ur people out there two three four hours a day picking up trash we do have the 96 gallon toters out there but we're taking them off-site to dispose of them there's not a whole lot of space for a dumpster so that's why we just have a system of toters out there but it's about really about five or six labor hours per day seven days a week just managing the trash geez can I ask a follow up on this what part of it is city land and what part of is state because I was I thought it was all state at one point when I asked as I understand the section that borders the levy path going down towards the to river street is state and then the at a point probably like midway it transitions to city between midway in the shopping center and river street hold on a second we're still debating you'll have your opportunity to speak okay and then I'd like to ask also the police chief last year when we had the bench lands camp and the movement there was outreach that took place and I know we had our public safety meeting about understanding who are the people that are out there so we can make sure that we're doing is that something on doing again this year and I know the report came back several months later but we talked about even having an independent group kind of do that to have a better understanding of who who the people were that are in the site for the record it's Andy Mills police chief and thank you for your question we have been out there on a daily basis talking with people in the camps I went out there and addressed everybody in the camp myself I got everybody gathered around to let them know that there needs to be some level of decorum and rules of behavior for this location and the and the community that surrounds it how far that went we don't know in terms of the compliance with that however we have it routine routinely programmed into our computer a dispatch system to send officers there multiple times a day to the camp to do checks and to do enforcement as needed we've made multiple arrests and we've had officers out there not only there but down in the parking lot at the gateway plaza so we have talked with many of them and talking with the people who are there seems that many of them are long term homeless persons from our community not saying that's exclusive we didn't take an exact survey but talked with dozens of people out there who explained that to us anecdotally if you would like a further survey we certainly can work with other departments to try to conduct that to find out who's there we talked about that the public safety committee and I thought that you periodically were going to do that we had discussed that yes whether or not we also talked about have an independent body do that because sometimes what people are going to tell the police is very different from somebody that they're less intimidated by so we want to make sure that the information is as accurate as possible thanks Chris before you go I know we've got oral communications at 5.30 and then we still haven't gone to public comment on this item so I'm going to ask before let me hold questions and just say is any member of the public here to speak to this item and I know Mr. Norse has to speak to this I'd like to try and you know one minute per person Robert if you go to two minutes so we can kind of get through this I appreciate it okay go please go ahead oh I'm Nate Alex Kennedy at gmail.com call or text me at 3469888 what I've got to say about this whole situation is we've been closing parks the parks and the bushes and they have nowhere to go but the sidewalk itself and doorways of businesses we really need to address this we need legitimate campsites not just for the homeless people of Santa Cruz but for travelers for refugees from fires and floods and otherwise we need to have campsites that are legal completely legitimate regulated would have a police trailer located nearby or right on the site maybe even put a needle drop box right on the police trailer itself for people to get rid of their needles or needles that are found thank you next speaker please mayor council since April when it was expressed that the anniversary camp was going to be extended through April there wouldn't be a winter shelter possibly I'm really happy to see this step up that there looks like the city is really going there I'm talking with Paulie Loft and then potentially with the warming center since August ever since then we declared our own shelter emergency double down like I said spent almost $10,000 on extra materials hired somebody and said we are going to now be ready to shelter twice as many people as I said before but potentially ready to be to raise our temperature threshold but we've worked with the Salvation Army the county and the city to actually be ready to we've been sheltering their sorry storing their large belongings bicycles there's they put a shuttle stop right in front of our spot it's the fourth one to make sure that that we can actually make sure that everybody who needs to isn't denied shelter because of their dislikes or things like that so we've been really doing a lot of this work to this point so I just want a warming center to be recognized for that thank you next week okay let's see if I can talk fast I would suggest that if you can get some sort of advisory group to try to get together to try to solve some of these problems because some of these problems are starting to domino that you have that group that's over there by river street but you also have less bed space this year that it's true that 40 beds would be starting at Laurel street but we actually did 50 last year so there's not actually a staffing difference for that and if you're busing them in anyway it's still a manageable thing which still takes program design and that's what I'm talking about sitting down but I'd say if it was possible to do an intake site like we did two years ago which wasn't the best thing in the world at 1220 river because right now people are just sitting in the rain at different bus stops pretty confusing thing about reservations and then they're getting their intake a very potential conversation that's just sitting in the middle of the VFW at a table with people around them saying hey have you been raped have you been you know have you used drugs and people are just sitting around listening to these conversations I think it would be really compassionate a lot more professional if there was an intake site too. Thank you. Next speaker. Having only a minute to speak about this a little unfair but let's go. The property the middle of the property the city owns the top part the bottom parts owned by the city those people came from Coral Street the train tracks and the other river street campus closed we have an I'm a business owner my name is Michael Spadafore I'm a business owner at the Gateway Plaza dead body found in a car car stolen this past weekend pet smart employees afraid to talk to their customers the security guard having to stay in Ross for 20 minutes till a cop came to help them because he's being bullied by the people in the parking lot you guys want to do something about one o'clock in an afternoon go sit in that parking lot and watch the people go from that parking lot up to that levy my customers see that every day my owners were there the other day some lady lifted up her dress and peed in the parking lot right in front of Ross that's something we deal with on a daily basis and for nobody to have an answer of why that's there is completely beyond me it is too close to the people leaving the tannery leaving the bridge it's not safe for kids anywhere around the world. Thank you Mr. Speaker please. Hi Elise Kasby I'm a long-time researcher and activist I've gotten a lot of first-hand observation and so forth what the gentleman was just saying there is exactly the kind of information that I would like to see us have an actual process we need an evidence-based system and also this has been a political football from my research at least deep as far back as the 80s and as good as this people who are currently sitting on this council or take back Santa Cruz people a lot of this information in terms of what's being provided is coming out of that very very political anti-homeless stance. We need to take it out of there for the fact that these are people who are going through a lot of trauma these are people who are then further traumatized by the fact of being homeless I could talk and write reams and reams on this about how people are treated in churches in the United States. I want to see an independent body like that that hires sociology majors do evidence-based research and maybe that's where a substantial part of the 10.6 million can come from thank you. Thank you next speaker please. Hello my name is Andy Paradise I'm a Santa Cruz City resident and I'm actually here for a different reason I'm here to thank you all and especially Cynthia Chase for the resolution. You know what that's we've already had that can you put it on pause. This is item specific but I appreciate that and I we're here for the item number 28 it's a homelessness update then we're going to have a public oral communications after that but you can't speak to an item that wasn't on the agenda so if you can generalize your thanks and praise that would are you going to have a public thing where I would be at 5.30 sometime after that we'll do it. Okay go ahead. I'm like concerned about the millions of dollars that are being contributed to the city and for these programs and I hope that it doesn't go primarily to administration or to other kinds of things like that then we get that you know we often hear like millions of dollars going to homeless services and stuff and then you home with them because they don't see where it's happening and I point out like the river street camp was approximately $1500 per person per month that was living there and that could have actually paid for rent for an apartment for each person so we might want to see how this is figuring out. Also heroes camp is amazing and I think that it would be great to honor the heroes at the moment by calling a day sometime soon in honor of the people that helped rescue victims of the car crash and so on and give them the kind of respect that does do them. Next speaker please. Are you here to speak to item number 28 the homelessness update? Indeed sir. And I'll just keep it brief and go back to predictions. I predict that there will be a fund of probably you'll come out to like $433,000 on Kickstarter and the other GoFundMe maybe and also I expect there to be some better community relations with IBM. Thank you. Okay Mr. Norr she have two minutes as part of Huff. Nice to have highly paid staff members talking to death proposals to get more money without any kind of homeless input. But I guess that's standard for this council. Survival camps throughout the city are where 1,000 to 2,000 homeless people live. About a 70 to 80 tents when I was out there a couple days ago 100 to 200 people are out at the Ross camp or heroes camp as it was called. These camps are the real winter shelter that people have in spite of all this yabber yabber yabber about plans that never go anywhere how you can listen to Tina Scholl and Susie O'Hara after they betrayed the campers at the river street camp ground which you spent so much money and time in I just I don't understand why should we believe what they have to say what difference does it make if they're going to change their minds the next month and dump these people out on the ground on the street or into vehicles where there's no place to park because you've also dumped because of bigotry and your fear of the neighborhoods the car park proposal at the edge of town. Sharps containers need to be in these camp grounds perhaps Tony or Andy can get their butts together and head them out that way obviously two porta potties for more than 100 people are just not enough they weren't there was a greater number at the San Lorenzo campground last year open bathrooms are still needed throughout the city we don't have them we continue to see a stall from the parks direct department on the Loudon Nelson problems there and I continue to hear complaints about elders who don't get access to those unless they come in during the very small limited time during the noon meal there's a cutback in real services from last year was pointed out to you in the one minute interval you gave this guy but there's an increase in funding what the hell is going on thank you so I'm going to bring it back to the council for deliberation and action now is there anyone who'd like to perhaps look at those recommendations go ahead there was a package of five recommendations is that correct yeah and my questions were answered about which city facilities I should just mention staff has offered to meet with each of us individually to go into more detail and get our personal observations interest concerns I appreciate as part of moving forward on this and I'll have some thoughts of my own to convey so given all that and that we do want this to move forward I'll go ahead and move the package of five recommendations here motion by council member Matthews seconded by council member I have a quick question and I know that we're in the interest of time trying to keep things moving but thank you for your work and the presentation I know this is not the last time we're going to be having this discussion so I will go into some of the other questions I have I just want to sort of share an observation just because I've worked in that area that it is located in a highly busy intersection and there is concern of public safety not just in terms of those that are residing in the camp but crossing the street and potential for that kind of impact so without kind of going into any more detail knowing that we don't have the time for that I just sort of want to highlight that seeing people across the street there it's concerning to see for their safety Council Member Brown I do want to support the motion and just have a quick question though about the process so where you sent apparently a message that I never received so I'm looking forward to connecting with you individually would that be the appropriate time to give you feedback about perspectives on governance structure around and Council elected representation within the HAP or is that something that we should do else wise I just want to make sure that that doesn't get lost the purpose of the briefings were around the cash and the heap and talking about the needs in the RFP so I can get feedback for that development I would also love to hear observations on governance because that's something that needs to be tackled just on that topic it occurred to me as that conversation was going on is this another JPA in the making I mean it almost sounds like it that's something that had been talked about it is a formal JPA formed there are models that work that way I know Martin Bernal he brought up a few early in the year the model down in San Diego that was used I thought was one that this isn't the time to pursue it but I think as soon as you feel that's right to bring back some ideas for discussion that sure the in terms of the direction potentially on that encampment out there I mean I don't know where the council is but I would like to understand who the people are and like we did last year understanding you know what are the what are the needs or how we can kind of get at least some sort of independent review of this so we kind of know where they are we did that last year from the bench lands and I'd like to do the same again I know that we had this discussion at the public safety meeting and it seemed like either the police or independent group could do that so would that be something you'd be willing to put in the motion I think that's additional direction these are more actions but I'm happy to add that we request that depending on resources available but a legitimate effort be made to get a better handle on who are the campers at that site and is that okay well that was council member chase seconded that I mean that makes sense since the county is already out there and their health and human services are meeting with them it feels like that is the appropriate request to make to that very much so I mean I'll just echo the interest in that because I think that helps also to understand their ability to understand the various sub populations of need and to tailor those services appropriately so it's helpful to have that and then just one other thing and that is there was further direction about the you know what to do about this area out there and I think that is it possible to at least issue some sort of request for information are there facilities that are out there so that you know obviously staff can't do it but putting out some sort of RFI to see well what kind of facilities are out there let's put an RFI out to kind of get something in place so that these people aren't in the space out in the open and are in some sheltered space now councilmember brown I just have one more thought but if you want to respond to this I think that's a good question I think that's a good question I think that's a good question I think that's a good question I just have one more thought but if you want to respond to that now I'll wait for a second I have some questions so you'd want the city to issue a request for information the HAPT issue request for information to find out where there's available real estate that can potentially serve as an emergency shelter or review even existing county facilities that might be underutilized right now that you know could provide us an immediate opportunity the city council has this request of the HAPT that would be most appreciated I think I'm under the impression that that's consistent with what you're doing for the warming center looking for incidental spots or I don't know it sounds like they haven't came up with any you just like to ask them directly I would say in martin was I had an aside with him that's what we envision for the heat process is that if you saw the categories again here very strong emphasis on emergency services as well as capital improvements and we're trying to ascertain if capital improvements can pay for leasing costs that's one of those many many details we're trying to refine with the state but that's exactly what we would want to do what can we get online to focus on emergency shelter that has been I mentioned also all these processes like the singular commonality has been the sense of we need more emergency shelter across the county south county mid county everywhere that is exactly a major priority we'd go for so I think that fits in with that process which is going to launch in mid-January so I couldn't do it any faster so your expectation is that there would be locations outside of the city limits that are in the unincorporated county that would be presented to you for review we would issue a request for proposal and this hasn't been ascertained it's not my decision but we would issue a request for proposal for additional emergency shelter services across the county now that depends on submittals coming back to us to have operators and sites to do it alternately one of the jurisdictions could decide we want to operate said shelter and they could respond and say we would like that money to come in and we will operate it so that is an option available to Santa Cruz Watsonville in the county that doesn't guarantee but then you have to identify the site we've done when we spent all year looking for phase two in a room shelter we looked all across the county all in Santa Cruz we had a very difficult time so we are working with property real estate folks across the county our economic development looking at our warehouse I mean there just really isn't there isn't some space we haven't thought of yet that's going to manifest I don't anticipate because we have we have looked with that said we will put this out with the real funding offer behind it we'll see what we find and even could be even existing facility that's probably owned a government county facility that might be underutilized would that be something that absolutely we'd be open to even I mean we need to flat parking lot frankly we can put up a sprung tent structure which we've had many conversations about that that's what we need we could be very creative I'm prepared to support the motion that's on the floor so council member Brown still prepared to support that motion but I do have one other question that I wanted to ask for the work that they're doing with you know only nominally supported by the city and county and I know Tina you mentioned that we may be looking at providing them some support for the services they're providing some additional so I'm just wondering is that something that will happen through he been cash or is that something you're going to be coming to ask us about in the future or is that something you want action on tonight in terms of the funding in terms of get I understand the county is maybe going to provide some resources and they have asked that the city provide some kind of as well and you know I want to make sure that happens so just wondering how that's going to come to us or it will just what's built into every component of this motion is coming back in January with here's how we think it'll work and that would be the operations and also here's how much it will cost because if you look on this chart that we got a lot of two BDS on some of those expanded costs and how's that being paid for exactly $100,000 we're asking for under recommendation five we envision would help be our contribution to these programs okay so that's that's right there in the number four that is what you were talking about earlier yeah number four yes that's the primary thing yes Councilmember Crohn's thanks sir thank you you know I'm worried about the camp there the rest street somebody mentioned a hundred people is that does that sound accurate because I was wondering what a preliminary count was I mean how many campers we had I think our number was more around 60 when it was originally proposed we thought we'd have more double occupancy per tent and what we found is when people moved I'm talking about camp Ross or the heroes camp okay I wasn't sure with I don't know what the latest estimate is apologize sorry I don't think anybody has a good you know reliable number the last time I was out there about a week ago I counted 60 tents now are they double occupied single occupied we don't we don't know for sure when we gathered everybody around us the crowd was about 60 65 people when we counted thank you it sounds like mr. Spadafore has under some really good information he's been looking into it too so I mean that I don't know if that's where he's got that but he sounds spot on from information I've gotten just anecdotally between now and January what what well let me back up Tony Elliott do we have do you hear that we need more services there I mean we did have I think four or six porta potties at the Benchlands and if there's only two that and it sounds like there's even more people possibly yeah we've got two to four more portal lets if I recall coming out by the end of this week so they're they're in process we recognize that and what's the plan if it just starts to rain or is that on the horizon are you looking farther out and that's a good question I think that's something we'd have to explore with our team internally to evaluate what does that look like what's the impact and what resources together here for another you know three weeks right I mean it's not going to come back here until just worried so we've been monitoring and this was councilmember browns question to what's the plan that we didn't actually get to and right now we've been in this this period of monitoring doing some light support of it and so we were wondering do you want the city to be to intervene more do you want the city to get involved similarly to what we did with the some runs of park bench lens where we actually went in cleared people out as those reference cleaned up set up camp sites to that sort of thing this is tricky because it's not our property you know it's Caltrans or we could go in and we could go through an eviction process and start closing it down and moving folks out with the result you can anticipate is that folks will just be dispersed across the city in different parts so so it's tricky it's tricky and so we wanted to get a sense of the council it's been it's been growing and we've as I said been lightly managing the impacts of it not the individuals but what we heard tonight was that you'd like to understand better the populations so we'll go back and we'll talk with the county and ask really what are you doing day by day can you go in and start working with these folks on an individual basis to understand them their stories their pathways with services they need to get a better handle on that and I think that we'll continue to manage it in that way watching the hygiene needs adding a little bit of capacity here and there until we can come back and have a fuller discussion with you in January that's what I think the course will be and thanks to parks and rec for as you heard the five hours a day of staff work to do that as well as our police officers who are out there daily as well as interacting and knowing it's a difficult situation we're also hoping that if we can get excuse me some of the shelter capacity online we can really move these people if we have people that are currently in the winter shelter that are eligible for this expanded program should it happen that freeze up space there and then we can move more people into there so what we're hoping that all these things can converge that we have a better outcome but it's not immediately on our doorstep yeah I just like to ask I mean just because I'm we're about ready to vote on this but has there been any discussion about mutual aid I mean one some of these things that we have out there I mean I know our police officers are kind of if they're spending that amount of time they're unable to attend to other things are we able to bring in other groups to help support some of the kind of needs that we have to manage this space has that been looked at you know not not to date we're just managing within current patrols as the chief mentioned it shows up and so we just have a regular rotating patrol as part of the different beats and I think that is meeting the need now I think if things increase or change we would have to look at every available resource to intervene I'd like to make sure you know when you look at it and see because I know I've heard anecdotally from some people in the field that there is a need there's there's a kind of a burnout factor with all the other issues that are going on in the community and it would be great to have mutual aid because these are again a shared burden that we're all trying to address regionally and I think it would be good to hear from them to see in the county if we can get some more resources not just the social services wants to help support the city's management of this crisis well and also you know I referenced earlier talking about the heat money that I'm doing a road show and talking with different groups of employees I have the chance to meet with the police department tomorrow afternoon so we can talk more about that as well and I can learn more in addition I want to thank Mr. Norris for raising a point about people who lived experience he's right there weren't there were some at the September 21st meeting but to my knowledge there weren't at others so I had already planned on doing two specific groups one with the downtown streets team and one with Rabbi Posner who made this offer to help convene some people who lived experience who are currently homeless to hear their perspectives as well as part of my information gathering on this I don't think I will get that fully accomplished by the next time you meet in January but that is something we're doing to understand that better we have a motion on the floor and a second is there any further discussion on this matter okay seeing none all those in favor please say aye and you oppose that motion passes unanimously again thanks everyone for being here it's been a long kind of meeting 830 now to 545 we're up a little bit later than usual but oral communications how many people are here to speak at oral communications the first person we have up for oral communications is Ellen Primack she's speaking on behalf of friends of Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium and Ellen we went a little late you know generally we have four minutes I'm wondering if you can condense your comments like two okay yeah okay please go four take your time I'll read quickly thank you for this opportunity to speak briefly on behalf of the friends of the Civic Auditorium I am Ellen Primack Santa Cruz City resident executive director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and a friend of the Civic Auditorium Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium is our county's largest cultural gathering place built nearly 80 years ago issues of safety audience comfort accessibility and technical relevance have become ever more urgent in 2012 a civic minded leadership team of community city and nonprofit leaders convened to envision a renovated and modernized civic auditorium that could turn an iconic historic fixture into a vibrant performing arts and cultural center to serve our community in the next generation we want to thank city leaders for their commitment to supporting the civic as a vital community asset during these past eight years the planning stages have included community surveys producer input and architectural concept design engineering and seismic studies situational analysis and a business plan all the essential groundwork for renovation has been laid even with all the challenges of the civic auditorium it serves approximately 85,000 annually and has an unparalleled economic impact on the county and on our downtown center ask any downtown business restaurant owner or their employees waiters sales people sandwich makers yet what we have learned is that it's real potential is enormous and we are leaving so much untapped the civic auditorium is used half as much as comparable facilities in other communities and the longer we wait the more we undermine its usefulness so in 2018 under the auspices of the arts council an affinity group called friends of the civic auditorium was established to share our dream to renovate activate and stimulate and to provide civic minded community members the opportunity to voice their concerns volunteer their efforts and to support this vision of a safe comfortable vibrant civic auditorium to fund the renovation through private funds and a bond measure in 2020 using a t.o.t. increase to help make that possible these efforts will serve our local community make downtown a more welcoming and safer place create jobs support our hospitality industry and help generate added sales and admissions taxes to the city coffers I recognize that the city council has profound challenges ahead and that there are many concurrent needs including the most serious of our social services housing but I believe that it is the city governments imperative to not only work to mitigate the negatives but to initiate the positives to help provide a quality of life here in Santa Cruz that makes it a place worth living in I am reminded of the line bread for all and roses too the civic plays a vital role in the social and cultural life of our community that indeed helps define our community and what makes it worth fighting for so on behalf of the friends of the civic auditorium I would like to present this ribbon of requests for many community members who ask you to move this important project forward we ask you to prioritize the renovation of the civic auditorium and plan for a bond measure in 2020 and I thank you very much you had it almost time perfectly with the number of postcards address to you thank you you know there was a woman who spoke came up earlier and she's in yellow I don't have you to come up because you basically were here I think early for the comment and again how many more people are here to speak for oral communications one two three okay you have 90 seconds go ahead all right well here I am again my name is Andy Paradise I'm a Santa Cruz city resident and I am here to thank you all especially Cynthia Chase for the resolution if that's what it's called I don't know my city council lingo to oppose the federal government and Trump's rollback of transgender non-binary gender and intersex rights put in title nine by the Obama administration I am the parent of a transgender child who lives in this city and I'm very concerned for my child's safety and treatment as our federal government is determined to strip protection and erase this very vulnerable community I speak not only for myself but for the many parents the local support group trans families of Santa Cruz County as well as all of our transgender and non-binary children we are extremely thankful for your sure of support with this resolution thank you next speaker please and congratulations sweet bring that forward hello I'm Nate Alex Kennedy dot at gmail dot com also call our text three four six nine eight eight eight the big thing I want to say here is what we need to have is radio access to these meetings kzsc ksco etc etc etc we need to approach all these different radio stations and see which ones will allow time to broadcast entire meetings we also need broadcast live off the internet or on the internet with the radio with a radio on internet type of live streaming that we could get through the city council website and another suggestion with that is when we put the mp3s up on the site in the end we should lower it to a really low kilobit rate and make it mono to make the file as small as we possibly can let's see aside from all that tandem for the police thank you thank you I came back next speaker please Pat Kittle santa Cruz I'm going to cover something I've covered before because it needs to be covered we're Trump just spent what 700 billion plus dollars on our military for the for the coming year a lot of that just goes to fighting stupid wars in the mid-east for the benefit of nobody, but at least the perceived benefit of Israel. In truth, it doesn't benefit Israel either in the long run, but Israel thinks it does and Israel gets its way. That's why we've basically destroyed Iraq and Iraq did not have anything to do with 9-11. Israel was primarily responsible for 9-11. How ironic. If you simply go to Bolin, B-O-L-L-Y-N, Bolin.com, an investigative reporter right out of Santa UCSC. Excellent investigative reporter and he's got a highly documented evidence. Somebody saw this sign as immediately as I pulled it out as she was leaving and she said, I looked that up. That's pretty impressive. And I think anybody that does look this up, might agree. It's worth a look. You don't have to hear the official version of 9-11 all your life. Bolin.com, thank you. Thank you, next speaker please. My name's Elise Caspi. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank every single one of you. I also want to share a couple of things. Most of you, my politics is different. My ethical system is probably different and I believe that people's ethical and cosmology forms their political views. But I want to say that as much as you probably have not understood this, that I actually consider you some really worthy opponents. I think there's been an amazing tolerance for my behavior a lot of times. I just want to say too, that that is not completely impulsive. For me, and I'm just speaking personally, I look at things and I do my research and I reiterate. A lot of times I feel I'm looking at corruption. I feel I'm looking at what I call snow jobs. I'm not saying I know everything or whether that's true. But what I do want to say is that's part of why I justify my outburst because I'm so frustrated because I feel, for example, that we're going to have no affordable housing after the research I did. I hope I'm wrong. I really hope I'm wrong Cynthia Chase and it was really interesting listening to you. I just really want to say, even Michelle, I went up to you to try to say this earlier, but I respect your opinions. I think you are an excellent politician and a worthy opponent. I hate your politics a lot at the time, but I really deeply appreciate you all and I hope you'll still speak to me in the coffee shop, David. Thank you very, very much. Thank you, Elise. Next speaker. I'm Aaron Singleton, I'm sure y'all. Next coffee's on me. Go ahead, Geron. Aaron Singleton, third generation. I think y'all know why I'm here. What are we going to do about the illegal internet games of torturing and tormenting people, especially myself? They have not quit. I was told I was going to get paid by Bonnie. I have not gotten paid. I still get tormented, torturing, and I don't want to take the city down when I can. I don't want to be a bad guy. And I think you know a few other things have been illegal around here, like Colfax property disappearing and being sold under its feet. I'm not going to get into that. I think we all know what's going on. Thank you. I'll make it right. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Gillian Greensight, I know you can't take any action tonight, but hopefully Adoro Communications put a little thought in the city manager's ear or the Parks and Recreation Director's ear. I'm on the wharf a lot. Usually I'm at my favorite restaurant, but the other day I needed a new beach towel, so as I was walking home, I went into a couple of the stores that sell such things. And it was a very cold day, raining and all of that. And in both of the stores, and I noticed other stores, the doors are wide open and the heaters are blasting. And there was no one in the store except myself and three very bored looking people who were behind the counter selling things. So since you own the wharf and most of the buildings on it, seems to me maybe you couldn't get downtown merchants to do this, but if the shop owners, the restaurants, most of them, or a lot of them have their doors closed, but not the other stores, if they have a very big open sign and a couple of languages, I think people get the idea. And there was a letter to this effect in this morning's Sentinel. I didn't write it, but obviously somebody else noticed the same thing in other places. And lastly, I just say all best wishes to the three of you who are leaving. I know you've never voted to save a tree. However, I do respect the work you've done and the hard work you've put in. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jillian. Okay, I handed out a letter that I wanted to include in the record. And I just was gonna say, as you may recall, Edward Peter McGettigan, also known as Peter McGettigan, passed away on June 14th, 2018 in Santa Cruz. He'd been a resident since 75. And I'd like to please, I ask that the next council, please consider during the next council term the renaming of the room where community television records our city council sessions in honor of Peter. It's something where we have to wait a year before that happens. And I'd like you just to consider that. And I just want this letter in the record to think about it moving forward. Yeah. Thank you for doing that, Mr. Mayor. I really appreciate it. Peter was a close friend. Yeah. I was with him the night before. I'd given him a ride home. He was at the bus stop and so. Okay, so that closes our oral communications period at, you know, what is it now, 557. And we, again, we talked about this, the ADU item. So, what do we do? Just make a motion to move. So is there a motion to put this out to the next week? We defer this item to as early in 2019 as reasonably practical, given that we have a new council coming on. Is that? I believe the planning director has requested that the council set a date certain, so. What would you suggest as a doable date? We have all the materials available. It's really the council's discretion. It does save us a little bit of effort in preparing additional notices. We have a huge mailing list of folks, but if we have a specific date certain, then the publishing would not be required in the paper and the cost associated with that. We're thinking everything that the new council members are going to need to get oriented on and this is going to take some time. My motion was the second meeting in January. Yeah, that's fine. Does that sound doable? Absolutely. Okay, I'll second that. Okay, a motion by council mover Matthew, seconded by Vice Mayor Watkins. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye, aye. So we will recess. I'd say, let's say we'll return back at 715, just to give some time to get back for a meal. Thank you, everyone. Hey, I just want to make sure that everyone is comfortable. We've got another 50 or so people coming, so just make sure there's a room next to you, all right? I'm joking. So we are here for the evening session or 7 p.m. session of the December 4th, excuse me, the December 11th meeting of the city council. I'd now like to ask the clerk to please call the roll when she gets back. Thank you, Mayor. Council members, Crone. Very happy to be present. Matthew, here, and here. Vice Mayor Watkins, here, and Mayor Trump. And here. I'll have to say that we've been here since 8.30 a.m. and we're just about ready to go out. So we're feeling a little punchy right now and we're ready to finish. Thank you, Chris, Crone. Hi, I'll stop. David, you had us here, you set the agenda. Earlier this afternoon, the council confirmed and approved the November 6th, 2018 general election results as submitted by the Santa Cruz County Clerk's Office. We begin this item this evening with item number one. And item number one is the remarks by outgoing council members, Cynthia Chase, Rachelle Naroyan, and myself. So I will begin with you, Cynthia. Well, I will make my comments brief. Mostly what I want to say is that tonight I am just filled with gratitude. It's been an incredible four years of an amazing opportunity to serve this community. I've been honored and blessed to do that. This is an incredibly engaged community and we are like no other. And I got many, many opportunities to meet and talk with and listen to a lot of folks who are in this room, a lot of folks who are out in the community and I'm better for it. I hope our community is better for it. I'm really just pleased that I had the opportunity to interact with so many people and I hope that I brought your voices to the council in as many votes as I could. I'm also really grateful that I had the opportunity to serve with past and current council members. I learned a lot from them. This is not an easy job that we have. It's not like any other people said, is it what you expected? And over and over I said, I didn't know what to expect and I would give that advice to everybody else because there's kind of no way to expect exactly what this position is like. But I am appreciative of everything that we worked on together. I am also really grateful for the dedication and the commitment determination of this staff who works really hard every day to do things that are pretty much just keep in the city running and so many people I think don't realize all the things that need to happen just to have clean water and their garbage picked up and paved streets and sidewalks and parks to play in and fire responding when there's emergencies and so I just want to express my sincere gratitude to the staff who show up every day and do really hard work sometimes because we've given them really complicated direction and asked them to do a lot of things and jump through a lot of hoops to make the community even better than it already is. So I just want to say again that I'm grateful for this opportunity. It was a pleasure to serve and because I have now three times forgotten to thank my husband. I will not forget to thank my husband who has not seen me pretty much for four years. So it will be great getting to know him. And thank you all for being here tonight, for being the engaged community that we have and thank you for the opportunity to serve. Council Member Naroyan. So I would just like first of all to thank everyone for the opportunity to serve. This is an incredibly unique experience at least within my life up to this point and I just want to thank all of you who supported me with your kind words and encouragement during the last four years. None of us who run and or serve in office do this alone. And as the Hillary Clinton book title says, it takes a village and I really learned that running for office and being in office. I could not be more proud and absolutely grateful to my village. I know all politicians and this is going off of what Council Member Chase just did. Like to thank their spouses and I also too forgot to thank mine at a kickoff party four years ago. So we're in the same boat in that area. Well, I'm going to go ahead and do it even though I know that he doesn't necessarily like getting shout outs and attention but I do have to thank my husband, Jim Jensen who not only was in charge of the lawn and big sign distributions for both campaigns but he's been my sounding board, my rock and my best friend through all of this. He's been my best advisor and I couldn't thank him enough. Just like I said, people say this but it really does impose on the spouses and on the partners when you're in office because they see a lot less of you. We depend on them a lot more to do the daily tasks that are needed to keep our households running and our lives going. And so I don't know how I'm going to show gratitude for him, but thank you very much, honey. He deserves an applause. Right, he deserves it. Other parts of my village, I have to give a shout out to Gus Sabios who as my campaign manager and who's been a really good friend and like me, he grew up in Santa Cruz and we actually met at Mission Hill Junior High because we both played clarinet in the band and then the clarinet and the marching band at Santa Cruz High. And I thank his wife, Rachel Thompson Sabios who I've even known longer since second grade and she let me borrow Gus even when she was starting her new food truck business Union Foodie, check them out.  So I really appreciate that. Holly Locatelli has kept us from getting nasty grams from the Fair Political Practices Committee for two campaigns. So she's been the campaign treasurer. She serves her city also in the Parks and Recs Commission and raises money for FOPAR, an organization that gives scholarships to kids whose families can't afford classes through the Parks and Rec Department. A big thanks to the rest of my campaign committee, Robert DeFredes, Robert Orizzi, Sharon DeJeong and James Goldwin. They were all amazing and were just really supportive. And I still am distraught by the hours of people who will put in volunteer wise to support people that they really believe in or causes they believe in. It always just really blows me away. So to the new council, I just wanna say when it comes to housing, it's really important today we passed a project that I wouldn't say was perfect, but it's really important to not let perfection get in the way of progress. We need both market rate and affordable rentals. And there are a lot of people who make a little more above being able to qualify for subsidized rental units. So we need to think of them too. And I just wanna say, let's not make Monterey and San Benito have to bear the brunt of us not developing enough housing in our community. Infill, urban infill downtown is a lot better than them covering up ag land and wildlife areas. So I just really is a parting shot. I really hope you do look at housing and look at both affordable and market rate. I just wanna say each issue has its nuances and I've learned I don't know everything. That's one thing this job will teach you is that you don't know a lot. And listening to people from different walks of life is really important. I listened to a lot of people who I didn't think I would ever see or would request a meeting with me, but I did and I'm really glad that I did because they brought in a perspective I could never have because so many of us, some of us are landlords, some are renters, some are both, some people have worked in the high tech industry, others haven't. So it's just really important to get those perspectives and it's really important what really distressed me during the campaign around Measure M and I'm not accusing one side or everybody of doing this but I heard a lot of assuming. I heard a lot of people making assumptions about folks and not sticking to the issue and not, you know, instead going for kind of those personal attacks and I think it's really important that we don't assume. You know, somebody who owns a house is not necessarily home free. It's very hard to own a home in Santa Cruz as I can tell you my family's story sometime if you're interested in it. There are times when renting, you know, obviously isn't a breeze either in this market. So I think it's gonna be really important to talk to each other and try not to emulate the people who are in Washington right now. You know, we all need to live with each other and we all live in the same community and see each other. So let's try not to go Trump on one another. So, and in regards to the county relationship, you know, I just wanna tell the new council, if I had a magic wand and had all the resources I would love, love to have been able to do more in regards to solving our homeless problem. It's a true humanitarian crisis but honestly we don't have the resources to address it on our own. And so really reach out to those other agencies. I think the state needs a bit more nudging to understand its role as well as the federal government. But if you know, to do more than mitigate it, we're gonna have to bring in these other folks to work with us on this. And I really, really stress and it was something that we just started doing to join with other cities and become a loud voice both in Washington and in Sacramento for the services that we need or else what's gonna happen is if we don't have a World War II level effort to address this issue, we're just gonna be mitigating it. And I hope that we can get to a point of doing more than mitigating it. And just remember that, you know, the county is the level responsible for health and human services. So don't be afraid to lean on them a bit to take a little bit more of a leadership role in this. Look at Modesto, Stanislaus County is doing a lot of, they're taking the lead. In fact, a former city council member here, Tony Madrigal posted on his page, Facebook page about all of the work Stanislaus County is doing to address their homeless problem. And so I really recommend giving that a read and maybe seeing if we can use that as a model. You know, and while I believe more must be done immediately, we really do need to lead or to take the lead in compelling other agencies to just take this up like the city has. And to the public, I just want to say, please fact check what you read on Nextdoor. You know, I was really astonished by how much time I took answering phone calls and emails, having to explain information on Nextdoor was incorrect. And it was awful because you would see these discussions that there would be 50 comments and it was all based on something that completely wasn't true. And there was just this consternation and upset people and folks, you know, talking on and on about it. And then I would sometimes swoop in at that point and say, well, actually this isn't true. And then the conversation ended. So really, really fact check and not base assumptions on what you read there because I found that there were a few individuals too who would use Nextdoor and purposely put incorrect information out to create the drama and to create people to oppose a project. It's okay to oppose a project, but let's do it on facts. So I just, you know, to make it a little easier on the next council, that would be a great service to them to do. So maybe they don't have to spend so much time answering emails saying, nope, that's not true.  I hope the city continues to progress towards our goals of housing more of our individuals, having more housing choices. And I'm really looking forward to seeing the new council at work and, you know, know that those of us going off are available. Chris, I'm volunteering you guys right now are available for information and good luck. It's gonna be an interesting adventure. Thank you. Now it's my turn. I just wanna say again, good evening to everyone. I'd like to really express a warm welcome because this is our final meeting for this group of people right here to the 2017 and 2018 term. It also happens to be the first meeting of our incoming newly constituted city council. And I'd like to really express my appreciation for those who ran the Civic Gauntlet and made it here today. And again, welcome to everyone, our neighbors, fellow Santa Cruzans for being here tonight to witness and celebrate the next chapter of our more than 150 years of civic self-government. For the past year, I have been honored to serve as the 95th mayor of the city of Santa Cruz, a whirlwind experience that has been both demanding and very rewarding. When your kids are young, they say the days are long but the years are short. Here in our council chambers, as many of you can testify, the nights can be extraordinarily long. But at the same time, my eight years of service on this council have simply flown by. I'd like to begin tonight by thanking family, friends, and community members who have supported me over the past eight years. And most importantly, I'd like to thank my wife, Monica, who's still with me. And in the audience, I think. And my children, Isabella, who happened to be six years old when I first got off this eight years ago. Amalia, who was eight, no, three, excuse me, three. And then Nathaniel, who had just been born. They've all been so patient and kind to allow me to be here and to serve our city during this period and I just really wanna tell them how much I appreciate that and thank them. Their love and support that they give me every day of the year has not only been really fulfilling but I hope they sometime will consider that public service is really an important part of their future as well. And for me, I'm deeply humbled to have been entrusted by the people of Santa Cruz to serve our city. Holding elected office here is a life-altering privilege. I truly love this city and feel very lucky every day to call Santa Cruz my home. Like every single person in this room, my dream for our city, I believe, is to move forward in solving our problems while protecting what's precious about our past and our present. Santa Cruz works best when our residents work together, embracing local solutions and rejecting the bitter factualism that is damaging our national discourse, identity, and in my opinion, our political institutions. I encourage everyone here to set aside divisive political ideologies and set our sights on solutions. We cannot solve issues like homelessness, mental health, public safety, and housing without regional cooperation. And regional cooperation requires our city to speak with a strong and united voice and to engage others with unified action. Let's seek that united voice as we push forward into the future. Let's talk to our neighbors and not just our friends. Our city and all those who have called this place their home are counting on us. Again, I want to thank you all for your support in the honor of serving the city of Santa Cruz. Good night. At this point is when we make the full handoff. I'm going to do it right now. This stage and allow some new participants to take on over. It's a pleasure to introduce the next item, council members. The council member elects Justin Cummings, Donna Myers, and Drew Glover. Congratulations. At this time our city clerk, Bonnie Bush, is going to swear you in. Justin Cummings. Do solemnly affirm. Do solemnly affirm. That I will support and defend. That I will support and defend. The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. And the Constitution of the State of California. Against. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance. That I will bear true faith and allegiance. To the Constitution of the United States. To the Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. And the Constitution of the State of California. That I take this obligation freely. That I take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation. Without any mental reservation. For purpose of evasion. For purpose of evasion. And that I will fully discharge. And I will, while unfaithfully discharge. The duties upon which I'm about to enter. The duty's upon which I am about to enter. Whoaa! It depends upon which way you're looking. I, Donna Myers, do solemnly swear that I will support, and defend, the Constitution of the United States. That I will support, and defend, the Constitution of the United States. and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign, and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, And I will bear truth, faith, and justice, and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. And the Constitution of the State of California. That I will take this obligation freely. That I will take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. Without any mental purpose, sorry. Without any mental reservation. Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. And that I will and faithfully discharge. That I will, well and faithfully discharge. The duties upon which I'm about to enter. The duties upon which I am about to enter. I drew Glover. Do solemnly affirm. Do solemnly affirm. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. But I will defend and support the Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. And the Constitution of the State of California. against all enemies, foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California that I will take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Now's the time for the newly seated council members to make their incoming remarks and I'll start with you, Justin. Great, well I would first like to start by thanking my mother who was able to make it here from Chicago tonight. So open and willing to allow me to travel all over without reservation, I wouldn't have found the place that I now call home. I'd also like to thank my other family members but I'd especially like to thank my campaign manager, Fazz who will help get me to this point and then my treasure, Ross Albert. I'd also like to thank the outgoing city council and the current city council members. This is not an easy job to take on and it definitely is a service that few have the honor and privilege to provide to their community but the people who get to these positions are doing it because they really care about the community that they live in and that they serve. In addition to that, I'd like to thank all the people who supported my campaign which many of you are in the audience and those people who are at home. And I'd also like to acknowledge and thank the people who ran. There were 10 of us this year who ran for city council and out of the tens of thousands of people we were the 10 who stood up and really wanted to make a difference by representing our community and it takes a lot of courage. So I want to acknowledge all the people who actually stood up and have run this year and in previous years. And finally, I'd like to thank all the voters who got us to this point during this campaign season. We are here to represent you. We are your voice here and we want you to come to us at all times so we can make sure that we represent you appropriately. It is an honor and a privilege to serve on the Santa Cruz city council and I'm excited to be here to represent the people in the place that I call home. I'm really looking forward to and I'm committed to working collaboratively with integrity and professionalism with the staff, with the other council members here and the other people who represent elected officials within our county and throughout our state. I really want to work to preserve the values of this place that we call home. I really want to be an ear to everyone within our community and protect all the people who reside within it. At any point, if anyone wants to come to me, we may disagree on things but I want to know that I want to hear your perspective so I know how to represent you appropriately and want to work with the rest of the members here so that we make the best decisions to make this a place that we can all live in. Thank you. That's good reminders. Okay. Well, first of all, I just want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and express my deepest gratitude to my wife, Birdie, of 33 years. We have a little history tonight in terms of who we represent on our city council right now. So I'm very proud to be part of the LGBT community and this is truly a historic night tonight for our community. So by recognizing that, I want to thank my dear friend, Marta Beckwith, who is my treasurer. We met the first day of college at UCSC and we've been friends ever since. So Marta, thanks for everything. She's a busy mom and she really rocked being my treasurer. So thank you. And I want to thank Allison Harley, who's somewhere in the back. Allison was my campaign manager and neither of us really knew what we were doing but apparently we did a pretty good job because we made it and we also had a really great time doing it.  So thanks for sending me that email and having the coffee with me at Abbott Square because we ended up doing a good thing. So thanks for your help. And just briefly, my brother and my sister, a lot of longtime friends here tonight. So thank you all for coming out and thank you for helping with my campaign, signs, walking, dinners, all of it. So the little red pot from David and Leslie, my neighbors that would arrive with soup every week. So thank you everybody and I am so excited to begin. I feel like I've been waiting for literally 30 days to start this up and I'm just really excited. I feel very privileged to serve everyone here in Santa Cruz. I've been here a long time. I've seen Santa Cruz do some extraordinary things and we've designated one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. We recovered from a devastating earthquake. We've had a lot of firsts in this town and this body has always truly been guided by fairness and really trying to do the best for all the people here in this community. And I really truly hope and I know I will be a council member who reaches across this place, this dais daily. I will reach across in my communications with my fellow council members. I will be available to anyone in the community that wants to talk to me about anything that's of importance to you or of concern to you. And we will only solve these problems by working together and we are not alone as a city right now facing the issues that we face. This is not only a California issue, it's a national issue and we all need to lean in and put our arms around each other and not keep at arm's length because we will not get there at arm's length. We have to link our arms and when we misbehave I'll bring out the gunny sack and we'll get in that and we'll hop around on city hall till we figure it out. So we've got to keep our humor, we've got to keep our compassion, we've got to keep our manners and we need to treat each other the way we would in the grocery store and I ask that everyone in our community think about that when you step through these doors is that this truly is a place of privilege. It's a recognition of our democracy and how we can be as people and please, please treat everybody well. That will be the most important thing we can do in the next four years together. So please, we will always be here to listen to you but we will listen a lot better if we can actually hear you through a quiet voice. So thanks for the privilege and I really look forward to serving with these extraordinary people and learning from the people who have been up here before. So thank you. We must all learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in a single garment of destiny caught in an inescapable network of mutuality and whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. That's a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I chose to open with it because it's a quote rooted in empathy. It's a foundation is in the understanding that what affects one of us affects all of us and I believe that we as elected officials must understand this and must exemplify this concept as an example for leadership. Good evening, everyone. Yes, good evening. How exciting. I'm honored to be here with you today to accept the decision of the Santa Cruz community to allow me to serve you all as a member of the Santa Cruz City Council. I wanna thank those who helped me to ensure diverse representation on this body and allow for new perspectives to help guide us and the new the direction of the city. As one of the first two African American male city council members in our city's history, I wanna say thank you. Also, also would like to say thank you to all of the outgoing city council members for their work. We may not have seen eye to eye on policy a lot of the time but it takes a lot of energy and dedication to even go into this position. So I want to express my appreciation for the work that you've done. Also thank you to all of the campaign team but most importantly, thank you to my mom. She was the one that got me here and is the reason why I am who I am today. So now it's a time for a change of direction. It's time for a change of values. I believe that the results of the election communicate a shared desire across the community to see us move to embrace the values of equity, justice, empathy, and compassion, values of fiscal responsibility, community empowerment, and diversity and a belief that in a modern, moral, and wealthy society, none should be too poor to live. The No Place Like Home project reported that Santa Cruz is the fourth least affordable place in the world with over 24% of our population living under the poverty line. We have one of the highest rates of poverty in the state. Our median rent jumped from $1,899 in 2013 to $2,834 in 2017. That's a 49% increase over the last four to five years with stagnant wages and limited job opportunities. We have an unacceptably high population of people experiencing homelessness and houselessness because any amount of people is too many. People having to fend for themselves in this bitter cold tonight without adequate shelter or food, many of them women and unaccompanied minors who are at risk of violence, abuse, and trafficking. We're faced with the reality of climate change, sea level rise, and the impacts that will have, the impacts that that will have on our most vulnerable communities. Our transportation system is broken with too many cars on the road and an ineffective public transit option. So our roads are congested and dangerous. The youth in our community lack adequate outlets for their creativity, development, and have limited places to turn for support. Our natural resources like water are being depleted. We have a severe lack of representation of people of color in leadership positions and so many other critical issues need to be addressed. Well, we cannot remedy all these problems at the local level. It's my responsibility, our responsibility as elected officials to do everything we can to ensure equity and justice for all. We are capable of ensuring that we have basic frameworks where people can have shelter of some kind and move them into services. We are capable of offering our youth, all of our youth, support to gain access to college and trade schools. We're capable of pursuing a bold agenda on climate change to protect our future and we are capable of having a moral and ethical economy. Each and every day, we all must dedicate ourselves to these causes. So, I'm looking forward to working with my peers on the council and city staff to actively get where we need to be and doing so in a way that builds community and strengthens relationships. After this election and the conversation around measure M, a gazillion type, our community is broken, torn, and facing the reality of a great divide between certain groups. Now is our opportunity to rebuild, to come to the table with open minds and open hearts ready to have difficult conversations about the direction we will take our city. We must be ready to face hard truths and make ourselves uncomfortable and ask ourselves if business as usual, tradition, and our current path is in fact the right choice. We must analyze past decisions and ask ourselves not only if they make economic sense, but even more importantly, if they make moral sense. And in doing so, we can craft a framework to build a future that Santa Cruz not only needs, but what it deserves. These may seem like idealistic goals, but that's what they said about my choice to run a campaign on $13,000 and reuse yard signs. In the words of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I'm optimistic in my goals, but pragmatic on how we can get there. I believe we can get there together. And quickly, a word to my opponents, those who opposed my election and have called me an extremist. At first it bothered me to think that someone would, or people out there would cast a negative perception on my values that I hold really dear, or who would question my character for trying to achieve them being represented in local government. But then I remembered. I remembered the words of Dr. Martin Luther King in his letter from a Birmingham jail as a response to the Alabama clergyman who had called him and the non-violence civil rights movement extremists. In his response from a cold narrow jail cell, he wrote, quote, I must admit that I was initially disappointed in being so categorized. But as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love?  Was not Amos an extremist for justice? Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Was not John Bunyan an extremist? I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience. Was Abraham Lincoln not an extremist? This nation cannot survive half slave and half free. Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist? We hold these truths to be self-evident that all people are created equal. So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremist will we be? Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or will we be extremists for the cause of justice? And so I ask those in our shared community, what kind of extremist will you be and what side of history will you be on? I look forward to serving you and thank you again to the community. We'll move on to the next item, which is the election and swearing in of the new mayor and vice mayor for 2019.  So we will can start with the vice mayor for nomination for vice mayor. I nominate council member Cynthia Matthews for vice mayor. You need a second for that? A second, you don't need a second. All right, and shall we take the vote for that then? Other nominations. Other nominations, excuse me. Are there any other nominations? Yeah. Okay. Council Member Cron. Hey everybody, how you doing? This past election is evidence that many in Santa Cruz want to go in a different way in a new direction. Perhaps that might even be the road less traveled. Because right now we know almost every bump, rut, ditch and broken pavement on the road we've been on. We have a chance to embark on a new path beginning tonight. Many new woke people came out and participated in this past election. Santa Cruz County saw the number of registered voters soar past anything they've seen before. This may very well be the largest number of voters that ever voted in a midterm election in Santa Cruz history. Sure, there's many reasons why the turnout was so high, but I am convinced that one of them is the fact that people want change. People are awful tired of the madness they see coming out of Washington, D.C. And many of those same people, newly registered voters and registered voters wanted to do something and see something. They see where their country is headed and where their community is going and they want to change Santa Cruz. My sense is that most people in this room want to see local government doing something different. New ideas for bringing affordable housing. More imaginative approaches to providing services and opportunity for the community's growing homeless population. Many want to just feel like their government is theirs and it is here to serve the interests of not only those who already have, but the majority struggling to come up with another $100 rent increase or keep up with the escalating tuition costs or maybe just searching for a safe place to park their car so they can sleep. Maybe government can do better for them. This past year, many of us unchanneled where many of us were anxious and fretful and used our chaotic energy and focused it on real community change. Years from now, when our children and grandchildren look back on the second decade of Santa Cruz history of the 2000s, they may sense that positive changes were indeed taking root. This past year began with young people and old people, renters and homeowners, students and community activists pounding the pavement and gathering over 10,000 signatures to place a rent control initiative on the November ballot. Out of the initiative, a grassroots movement began and it grew right up to election day. Out of it came two African American candidates for city council and guess what? Santa Cruz elected Drew Glover and Justin Cummings to sit on the Santa Cruz city council. While no one can predict the future, I am confident that history will reflect some big changes in the next few years. In the years after two African American men were elected to the Santa Cruz city council for the first time. I believe this past election, if it means anything it meant that people want to go in a different direction. That is why I am proud, I am awed and a bit overcome with emotion because I will get to nominate Justin Cummings to be our next vice mayor for the city of Santa Cruz. You already likely know of his PhD in ecology. His teaching science, his job teaching science research skills to college students up at UCSC and his love of punk rock.  As Ayanna Presley, the newly minted congress member from Boston said something in her victory speech recently that made me stop and think. She said, change can't wait and it can't wait in Santa Cruz either. The election of both Martin Watkins and Justin Cummings will portray a community that is looking forward to solve their problems, not backward. So I asked my colleagues up here on the dais to join me in voting for Justin Cummings for vice mayor of the city of Santa Cruz. I didn't realize I could speak to my nomination for council member Matthews, can I? Well, maybe I'll just, I'll turn to council member Matthews because I saw her first, if you had a few words, and then. That's fine, I appreciate Donna's interest to say a bit more. This has been a really tough election season. I think there's not a person in the room who doesn't know that. A lot of dedicated candidates but also a lot of, the toxicity level has been there, let's be honest. And that's not a way that I wanna spend my last two years on the Santa Cruz City Council. Many people have talked about the really intractable, much bigger picture problems that face our community but I also think we have so much potential for good here and we have so much potential for creativity and we have so many people, thousands more than are represented in this room who are invested and generous in so many ways with their community and that is our strength. And I do appreciate Donna's nominating me under kind of the old format. I'd be next in line but I also don't want to perpetuate what I think is a really divisive perception that things happen on a four, three vote or a clear dividing line because I think that's not true. So I would be, I thank you for your nomination but I'm going to withdraw my name and I am happy to support Justin. I have gotten to know Justin a bit in the course of the election, really impressed with what I perceive in our little brief acquaintance. Your admirable motivation for wanting to run for public office, your intelligence, your spirit of wanting to reach out, be inclusive, be fair and I hope to work constructively with all the council members. I hope we can put to bed as much of the divisiveness that has typified a lot of the recent few months and we'll take a break over the holidays and I honestly do look forward to working with the entire council and our magnificent staff. They work so hard and the community that I think of each in their own way wants to do something to make Santa Cruz a great community. So thank you. Well I would just like to recognize council member Matthews. Cynthia Matthews has been working to protect women's health for generations. She established our health center here for women and families as part of the group of people who did that. She's worked tirelessly for Planned Parenthood. I don't know of anybody in this town who has worked harder to make this community a better place. She was front and center after the earthquake, helped stitch this place back together and I think it's important to recognize people who serve the community for generations and that's what Cynthia has done and she's done it well and she's done the best that she can for our community and I nominate her tonight because I think it's important when someone's ending such a long run on city council and has contributed so much to our community that the fact that she did earn under tradition to finish her last year as the mayor of Santa Cruz I would have liked to see that and that's why I did nominate you and I think it's very telling about who you are that you recognize that we do need to come together now that we have a new council and so thank you for your words but most importantly, thank you for your service and I look forward to working with you for the next couple of years. I'll just add, I too want to thank you for your service to this community and- It's not over yet. I look forward to working with you for the next couple of years and for your humble and humility this evening as well. So is there any other nominations for my vice mayor at this time? Seeing none, we will vote on that or I will turn over to the speaker. There is a vote, yes, there's a vote. Okay, all in favor of Justin Cummings for vice mayor this evening. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? You can vote for yourself too. Oh, I did, that's what I- Yeah. That passes unanimously. An animus. Now's the time for the other- nomination for mayor. I'm not gonna make a big long speech but I just, we came onto the council at the same time and I feel like we've had a lot of first days at school together and it's been a pleasure to get to know you, Martine, and to really get a better understanding of your dedication to your role serving the city, the people of the city, and the commitment that you bring and the calm energy that you bring for all of us. So I think it's gonna be wonderful to work with you for the next two years and it's my pleasure to nominate Martine Watkins as our next mayor. I too have enjoyed, thank you for the nomination. I'm honored and I too am enjoying it. Are there any other nominations for mayor? Seeing none, we'll go to vote then. All those in favor of the nomination for mayor? Aye. Aye. Aye. That passes unanimously. I'd now turn it over to our city clerk, find this. Aye, we'll turn it over to Michael Watkins to swear you in. Aye. Aye. Vice mayor Bonnie, two questions. Follow after me, okay? It's a pleasure of me to be here and introduce my daughter as the mayor. And we've been here for 40 years supporting Santa Cruz County. And I'm in education, she's in politics, but it's all the same I guess. So, all right. Okay, so you can announce your name after I say aye. Okay, aye. Martine Watkins. Do solemnly swear. Do solemnly swear. I will support and defend. That I will support and defend. The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. And the Constitution of the State of California. Against all enemies. Against all enemies. Foreign and domestic. Foreign and domestic. And I will bear true faith. And I will bear true faith. And allegiance to the Constitution. And allegiance to the Constitution. Of the United States and the State of California. Of the United States and the State of California. And I take this obligation freely. and that I take this obligation freely? Without any mental reservation. Without any mental reservation. Or purpose of evasion. Or purpose of evasion. And that I will well. And I will well. And faithfully discharge. And faithfully discharge. The duties upon which I'm about to enter. The duties upon which I'm about to enter. Congratulations. Woo! May I come down to be sworn in as well, or do I make my remarks first? No, we just forward you in, so you're good. Oh, yeah. OK, there you go. All right. So I was told I can get a few extra minutes, not quite as long as our former mayor and council member Dawn Lane, but I have a few prepared remarks, so I appreciate and advance your attention. I just want to start by saying and sharing with you all my sincere expression of gratitude to our community, the people of Santa Cruz. I am privileged to be in this position and to serve our great city. And I am deeply honored to serve on the city council and now to assume the position of mayor. I have to begin by thanking a few folks. First, I want to give my sincere appreciation to my colleagues who are exiting the council this evening. My sincere gratitude to you, David, Cynthia, and Rachelle, for all your service to our city and for your leadership. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to work alongside you these past few years, and I wish you the absolute best. I also want to thank those who are here tonight, and I look in the audience and I'm so warmed to see your faces, as well as those who couldn't come out this Tuesday evening. I am so grateful to have you in my life and thank you for believing in me and for what I stand for. I have to thank my husband Brandon for your enduring support and love and so much more. And I want to acknowledge and thank our beautiful, wonderful, smart daughters, Evangeline and Watkins Proctor, and Winnell Love Watkins Proctor, who are all here this evening.  I want to thank my parents, Michael and Ann Watkins, who are my foundation and who have guided me in my entire life. You have helped me embrace who I am as a woman of mixed heritage and appreciate all that a company's experiencing life from that perspective. I want to thank my brother who's here from Oakland and the back there for being so smart, my older brother that is, keeping it real and always being there to support me. As well as my in-laws Linda and Colin, you truly make up the village that allows me to participate in civic service in this way. Because as a mother of young children, there is no way I could be here doing this job without your support. I hold you here with me as I assume the position this evening. I want to thank our city staff for all your dedication and hard work. As you know, we have an incredible city, and I'm honored to be one of seven who serve on this council, but merely one of hundreds that keep and contribute to our city running every single day. One thing I know is that we share a deep appreciation and dedication to service at all levels of all of our staff and departments, parks, public works, water, management, senior management, council members and everywhere in between. We all play a role in our shared success. My ideals and aspirations as a candidate, as a council person, as a vice mayor, and now as a mayor have really not changed, orienting around really three things for me, which is integrity, community and vision. And the first point I want to make is to talk about my commitment to integrity. My commitment to being a person of integrity, authentic, open-minded and reflective, a leader who strives to understand all perspectives. As an elected official, I believe it is our duty to demonstrate to our community members, to our children, that we can lead with integrity and we can govern from a foundation of respect. The second point I'd like to highlight is a bit about community and process. And I don't think I have to explain to anyone in this room or to our colleagues up here that we have a number of challenges that we as a community face. Homelessness, the cost of living in balance, affordability of housing, economic opportunity, climate change, rising pension and healthcare costs. And although hurdles, yes, absolutely, but they're not insurmountable. Our community issues are complex. They're interconnected, they cross city lines and boundaries and I look forward to working with this council on solutions to the issues impacting our city today. But as well as to have the foresight to prepare for the future and what lies ahead. We are so lucky to have an engaged and dedicated community. Over the past few years, I am often inspired by community members who come with incredible insights. They share experiences that we need to know and be made aware of, but they also often come with solutions and ideas to how to overcome those. And as a council, we are elected based on who we are and what we represent as individuals. But once seated, we shift our roles from candidate or activist to a member of a governing body. And as mayor, I will inspire to enroll the council to find alignment, to foster a policy agenda that incorporates community input, that builds on the work of previous councils, but ultimately allows us to get things done for the current and future residents of Santa Cruz. Because yes, we can be both pragmatic and action oriented and it's up to us to seek alignment in the interest of progress. And this leads me to my other point, which is a vision towards health equity and prevention and children. And I close with vision because I believe that integrity, community and process are the essential elements necessary to have in place before vision can be actualized and ultimately become reality. And as I enter into the role of mayor, I intend to inspire the council to focus on health equity and children. And health equity and children are essentially interconnected because healthy futures for all Santa Cruz children must be rooted in the need for Santa Cruz to be a healthy and vibrant community. And when a community is thriving, we all stand to gain. And community health is influenced by more than just individual choices. And when speaking about health or community health or wellbeing, I'm referring to what is often described as the social and physical determinants of health, where you're born, where you live, where you work, where you play and where you age. These circumstances are often responsible for inequities, but with intention can be mitigated and avoidable. Every decision we make as a city government influences how we live, learn, work and play. And policies that influence our experiences are typically developed by agencies other than health departments, such as fire, police, planning, public works, parks or economic development. And I think it's clear that we cannot put health in a silo for others to address, separate from how our residents experience the services of our city. And a few months ago, I was so proud that our city council voted to create a subcommittee to explore the health and all policies public health framework. And you may ask, what is health and all policies? What health and all policies is a collaborative public policy approach that incorporates health considerations into decision making across every branch of city government and policy area. And the health and all policies framework is essentially about doing things differently to increase efficiency and impact. So whether you're in the police department, fire department, planning, public works, the orientation of services can be centered positively to impact the social and physical determinants of health. And my focus is to find the best way for us to institute this framework throughout all that we do so that no matter the decision we make, we'll be reminded to design policies that for example, sustain our beautiful natural environment in the face of global climate change and the potential impact of environmental injustices. Policies that foster safe and accessible neighborhoods and parks for all residents, not just some, from the Upper West Side to the East Side to the beach flats. Supporting affordability of housing for everyone at every stage of life, finding creative ways to support people struggling to live and work here due to the cost of living in balance of our region. Continue to invest in all types of transportation options, walkable communities, safe routes to school, access to healthy foods, clean water and air, economic vibrancy and employment options and sound fiscal sustainability. It's how we weave these all together. Because ultimately when departments and agencies understand the health implications of their decisions, as well as support other institutions in expanding their responsibility for health, collectively we can improve conditions for all people in Santa Cruz. And over the past several years, throughout the country and state, the health and all policies framework has been tailored to meet individual communities' needs. And although they vary in application, many share common elements, encompassing collaboration, planning and advancing public policy decisions, investing in change and applying data-driven approaches for continuous improvement and accountability. And they're seeing results and I think Santa Cruz can too. And I'm ready to get to work. And knowing our city government plays a role in ensuring all children raised in Santa Cruz, regardless of their neighborhood or background, we will be able to live healthy lives, which brings me to my other aspiration, which is to have and support upstream prevention policies. And it is my hope that the new council will continue to find ways to make sure that every child in our community is given the best opportunity in life. And as our former President Obama said, that the size of your paycheck should never determine your child's future. And the science and data is clear in regards to the socially-returned we yield when we make these investments. Investing in children is public safety, it's community well-being, it's economic development and it's tied to affordable housing. And we all know that there is a pressing and increasing need for families and working people in our city. I don't think we'll find a hardworking family or parent trying to raise their child in Santa Cruz who doesn't seek a safe, thriving learning enrichment environment for their kids. And I wanna thank the previous councils for their work on establishing a dedicated children's fund for the city of Santa Cruz, focusing on early childhood development, vulnerable youth and prevention. This action truly put Santa Cruz on the map as a model for local governments to create set-aside funding resources to support our community's children. I also wanna thank the Santa Cruz City Council for making a recent decision to make Santa Cruz healthier and stopping big tobacco from getting our youth hooked on tobacco products by selling them and marketing flavored tobacco to them. We limited and banned flavored tobacco recently. And it's these types of policy actions that we must continue to make. And they paved the way for all Santa Cruz children to be given the best shot in life. And as a result, we all win. And I think my supervisor, who knows me well, would say I have a lot of vision. So I'll just stop there in the interest of time. But I'll say one last thing. We as local leaders can see and feel the impact of the decisions we make. It's a gift. And I've been honored to be elected to serve this community. And I look forward to embarking on the journey with the newly elected council to ensure and sustain our beautiful city. So with that, thank you so much. So at this time, unless there's any additional remarks from the vice mayor, I will ask if you have a century, however you'd like. I would just like to say, again, it's an honor and a privilege to be in this position. I want to also acknowledge Cynthia Matthews and all her years of dedication and work that she's put in in the city. I'm just beginning this trajectory and I know that I have a lot to learn. And I'm gonna be looking to work with the people from our community, the former elected officials, the people on this dais, and the people within our community so that I can be the most effective city council member as possible and the most effective vice mayor as possible. And so I thank you all for this opportunity to serve and represent our community once again. And I've already said enough earlier, so I will leave it there, but I want to thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Cummings. Council Member Brown, I can come on and acknowledge you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Before we adjourn, I have a couple of things that I want to say and I'm gonna make a motion here because I tend to stick with business. This is an evening of celebration and recognition of the change that we're making here. And I hate change, but I'm actually very excited to work with my new colleagues. And so I'm glad you're all here, but we have some business that is what I consider to be quite pressing and we're gonna be taking hiatus until January 8th. And there are a lot of people in this community who are unsure about what's going to be happening, speaking of how our policy decisions, we feel the effects of those decisions and people will continue to feel the effects of our decisions through the holidays while we're on break. So with that, I wanna provide some indication of where I'm interested in going and I've consulted with our city attorney about this. I've consulted with the new mayor about how we do this. So I just wanna make a brief motion with little fanfare, little discussion to assure people in the community that we will be taking up the question of tenant protections and trying to engage in a real meaningful community conversation to take people up on the demands they've made on all sides of the issue to come together. And so I wanna just move that we direct staff to come back to us at our January 8th meeting with a proposal regarding the resources, including funding and staff time for some kind of task force comprised of community stakeholders, including but not limited to landlords big and small, tenants and others regarding policy options around tenant protections from evictions without cause and other relevant measures for the longer term for a three month period somewhere around there. But I'd like that to come back to us on the 8th so that people know that we're really serious about having that conversation as well as an ordinance extending the joints, the just cause eviction provisions that we pass as a temporary measure. I wanna be really clear when I say that and I don't wanna take up too much time here but I wanna be really clear when I say that. This is not about passing measure M de facto or through the council post election and this is about limited protections with pretty extensive exemptions. And I think that it's worth having that conversation as a council in the new year. So I'd like that to come back to us as well. I have some materials that I'd be happy to give to you Mayor Watkins and to the city attorney and I've offered up myself to work on that over the break so that we can come back and really have that discussion. That's my motion. There's a motion on the floor, is there a second? Second. Okay, seconded by council member Cron. Is there any further discussion amongst the council at this time? Council member Cron, yeah, all right. Well, I'm assuming no public comment here. Okay, there we go. Then we'll just take the vote, I assume. Yes, it is appropriate to add an item to a future agenda without it being on this agenda, but no discussion or very limited discussion can be had and in oral communications would not be appropriate under those circumstances. So this is simply accepting that we would be adding this item to the future agenda, okay? I believe it requires a second. There's a second, council member Cron. Okay, all right, at this time, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That passes unanimously. Aye. Okay. At this time, I'd like to adjourn the meeting and offer you all to go next door to the Civic Four A reception. And thank you all so much for being here. It's the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Woo! Woo!