not mean that they're gonna like set up a subcommittee tomorrow and start working and then all of a sudden go on a break. I mean, this is gonna take some time to move forward on. And so again, I'm just having a hard time seeing how the structure of committee like this is going to either derail or undermine or I think preempt was a word use the process in some way. I just feel like this is an attempt to involve the planning commission in a meaningful way in the discussion rather than just kind of the public meetings, hosting public engagement and getting recommendations to review. So I think it's just, it's a request to have more meaningful participation from the planning commission. And I'd like to see that decision be made today. If my colleagues do not agree, then I'm happy to revisit in the future, but I'd like to stick with this right now. Mayor Cummings, if we could have Council Member Matthews repeat her friendly amendment. Yes, well, I requested the amendment and I can make it an official amendment if necessary. For the purpose of the minutes, can you restate the initial? Then the RFPs are brought to the Council consider subcommittee and or a technical advisory committee and working with. Thank you. And I feel that this is a really big issue and it should involve the entire planning commission. I think this is what the planning commission does. If my proposal is not acceptable, then I would like to ask it to make the divide the motion so we can divide so we can vote on the initial part, one and two, separately from three and four. Well, I believe that's the pleasure of the mayor. Well, then why don't we divide the motion and we can vote on each of the pieces independently? And then there's a few Council Members who have further comments. So Council Member Matthews, do you have any further? The maker was not willing to take my suggestion for a substitution at this point, we'll divide the motion because it's willing. Council Member Watherman. In the interest of time, I won't repeat any of the comments. I guess I'll just say I really agree with a lot of the sentiments behind Vice Mayor Myers's response to how to move forward and interest in trying to kind of move in an informed way that's gonna allow us to kind of evolve and knowing that this will come back, I choose to divide in the motion. That was gonna be my recommendation as well. All right, thank you. Real quick, for Council Member Matthews, did you say a subcommittee and or a technical advisory committee? Is that in the motion or your amendment? That was what I suggested that at the time that the RFP gave the reaction that we would consider the involvement if any of those three individually were in combination. Okay, I just wanna understand those words. Okay, I'm ready. Bonnie, could you scroll down so that we can see bottom of number four got cut options before us independently? So the first motion is to direct staff to proceed with work on the objective standards for multifamily and mixed use housing projects, including analysis to indicate the need and utility of the potential general plan amendment options which require council input and decisions rather than reporting back on a monthly basis. So I will ask the clerk to please take the roll vote on that first item. Council Member Byers. Aye. Matthews, Boulder, Watkins, Vice Mayor Meyers and Mayor Cummings. Aye. The passed unanimously. The resolution amending 20 budgets to appropriate funds in the amount of $310,000 from the SB2 grant in order to purchase consultant services. Council Member Byers. Matthews. Aye. Brown, Boulder, Vice Mayor Meyers. Aye. And Mayor Cummings. Aye. The passed unanimously. The motion before us requests that the Planning Commission establish a subcommittee to fully participate throughout the proposed process by working closely with staff and the consultants on the task outlined in the staff report. Council Member Byers. Aye. Matthews. Brown. Boulder. Watkins. Not at this time now. Vice Mayor Meyers and Mayor Cummings. Aye. So that- Hang on one second. I'm sorry. Was that on two or three? Sorry, I know- No, that was on three. Okay. Yeah, mine is a no vote. Okay, so that motion fails with somebody voting to be vapor and Council Member Matthews, Vice Mayor Meyers, Council Member Golder and Council Member Watkins voting in opposition. The ease of this motion is patient of a general plan amendment, policies affirming the city's first priority is the protection of neighborhoods and small businesses and maximizing affordable housing opportunities to be incorporated. Council Member Byers. Matthews. No. Brown. Boulder. No. No, not at this time. Vice Mayor Meyers. I'm going to vote no and for the record I don't- It's not that I don't support the intent of the language in this. I feel that this language has been brought forward in many other motions regarding this particular item and work of the planning with the general planned reconciliation process. So I just like that for the record. Thank you. And Mayor Cummings. Well, with Council Members Byers, Brown and Cummings voting in favor and Matthews, Vice Mayor Meyers, Council Member Golder and Council Member Watkins. The move is on to our next item of business. If you'd like to comment on this item now at the time, using the instructions on your screen, there will be a presentation of the item by the return to the council for the Liberation Nation. And so with that, I'll turn it over to Senior Planner, Kathleen Dunn. Good evening. Apologize, my computer is a little slow here, so bear with me. We're using on the previous project the LEAP grant that we're now talking about and a REAP grant, which is a regional early action planning grant, which we will probably be talking about in six months or so. The early action planning grant program is a non-competitive grant that is available to eligible jurisdictions, which basically just means you have to be in good standing to have submitted your required housing reports and similar things. The funding amount is based on population and the City of Santa Cruz is eligible for $300,000. It's a reimbursable grant similar to the SB2 and the applications are due July 1st. The program goals for this particular grant are to accelerate housing production and facilitate compliance with the implementation of the sixth cycle of the regional housing needs assessment. Projects that we're proposing to fund the main project for this grant that we're hoping to complete is the update of the housing element for 2024 through 2032. However, we don't know if we will use the entire grant that purpose. And so to be on the safe side, in case we managed to save some money, we're also proposing to use it for the objective standards for multifamily housing and mixed use housing in case they need extra money to finish that project and or for the expansion of the downtown plan boundaries. This is sort of our fallback position that we've been trying to update that for many years now. Our recommendation is that the city council vote to authorize the city manager or his designee to submit an application to the State Housing and Community Development Department for the LEAP grant or the LEAP planning grant. And I realize I ran through that very quickly. So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Thank you for that presentation. Vice Mayor Myers. I don't have any questions, but I would be ready to make a motion after any other council have questions and then public comment. Thank you. We have a number of questions on this item at this point in time. Hearing none, at this point in time, members of the public are interested in commenting on this item. Please call at this point, please call now. After you've called in, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and you will be given two minutes. Hearing that there are no members of the public interested in commenting on this item, I'll bring it back to council for action deliberation. I know you said that you were prepared to make a motion. Yeah, yeah. I will go ahead and move the staff foundation of the resolution, directing staff, discipline and applications to the state of California local early action program, planning grant programs to contribute funding towards the city's 2024 to 2032 housing element update. I'll move Matthew so you had your hand up next. Yeah, I'm happy to second that and I'm assuming it includes that language authorizing city manager. Yes. And I just, this is just a question actually. Does this grant should we be just on getting it help just fund our own staff positions or consultant assistance or any combination as needed? This is just a question since we're looking at budget in the immediate future. Yeah, at this time, given the shortage of staff that we have, we're aiming towards hiring a consultant for the work. That was just an honest question. Yeah, thank you. No further questions at this time or comments. I'll turn it over to the clerk to call the roll vote. Thank you, mayor, council members, buyers. Hi. Matthews. Hi. Brown, vice mayor Myers and mayor Cummings. Hi, that's unanimously and we haven't, why don't we take a break? All right, what did you say was a time certain? All communications. We have that at on or around six o'clock. If that matters. Since we have about eight minutes, why don't we come back at six for all communications and then depending on the turnout, we might have another break before our evening session. Just waiting on Renee at the moment. We'll give her another minute. So once you're back, if you could please do our six p.m. session, the May 26, 2020 meeting of the city council, I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you, mayor, council member buyers. Council member buyers. Here. Matthews. Here. Brown. Here. Boulder. Vice mayor Myers. I'm here pushing the wrong thing. I am here and yeah, I'm here. And mayor Cummings. Communications. For members of the public who are streaming this meeting, if you want to comment during oral communications, now is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen. Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the public to speak to items that are not on our agenda. If you're interested in addressing the council, please call the number that you see on your screen. If the first number you call is busy, please try other numbers until you get through. If you're interested in addressing the council, please press star nine on your phone. Once you've entered the meeting to raise your hand and you will have two minutes to speak. It's your time to speak. You'll hear an announcement and we'll unmute it. We request that you clearly and slowly state your name before making the comment so that we can accurately capture it in the meeting minutes. However, it is not required. Please remember, this is a time for council to hear from the public. We will not engage in dialogue. At the table, we will address the questions raised at the end of oral communication. And I'd like to ask Robert Norris from Huff has reached out to us early to request four minutes. So Robert Norris, if you're listening, when it's your time to speak, please make yourself known so that we can give you the appropriate amount of time. We'll start oral communications. This is Robert Norris, yes. So Huff, homeless, united again. May 10th was declared police appreciation week. And indeed, I heard they were giving out several dozen sandwiches a week at some point and I'm glad to hear that. However, Food Not Bombs recently celebrated its 40th anniversary and it serves hundreds of people many hours a day. And it's time, it's time the mayor acknowledged this and declared next week Food Not Bombs Appreciation Week. They've taken action, they've provided food, motel vouchers, survival services. When the police contributions were forced illegal relocations and fences. City Council as well as its predecessors has a regular habit of rubber stamping the staff's presentation. This is another concern I have. In the current COVID crisis city managers edict seriously threatening the health and welfare of those outside. And without exception or debate received a thumbs up from a complacent, complacent and compliant city council. This is a dangerous situation in the community that wants real democratic process, public input and a significant discussion of important issues. Do your jobs. Don'tsman gagging any public input comment or questions on what is probably the most important section of the public meeting reports by the city manager and the city attorney who heard it again today if we were listening. There is no public questioning of these powerful people and the staff they work with whose frequently reactionary agenda reflects the interests of its own bureaucracy, private developers, select and favored non-profits and its own powerful department hits. Now last year several council members tried to let some air and light into this process. They tried to take the agenda making process out of the back room. There was even rumors of a progressive majority on the city council at that time. But apparently one person mayor Cummings turned the other way. And now of course he's even lost that powerful pivotable position as we see by his failure to be able to get votes today. Although I'm glad to see he's trying. Surrey and life necessities for those without shelter outside. Gestures that are likely to disappear once business as usual is reinstituted. Council members Glover and Crone were punished, silenced and evicted by the powerful interests whose narratives they challenged. Long presentations by staff members with no possibility of questions to be asked and answered from the public does us and the council no favors. While in its way survival encampments particularly autonomous resident run encampments have been a long time need and demand of activists progressive social service providers whom there are damn few in Santa Cruz and of course folks outside themselves. The Benchland encampments initiated as previous encampments have been by homeless people themselves into your attention or what they need. I'm indoors myself. We have lack of accessible potable water as of a few days ago, lack of electrical access so homeless people can charge their phones, have access to services into the latest COVID-19 updates. These are unmet needs ignored by the city manager as well as the obvious flooding problem in the Benchlands which may be coming up soon which seriously impacts them. City council needs to jump ahead and direct the city manager to provide the motel rooms for all who need them during this crisis and he needs to be directed to address the needs of the number of those currently outside providing the recharging sanitary and water needs that obviously impact their health and the health of the entire community. We're being told this is all an emergency. Well, has any council member do have the ovaries or the balls to stand up and make an emergency resolution given the fact that none of these facts were presented by the manager earlier. Thank you. And this is all communications portion of the city council meeting. If you've called in and you'd like to speak to us on oral communication or on items that are not on our agenda, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and you will be unmuted when it's your time to speak. Anyone, we're on the line. Okay, this is Garrett Phillips. When monarchs ruled the self-annoyed authority coming straight from God or the Roman emperor maximus declared, all I survey is mine. That was one way to run an empire. Today we will just have to be satisfied with people being told they need security. The government provides the chains and then they are securing them. Besides the continuing COVID kill switch lockdown response is very helpful to the solitary and collectivist, socialist, communist and leftist because if it doesn't work, they can argue for an even bigger government footprint, savaging, self-responsibility, liberty and demand even more subservience to the all wise, even bigger beneficent central authority. It's also quite helpful backdrop to generating big pharma riches, a conduit for the congressional pork stuffers to distribute fortunes and ruinous debt, a chance to blame economic doom on the other political party for political gain to attack freedom, promote debt slavery, blame capitalism and bail out the bad actor corporations. Liberty, your job and a lot of us are now deemed personally non-essential and everyone else that is subjugating gets a hero's check. Nevermind this until we're safe I mean actually means never because we are never safe. Your life is not about being safe. Nevermind control is but an illusion and life is but a journey and don't get caught saying that any more than taking a prohibited walk on the beach between 11 and 5 p.m. Nevermind children have few symptoms and really very few die of COVID. Their personal growth is now permanently altered and they'll be the ones involuntarily inheriting the unimaginable debt dollars we burn like trash now and suffer from inflation produce wants and suffer the ever increasing wealth and a quality jet fuel of inflation. Keep saying this is the new normal even if nothing about this is normal. I'd like to be a member of an institutionally sociopathic ruling elite caste also but it looks like one needs to be Pelosi's nephew to be in that club or a regular maniac monopolis with the healthcare dominance ambition. The hospitals are now empty because people are afraid to go skipping needed healthcare and apparently Brainiacs aren't available to figure out how to safely get a haircut. I see my time is up. Bye. Public who would like to address some items that are not on our agenda.  Thank you. Hello, my name's Ken Bear and I'm a resident and employee of the city of Santa Cruz and I'm proud to be part of SCIU 521. This is a time when city of Santa Cruz and all California needs public services and more jobs not less. Just like a family that is a short on cash needs to raise funds that are needed to thrive. We need to raise funds to invest in a healthy future for Santa Cruz. We in SCIU 521 are advocating with our campaign invest in a healthy future now. We will fight for federal aid to support state and local governments. We have already begun to do this with our union brothers and sisters and SCIU local 521 navigate for the Heroes Act which includes $1 trillion in federal stimulus for state and local governments as well as hazard pay for essential workers. This bill has already passed the US House of Representatives now in the state Senate, excuse me, US Senate needs to vote on this bill and we are doing everything we can to support it even contacting voters in Arizona to tell their senator to vote yes. We want to partner with the city to advocate and lobby for the Heroes Act so we can invest in our city's economy and keep people working. As city workers, we have done our part when the last recession hit, this coming recession maybe avoided all together if partnered together to advocate for funding and we make decisions based on the facts when it is time the time to implement furlough is not now. We must evaluate actual impacts of COVID-19 on our city and look for options before we decide to cut. Some actions may include ensuring all departments are tracking expenditures for the purpose of drawing down federal funds and conducting office of all departments. Re-evaluating the need for existing consulting contracts, re-evaluating management structure to give them an increase in telework. Thank you very much for your time today. Yes. Whitman, I'm just gonna read something I wrote a couple of days ago. By Dane Wiggington, November 16th, 2019, presentation number 223, 10 wars are upon Earth's biosphere. This pandemic has produced at least these two results. One, established what seems like an almost trillion dollar funding for even more surveillance capitalism and make no error and either do your own research or inquire from me hundreds of links to the nefarious goals of the already patented vaccines. Two, the propaganda machines have placed fear on blind fiduciary trust in most citizens. Further, our children will be affected the most, then teachers and law enforcement and emergency responders, along with those who work in hospitals. As World War II never ended, the ABCs at war, C-Cliff High, now have wireless weapons installed in all the above, street lights and home technologies. As such, the next biological warfare, 36-month cycle wave will magnify cubed with the actual weapons, to put on my glasses, very few deaths from this bioweapon. Anyone can find my post and listen to my statements in Santa Cruz City Council about wireless weapons, weapons technologies released in 1976, 8,500 declassified documents from the U.S. Military Department of Defense, Department of Energy and the Surgeon General. I will include this information about other various serious issues going on with life on Earth by Dane Wiginton, April 25th, 2020. I will say this again about the sham. The shutdown has already greatly affected the global food supply change. If that is not remedied very soon, at gender 21, 2030, clearly established in Santa Cruz County in 1993, will achieve most of its goals at least six years early. And yes, I welcome questions and remarks from those too fearful to start thinking for their grandchildren's grandchildren. Thank you, my name is James Ewing Whitman. Yeah. Okay, if there's any member of the public that would like to speak to oral communications, please press star nine on your phone so you can raise your hand and we can recognize you. For those of the public interested in speaking to us on oral communications, I'll conclude oral communications at this time. However, before we move on, I just wanted to point out that after we had voted on item number 15, I received an email from a public works director. One of the concerns I had was having this item go to the Transportation and Public Works Commission and it turns out that at the request of the commission, they held a meeting on October 18th, or October 21st, 2019, adult elementary school where along with a number of other projects were on display for the community to weigh in on. And so given that we were able to understand that this did go back to the commission and there was further public engagement, I'd be willing to reconsider my vote on that item. I would make a motion to reconsider item number 15 based on the information that you just provided. And I also was able to read the email that was provided as well. Also in that motion, talk to members of others. No, nothing, no questions, I do have a question. I do have a question. I mean, that's exactly what Chris told us earlier. My understanding from earlier was that he wasn't sure what date it was. It was all of the date that was concerned. But it is true, the commission never sat down as seven commissioners and heard the project and took a vote. It looks, my understanding from the email that we received is that the request of the Transportation and Public Works Commission was that they hold this meeting and that this project be a part of that. So... I understand that, but instead, okay. I have an email and it did come. I understand that too, that's what he said all along. So I guess we'll call, we'll have a roll call to reconsider. What are we reconsidering? Just to confirm, this is a vote to reconsider the item and then you'll take a re-vote. Oh, okay, thank you. Yeah, I got it, okay, thank you. I wasn't ready for that. Council Member Byers? No. Matthews? Vice Mayor Meyers? Mayor Cummings. All right, so that motion passes with Council Members Matthews, Vice Mayor Meyers, Council Member Golder, Council Member Watkins and Mayor Cummings in favor with Council Members Byers and Brown voting opposed. Do next is, I need a motion from Council Members to on item number 15, Vice Mayor Meyers. We'll make a motion to, I'm sorry, the language one more time. Watkins, I'm sorry, my computer is just froze up on me here. Is that okay, Mayor? Okay, we'll go ahead and move the recommendation for item number 15, the Highway 1-9 intersection improvement, approve the plans and specifications for the Highway 1-9 intersection improvements and authorized staff to advertise for beds. Motion to approve the construction management services request for the qualifications and advertised for proposals and motion to approve an amendment to the contract with BKF Engineers for Additional Environmental right-of-way permitting, design construction, support services and authorizes the manager to execute the agreement in the form approved by the city attorney, authorized the director of public works to execute change orders within the approved budget. Motion by Council Member Watkins. I'll go ahead and second that. I'm so sorry, I'm just going to muddle things. What was the last vote we took? My computer froze up just for a few seconds after I spoke. So what was the motion? Do you want to finish this one and go to that? But I need to know what that first motion was about, not about what it was. The first motion was in order to have a second vote on an item, you have to make a motion to reconsider which was the first motion that we made. And now what we're voting on is item number 15. So how do I change my vote? I would have voted yes on the first one. Of course, I don't mind. Yeah, me too. I missed that. Okay. Esca, Esca, Tony, City Clerk. Yes, I want to vote yes to reconsider. The motion for reconsideration is on the table for all three motions. And so the council can just take a roll call vote on all three motions at this point. And if the council member decides to change their vote, they may do so. Tony, I think the question was that council members Brown and council members Buyers were fine with reconsideration. I mean, it wasn't clear. So how would they be able to change their vote to yes for the reconsideration? Oh, the answer to that question is that while a council member who is in the minority on an item that's before the council cannot make the motion to reconsider, the council member may vote on the motion. And if they choose to do so, change their vote. Mayor Cummings, if I may, we'll just make note in the minutes that council members Buyers and Brown, it'll reflect that their vote was to reconsider. Yes, the other way. So a council member who voted yes at the beginning, they could, couldn't they take action to reconsider and then we all vote? They can make a motion to reconsider, right? It's done. That's right. No, it's just gonna reflect in the minutes. Oh, I mean, it's close enough in time if a council member, I think at this point wants to express a vote in favor, as Bonnie indicated, that could be. Okay. Okay. I apologize for my inattention, but I was knee deep in the next agenda. Okay, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Bonnie. We need to make a motion to like re, I don't even know how to word it, re vote the last vote so that she could vote yes and Sandy kid vote yes, I can go around again. That would be a motion to consider, to reconsider the motion to reconsider. Ready to vote? Okay. Thanks, Ellen. Council member Buyers. Aye. Matthews. I'm assuming we're voting on the motion to approve the staff report now. Okay, now I am going to, to me too. We're, the vote is now on the, on the highway one nine item that we voted on earlier today. So the substantive, not the substantive one. I'm gonna vote no on that. Yeah. Me too. I thought we were voting on reconsideration. Just so that we are aware for the minute, we have a motion to reconsider which passed and now we are back on 15. The staff recommendation. Thank you, Bonnie. My vote no. I may have said yes, but no, yeah. So Matthews. Vice mayor Myers and mayor Cummings. Matthews. Council member Watkins. Myself voting in favor. Council members fires and Brown voting opposed. Item number one, general business resolution, ratifying slash confirming director of emergency services, executive orders, numbers 2020 dash zero seven through 2020 dash zero nine. And the presenter for this item is our city attorney, and Tony can die. Thanks members of the city council need more, more or less brief about this item. As you'll recall on April 28th, the council adopted a resolution both extending the emergency declaration and additional 60 days pursuant to the authority set forth in the government code for declared emergencies and ratifying a series of executive orders issued by the city manager acting as the director of emergency services pursuant to the authority set forth in the municipal code. That gives the emergency services director, the authority to issue rules and regulations on matters reasonably related to the protection of life and property as effected by such emergency, but under the terms of the ordinance as well as state law, those orders are required to be presented to the council for ratification or confirmation at the earliest practicable opportunity. And so a number of executive orders have been issued since then in particular executive order numbers 2020 dash 07 an order to implement CDC guidance regarding encampments at the bench lens order number 2020 dash 08 addressing parking on the Santa Cruz municipal work and order number 2020 dash 09 an order to update nuisance conditions on Coral Street and establish a nearby encampment that complies with CDC guidance. So those are the items that you're being asked to consider ratification at this evening's meeting and I'm happy to respond to any council member questions or comments. I thank you, Tony for that presentation. Are there any questions or comments from council members at this point in time? Okay, hearing none, council member Brown. I thank you, Tony. Can I just clarify? Maybe I already got this and I lost it, but so it looks like the first one on guidance regarding encampments of the bench lands is now forward and the others are after the fact. Is that correct for actions already taken this other two but the first one on the bench ones is moving forward from here? Yes, I think that's thirsty. Okay, thank you. Maybe there's some clarification because my understanding and having, I went down to the bench and recently was that there had been kind of a camp that was establishing itself and then the city had gone and kind of put up fencing and portable toilets. So just for clarification, is this kind of, was that to allow that to happen or is there something new that's gonna be happening in the bench? It is to confirm, it's literally just to essentially ratify the action that's already been taken, which basically establishes standards for the continued use of the bench lands as a homeless encampment. So it's called for laying out a plan providing for adequate social distancing, requiring those of the bench lands to stay within that layout plan and then abiding by basic rules of conduct for the encampment. It also directed the provision of restroom facilities, hand washing facilities and trash facilities at that location. Okay, I just wanted to make sure because it sounded like Council Member Brown's question was whether this was gonna allow for something to move forward and my understanding was that the action has already been taken to address the conditions at the bench lands this is just ratify. That's correct. It has been taken of the city manager way in. I was gonna say that, that it was to implement that the changes that have happened there so don't clarify that. Yeah, yeah, so I was just trying to get a sense of I understand that an action has been taken to kind of rationalize the space but then the operating procedure or the standards are when you're asking us to implement those moving forward, right? So they're being, it's been enacted but this is something that's gonna continue on. It's not just, we're just not, that's all I was asking you. Yes, it'll continue there until, right. I mean, conditions may change obviously and it's not a permanent solution for addressing sheltering. There are plans for that and work being done on that but for the foreseeable future, yes, is to be able to be able to maintain those standards while we have the, at least while we have the shelter in place. In place. The city staff for all the work that they've done at Coral Street and the bench lands. I had the opportunity to go to both sites with the police sheep last week and both of them were a big improvement to what was there before. And so I just wanna thank the community and the city staff for all the work they've done and really trying to improve the conditions for those folks who are who are experiencing homelessness and living in both locations. Thank you. Comments from council members. I'll turn it over to members of the public. If members of the public are interested in commenting on this item, they should call in now by dialing into one of the numbers that they see on the screen. After you dialed in, well, before that, if you happen to get a busy signal, please try one of the other numbers that displayed on your screen. Once you've called in, please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand. And once it's your time to speak, you'll hear an announcement that you've been unmuted and you will be given two minutes to speak. With them and have some procedures for doing this. Clearly the city manager has not found this necessary but the council can direct him to do so and to inquire what the real wishes and needs are of the people there. I was out there interviewing people the other day. They are concerned, of course, about porta potty problems, although those have gotten better and it heads off to the city for doing that. But there's problems with no electricity so people can't keep up with the COVID-19 updates, much less have their phones available. There's also no potable water, as I mentioned before, during the oral communications period. Camments are very important. And this is a good model if it is effectively integrated into having the residents have a real say in what goes on because they're the ones whose eyes are gonna be on each other and who really be, if you will, the enforcing agency. That's always the best way to proceed rather than having external authorities do so. So I would ask you to make a recommendation, if not a requirement, that there be some real consultation with them to get their real needs heard and met. Also, of course, the problem, with this thing generally, that rationalizing this order is that it also involves the fact that you have dangerous indoor group settings that currently continue, vacant motel rooms and people who are vulnerable as more and more tourists flood into town. Equally questionable was the 2020-09 forcibly removal of the Coral Street sidewalk residents, many of whom were given or still given no safe options of all a secondary 10-city crossing Coral Street run by the city. And finally, the arrival of Port-a-Potties long sequestered away are good or overdue signs. If the responsibility of the city council to come out in front of this issue, not simply serve as a cheering section for Bernal's makeshift patchwork solutions. So do it.  This from Forbes.com today. The world's 25 richest billionaires have gained nearly $255 billion in just two months. This was my comment. The next few months will be exciting and a rather planned well execution of generations of planning. What if their wealth was seized and equally redistributed? 60 trillion divided by seven billion equals 9,000 for every human on the planet. When currently half the world population lives on less than $2 a day, that's 4,500 days of wealth. That's a 12 year salary, seven days a week. So what if that number was 10 times larger? As I believe the Vatican would and should, I say must be included on a side note, how much in taxes have those 25 richest corporate personhoods dodged due to current approved tax shelter laws? And yes, it might seem impossible, but in reflection and using India as an example, Bezos engaged through the test run of what has been proposed to retrieve number 21 and 230 about six years early, as far as a 95% population control. As India's middle and lower class have been crippled by Gates control of what was Monsanto and is now Bayer, which is a Nazi corporation, Bezos enacted a card currency crippled hundreds of thousands of small businesses overnight. So do I consider myself a worthless eater?  Thank you. How much would like to speak to us on this item? Please plus this item. We can move the recommendation. The recommendation, yeah. Council Member Matthews. Thank you. Okay. We have a motion made by Council Member Matthews. Does the council member that would like to second it? I'm happy to second the motion. Okay. We have a second by Council Member Watkins. Is there any further discussion that council members hearing none? I'll turn it over to the city clerk to call the roll vote. Council Member Byers. Aye. Matthews. Aye. Brown. Aye. Boulder. Aye. Vice Mayor Myers and Mayor Cummings. That was unanimously. This is an emergency ordinance, temporarily extending moratorium preventing residential or commercial evictions for non-payment of rent as a result of economic loss related to the COVID-19 end of that or to city attorney for the presentation. Thank you Mayor Cummings, members of the city council. This item is being brought forward by, it's actually being brought forward by the mayor and council member Brown for the council's consideration of an extension to the existing emergency ordinance establishing an eviction moratorium for individuals or commercial businesses that are financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant shelter in place orders that have been issued and have had such dramatic effects on the country and the economy here locally as well. That ordinance that was adopted on March 27th, an expiration date of May 31st, 2020 to coincide with an order issued by Governor Newsom on March 16th that waived or suspended provisions of state law that would enable local governments to act or to enact eviction moratorium ordinances. A little bit of a mystery as to why the governor didn't just issue an executive order to that effect, but in any event responding to that, the city council along with many other city councils and boards of supervisors, including Santa Cruz County, city of Watsonville, city of Capitola, adopted eviction moratorium ordinances that have an expiration date of May 31st. As we know, the financial crisis has certainly not abated and the expiration of the ordinance is looming. However, on March 27th, Governor Newsom also issued executive order number 37-20 that established a statewide eviction protections covering local jurisdictions that have not enacted similar ordinances to the one the council did. And then on April 6th, the California Judicial Council adopted 11 emergency rules in response to COVID-19 and the first rule states that a court may not issue a summons on a complaint for unlawful detainer unless the court finds in its discretion and on the record that the action is necessary to protect public health and safety and the rule remains in effect for 90 days after the governor lists the emergency declaration rate COVID-19. Now, you can sort of parse all the different rules and try to make a determination as to whether or not the Judicial Council order would protect every tenant in every circumstance that might be affected by COVID-19. I think it goes pretty far. I'm not sure that there isn't some potential individual whose circumstance might fall through the cracks such that this ordinance would protect them where the Judicial Council ordinance does not. And so I think that's the spirit of this ordinance. And what is proposed here is to extend the existing eviction moratorium about two and a half months to August 15th, 2020. And what that would do is it would enable the council to have the moratorium in place through the month of June and through the July recess before the council next meet. I think it's on August 12th following the summer recess. So that's what this is about. I will tell you that there's been significant discussion in the legal community, particularly the municipal law and local government law community about whether the city or whether cities like Santa Cruz have the legal authority in the absence of an order extending Governor Newsom's original decree to enact these types of protections, which otherwise arguably could be found in conflict with the state's unlawful detainer statutes which essentially preempt the field of eviction laws in California with respect to the unlawful detainer and eviction process. That's an unsettled question, but in moving forward, assuming the governor does not extend that executive order and I'm seeing no indication that he intends to, then we would be relying on the city council's authority in an emergency under an emergency declaration to defend that ordinance or its subject to challenge. And then lastly, I just want to point out that the latest information that I've received is that the county of Santa Cruz does not intend to extend its moratorium past the existing May 31st expiration date and the county council I've communicated with them. Their take is that the judicial council order basically accomplishes the same thing. City of Capitola will be considering an extension of their ordinance, but it would only go in effect if the governor does extend his executive order conferring that authority expressly on local governments. And according to an agenda report in the city of Watsonville's meeting for today, the recommended action was not to extend their ordinance, but I have not heard whether or not they've actually considered that and taken action on it. So I'm not quite sure what Watsonville is going to do, but the recommended action is to hold off on extending the ordinance for the time being. Happy to answer any questions or respond to any council member comments. But that will conclude my report for now. Thank you for that report. Council member Watkins. Thank you, Tony, and I apologize. I didn't hear your final recommendation, which is at this time based on your analysis to not extend our emergency ordinance knowing that the state has other provisions in place. Is that correct? I don't have a firm recommendation on that point given that that's a policy issue for the city council. As you know, I did have a confidential attorney client privilege memo that was sent to the council over the weekend in advance of this item. And without going into it, it does point out some of the potential that falls with the ordinance, but ultimately it's a policy decision to the city council. And I mean, there are some arguments that we could make that I could make to accord with a straight face in an attempt to defend the case. And so I'm not saying it's a slum, though there is some vulnerability there. And if I could, what I also heard you say was that our neighboring jurisdictions are letting their temporary emergency ordinances expire given what is already in place. Can you speak a little bit more to what Capitola is suggesting in terms of extending it only if the governor extends his? Yeah, their ordinance as drafted specifically reads that the ordinance would only take effect if the governor issues a subsequent executive order extending that authority. And it would only be in effect during whatever period of time that extension is in effect. And that in your opinion is legally safe. It is certainly a more defensible position given that what prompted, what was the impetus for the ordinance in the first place was the governor's executive order. Okay, thank you. Okay, Vice Mayor Myers. I just have a couple of questions. I don't know if the city manager or anyone from planning or economic development, I know these are sort of split between those. Do we have, I have reviewed the city of Watsonville staff report. So they have some statistics on evictions in the city that they're using to base their recommendation on. Do we have any idea of, are we experiencing evictions currently? I know we were worried about as we went into April and May that people were gonna become much more, I have problems economically with each month of closure. I just curious if we have any reports on evictions. I'm muted, Martine. So I'll see if I can get the lead on, but as far as I know, I don't have any statistics, but as far as I know, we haven't had a large number from what I've been told, but I'll see if we can get the more specific statistics for you. I was just sad that the courts are not, are not moving eviction case forward right now. So all of the actions are currently being state. So that is, so yeah, okay. So that might be not a proper data point then. I had a question, I recalled last month that we passed, I think legal services for tenant protections. So I know that we have funding available with CAB. I think we approved, was it 20,000? Just remembering from last month, we had legal service. Let me just look at the, I don't know, Bonnie's on or not, she might not be on. But I specifically thought our HUD allocation last month included using some of the CARES Act funding to poor tenant legal protections and other items, correct? Martin, did you recall that? I can't recall all the facts of my head for that. I think we do, we have had allocated resources for that, but I can't recall whether this addition but I'll find out for you. Okay. I think for that item, we, I think it was around 30,000 that went to community action board rental relief. I don't think we made any allocations to legal assistance for renters, but there was the allocation for the rental assistance. For rental assistance, okay. Thank you. That was, those are my two questions for now. Thank you. Are there any further questions from council members on this item? Okay, hearing none. If members of the public would like to speak to city council on this item, which is item number two on our evening agenda, emergency ordinance, temporarily extending moratorium, preventing residential or commercial evictions for non-payment of rent as a result of economic losses related to coronavirus pandemic. If you'd like to speak to us on this item, please call the number that's on your screen. Once you enter the meeting, you'll want to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand. When it's your time to speak, you'll hear an announcement that you've been unmuted and the time will be set to two minutes. I'll turn it back over to the city manager. I was just going to point out Lee is on now. So he may be able to provide some additional information on the addiction experience in terms of what information we perceived or have available. Thank you, Martín and mayor and council members. Lee Butler, the planning director. And we have received a limited number of inquiries that have made it to me. And we have a number of resources on our website, some of which Tony Kandadi's office in the city attorney have prepared. And so we have directed folks to those resources. I do not have a sense of how many inquiries have come in that haven't made it to me, but our team is aware of those resources. And so they could just be directing folks to those online resources. So unfortunately, we don't have a good answer for you in terms of the overall numbers. It's strictly anecdotal and only a couple that have come my way. Okay, thank you. I'd like to provide comments on the items. I'm going to start with their input. And I think it's incredible that the county of Santa Cruz is offering to its community. I know I certainly appreciate it. I don't know if I'm leaving any, but I certainly appreciate it. That dozens of friends of mine, their businesses are going to hopefully stay above water. But what happens in a few months when that situation ends? So yeah, what is going to go on in a few months? So I posted something about 14 hours ago. I'm just going to read certain excerpts of it. Will Gates partners with DARPA and Department of Defense for new DNA nanotech COVID-19 vaccine? And my comment was, yes, Mr. Gaines, the free choice of not taking the vaccine is simply house arrest in one's owned or rented coffin. But how to explain this to citizens? This would be my answer. See Lena Pugh's presentation, September, 2019. So all I can say is that we're in a really tough situation and I don't hear a whole lot of commentary about what's going to go on in six months and a year or even further, because this is just crippling our society. So I'm just here and I'm listening and I appreciate all of you. Thank you very much. And that speaker you're on the line. Yes, hello, this is Garrett Phillips. I didn't write anything up for this, but just I have questions. I know you're not going to answer them, but you know, I am wondering where you got August 15th from. That seems like a very long time. You don't even know if there will be an emergency at that time. I don't believe, I mean, I'm not sure, but I'm not sure open-ended emergency declarations by anyone, including the director of health are sensible or rational. I agree that the governor probably doesn't have authority to extend his kill switch lockdown without going back to the assembly. And so this is very questionable. I don't know why the city attorney doesn't have an opinion on it. Seems strange.  I didn't hear the justification for that. That would be interesting to hear that. And you know, that's all for now. I'm done, bye. Hi, good evening, my name is Emily Ham and I'm with Monterey Bay Economic Partnership on their housing team. And for those of you who don't know us, we are a group of 87 public, private and civic entities throughout the Monterey Bay region, which includes Santa Cruz, the city of Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz County. And in March, we worked quickly to respond to the new housing realities and the ongoing threat of COVID-19 and issued a housing response position paper, which focuses on mitigating the impacts of the health emergency on renters, landlords and homeowners in our region. And we would like to thank the city of Santa Cruz for your efforts so far. We support the staff's recommendation to extend the city's moratorium to August 15th, which exceeds our standard request to all local governments in our region to extend their moratoriums to at least June 30th. And we also ask that they reuse further extensions open for consideration on a monthly basis. We believe that more time will help ensure that renters across the region are provided with sufficient economic relief and that we have time to work together to assess impacts and plan and implement policies under the new local and state budgetary realities. We also advocate for local, public and private funding for rental assistance, particularly vulnerable populations and individuals who do not have access to safety net resources. And we understand, of course, that most landlords are experiencing strong rent collection, 95% or higher, but there are signs that undocumented residents and others are already experiencing difficulty. So we would like to make sure that there are systems in place to help a very important part of our population. So we thank you again for considering our recommendations and your efforts to fill the gaps between local, state, and federal legislation. Thanks. Thank you. Good afternoon, I'm calling on behalf of the Santa Cruz County Worker's Benefit Council. The next speaker will be speaking in Spanish and I will be translating for her. Hola, mi nombre es Melissa M. Yo y mi esposo, Hermelio Carvallo, estamos aquí para pedir la extensión a la moratoria de los desalojos y para abogar para el consejo de la ciudad a respal de las demandas del consejo de beneficios para trabajadores del condado de Santa Cruz. Good afternoon, my name is Felicia Guzmán and my husband Emilio and I are here to ask for an extension on the moratorium of addictions and we are asking this to all of you city council members to be on behalf of the Santa Cruz County Worker's Benefit Council. Desde el 16 de marzo nos quedamos en trabajo como resultado de la pandemia del coronavirus y la orden de quedar en casa. Since March 16th, we have been without work because of the pandemia of the coronavirus and the order to stay at home. No hemos podido trabajar y estamos preocupados por la renta y los billes que tenemos que pagar. We have not been able to work and we are worried for rent to be able to pay rent and other bills that we need to take care of. Teníamos un poquito ahorrado, pero eso ya se nos termina. We had a little bit of a safe job, but that we've already had to use it. Ahora no tenemos para pagar este mes y no sabemos cómo le vamos a hacer. Nosotros quisiéramos pagar, pero no podemos. We don't have any more money to pay this month and we don't know what we're going to do. We would like to be able to pay, but we can't. Hoy no sabemos cuándo va, más va a durar esto y cuándo podremos regresar a trabajar, pero sí sabemos que nos va a tomar un poquito, más de tiempo, para poder hacer los pagos de lo que se debe. We don't know how much longer this is going to last and when we will be able to return to work, but we do know that it is going to take more time and that we will need more time in order to pay just the cost of our living. Y debemos continuar con la moratoria de los desalojos durante 10 años, como se está discutiendo actualmente en la legislación del Senado del Estado de California. Después de que los trabajadores puedan regresar a su pleno empleo. We should continue this moratorium for the next 10 years as it is being discussed in the legislation, the state legislation here in California so that workers can return to work and can have their full job back. Mantener la moratoria sobre la desconexión por falta de pago de servicio público hasta que la economía se vuelva a abrir y los trabajadores puedan regresar al trabajo. Maintain the moratorium on disconnecting for non-payment from home utilities and other essential services such as electricity, gas, telephone, garbage, water and sewage. For the duration of the pandemic crisis, including the time it will take workers to recover when the economy reopens and where workers that can finally return their jobs to find you in point. The next speaker will also speak in Spanish and he will continue after Felicia's comments. Hola, soy un extendero debido a la pandemia. No sé si otros consejos municipales para seguirse de aquí el gobernador use su autoridad influencias para detener las ejecuciones hipotecarias y las trabajado salario durante el menos un año después de que termine la pandemia. Puedo poner en práctica salarios dignos para el bien de los trabajadores mal plagados y por el bien de estar, les dice nuestras economías para todos. We need to mobilize with other city councils to ensure that the governor uses this authority to stop financial institutions from foreclosures and evictions. for at least one year after the World Health Organization's formal declaration of the end of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Enforcing living wages in the lowest paid workers in the city and the county are not paid living wages and cannot maintain housing, nutrition and sanitation. The whole community from small businesses where we shop to the health of those we serve will suffer severely. Thank you for your time. And thank you for also joining the first moratorium. Thank you for your comments. The public who's listening regarding an extension of temporary and residential properties for non-payment of rent as a result of economic losses related to coronavirus. Please call the numbers on your screen and hit the star nine on your phone to raise your hand.  My name is Melanie Dillman. I've been a resident of Santa Cruz County for my entire life. I have, over the course of my life, I have witnessed the disgraceful treatment of low-income workers and the unhoused people by our city government. I have seen just how far the money interest in Santa Cruz will go with the complexity of city council to squeeze working people and jeopardize the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable people in our community. I see the police, I see the police harassing houseless people every day and I've seen money at interest, kill, measure, and rent control and get progressives recalled from city council. In Santa Cruz, a full-time minimum wage job nets $1,900 a month where the average rent is nearly $2,400. Hotels and many other properties are allowed to stand vacant while people are forced to sleep in tents on the street exposed to coronavirus and the coming summer heat. Since I've started volunteering with the local organization, Western Service Workers Association, I've also learned that there is rampant wage theft happening all over the county, particularly to undocumented workers. And I want to ask, how can we claim to be a sanctuary city when employers are allowed such free reign to exploit undocumented workers? Employment in Santa Cruz, unemployment in Santa Cruz stands at 19% and the recent decision to allow businesses to reopen will surely force low-wage workers to expose themselves to coronavirus. The masses government begins to act in the interest of the health and well-being of the people. I support Western Service Workers Association, the Workers Benefit Council demands for worker safety as follows. Maintain a moratorium on evictions for 10 years to allow for full recovery for workers to be able to afford rent in Santa Cruz. Two, maintain a moratorium on disconnections of utilities and essential services regardless of payment. Three, mobilize with other city councils to ensure the governor uses his authority to stop financial institutions from foreclosures and evictions. Four, enforce living wages. If workers are exploited and cannot afford housing in other essential goods and services, not only is their health at risk, but we also suffer the consequences. I would also like to add that I am formally incarcerated and I have experienced personally the horrible conditions of our local jail. Not only does the jailed population have to deal with extreme heat, extreme cold and poor healthcare, now across the country, jails and prisons are becoming incubators for coronavirus. In addition to the health and safety of our essential workers, we must consider the most vulnerable people. I submit that everyone who is currently incarcerated in Santa Cruz County jail, awaiting trial or serving time for nonviolent offenses be released immediately. And also that the police stop arrest for nonviolent offenses. Thank you for your time. So the last opportunity is to comment on this item. Please dial the number that's on your screen. And when you are in the meeting, please press star nine to raise your hand so you can be acknowledged and comment on this item. All the comment will close, all the comment period, and return to council for action and deliberation. Before we take action, I just wanted to make a few comments on this item. In the last meeting that we had had, when we first approved this, I was supposed to come back. And so we were very much interested in getting this item back on the agenda. With the one comment that was made regarding the August 15th date, I'll just speak to that. When we were kind of discussing the date, having the extension for additional months, but then the concern was raised with if the council doesn't meet in July, then potentially the protections could end and there's not an opportunity for council to vote on this. And so by putting it on the August, the putting date of August 15th actually allows us to have a council meeting before that date, if we wanted to consider extending it even further. So I hope that gets to the questions around the August 15th date. I just think that it's important that we remember and we are aware of how badly this is impacting residents within our community. We've seen disproportionate funding go to many of the small business owners. So while some businesses may have been able to use the PPP to help their businesses or other businesses that didn't get that funding and they didn't get additional city funds. And personally, I feel that if the government is asking a business to close its doors for the health and safety of the public that we should be doing everything we can to protect them because there are businesses that we're thriving and doing fine before this and are now struggling. And if the government's gonna ask the public to do something and the public complies then we need to do everything in our power to help protect them. And I think we've heard some of the comments especially from our unharmed documented residents. And I just wanna remind folks too that most of those $1,200 relief checks came out in April and for residents who were able to use those to pay their rent, no one has received any of that additional funding since. You've heard from the community action board that they had a 50% increase in requests for rental assistance. I think council member Brown mentioned earlier that they were incorrect me if I'm wrong here but it's only 30,000 or so calls for financial assistance for undocumented residents asking for temporary salary reductions. The state's also gonna be asking for similar reductions to for cost savings purposes. Businesses are operating at full capacity. And so a lot of folks in our community are gonna be in some pretty financially unstable times. And I think that it's important that as I mentioned before, that we as a city after having such good compliance from our community can provide people who maybe facing financial hardships with all the support they need so that they can remain on their feet and remain in housing. Because I think ultimately our goal is to not contribute to our homeless situation in the homeless population. We wanna keep people housed as best possible until they're able to financially get back on their feet again. And with that, I'll turn it over to council member Brown. Thank you. So I did have, I wanted to make a couple of comments but I did have a question and I'm prepared to make a motion but I have a couple of questions. So I wanna try to clarify this question around the unlawful detainer freeze or the kind of staying of those unlawful detainer motions in the courts. I think I heard you say, Tony, that this would continue for 90 days after the shelter in place is lifted. So I'm just trying to figure out though because that doesn't necessarily mean that taking no action here would be this, would in effect result, have the same results. So I'm just trying to figure out because it seems like with the unlawful detainer if they can't be issued now, they could be issued, can they be issued retrospectively once the stay is lifted? So I'm just trying to figure out what the difference would be kind of tactically for people if we just went with that. For any unlawful detainer, the action that's not been filed, then the owner or the landlord could not file an action in unlawful detainer until that order for that rule is expires 90 days after the governor the emergency declaration. So one could speculate on when that might be, but my sense is that the emergency is going to extend probably in some fashion for another. So I think the bottom line is there may be some circumstances in which a tenant could fall through the cracks based on the existing state orders that are in place and that this ordinance would protect assuming it's not challenged. I just haven't identified those circumstances yet based on the analysis that we've been able to do to date. So I think that's the real impetus for the ordinance should the council decide to move forward to see me. Thank you. Another question that I have is about, and this is kind of, I guess for everyone, the second part of this agenda report recommends consideration of other measures that the city might consider to protect tenants, residential and commercial tenants. And I just think we should have that conversation and at least try to think about what we might discuss at a future date. The mayor and I in thinking about this didn't want to bring fully formed recommendations, specific recommendations in ordinance language or anything like that, but we did want to open up that conversation because I feel like we are on the edge of a cliff here. And the story, what we just heard about the people who are hurting is magnified so many times over and it's not going to get any better anytime soon. And I just worry that if we kind of just wait to see how things play out, we are going to be kind of creating, there will be new problems that are associated with like potentially mass evictions, businesses that can't pay their backgrounds right away and all of these things. And so I just, and the mayor just kind of gave a few of those data points. So I do want to hear though, I am prepared to make a motion about some future discussions that I hope we could have, but I do want to hear from people what you all are thinking before we move forward. If anybody else. Yeah, I think I'm here to jump in. My hand is up. So next we have council members, Watkins, Byers, Golder, Matthews and then Vice Mayor Myers. Thank you mayor. And thank you Councilor Brown and Mayor Cummings for bringing this forward. I actually just was briefly reviewing the Watsonville agenda report and I have to applaud them for a really thoughtful process that it looks like they engaged in as it relates to this topic. I guess I'd like a little bit of clarification because I think what I'm hearing is that there are other policies in place that will likely get to the important rental protections that we need and that if I hear you correctly, Tony, you're saying that our emergency would carry legal risk one and two could only necessarily provide protection for sort of the exception, not the rule folks. And you couldn't even identify who those folks were at this time. Is that accurate? Yeah. And the council has done this before where there is an existing state law and the council considers adopting a similar legislative action as a city ordinance or law. In fact, another one is on the next item on your agenda. And so it's not unusual for the council, for city and state laws to be somewhat overlapping. So I guess I would say that it would protect anyone who is potentially the subject of an eviction, both residential or commercial until it expires in addition to whatever protections state law affords in that regard. So it wouldn't just help those that would otherwise fall through the cracks. It would be applicable to any tenant that's impacted financially by the COVID-19 crisis. Question for clarification was just sort of the legal, if all of our neighboring jurisdictions are feeling that, and I was sort of briefly looking at the, for example, the Watsonville staff report saying that they had a Watsonville eviction moratorium task force that they basically landed on that, their local eviction moratorium was redundant and that's unnecessary. And so I guess what I'm wondering is if your legal opinion, Tony, is that we would be outlying and legally vulnerable to then have an extension of a moratorium that is redundant and unnecessary. But if we couple that with other protections, which I know Councilor Brown was getting at, how do we kind of reconcile the two? Is that your opinion? Yeah, I would say that we would be an outlier in Anchorage County. I overheard council member Byers mention that she had heard from her son who happens to be County Council of San Mateo County that the county is extending its eviction moratorium. So I took an opportunity to go on their website and look at the agenda report for that. And what they're actually doing is they're extending the residential eviction moratorium ordinance to the end of June. And they are making that apply county-wide both in the unincorporated area and in the cities. And then interestingly, they also extended the commercial eviction moratorium ordinance for small businesses. And, but that only applies in the unincorporated area. So I'm not sure why they chose to make that distinction, but that's, so it's not unprecedented. Other entities are extending their eviction moratorium ordinances. I've not heard of a legal challenge to any of those yet. But as far as Santa Cruz County goes, yes, the city would be the outlet. I guess I'm just a little bit confused and I apologize for that. Cause I feel like based on the memo that we received, as well as sort of your legal analysis, it really alluded to that there would be, you know, legal liability with that. But if I'm now hearing you say that you don't know and possibly not, is that right? I mean, I guess- I think there is an increased risk of a legal challenge without the support of the governor's executive order. I just can't quantify the level of risk for you based on the dearth of legal research that's out there or of precedent setting case law on the topic. There may have been case law interpreting shelter in place orders and the ramifications thereof, you know, based upon the 1918 pandemic, but it's a really unprecedented situation in California right now. Okay. I guess I'm just trying to understand what sort of the, you know, given that there is existing policy in place that what is that risk? I guess that risk kind of balance we want to take in terms of being vulnerable with not only policy, but also with resources. So- Yeah, I think that's right. It's a continuum of risk. On the one hand, certainly there's a policy argument for extending as much protection to tenants as possible. On the other hand, the argument is offset somewhat by the fact that there are existing state rules and effect that provide similar, if not the same protection. Okay. Thank you. Well, thank you, Sandy and Jason here. Do we have, I'm looking at what can the city do to help people in their day to day living and they're running out of money and all these bills are coming up? Is there any, maybe it's already been in the past or maybe this happened in March, I don't know. Economic development, is there what pot of money could we somehow subsidize people to meet some of these goals or do we have a program or if not, could we talk about whether we should have one or not, even Martin knows? We have Bonnie and Lee on- Oh, good. I think that Bonnie can help us providing the description and we'll have them on what we have available. Bonnie, so we do have that we budgeted for this year that council approved at our last meeting, 200,000, actually 230,000 combining sources of funding for eviction prevention. And so we have 30,000 through the CARES Act and 200,000 through our home funds approved. And this is up to two months of rental assistance that individuals in the community can apply for. And the distinction between this program and what we had previously is previously we were using a combination of funding that was restricted to the beach flats and lower ocean area. And so by the new approval of this funding, we now have it citywide available for eviction prevention. And Bonnie, is that both the residential and commercial? That is residential. And do we have a program? Did we do one for commercial, for businesses to give them some boost? We don't have one currently. What we have provided is the micro loan program. Oh, maybe that was it alone. Okay. The PPP program does allow funding through that program to go towards rental assistance. So that's been the mechanism so far. I will say that there's definitely a need for more, but there is some funding sources out there for that. So there is some funding sources for that. We don't need to maybe go there. Well, the funding sources that are available for commercial at this point are largely loans, a portion of the PPP can be forgiven, but the portion that's forgiven is largely for payroll. That's right. Okay. How about rent increases? Do we have any program that the only would be a moratorium and no further rent increases? I don't know whether this has come before the council, before or this the first time. It's all open ended, Jason was on the, and Sandra was is on the agenda, you know, look at all kinds of options. So I'm just raising some of those that maybe we could help out in some way. And of course that is a moratorium on rent increases, both commercial and businesses. The funding that we have for the eviction prevention is community development block grant. So it is federal funding. So we're not using any local sources. I think if we wanted to provide something for local sources, we may have to come up with additional sources of funding just because of some of the restrictions on the federal funds. And that could possibly help people rent. If there's not a moratorium on rent increases, it would help them if they got a rent increase. That's probably money we're gonna come up with. New source. No, I'm sure I'll have more questions. That