e eight million from the SAMHSA grant you know we we're still in a very resource constrained constrained situation but um there are some some positive notes there with with those funding opportunities they come with these potential additional resources for um helping individuals but did you have uh I don't know if you wanted to speak to the specific location where the um system of care was referenced I don't know if I answered your question I should say yeah on page uh 28.3.3 that's the second bullet point um and you know it starts with the seat of Santa Cruz in broader region has been challenged to adequately address the growing challenges homelessness due to an array of factors including an ongoing lack of has a number of bullet points or one of them is case management which is the second one and then at the very end for the report the third bullet point on the last page of 28.3.1 zero um it just it says county wraparound services are required to move individuals out of emergency programs as I stated earlier and um ongoing collaboration with the county will help reduce overall cost and ensure program success so um thank you yeah yeah thank you for that clarification and I think I think my points generally spoke to it in that you know currently that is kind of that is the case you know they're very resource constrained but we do that moving forward there's going to be some additional capacity with this uh these these grant funds um part of the challenge is you know those are those are one time funds right so you know when that grant is up you know how is that effort going to be sustained over the long term and so we really do need systemic changes in the funding availability over the long term in order to be able to um adequately resource these issues and to that point there's a lot of items around adding three FTEs at $100,000 a year this and you know kind of to your point this these are one time funds and I'm just kind of curious about you know I know there's been discussion and community um interest around creating the all-term crisis response teams that could kind of perform the same duties but it sounds like these individuals would be doing outreach camp management um I'm not sure what the other item was but that sounds like a really huge lift for three individuals to be taking and also you know we're making a major move by creating three long term positions so I'm just wondering if you could speak to that because we've been expanding almost like the staff around homeless services and it's one of the concerns I've had and I've heard from other people is and where is this going and what are you know what are our goals around you know adding all these positions especially since we've cut positions from any other departments they've also expressed the need to have staffing as well. Thanks Councilmember Cummings that's a that's a great question and the staff there so we we currently have two temporary staff members and temporary staff members are limited in the number of hours that they can commit so this is one of the areas where there is some overlap with our existing expenses and the proposed ones that said the proposed ones would be substantially more you're absolutely correct in that you know they would be a full-time position or at least budgeted at full time and then there would be benefits associated with that to speak to those responsibilities yes that would be a lot that is going to be on these individuals plate in terms of managing the camps and helping with the case management for those individuals that's that's part of the reason why you know it's it's going to be critical that the individuals in the transitional camps are able to have some self-management you know that's it's a it's a light touch management where we've got staff there each day but they're not there 24-7 and you know this is this is one of the areas where we will be evaluating you know what's the effectiveness of this approach this is the expense that we would anticipate for staffing these kinds of programs the the transitional camps you know two three or so transitional camps and we would be assessing that effectiveness because there are you know alternative options that may also be considered as moving forward I guess I'll I have many more questions but I guess I'll try to wrap it up because I know that this is the last meeting of the year and we want to move on and but I guess with the with regards to Salvation Army it was mentioned that there's going to be hiring of staff well two questions one at a previous meeting I brought up unemployment insurance and I'm just wondering if that item has been addressed in the contract and then the second question was a hiring of staff I mean I would imagine that we could probably just hire the same staff that's there currently so I'm just wondering around the idea that we need to retrain and hire new staff is there any opportunity for us to hire some of the folks who have already been doing the work about Salvation Army there you want to take that one yeah so in response to the first part of your question about unemployment insurance that language specifically is in a draft contract that is under consideration so that's been taken care of it was actually original draft to the question that you you pose with respect to the staffing you know how it hits the ground there may be that potential I think the issue is just the timing right now right where our interest is in trying to to get this established and operational as soon as possible whereas the county programs are still ongoing and that's just very recent decision from the county given the change in the state funding for the Pavilion program up there so that's a very fluid and dynamic situation the county is working on determining what the actual end date is so that's sort of the operationally the complicated piece about whether there may be existing staff at other programs in Salvation Army that could be dedicated to this program so what we presented is based off a timeline in terms of having to start that program new while county programs are still up and running great well I'll just leave it there you know thank you Vice Mayor Bruna thank you thank you Larry and Lee for the presentation that last question was one of my questions kind of that overlap of the timeline with up at the Armory and how that that looks so thank you for answering that with the encampment grants and I know there's a lot of moving pieces some immediate some farther out but with the additional funding for outreach that the county has received for encampment approach has there been any further discussion about kind of the the leveraging the resources of outreach workers with a team just kind of that daily contact team of services clean and enforcement or is this all independent the outreach encampment outreach is are they doing their own thing in terms of encampment outreach so so right now and right now they've got HP HP as you know one of their private sorry the homeless person's health project as one of their primary outreach mechanisms and groups there are others the downtown outreach workers and hopes team and so forth we have our team that is primarily you know they they do outreach as they can but they're also you know it's it's two individuals trying to handle a lot of different issues and so they're also you know doing trash removal and dealing with interpersonal challenges there and addressing issues with with rodents and a whole range of other issues that they're working on on a daily basis and so one of the things that we really want to do and one of the things that the grant is proposing is the encampment management grant so I want to separate those things out right the things that the county is doing right now versus the things that the county can do in coordination with us moving forward so one they're getting the additional assistance through the SAMHSA grant and those the hiring of those individuals the encampment management grant would allow for those individuals to have flexible funds to assist on a personalized basis the individuals so right now for example when I say someone might have a rapid rehousing fund where they can say hey I can get you into housing and this is what it's for you've got it you know we can get you into housing well that individual that might not be the best approach for them you know maybe they need some other resource in order to best get them back in permanent housing so that's where that encampment management grant would fit into the additional resources and as part of that we would also be working with them on better integrating our both our outreach and just our response as a city and county to encampments that are forming so I want to I want to ask does that help to answer your question or yes it does I had one more question regarding all the updates and I know things move fast and kind of flow at different speeds but I am and maybe this is a question for Elizabeth Smith but are the updates able to get to the city website on the homelessness page updates or is there another source where the community can track updates I will go ahead and respond I don't see Elizabeth is on here but I will go ahead and respond and I will say that I think that that is one area that that I personally and that others have not done a great job at in terms of all the things that we're doing you know if you look at just what was in your report today for example you know a lot of that information we had the FYI memo you know last month but before that you know there hadn't been as good a communication with the council as there really should be and and that goes for the communication with the community as well and I think part of the challenge is that you know we're so busy we're you know when we tackle one thing we're on to the next thing and we we sometimes forget to take that time and say hey you know what we really need to get that message out there so that people can understand there are a lot of things that we're working on a lot of things that we're trying to do to help folks and I see that as as a consistent personal challenge myself but one that I do want to work on because I think you you hit the nail on the head there Vice Mayor Brunner with some of the some of the challenges that we have are related to the communications about things that we're doing. Thank you Vice Mayor. It looks like we have gotten most all the council member questions so I'll go ahead and take this out the public comment. I just want to thank our staff for putting these reports together. Exciting to see actual that actual resources coming to this problem and I know hopefully we can lean into this and and get some people into a better living situation over time. So I'll go ahead and take this out to folks in the audience now. If you are interested in comment on implementation of homeless response program please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand. When it is your time to speak you will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted and then the timer will be set to two minutes. Before we take members of the public I'll go ahead and call on Serge Cagno from stepping up Santa Cruz to go ahead and do have his extra time at two minutes. Go ahead Serge. Can you hear me? Yes we can. Okay good evening City Council. I want to applaud the staff who have brought together so many services for our unhoused community members. I have a few concerns relating to the contracts and the services. The armory contract does not allow pets other than service animals inside the premises. This is important because low barrier programming in Santa Cruz has come to include pets property and partners because few people who are unhoused are able to get service animals training or certification and because pets are a part of their family we know people will refuse participation without their pet. These people would then be unfairly subject to the enforcement of the camping ordinance. I appreciate that the Salvation Army contract includes ADA access and hygiene assistance for all participants in need. I do not know a shelter in Santa Cruz which is able to do this. The Salvation Army as far as I know has not been able to offer this previously. I'm confused how this program will be able to offer this support which requires specialized training and is not a skill of shelter staff. I'm very glad to hear from Larry and Wally that unemployment insurance is included in the Salvation Army contract but I did not see it with the in the packet even with a search so if somebody could point out where that is or is that a newer version of the contract that would be appreciated. From the agenda 28.3 the agenda report bottom of page seven it says the RV dump station is approximately $155,000 to build. This confuses me because while I was on the catch committee I spoke with Public Works Director Mark Dettle who said it would cost about $30,000 to install an RV dump station which is just digging down and attaching a t-line. Clarification on that would be appreciated. Lee Butler talked about the encampment management funding's flexible funding which is a wonderful service and I'd like for us to be clear that those funds would also be helping many towing charges when people can't afford their own getting their cars back to work. Thank you Serge. Next I have Garrett. Yeah hey good luck with this no really. It would be responsibly informative if he would disclose both estimates and over some time period the actual running costs of the total city cost for homeless individuals served and the cost per person of homeless reduction that resulted from it if any I hope any instead of a total for each of the services you intend to fund. I think those are important figures to disclose. For example you mentioned the possibility of the armory occupancy could drop below 75 but assuming that was the figure at $1.2 million for six months of Salvation Army oversight plus fees to the state utilities that's going to work out to what? My math says a minimum of $32,000 per individual per year from the Salvation Army fees alone not counting other expenses. That's a pretty sweet benefit for people who don't have to do anything for it. It's actually more than someone working full-time at $15 an hour minimum wage every week grosses not their take on pay. I wonder how you would sell the expense logic of your benefit program to such an individual. Let me help. We're hoping to experience how great the free benefits are of what you're looking for two weeks a year for. Oh that's not too good. Thank you. Next up is Meredith Kodaran. Where'd she go? Can you hear me now? Yes we can. Go ahead please. Just a quick question. I understand that a lot of what helped house folks this past year was additional resources from the county with COVID-19 programs. With that being phased out I wanted to know if the county or the city had any kind of backup plan if we see a second surge in COVID in addition to other infectious diseases like cold, flu, or with the rain parasites like Giardia that happen to hit encampments. And if there is a plan to relaunch some of those programs if we find ourselves in another wave this year. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Rafa Saunfield. Yes thank you. I just wanted to express my appreciation to the council member Calentari Johnson's comments regarding and conducting an analysis of the current cost of homelessness to our community including the amount of police time that's spent and just all of the robust ways that homelessness costs the city of Santa Cruz. I think it's not an apples to apples comparison if we are looking at these huge budget items that seem expensive on their own but in reality are actually reducing our overall costs and on serving and supporting our housed and unhoused residents. So I encourage the city to really look into the idea of analyzing everything including police cost when it comes to homelessness response. Thank you. Rafa, next I have Carolyn. Hey everybody, good evening. Thank you so much for having me. I just kind of had a comment after listening to the presentation about the youth action network. I felt as though if we were to sub in like unhoused for every time youth was mentioned it could offer like a really neat framework to approach this situation and I heard a lot of language around you know uplifting voices and going to their spaces and consulting them and I guess I'm just curious about how much outreach has been done to really ask the unhoused like what they feel are priorities and what would help them and approaching them with dignity because I feel as though the way that we address them and the way we see a CPD address them feels a little bit dehumanizing. So I just wanted to encourage us to maybe use the same mind or a frame of mind with them as we would are you. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, I'll bring it back to the council. Councilmember Calantari-Johnson. Thank you and thanks for everyone who stayed on late and made comments. I have just a couple comments and then I did have a motion that I'm ready to make. Just want to acknowledge that this is a really complex and challenging issue. It's not black and white there. I really do think that it we have to move out of the divisiveness. We have to move away from pointing fingers and we have to start working together and even when we do that we won't be able to solve this issue we'll be able to chip away at it. So I appreciate the work that everyone has done. I appreciate the work of the two by two. I know that it's not easy and I think we've come a long way. I've done a lot of work on homelessness. I've actually been on the county side for most of the work that I've done in the last 15-20 years in this community. So I really do understand the challenges and the complexities that are involved in this. Many systems involved, many constituents involved and it's a process. And this is I think a really remarkable beginning to our work that we've been able to accomplish in a very short amount of time. And I do think that inaction of prior councils not to blame but just inaction of our city has led us to partly and put these recommendations in this work into action. So with that I'm ready to make a motion and it's really going to mirror what we saw on our agenda report. And I wonder Bonnie if you would share your screen. Oh I emailed you. I don't know if you got me. I did get it but I just want to confirm that the intent is to... I was under the impression we were going to have three motions with three votes and the motion that I see that you have it looks like you've combined all of them. I did combine all of them. I guess I'll look to the mayor and maybe Tony. I assume this was one agenda item. So the council it really depends on how you want to frame the motion. You could make a motion to adopt all three recommendations as a single action if that's the pleasure of council. Okay that's that's how I have it now or if we can look at it and see if that makes sense. Yeah maybe let's do that and maybe friendly amendments or amendments we could potentially look at those. Sure yeah if it makes more sense to break it up I'm happy to do that. I assumed it was all under one agenda. So it's accept the resolution authorizing the city manager to accept an appropriate 14 million from the state. I got to put on my glasses because I can't read it. It's 14 million I believe. Yeah I'm going to make it a little bit bigger. Okay 14 million from the state general fund for use in addressing homelessness and to accept the report on the process being used to develop recommendations for how these one-time funds will be used. Accept the resolution amending fiscal year 2022 budget to appropriate 4.243.659 million of the ARPA Act of 2021 funds for homelessness response programs. Receive recommendations regarding council directed homeless response programs and services including but not limited to lease and sub-lease information regarding the National Guard Armory and I've added this piece and relocate individuals from the bench lunch to other locations. I guess I can put other encampment man transitional encampment locations for clarification. Authorize and direct the city manager to execute a six-month contract in a form approved by the city attorney with the Salvation Army for shelter management at the Armory and they mount not to exceed 1.2 million. Accept the resolution supporting the county of Santa Cruz is grant application to the California it looks like that should be one right. The California homeless coordinating and funding council for funding through the encampment resolution funding program and directing staff to collaborate with the county on implementation of the work outlined in the grant so four and five should be one. I think there is second to that motion. Councilman Watkins. I'll second the motion. All right we have a motion on the floor. So this is basically the staff recommendation primarily I don't not noting a whole lot of change in that correct council member. Correct just what's the third motion I added the little the last part about the benchlands. Got it. Okay. Not the third motion the third item in the motion. Okay and I'm gonna I see that someone has raised her hand in the public I will go out just briefly for that one person to make their comment. I your hand came up I think after I close the time but I'm happy to receive your comment. So that is going to be in phone number ending in 1197 and we'll bring it back to council. Daniel all correctly it was mentioned in the very beginning that in the past few days that you had to deal with the crisis in regards to the rain. How is that possible? Don't you get a rather report? Every year the Armory has been open for emergency shelter that usually is full during the rain. You close the emergency shelter for the first time in years. You created this crisis and what you offer instead is a floor of the River Street parking last minute around 1 30 p.m. yesterday a long time after the rain started.  Yesterday the city said they were going to move people with shuttle no one at Felker Street knew about the River Street parking they just got evacuated by the cops all you cared about it was at San Lorenzo Park that the people who did move to the upper part and stay from flooding that they had to move out of there and that's the only people that the city health move a few of our volunteers health from the bottom.  Now bring it back to council councilmember Cummings do you have a comment or yeah it came up when we when this got brought back around the idea around separating the motions and I would actually I think that would be I would be supportive of that if we were to move in that direction and that can either be each of the motions or it can be based on the different agenda report chapters and I feel like it's important because this was separated out into three different items and I was under the impression that we would be making separate motions on each of these items although we only had public comment on all three of them as a whole so hey Tony I'll look to the maker of the motion it is nine o'clock tonight so um I know many of us have to go to work in the morning and so I don't know how much longer this will take but um the mayor has the discretion to divide the question or it could be divided by a motion otherwise what you have before you is the motion that was articulated by councilmember so let me give may I just to be clear um so if we were to divide it it would be number one item number one right now would be separate item number two would be separate and then items three four and five would be together that I mean if that's the way it's framed then that is fine yes and that would correspond with the sub um the sub numbering of the agenda items yeah I'm I'm I'm okay with with separate that way if the seconder is how is the seconder of the motion okay with that so we'll just take the vote on one and then take a vote on two and so on and so forth and then three four and five will be can will be uh is one motion yeah let's do that I also wanted to follow up I had um I wanted to see if we could get some of the questions from the public answered around the um unemployment insurance language and also the follow-up on the RV dump station so I'm wondering if someone from staff could answer those two questions and pets please and pets yeah sorry I'll start with the RV dump station um the um estimate that we had was actually for um it included a decent amount of paving that would be required at the 1220 river street that would have included basically a new paved pad that goes from entrance to entrance so quite a bit of concrete and that would have substantially increased the costs um we don't know where that ultimate location is going to be or if additional lines are going to need to be extended um you know uh sewer laterals to the location of the dump station we use that as a placeholder because there may also be improvements at another location um and um it you know if it's less that would be great but we also didn't want to underestimate and Larry did you want to attack all the insurance and right so um our view there's a lengthy exhibit D that I haven't had a chance to go through since the question came up that articulates a variety of insurance requirements the intent is to put the unemployment insurance in if it is not in there um there's been a number of drafts and markups since uh we discussed this at the council meeting on the 23rd when this was concept and you first raised the question council member coming so we'll go back and make sure that's included uh with respect to uh pets that is also in the process of negotiation with the salvation well that is actually in the lease agreement with california guard the language in the lease agreement just specifies service animals but our questions back with our markup and request for changes that we submitted to cal guard last week inquired about the ability to have access for pets because again that is a barrier for a lot of individuals and having their pets with them is uh an element of success and need so that question has been posed to cal guard so I guess um kind of following up on that I'm just wondering how we can move forward because there's a number of different items in here as well that kind of point to you know we don't have service providers identified yet you know how we can move forward with you know not making decisions on something that we don't have all the info information on so for example with this salvation army contract it sounds like you know this is something for example I'm supportive of but it sounds like there's still you know questions that are out there with the um with the national guard and around you know whether they can have pets or not there's questions around you know whether I remember um coming maybe in the interests of time I mean if if you're if you're I don't know that we can answer all these questions tonight we we could be going on for several more hours tonight right um did you have a chance to ask the staff these questions prior to the meeting well I'm at my ask at some of these as a response to what we've been hearing from the public comment but I'm also I'm not I'm not trying to get all the answers to the questions tonight I'm seeing if I'm what I'm bringing up is you know it sounds like there may be a need to figure out how some of this can come back to us at a future date before we're making decisions this evening because if we enter into contracts and the contract is what was included in our packet and it doesn't include for example unemployment insurance which is something we brought up and that's still kind of out then we're and that's we're technically approving something with that does not have certain information we want included in it so I'm really trying to get it you know and this is a this is an issue I've had with this whole process is I've been feeling like there are things that come before us that are still being baked and but we have to make a decision on it immediately and I'm trying to figure out it sounds like there's certain things and what's before us that are not you know they've not been fully solidified and it's a number of different things whether it's sites whether it's operators whether it's language and contracts and that's something I'm concerned about in terms of having to make a decision on allocating you know five million close to five million dollars this evening towards these services programs okay and I'll I'd also say I know that it's late but this is probably one of the single most important issues that we address in our community hey let's keep going let's keep going let's go for it next question I'm happy to respond to that um if you'd like mayor I'm I'm fine as long as it takes we'll be here okay um so the the response I would have there is is yes council member Cummings you're absolutely correct we do anticipate having some minor tweaks to the contract um similar to that are specific to some of these issues that have been raised the the authorization that the council would have sets that maximum dollar amount you know we we don't anticipate any changes to the dollar amount but we do anticipate having some of these minor contract changes hey you know can we make it work with pets um or let's make sure that this insurance information is there and um the uh the motion language that we included does identify that it's the the form approved by the city attorney so we would work with the attorneys to finalize those specific issues um you know we we did debate like all right you know this this isn't going to be in its exact final form when it's getting in front of the council um you know we we chose deliberately to bring it to you for a matter of expediency so that um you know we don't have another month before um we can get this up and running with the salvation army needing to hire folks um we wanted to hit we we chose to to bring it to you sooner rather than later even though some of those minor details are are still um in negotiation it's certainly within the purview of the council to continue until those additional items but we are comfortable um finalizing those details if the council is comfortable with us doing that okay uh are we still on uh motion number one i i think you're speaking of motion number two but i'm not really sure yes i mean we can move forward with motion number one that's the case we have a a motion um council member brown do you have the comments on this you know you know no no that we have 14 million dollars or should we know no not on this one no no i don't want to lose i'd like to keep my hand up so that i can comment when we get to the others i did actually have one comment on that item and i just wanted to say that i know there are people in the community who've been interested but one i think that um you know having that money go towards infrastructure and land acquisitions probably the greatest use of the 14 million and then i've been hearing from folks in the community around wanting to expand or create um alternative crisis response so that you know when it's calls for homelessness or mental health are going out that it's not police responding to those calls so i just wanted to put that in the list of um you know recommendations and yeah that's it okay bonnie can we do a roll call vote on motion number one please council members watkins hi calentary johnson hi brown hi comey holder hi nice mayor brunner and mayor mirad hi that motion passes unanimously uh let's move to i it's a motion number two are there any questions or comments council member brown do you have a comment on this one i do um it's more of a general comment but i i feel like this is probably the place to make it um the the information we've been provided um does give us a high level understanding of the costs associated with a number of these programs that um have been at least set into motion uh through council action on um uh punitive and enforcement um focused ordinances i have i i'm very conflicted because i want to support this and i believe that doing things like that we are moving in the right direction by um saying that we're going to invest in these um in this kind of programming as a council member who um doesn't have the ability to um influence the the nature of the um programming the um partnerships that are being established um uh you know questions about the costs you know it makes me nervous to make a commitment that involves spending a lot of money um when we've done we have done this before and um so this idea that we have never taken action that we've we've just been sitting around i mean i just find that very offensive i'm just gonna say that um and um we have and then we spend the money and then the money goes away and the program goes away and i recognize that that is not the intention here and um you know so i want to be supportive and i worry that um given the um you know i'm trying to find a polite way to say this um you know given the priorities of council majority right now um we may not achieve what i want to achieve out of this and you know and what the people i talk with i am out in the community i talk with unhoused people almost every day that i am out in our community i spend one day a week um in one of the encampments helping with cleanup helping to help see how we can get people's immediate needs met um you know i am not uh naive to the problems and i see very different challenges i see the same challenges that are highlighted by my colleagues about nuisance you know um mental health and you know social behaviors um uh you know trash i see all of that and i see people who are just trying to survive and when i when i am sitting here with a body that um has now adopted two punitive ordinances one of which was not um legally you know was not actually used it's directly to um tow and rv a survival vehicle for three generations of people um because they had six outstanding tickets and were a month late on the payment plan at nine o'clock on a friday night on one of the coldest days of the year and now they are sitting um about to probably about to be you know uh some enforcement action against them now because they've got their stuff out on the side of the road i just have a hard time um believing that um you know that we're really going to make progress in that kind of environment i hear um we need to stop with the divisiveness and i agree but expressing my um frustrations my heartbreak um about what is happening to people and the fact that we're we're really what we're doing here is not going to meet those needs um and i worry that it won't in the long term it's very hard for me to have confidence that you know we're we're actually going to be effective with with these efforts i'm sorry to say that and if that sounds divisive i'm sorry but what feels very um you know what i think people get very upset about and i'm i'm upset right now that there are people who are suffering unnecessarily as a result of some of the things that this council has done so action does not always lead to progress and that's just how i feel and i'm sorry if that um angers my colleagues um but i i've just got to say it and so i feel quite conflicted um i guess i'll leave it there um you know i would like more um given that um that i am not on the ad hoc committee that's been established given that i am not involved in any of the conversations that um i mean i i and i recognize i want to say i recognize that staff is available i appreciate you talking with me rosemary larry lee i like i super appreciate it and i know that you're working to try to find solutions that are effective and compassionate at the same time that we have this enforcement framework that just kind of is the cloud over all of it and um so i would like to see um if if these decisions are going to get made behind the scenes with a you know a subcommittee of three council members um like more detailed kind of layout on programming i would like the council to have the opportunity to make decisions and bring this to the public agenda um in a more systematic way in a more detailed way as these programs are being developed so i would like to see more regular reporting to us about what's going on and an ability for those council members who are not invited to those conversations um to be able to weigh in um that would make me feel a lot better about it um so you know i don't even it's like i don't even want to try to make an amendment to the motion because i know i'm going to get shot down here so um i'm just real conflicted about supporting a kind of big broad with an odd a lot of detail um major allocation that's where i'm at i'm just being honest thank you council member brown uh council member comments yeah i also um share concerns around um a number of the things that are being proposed largely because there's for example language that states that you know we haven't identified well service providers yet and the costs can you know vary depending on who those people are and you know and one of the um previous items that we discussed and we were discussing funding you know there was a you know there were some comments made about you know getting ahead of ourselves with you know allocating funds and you know this is a situation where um you know or rather i should say you know prematurely allocating funds towards certain services and certain funding sources and this is a situation where um we're defining how much we're going to spend on things that are still fairly unknown and i guess one of the concerns i have especially around the um safe sleeping programs is that you know we've consistently been kind of scaling back i remember the first time 12 20 river street um was put into effect there were security guards and fencing and all sorts of things that um many people in the community thought was a little excessive we've rolled that back over time but one of the things that that was allowed us to demonstrate effectiveness with a lot of the um sleeping programs we had during covid and that we've continued to use has been the staffing and i'm a little concerned that we're going to move to this model where staff will kind of drop in every once in a while and just check on the camp and how things are going and leave and it kind of reminds me of when the Ross camp was operating when staff was going out there they were engaging with people um they were asking people to be compliant but you know um that wasn't necessarily happening and i know this time there's rules and there's um there's there's funding going towards this so staff will be there in and out but i do have concerns around you know if staff try to kick somebody out and that person comes back and you know what that means and enforcement of the different rules in the camp so i have some concerns around those programs i'm fully supportive of some of the things around infrastructure because i think that is a like a solid investment when it comes to the hygiene bay showers the um RV dump um sites like those are all things that i think many members of the community want to see come forward and also um that i think that we should also you know if we're going to talk about allocating funds and meaning community needs i think we should also be investing in um you know funds towards a feasibility study for alternative crisis response and that's something we discussed last year um and at the time the council said we don't have enough money um and you know and rightfully so because of the fiscal emergency but now we're in a position where we're allocating you know almost 4.5 almost close to five million dollars towards these services using these ARPA funds this would be a great opportunity for us to invest in that feasibility study because many people across many sectors in our community are supportive of that and i think it's something that we should consider personally i'd like to hear from other council members i i'm happy to make friendly amendments but um i you know if if i'm not going to make the friendly amendment if it doesn't sound like that anything's going to go in that direction because oftentimes i'll try to make a friendly amendment and as council brown said we get shut down so i don't want to go through putting a bunch of language out there unless there's you know uh a willingness to want to compromise on this uh council member Watkins i'm not quite sure to jump in here on this other than that i think you know we absent like a perfect solution i think what i feel is really consistent is a council that wants to try to do something and i don't think it's a punitive led approach really it's a programs led approach and we have this funding to use to go towards it if we're not using it towards solutions or programs then we're using it towards cleaning up encampments like the Ross camp right so for me i feel like you know absent the perfect solution and i welcome that to be quite honest with you given the amount of time i feel like we go in circular conversations around this issue it's really hard to just say god okay this is where we made it go so i feel like you know at a certain point i think it's really it's it's really hard to say yes to some solutions even though they're imperfect as opposed to really say they're not perfect enough to move forward and so for me i'm prepared to move forward um in some way given that it's evolving and that we're trying our best to meet the needs of our community and that honestly every homeless population is different i you know i work with the at the county office of education who are working on addressing homeless families and kids day in and day out every single day trying to get them christmas presents and you know getting community support around that and i feel like the community gives them so many ways and we're trying to do our part as well and and it's not perfect and there are different populations that need different interventions we don't have um everything in place and we can't point our fingers at this at the county year after year we have to try to do them and it's evolving and so for me i think i'm just at the point where i feel gosh you know absent a perfect solution an acknowledgement of the work that's done and the proposal before us that i feel comfortable moving forward um in regards to the to the motion before us at this point and i'll chime in here councilmember comings i'm not sure exactly what your amendment would be but i would again just um you know if it's i i i guess what i'm curious about is that again the the county just received eight million dollars um and part of what they will be doing is um a new program with that money called trios tree and transport program which will be pairing behavioral health clinicians with the emergency medical response responders in ambulances uh they're also going to um provide two additional mental health liaisons for the box and build police department um and the sheriff's office and the Santa Cruz police department um and so it sounds like there's a program you want funded but i'm trying to understand how it fits with the funding that just scott came to the county and whether or not you've talked to them about whether or not that's potentially where some of that interest may be satisfied i'm not sure if we need to do a study or if we need to talk with the county to understand how they're going to deploy those those fundings and again this is eight million dollars and it will be focused on behavioral and mental health response and emergency moping and mobile units throughout the county um mobile crisis units response units so if maybe there's a way to get some clarification i'm not clear exactly um if you've been able to talk with the county about this new program or um if you've been working with them on on trying to understand how that money gets deployed and if that's being the objective of again we're trying not to fund everything um you know we're trying to make sure the county funds the things that are sort of in their wheelhouse so i'm just i'm just curious if maybe you've conversations with eric ribera or others over at the county yeah more recently i'll say i'm not in that i'm glad to hear that that funding is coming through and that's um what the funding is going towards um the previous conversations that i've been having with people were that this is the county was going to be looking at that in the coming year and i've been hearing from community members from groups that have been working on the mental health crisis or the alternative crisis response that they've been really wanting to see the city step up and have and create some kind of feasibility study or see if we can get other jurisdictions on board um but that the times that that's been brought up in terms of allocation of money towards those kinds of studies what i've heard from the city council is that we don't have the funds to do that and this i was this was an opportunity when i was going to bring this up because um if we're going to be allocating funds from our general fund to fund these programs or not from our general fund from the ARPA funds that this is also something that the community has been interested in and um this seems like the appropriate time to bring it up that's why i brought that to the council's attention finally maybe my only response is since the county just got eight million dollars to do it sounds like what i heard which i think is the program out of war again or similar to that maybe just getting some clarification since they have eight million dollars um maybe maybe just a first step and then maybe bringing this back um you know as a you know later in another council meeting i'm happy to i mean i won't be in charge i'm like saying that but i'm sure we'd all like to hear but um the county from what i can understand and i've read everything that the county i read the full staff report again this is uh this was awarded a month ago so this is this has been acted on by the county supervisors there was a full staff report available december 16th so maybe that maybe just understanding a little more about what the county wants to do might be helpful um and then i'm sure we can i mean bring some an item forward so that that would be my suggestion i i think that some of these funds are trying to get people um in more stable conditions in the near term um so i've got council member voluntary johnson and then council member boulder thank you i'll um i'll keep a brief just you know i just i just want to note that um you know as as is being pointed out this is multi-layered and very complex um i don't sit by on the two by two and i don't sit on every committee um or many subcommittees for that matter on this but i just i reach out to service providers i reach out to our county partners i reach out to nonprofits i reach out to staff um and i just county office of education child welfare services these are all the systems county mental health behavior health these are all the systems that are involved and i and i try to whether i'm on a subcommittee or not or in those conversations i try to reach out and get the information and put the pieces together and um we we can't solve it all at once and this is our this is our moving forward with bits and pieces of it um so i think i don't know i think i think this this conversation feels like it's just kind of gone way out here um we are talking about the services that we've outlined as part of the council direction in the votes that we've taken in the last six months and what we have from staff are specific response of how to do that and what it would cost to do that let's start with that and there's more to be done and let's bring in our partners and each of us individually go out and do the work and talk to our partners to see what's being done already and where are the gaps and where where do we fit in with our role as a city so um i think with that i'm also um prepared to move to a vote um i see that council member golder has a question but um i'm ready to move to vote call the question tony do we have to vote on the call the question remind me yeah the to call the question is a motion so it has to be made in second it is not a debatable motion so the council would have to take a vote right away so if there's a motion by council member collin tarry johnson and a second you can vote uh to call the question council member golder do you want to second that i'll second that sorry council member collin tarry johnson that was a motion yeah i was confronted that's a motion okay um let's go ahead and do a roll call vote please sponnie so just to confirm tony this vote is to accept the call the question right and then we do another vote yeah on the original it's a motion to call the question right so if this passes then the council can move directly to the recommended action okay council member watkins hi collin tarry johnson hi brown l holder hi nice mayor brunner hi hi mayor myers hi that motion passes unanimously body can you now do a roll call on the uh motion 28.2 up on the screen and i believe this motion was made by council member collin tarry johnson and seconded by council member um watkins council member watkins collin tarry johnson hi i'm going to vote no and what just happened just now is the reason why i'm voting no no ability to discuss further but the record was stated earlier that we could take the time we needed to discuss this and my intention was to try to reach consensus and that's been a problem with this process the whole time so no hi mayor brunner hi that motion passes five four and two against and we'll move on to the next motion which i believe has three parts fine thank you okay um i would look to a um motion uh if if a council member is ready to do that well the council member collin tarry johnson has already placed a motion on the floor so um it was just divided up into three separate into three when you're right sorry tony getting a little tired okay um say uh council member brown leave your um yeah excuse me sorry um i i um i'm going to move an amendment to part two of this motion um to um ensure that amendment or i mean i don't think it's going to be friendly so i'm making this as an amendment we'll have to go through the whole vote um to um authorize and direct the city manager to execute a six-month contract in a form approved by the city attorney with the salvation army for shelter management at the armory in an amount not to exceed 1.2 million dollars and with language with specific language in the contract that unemployment insurance will be provided to salvation army workers on this contract i don't know if there's a second but that's my um amendment council member colder i'm just trying to understand why this is so important what this the unemployment insurance can can um council member brown or comings explain why why you're super passionate about this rosemary too has her yeah go ahead please i'm happy to share um if you're hired for a job on a six-month contract and then you lose your job because the contract is up and you can apply apply for unemployment insurance then you're screwed pardon my french so you're hired for like a six-month job and then the person can collect unemployment after the six months is up if you are if you lose your job you have no you have no ability to and you don't have another job lined up you have i mean we and we expect unemployment insurance is a rule state of california um for employees straight up um this is a temporary contract i believe those workers should have the right to collect unemployment insurance if they lose their jobs because we stop funding a program but do they know going in they're only getting six months at work that may be true but i believe they are entitled to unemployment insurance so if if if you think that because they they know then they then they don't deserve it or we don't it's not a priority that's fine i'm making them i'm just making that amendment as a motion i just i didn't understand what what what thank you ross mary do you have a comment on this i i do i just wanted to suggest that um in the event that you really want this and there was a price tag associated with it you might want to allow for that to um that you know some increment to cover that to be added to this 1.2 million if so are you suggesting language to say and um um uh including and allocate funds for additional funds to the contract if necessary i i mean i would say uh and you know amend then not to exceed amount to include that if needed right and okay yeah i mean i i don't know what the count is going to do on this but i guess what that's what i'm saying is that you put a cap on it and you could be making it impossible to reach out on the contract so could i ask for clarification on this um and forgive me because it's getting late but is the council voting now on item number two because i was we're voting on item number three point two number to authorize the contract i see here under 28.3 item number three point two okay thank you kind of get a point of order my understanding is that it's all three of these items because we broke it out into 28.1 28.2 28.3 and this this is all the language under 28.3 yes right just for clarification so the council then is voting on item 28.3 items one through three council member brown has proposed an amendment to item two that uh requires the provision of unemployment assurance insurance to solve an issue i i'm not heard a second on that second now the council can vote on the amendment the amendment passes you can vote on the main motion with the amendment i have a question yeah council member comings or what question i'm just curious um because i know that with grant funded hires you know which are often the case in my world there's sort of a recognition that it's a temporary or it's a you know it's based on a grant or it's based on a certain timeframe and i'm just wondering how often the city does this in regards to these types of contracts whether it be for you know a grant or a service like this this seems up unusual to me don't know that i and that anyone here tonight can answer that question for you um i think we can answer that question but do you think that you we don't usually do this or do we usually do i mean like in general is this a typical practice for a contract or and in is this a requirement that we're requiring salvation army so we would basically pass through the funds to them and then they would be paying the unemployment insurance i'm a little confused honestly i it would hold with the employer it wouldn't hold with the person with the group that was providing the contract at least that's a good question is is whether or not um an an employee under a temporary contract of the sort uh qualifies under state unemployment insurance law for enrollment in unemployment insurance so uh perhaps if the motion is accepted it should be reframed to say that that employees shall be eligible for uh unemployment insurance if provided for by state law is the maker amenable to that i don't know how we can do i don't start i'm just concerned that we have a contract that might be out of compliance with state law okay so the move in is the seconder can i interject here i think so i'm just trying to understand this so is the is the idea that unemployment insurance will be provided salvation army workers if it's required by state law is this is that the idea well i i'm not not necessarily at least you know for instance under some insurance programs uh temporary employees are not eligible to participate not under the requirement of the employer but under the requirements of the insurer so i can i just don't i don't have the answer to that question does does the state law enable an employer like the salvation army for a temporary contract arrangement like this to enroll its employment employees in unemployment insurance um i don't know so that's why i suggested if if applicable or if available i'm also kind of curious because i mean this is something i brought up at previous meetings and um you know our understanding was that the language was supposed to be supposedly included than a member of the public with the contract and so it wasn't and so i'm just kind of curious about you know if that language was supposed to be included already then you know rosemary do you have an answer on this i've been getting text text from lisa murphy who's telling me that she doesn't think this is a real issue because all temporary employees like our lifeguards can get unemployment insurance once the seasons end and she also says that it's a state fund that every employer pays into the fund so i guess the the intention is having it explicitly stated within the contract um because it sounds like they may have some concerns of employees in the past not receiving that unemployment insurance and so if the city is supportive you know of you know ensuring that the people who were contracting what they're providing their employees with unemployment insurance so that when they're terminated they can qualify for an employee i think that's the intention of what's being proposed here this evening but i don't it sounds as though that according to what lisa is saying that there is a that in fact the unemployment insurance is paid by the employer and then the employee is qualified to receive unemployment benefits that's how it's that's how she's sort of describing it and that that it's a state law that the employer must pay so if there's a problem with people receiving it there's some there's some confusion in there but her virgin is it the state law everybody pays into it and the employer in this case is salvation army it's not the city it could very well be that they have they contract with workers in a way that doesn't make them employees i don't know if that's the case and it might be a different thing but so um maybe we can so i i feel like we're sort of so i'm trying to understand how to get this done um we've now been on this item for almost an hour and a half on on these three motions well actually almost two hours um councilmember brown and and again this we are trying to work through this i just want you to know but i if if you're in a hurry then just vote it down if you or i'm just trying to be respectful to bring in our new mayor while her family's waiting i recognize that you know and our advice are so i'm also trying to be respectful of the people who do this really critical work who then lose their jobs when the funding runs out and then try to get unemployment and are denied so having that kind of language to say this is a responsible contractor issue if we're going to contract with the Salvation Army then they ought to agree that they will not try to deny unemployment to employ to their workers should they need to be laid off that's all i am asking if that's too complicated or you know controversial or whatever it may be then let's just you know we we know how to call the question call the question we'll just vote on it and the amendment and then that's fine with me my position is we should be working with responsible contractors that includes the provision of unemployment insurance and not denying their claims so whatever is going on with the Salvation Army it has been raised as an issue for past laid off employees i want to make sure any new employees or rehired employees do not have that issue and it's just a simple matter of putting that in a contract it happens all the time as part of responsible contractor language in public agency contracts with private sector contractors that's all um oh i am uh if you will unmute uh or bonnie and mute uh three two five nine eight one that is lisa murphy and she can answer this question can you press star nine to there you go unmute there you go r6 there you go oh good good evening council i apologize i've been having technical difficulties um as i'm following your conversation about unemployment insurance every employer in the state is required to play into the state fund it's not that we carry the insurance they we pay into the state fund and then when an employee is either laid off even if they quit the job seasonal temporary they're all entitled to apply for unemployment insurance trying to as an employer trying to deny that process it's virtually impossible i've been through the process before so even the example i was trying to text to uh rosemary was even our lifeguards while they know that they're seasonal and temporary when they come into the position they when the season ends they can still apply and still can obtain unemployment payment i'm hoping that answers your questions i don't think that it's necessary to put it in there because the salvage normally doesn't actually carry unemployment rate funds that they have to pay into okay um uh council member walkins and then council member comie okay council member comies go ahead i would just like to point out because and the reason why i'm making sure i have an opportunity to speak up is because there might be council member we should want to call the question on this item but i really need to point out that um one thing that was brought to my attention and that i got to look up was that um certain religious nonprofits are exempt from unemployment tax and Salvation Army um likely falls under that and so the reason why this is being brought forward is because of the fact that if we're contracting with this nonprofit their employees with the nonprofits not required to pay to save unemployment tax and therefore if their employees get fired they don't qualify so part of this is trying to ensure that under this contract that um the um Salvation Army will pay into the unemployment tax with their employees are eligible for it should they be terminated at any point in time so that's the intention under all this is that we're actually ensuring that the people who we're contracting with are doing the best to take care of the employees who are providing some of the most critical services to our community okay um i have one question i one additional question for staff um so tony i was just curious because i had another um motion for direction that i wanted to include that's not necessarily an approval of anything that's before us but is related to the homeless this topic and so i'm just wondering if or and when should i guess when should would be the appropriate opportunity to make that motion i guess i i really would need more information about what the nature of the motion is and whether or not it's uh you know consistent with the action that's before you yeah i can uh see if body can put it up i sent it to her a couple minutes ago let's um if we could can we get ready i'd like to get resolution on the amendment that's been on the floor um before we go to another item and we still have not finished the existing motion on the floor so why don't we uh martin or sonia do you have any additional comments or questions on this or maybe we can get a vote going here on this amendment let's think let me i guess uh i don't know i'm feeling a little bit confused frankly about this whole conversation in that i don't understand if it's that there's not an adequate response in terms of the state law or if there's a different vendor we're looking for or you know understanding based on what lisa said it sounds like state law does have um you know mechanisms in place to support this type of worker so i i guess i i don't fully understand the challenge or the issue um but it feels like it's sort of under this thing that already maybe state law has in place uh to support workers who are going to file for unemployment so i guess i'm just sort of feeling a little bit like um slightly overwhelmed and a little bit out i'm trying to actually bring forward solutions you know in a way that i feel like we can maybe do so with our community partners and i'm just going to leave it at that okay i've got council member gold i took my hand down but i'm sorry i did i i thought i was going to speak with then council member walkins oh sorry um i have a couple quick questions um i understand the intent as described by council member comings and council member brown and um i appreciate that um thinking and um really trying to incorporate that intention um did this did something happen with salvation army to bring this up or i'm just do you know of any experience where this came up can i yes okay um where employees for salvation army did not were not eligible for um unemployment so i wonder if they were not employees or if salvation army was exempt from paying into the state fund unemployment state fund what do you know which one it is does anybody um we're trying to research that topic as the council discussion is underway um there is an exemption under under federal law or religious organizations and i suspect salvation army might fall under that classification um as it as a way to move the discussion forward i might suggest so uh adopt some some language to the effect that the contract shall include a requirement to provide unemployment insurance if provided for by state or federal law because i i'm concerned about a contract provision that requires the contracting agency to provide insurance that it's exempt from under under state or federal law so does that put the obligation on the city then tony no it puts the obligation on on my office to determine if there's an exemption for this type of work and if so it would not be included in the contract if not it would be included is the maker of the amended motion willing or amenable to that addition so that's fine i get that repeated so i put it in there sorry tony contract shall shall it provided for by state or federal law include the requirement that employees uh are provided unemployment insurance benefits eligible for are eligible for yes thank you instead of it's kind of provided just say eligible for okay i just made okay there were two people talking i didn't care what did you say okay including an environment that employees are eligible for unemployment insurance benefits is the seconder amenable to this language i see it comes up councilmember golder did you have a comment or question you're you're muted sorry i put my hand down instead of unmuted i was going to say what tony said it's just i didn't think we could anyway no that's my little comments i didn't have one quick question um this for the city term my chair's like breaking so apologies for trying to fix that um so if the if the employer or the contractor doesn't is exempt from providing unemployment is there any way the city can require them to provide that insurance or is that something you all look into we will look into it i don't know the answer to that question i would have to research it um my concern would be that the salvation army does a lot of differences um and and and we would need to inquire as to whether or not it can you know participate in a state operated unemployment insurance program for a single contract when it provides a multitude of different types of services in and employees uh people in a lot of different capacities so it's just something that we would need to look into okay i'm just concerned that um it won't be about this so yeah but i'm okay with the matter sorry i didn't i didn't hear your comment there councilmember oh i was just i guess my concern was that you know this might be our only time to visit this topic um because it sounds like the contract's going to move forward and if it can well first off we i think we have to get the see if the amendment's going to be accepted but i'll just say that for now i'm fine with where we're at there's that and i will just um commit to the council that we will provide an update to the council by separate probably by separate memo or email after we've explored this issue we're going to take down like we're ready yes sounds like we're ready to take a vote bonnie can you take a roll call vote please this is on the amendment to the motion yes bonnie you're yep council member what can i i want harry johnson hi nice mayor brunner mayor meyer hi that motion passes unanimously okay um we're gonna let me that was a motion to accept the amendment now we need to do the right motion the motion on that yeah okay so councilmember what can i i want harry johnson hi over hi nice mayor brunner and mayor meyer hi that motion passes unanimously okay so i believe we bonnie can you go back up to the three so remind i believe we are done with this now yeah i have a motion that i'm planning on making and that's why i brought this up with the city attorney but i have an additional motion that i wanted to make with regards to which motion on the floor with you mean to the regards to which item to the item of homelessness that's before us this evening so i sent the text over to bonnie and i was asking about this because and that's why i brought this up with the city attorney a few minutes ago um you know a lot of what i've been hearing from people in the community around this and a lot of what i've been expressing over the course of the past year is the challenges around you know trying to come up with a plan and have goals and how we're going to you know have the community prioritize what we want to address around homelessness identify the you know service providers where our goals and this has been something i've been feeling like throughout the course of the year and i've been hearing this from members of the public you know that we're we have this ordinance on sleep or not on sleeping we have an ordinance on vehicles but what about people who sleep in their cars um what about mental crisis response you know why are we going in this direction versus another and so i think it will be really good if we came up with a plan if we're moving the direction of you know seriously addressing homelessness similar to the county it makes sense that we come up with a plan and so i'm going to move that um we direct staff to bring back an item for future discussion in early 2022 that would create a process for creating a plan to address homelessness which would include identifying goals priorities implementation strategies would include housed and unhoused community members and stakeholder engagement there's a second for that motion okay um we can go ahead and um move to the vote i guess um in the in the council packet there is a long list of well three of the major policy areas that have been completed since 2017 um those of all included lots of people uh and lots of things so um we have the 2017 recommendations we have the 2020 cash recommendations and we have the housing for healthy Santa Cruz um and we actually accepted that plan uh basically signing on to it uh so and that was an extensive outreach effort across the whole county um so i just want to make sure the community is aware of the extensive work prior to all of these the county completed the all-in plan which was done in 2010 um so there's at least five different housing you know homeless plans that have been completed so um i think what's before us is um immediate action and acceptance of millions and millions of dollars that we've never had and um so why don't we if there's any questions on the motion why don't we go ahead and grab those and then we will um take a take a vote on this portion any questions on the motion okay let's do a roll call vote um by councilmember Watkin no and for the record it's because we have a number of plans already in place um calentary donphin no for the same reason and the other plan that wasn't mentioned the youth homeless demonstration program that was a year-long strategic planning process led by youth with lived experience and for the record it's because the vast majority of recommendations and priorities that have been set in those planning processes that did engage the community have been ignored by this council um honey i am for the record as well um it's important that we are taking these plans and identifying goals and implementation of what's been outlined in these plans and that has not been how we've been addressing homelessness thus far with what we've been with the decisions we've been making this year boulder vice mayor brunner hi and mayor meyers that motion fails four to three okay i think that brings us to the end of this item can you go back to that i think yeah i don't know i was gonna say councilmember golder appears both as having voted i and no this is not the final anyway this is just for you guys yeah we've watched the video again i'm lost sorry yeah okay that's this that just needs to be corrected thanks okay okay i believe this item is now completed for the evening is that correct first i'm tracking okay um let's see we will now go on to um last items on our agenda are our ceremonial presentation items as outgoing mayor i would like to say a few words and then i will turn it over our city clerk to swear swear in our new vice mayor and meyer and mayor excuse me i'm losing my voice um i just got a few short quick little comments that i will do very quickly at this late hour okay um i'm losing my voice so let's go uh i just wanted to thank uh the staff of the city of santa cruz um you are the most dedicated group of people i know and you work hard every day to make santa cruz the best city it can be you are as are essential workers and your jobs are hard and trying i want to let you know i appreciate your dedication excuse me to all the residents and visitors to santa cruz i also want to thank my colleagues on the city council and our city manager's office team city manager's office team interim city manager rose rosary minard our city clerk team bonnie bush and julia wood assistant city manager laura schmidt susanne haberman sherry cope and rosemary ballsy elizabeth smith and tiffany weiswest no one can do this work without colleagues that will work hard to make change in their community and to take the hard votes that are needed this year has been a trying year in many ways and it has always really illuminated that santa cruz is a caring community that does want change from the direction we seem to be going we have seen new advocacy for producing housing versus anti-growth sediment we have seen that our community wants change in addressing homelessness we know we have a growing issue with fentanyl meth and heroin and that that is driving so much damage to our young people and is related to rising nuisance crimes throughout town these are the big issues ahead i hope we continue on the pathway to problem solving our hardest issues on the hopeful side which i swear i really tend to want to be i'm very proud of the work we have done on our interim recovery plan implementation and establishing a pathway to encourage a green economy and associated employment opportunities in santa cruz i look forward to continue this work and growing this employment sector this sector provides 10 percent of our jobs in santa cruz and i know we can grow this in the future my colleagues and i have also completed a national search for a new city manager and we are excited to have matt huffaker joining the city on january third i was thrilled to give a give a key to the city to stanford basketball superstar hailey jones and retiring director of visit santa cruz maggie ivy these women represent the best of santa cruz and i was pleased to recognize them i started the mayor's challenge to increase volunteers to join council members on beach cleanups throughout the summer and of course many council members had a blast jumping off the wharf in honor of the junior guards graduating this summer i celebrate my colleagues leadership and thank our voters for establishing the county's tax funded children's fund in our city charter the first in the state of california i also greatly enjoy the work i did with our surf preservation society and save the waves coalition and honoring on honoring santa cruz's surf legacy from keeping the surf museum open during covet ups and downs and celebrating its 35th birthday to helping create the partnership between the save the waves coalition and the city parks department focused on the world surfing reserve and i'm proud to have co-sponsored the efforts of many of my colleagues for the city to participate in to participate in united against hate week in santa cruz and to join the government alliance for racial equity this work will also focus on ways to have our government services and engagement become more inclusive of by pop a teen x and a api community members finally i'm thrilled by the progress we have made to bring to bring affordable housing to our downtown and a beautiful new library soon these residences will be walkable and next to a brand new transit center and new medical facilities these walkable communities are a best practice for climate change planning for the future finally i want to reflect on the hard work that was done during the ongoing covet crisis and in keeping our community safe i want to thank the community of county of santa cruz for its continued guidance on covet especially during the surges and it felt to my fellow mayors in working together on vaccination education and outreach and availability in our communities i want to thank the community all excuse me the county also for establishing and maintaining a covet testing center at the civic auditorium and helping to vaccinate our essential workers i want to recognize kaiser permanente and dignity health for operating two large vaccination centers in our city at a critical time and all the volunteers who helped at these centers to get as many people vaccinated as possible there these are the things that make being mayor a profound experience and i'm so lucky to have had the opportunity to serve this great town to mayor elect bruner and vice mayor elect walkins i could not be more proud to serve next to you both in the year ahead and i want to hope and i hope that you both enjoy and have fun in your new positions for the city congratulations i will now turn it over to our city clerk to swear in incoming vice mayor and vice vice mayor and mayor thank you mayor if i could have everybody but council member watkins turn off your video and if you can raise your right hand it's kind of awkward doing it via zoom i know um i martin martin watkins i martin watkins do solemnly affirm do swap 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 all enemies against all enemies foreign and domestic foreign and domestic that i will bear that i will bear true faith and allegiance true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states to the constitution of the united States in the Constitution of the state of California in 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 without any mental reservation and that I will and that I will well and faithfully well and unfaithfully. Discharge the duties. Discharge the duties. Upon which I'm about to enter. Upon which I'm about to enter. Thank you. Thank you for doing it slower than my dad did. Mayor, should I take a few minutes to make a few comments at this time or Bonnie, should I do that at this point? Yeah, I think we typically do the swearing in first and then and then you and Sonia can say a word. Vice Mayor Bruner, if I could have you turn on your camera and if I could have you raise your right hand. You're muted. You're gonna need both hands to unmute. Okay. I Sonia Bruner. I Sonia Bruner. 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 all enemies, 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 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 or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I will and that I will well and faithfully well and faithfully discharge the duties discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter upon which I'm about to enter thank you so Bonnie remind me I believe the mayor now takes this over my script is missing that page on what the vice mayor what can can say a few words and then Mayor Brunner can say a few words and then Mayor Brunner can adjourn us I will keep my comments short but I do just want to say thank you and I think every time I take the oath that remember that this is always so much bigger than just this one moment and this one person that it's all part of a democracy and system that we are participating in I want to thank the council and as Mayor Myers had brought up former Mayor Myers have brought up you know I really also want to thank our city workers you know we're going on over 13 hours and so you know I know that all of us are committed to the city and I also know that all of our workers are so committed to the city and they serve our city every day day in and out day in and day out and I thank them for that I think our communities committed to the city right we see that all the time in terms of the constant community input we receive and and then I'm going to also just take a moment to thank Mayor Myers you have been a really wonderful mayor and I have to I mean that truly there's no question to me that you are dedicated dedicated to this community you're dedicated to the city that although maybe not everybody is in agreement with all of the solutions brought forward all the time that there's no question that you're really seeking ways to find solutions to a lot of these complex issues and I've learned from your experience as mayor and I thank you for your service and I thank you for keeping us on track to keep moving a lot of these important policy issues forward I also want to thank and congratulate our incoming mayor and I really look forward to working as your vice mayor and the vice mayor of this community and ensuring that we're all successful and I can't also not thank my family because I wouldn't be here if it weren't for them and when I first started on council my little one was not even two yet so she's seven now and it's because I have a huge village so I just I have to acknowledge them I guess I'll just say my priorities have been really pretty consistent I'd say and that's essentially to do the best we can to build healthy equitable resilient communities a resilient community resilient Santa Cruz and continue to make upstream investments and I really try to approach policymaking sometimes I do it as sort of a policymaking nerd in that I really actually love public policy but I also like to think about what is the community you want to build and how do we shift our mindset from one that finds us sort of in these ruts to seeking solutions of what we want to see like where where we want to live and where we value living and how we build those those things right as opposed to trying to fix what we don't like and I was brought up by by Mayor Myers that we've done a lot of really great things as a community measure a is a great example first in the state I think it's first in the nation 83% of our voters said that they want to see us investing in kids amazing the health and all policy ordinance was really similar in that way and those are examples of really inclusive processes that engage our community and just today I think about all the things we touched on in terms of the work right we talked about a green economy we're doing equity youth affordable housing you know trying to just even though it can be divisive and kind of leave us on a bad note at the end of the day I know every single one of my colleagues really care about trying to find solutions to complex homeless issues I really do believe that and you know congratulations to our department on this incredible milestone after 20 years right in terms of infrastructure and climate resilience so I mean just today I think is a really great sampling of all the incredible things that our city does and it's important to recognize how it's all interconnected and part of our our job and so moving forward I'm hopeful that we can continue to try to find ways to work together and and actualize a shared vision and balance process and also balance being in action I know it's really hard and especially with some of these really hard policy choices before us but I'm hopeful that we can move away from really identity politics that I think it's at people's true identities but to recognizing that no matter what we're all committed to this community we're all committed to serve our our our wonderful city and we're really grateful to live in this beautiful place that we get to call home so with that I am very very grateful and I look forward to continuing to serve on the city council and service your vice mayor and I thank you for your time and for this nomination. Thank you vice mayor Watkins. I would just like to start by saying I'm also truly honored to have been nominated as mayor for the city of Santa Cruz for this upcoming year. I would also like to extend my thanks to the outgoing mayor Donna Myers on her year was a difficult year but you stepped up to the challenge and let us through unusual circumstances and you really kept us going and I've learned a lot this year as vice mayor and sitting in on all the meetings with you and I just I want to thank you for the positive year you brought and I hope you enjoy time off with your family. I would really like to congratulate the newly appointed vice mayor Martin Watkins and I look forward to working together in the year ahead especially with your previous experience as mayor and my council colleagues and city staff for their support and trust in this important upcoming year for city and council. We've been in this council meeting since 9 a.m. this morning and you know the job of a city council member is considered a part-time position we receive a small stipend and you know one thing too I've had community members ask in a council manager form of government as Santa Cruz is the mayor is not elected but appointed from within the city council for a one year term so you know I'm I'm really looking forward to this year that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our city in the most fundamental ways it's impacted everyday lives and our interaction with families and friends and workplaces and our schools our businesses our workers frontline services how we even conduct our city council meetings we managed to squeeze in one hybrid in person meeting in November as a test run and all of all have everything's been affected by the challenges that has created and it and it will continue we've been going through the greatest challenge ever but we're getting there we have programs in place we have vaccinations and boosters happening and we're grappling with you know unequal economic recovery and continuing concerns about all of life and how we should move forward and I truly believe we sit here tonight with light at the end of the tunnel after a very challenging year but and I'm hopeful for better times ahead because I know I sit here with a group of of people and a whole unique community spirit and generosity that continues to play an important part in getting us through this we have nonprofits community groups churches neighbors everybody who comes together to support those in need and those on the front line city workers everyday people volunteers you know the scale and effort has been so impressive and I think the testament to you know the true spirit of the people in Santa Cruz and which I which is why I love living here and why I'm happy to serve it demonstrates our resilience and and you know as we take the next steps together for this upcoming year so I just wanted to quickly outline the mayor's responsibilities I know a lot of people have expectations of what that means and it doesn't mean I get to do anything I want or wave your parking ticket. The mayor's responsibilities are primarily to preside at council meetings and to act as the head of the city for ceremonial purposes. I the mayor I vote as a council member and I don't have any veto power and serve you know at city council meetings making appointments. City events serving as an ambassador of the city for state and national agencies are presenting proclamations and keys to the city. During my mayoral year I look forward to meeting with people from across all sections of the community and I will also inherit a budget deficit several million dollars that will require immediate action that we will continue to work towards there will be contracts to negotiate with city workers and you know I look forward to starting the new year with a new city manager and continuing the hard work we've we've really started this year to meet the needs of our community and I plan on really working to root out inefficiencies to support a culture of collaboration inclusion and productivity and we have worked to continue towards racial equity working with our communities of color looking at declaring Juneteenth an official holiday supporting the Asian American Pacific Islander community members in May with an acknowledgement day of their history and culture in our city of Santa Cruz. This year's also and in my mind about strengthening partnerships with the county of Santa Cruz departments and we we we heard and talked and discussed a lot of that in today's agenda items earlier and with local nonprofit organizations I mean it will really be the forefront and critical and much of our work with topics already before us racial justice and equity and our county criminal justice system workforce housing and affordable housing across the county countywide homeless response solutions countywide encampment management better mental health and substance use disorder support services and as we heard from the earlier agenda item presentation including our youth voices and in this work and decisions and there have also been previous discussions of exploring a countywide human rights and equity commission as as mayor of the city of Santa Cruz it only makes sense to also continue the collaborator of work that started this year with the mayors of the three other cities in the county the city of Scots Valley the city of Capitola and the city of Watsonville and you know I think through these partnerships with county departments nonprofits the mayors our community members I'm hopeful that we can get everyone on the same page established direction and associated you know priorities lay a path for good decision making and accomplish alignment communicate the same message to everyone and really keep moving forward and in mapping out the 22 2022 calendar year you know already starting from January through December there are topics and city business that our work will include revenue financial stability that California voters right act transitioning to district elections climate action plan work downtown expansion plan and a new Santa Cruz Warriors arena homeless garden project and the Pogan it Nueva Vista and Beach Blats parking impacts and exploring shared outdoor sport court models so that there are options for outdoor roller skating rinks that many of our community members participate in so I'm looking forward to this year and working with you thanks again to everyone for their support to date and I look forward as we work collectively for a better future for the people in the city of Santa Cruz thank you and with that I would like to call this meeting adjourned congrats so again routine much have a great year thank you bye evening thank you everybody tonight