All right well good afternoon everybody welcome to the 12 30 p.m. public portion of the closed litigation session of the February 26 2019 meeting of the City Council and this part of the meeting the council will will receive public testimony Thereafter the council members will move to the courtyard conference room for our closed session I would like to ask the clerk to please call role. Thank you mayor council members crone here Clever here Myers here Brown here Matthew here vice mayor Cummings here and mayor Watkins here At this time, I'd like to see if there are any members of the public who would like to speak to any of the items on closed session Now would be the time to do so You're here to speak on closed session Okay, yeah, why don't you come on up and we'll give you two minutes and you could address the council before we go back into closed session And if you could please at just bring the microphone towards you so This is about a Infection that I got while Fishing in by the boat walk next to the boardwalk in between the jetty and boardwalk. I was just out for an hour with the fishing and Just standing in a walking in the breakers of the the beach After about an hour after the fishing I went home took a shower and and started feeling nauseous and then it was on my way to San Jose To friends house and start noticing my legs swelled up and start getting real nauseous I just got ended up getting a fever. I was getting a cold sweats and it turned out that I got a flesh-eating Infection from a bacteria. That's that's in the water At the Santa Cruz boardwalk in front at least from there to the jetty. It could be all over. I don't know but that's where I was standing in the water and It was a really really bad infection. I mean I spent 15 days in the hospital had had emergency surgery and Two big patches of skin removed from my leg and that's where they found the bacteria and I don't know what else to say about this other than the fact that there were any signs Because later when I got out of the hospital I had some newspapers and I read the back of the newspaper and it gives you a Quality of the water in Santa Cruz that I'd never seen I'd heard from a friend and it clearly stated There's a red flag saying do not come in contact with the water And if there's if it's that bad there why are there no signs before anyone enters the beach at any Beach entrance. I've taken pictures at everyone and there are no signs nowhere Stating you anything about the quality of the water People should not be when people when it's stationed in the paper. There should be signs on the beaches. I Mean, I would have never been there if I would have known Thank you, thank you for being here and for sharing your perspective and I'm sorry to hear about your medical The situation and so we'll go now into closed session, but we'll take in your testimony Yes, I have a request to add an item as a subsequent need item and it is a lawsuit that's pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals entitled Zabrisky versus Federal National Mortgage Association or Fannie Mae This is a request for amicus participation on behalf of a non-profit called the Public Rights Project that is that is Joining in a petition for rehearing in the Ninth Circuit against a ruling that was made against Zabrisky and in favor of Fannie Mae, so The reason why it's coming to your attention now is that it came to my attention After the agenda was posted and the reason why it's a subsequent need item is that there's a deadline of March 8th to To add our name to a an amicus brief that's going to be filed in the Ninth Circuit And so that's before your next council meeting. So I would request that the council add this as a subsequent need item Did you need a motion from a council member? Okay. I'm prepared to make that Making the findings that this came to our attention late and we need to act with urgency I'll move that we add this to the agenda. I'll second that so motion by council member Matthew seconded by myself any further discussion All in favor, please say aye. Aye Okay, so at this time, we'll go ahead and adjourn our meeting to the courtyard conference room where the council will go into our closed session Well, good afternoon everybody welcome to our 1 p.m. Session of the February 26 2019 meeting of the city council Before we begin our meeting today, I would like to take a moment to remember a day that we as a city will never forget on February 26 2013 at about 2 3 23 p.m Detective Sergeant Butch Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler lost their lives in the line of duty While conducting a follow-up investigation And we as a community are indebted to them for their service and This incident has impacted the entire Santa Cruz community in a very profound way Today is the first city council meeting since the tragedy took place that fell on a regularly scheduled city council meeting So I ask that we take a moment of silence to remember their sacrifice and celebrate their service Okay, at this time, I would like to ask our clerk to please call roll. Thank you. Mayor council members crone lover here Myers here Brown here Matthews here vice mayor Cummings here and mayor Watkins Karen The clerk could please lead us through the Pledge of Allegiance Do we have this is the time for the presentations or do we move on to our Introduction of new employee introduction introduction of new employee Okay, well, we have a new employee and you'll kick us off on the introduction on this one We have Bonnie Bonnie bush introducing our new employee with the city clicks Thank you may count some members as you know, we've been without a deputy city clerk for a while now So I am extremely happy to announce Julia Wood who is stepping into the position Julia has been in Santa Cruz for about six years spending the first several years working in the South Bay managing home owners associations which We we found really aligned with a lot of our rules of Brown Act and all that stuff She has family that lives in Santa Cruz and she was drawn to make Santa Cruz home with its unique character Diversity and strong sense of community as well as our beautiful beaches forest and hiking In her free time Julia enjoys walking along walking with her dog along West Cliff working on DIY projects or Cooking with her partner for her friends and family. So please join me in congratulating Julia and welcoming her Welcome Julia. I'd like to now introduce or have our public works director Mark Dettel come up to introduce It's a new employee afternoon Mark Dettel director of public works, and it's my pleasure to introduce Joe Murphy our new assistant engineer in in the wastewater division Basically should be doing Design and engineering work related to our wastewater treatment plant wastewater collections and sewer lateral ordinance implementation it's an existing position and Works for Scott Gluck's she was born in Mountain View and lived in Pasadena and in Oakland and Berkeley as a youth and then Arcada as an adult she currently lives in Santa Cruz and For the most for the past 30 years. She's been a student She did a 10-year stint as a chef in Northern, California and spent the last five years researching Water reuse technologies in the lab, which is great because we're starting our tertiary project at the wastewater treatment plant potentially Working with Soquel Creek water. So we're pretty excited about that She went to school at Humboldt State University in undergrad and then did graduate work at the University of Colorado And when she's not working she loves to cook. So please join me in welcoming Joe Welcome Joe Okay, if our director of water Rose Mary Menard can come up to introduce her to the employee afternoon mayor and counsel Today, I'm pleased to introduce to you Lewis Kay Lewis has just joined us as an associate professional engineer and Lewis is a wonder man for from our point of view. He's a guy who brings us lots of experience He doesn't have water experience But he's got a lot of really great construction management experience in a variety of public and private settings over the last 13 years He's worked at Sandus in Silicon Valley as a project manager the Department of Navy as a civilian contractor in Pearl Harbor as a nuclear engineer over a period of three years as well as some land development work he's did in Illinois for a number of years. He comes with a engineering and project management degree from Michigan Technological University and He grew up in Honolulu and when he and his wife decided where to relocate This was sort of as similar as you could get Honolulu with you know in the continental 48 So anyway, he's married and has a dog likes to surf ski and hike And so it's a perfect fit and we're really thrilled to have someone with his experience joining our team working on all of our Rehabilitation replacement efforts for our capital program. So please welcome Lewis Kay Welcome and then lastly we'll invite up our director of finance Marcus Pimentel to introduce a new employee Thank You mayor. I'm proud to introduce you to Alex truly Boy just hack that last name Alex Alex Alex we go by first names Alex will be assisting Laura Nolan in our purchasing department and we're really honored to bring him back home Alex came from Santa Cruz Worked in Santa in our area in purchasing went off to manage purchasing in El Dorado County And we were fortunate enough to bring him back home. So we're really excited about this opportunity Alex brings many years of experiences of purchasing with Really, how can I help attitude and we've really appreciated that about him already in his first couple weeks He fits right in with our culture of how can we serve and support our city in a creative collective way? And we're excited about where he's going to go in the city We're excited about helping his development move through we have a small purchasing group of three very Dedicated people, but just three people who do a lot a lot of work for a city our size So we're really honored to have him here and look forward to many many years Maybe a few decades of commitment to the city of Santa Cruz and again, we're glad to bring him home It's hard not to comment on your tie Marcus Very fitting for your position Okay, at this time, I'd like to invite up a short presentation From a Prince Lasha on International Jazz Day Hi to everyone mayor Council members, I would like to present to you a small version of what we did With the support that you gave last year, okay International Jazz Day in a week Presenting music seminars for a week in a classroom setting at our local schools Assisted music students to excel in music International Jazz Day concert at the Santa Cruz City Municipal 1 This is a free public event Come and enjoy it with the support that we received from the council and the mayor last year 2018 Basically what we do We do International Jazz Day We go through the high schools Elementary and middle school We try to get the kids to pick up an instrument instead of anything else To if you learn an instrument, it keeps you busy. It humbles you it makes you Become a servant to that instrument Keeps you out of mischief Plus you learn how to count and you do math and science much more easier the last person was and in a rail from Monte Carlo and This year we have someone called Who is it you got me all nervous now anyway Pete Escavito from Los Angeles. He's coming this year with his nine piece group and his family and I can only ask that as we go through the schools this year that we get more confidence from the kids to learn an instrument and Support from the city council Again, thank you Mayor and city council a pleasure Thank you for your presentation Prince. I had a chance to go last year with my family It was a beautiful day and very windy on the wharf, but it was incredible. So I Appreciate the presentation so at this time we'll go on to our next presentation Which is the parking for hope check presentation So today I am so happy that the city of Santa Cruz in partnership with the Santa Cruz downtown Association will be presenting hope services with the fifth annual check collected from our parking for hope holiday program and For those who don't know hope services is a nonprofit in Santa Cruz that provides training and support services To adults with developmental disabilities in doing so their crews have helped to keep our downtown streets clean and welcoming for over 20 years The funds were collected from the downtown meters the week before Christmas with the usual rates supplied However, all proceeds this eight-day period were designated for donation to hope services over a hundred and forty three Thousand in total has been collected for hope services in the last five years This means that the total amount collected in 2018 that has been donated to hope services today is 30,862 So we'd like to welcome the hope services team to the podium to accept to them do the donation Thank you Thank you So at this time I have a mayor's proclamation and that will be Declaring February is African-American History Month in Santa Cruz So I believe we have some folks here to accept the proclamation and before I go ahead and hand it over I thought I just read a few of the components So the African-American community in Santa Cruz has since before the city's establishment contributed to its trades industry arts culture Philanthropy education and community despite centuries of racial discrimination and whereas the Santa Cruz chapter of the NAACP was established in 1949 partnering with the city of Santa Cruz in 2018 to bring about March for the dream and honor for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Which unites our community around common goals of fair treatment unity and universal human dignity and Whereas the Santa Cruz community Embraces its diversity promotes the teachings of African-American history throughout the entire year and acknowledges the invaluable Contributions of its African-American residents and visitors as we celebrate African-American History Month, so now therefore I Martin Watkins mayor of the city of Santa Cruz do hereby proclaim the month of February 2019 as African-American History Month in the city of Santa Cruz So mayor Watkins, I want to thank you and the council so much for this I'm delighted that you decided to acknowledge all of the contributions that the black Community African-American community black community African community have made to history We really appreciate it I'm not gonna go on And I don't have a lot to say I'm Deborah and you're all looking very well remember my face because I'm gonna remember yours Thank you. Thank you for being here Thank you so much for being here today to accept that. It's a pleasure Okay, so that concludes the presentations for for this afternoon So we'll go right into our business. I have a few announcements and then we'll move on to the regular meeting Today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 and streaming on the city's website at cityofsantaCruz.com Lynn Denton is our technician for both this afternoon and evening sessions, and I would like to thank you Lynn for your work All city council members can be emailed at city council at cityofsantaCruz.com If you would like to communicate with us about an agenda item We'd like to receive your email by Monday at 5 p.m. Before our council meeting This provides us with an opportunity to review your email and include it with the rest of the agenda packet Please do bear in mind that all items of correspondence with the city and city council Do constitute public record and are generally subject to disclosure upon request by any member of the public Accordingly if you have sensitive or private information that you do not wish to be made public You should not include that information into your correspondence with us Our rules of decorum are on the window ledged to my left and it's my job to keep the meeting running Without disruption and we asked that you respect your fellow citizens when you are inside and outside of our council chambers At this time, I'd like to ask if there are any statements of disqualification Seeing none City clerk are there any additions or deletions to today's agenda? Pardon me mayor I had sent the council a Message this morning Recommending tabling of one item which I'm prepared to address now or when the item comes up on your later in your agenda We could address it when it comes up later. Is that that's fine. Okay. Thanks. Okay Okay, so at this time I'll make a quick announcement about oral communications Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the community to speak to us on items that are not on the agenda Oral communications will occur at or around 7 p.m And I'll now turn it over to our city attorney to provide a report on our closed session Thank You mayor and Your Watkins members the city council there were several items on your closed session today the first I'm going to touch upon was not listed on your agenda. It was a Subsequent need item in a lawsuit pending in the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals in tight Zabrisky versus Fannie Mae corporation On that item the city council authorized the city attorney's office to join in an amicus brief Being prepared to file in the Ninth Circuit On behalf of the public rights project and this has to do with Fannie Mae's reporting of credit history information in connection with a mortgage lending More details are available on that upon inquiry by member of the public the rest of the items were all on your agenda item a was a conference with Legal counsel involving liability claims the claims of Julie Gilbert Alfred Gilbert and Johnny Louis Poff Those items are also on your consent calendar this afternoon for counsel action There were two real property negotiation items as well involving city-owned property in Scots Valley Commonly known as the Sky Park property. I'm not going to list the APNs But they are listed on the posted agenda City rep met with and gave direction to its negotiator Bonnie Lipscomb with respect to potential agreements for the use of the property by PG&E and also by Scott's Valley Education Foundation. There was no reportable action on those items. Thank you Okay so we're going to switch it up a little bit and Now is sort of an opportunity for us to report on some of our external Communications for those of you that are new to the council. This has been something that has sort of changed I'd say throughout my time of rotating Every other meeting or occasionally and generally would take place at the end of our council meetings So today we thought it would be a good idea or I thought it'd be a good idea to sort of switch it up and have an opportunity for us to briefly share out any types of actions or activities taking place in terms of your work and assignments as Advocates on behalf of the city. So if you could please share briefly anything in terms of Reportouts to the council and maybe I'll start with you a council member crone on my right. Thank you very much. I One group the community advisory group and possibly council member Matthews wants to add something to I thought we had a fantastic meeting couple weeks ago and a Lot of information was generated Concerning how we are going to move forward With a sort of partnership it seemed to me between university and the community I Think Chancellor Blumenthal was very open. I actually heard him for the first time Talk about two thousand instead of Ten thousand and I and I took that as a very positive number And I think that there was real work It's the best meeting I've ever been to tell you the truth from the university city over the years. I'm going back to 1998 So I just am positive and of course we've been meeting with the Chancellor I think everybody's been meeting with the Chancellor meeting with him today and Another another very cordial conversation although he Does not think that we can the campus is going to grow But I think that's you know, hopefully a longer conversation and he knows where we're coming from Thank you We I said on the youth violence prevention task force steering committee and we had a meeting in Watsonville at the Health facility out there with different stakeholders It was a little bit different of a steering committee meeting than usual because they invited different service providers from the area So that we could discuss the issue of racial equity They had been conducting some racial equity trainings and implicit bias trainings with different representatives from the service Organizations as well as figuring out ways to implement racial equity training with police departments throughout the county. I was Encouraging to hear the feedback from the different Service providers as well as other elected officials and police departments that were represented in the room What was one of the most encouraging was the Watsonville police department? I believe which are the ones that are really taking the lead and not only having sent their officers to Get trained as trainers in racial equity But then also Dedicating a sizable amount of hours within their police department for additional racial equity training So I'm looking forward to seeing how we may be able to implement that in Santa Cruz Yeah, I attended both the finance committee for Metro I'm a seated member of that subcommittee now and also the Metro board committee board meeting this month Main report outs really have to do with our partnership with Metro potentially on the Pacific station project council member Matthews and I requested a Joint session on that at some point so we could inform each other of the opportunities of And working with partners on a project down there at the Metro station and Other than that, I think those are the main main items Yeah, so I'll be on the finance committee moving forward and we also are starting to work on the budget for the Metro as well I just thank you for reminding me council member Myers That we also met for the community programs budget committee to talk about things and that was really interesting And I look forward to whatever you decide to update the group to but I found it really interesting Because we were discussing the ways that we could Distribute the home and CBDG funding specifically CDBG, which is the money that comes from the federal government that allows us to fund Non-profit programs and different things around there So it was difficult conversation because we're trying to figure out how we can Span out a hundred and eighty six thousand dollars of cross projects that are the total I think it was like six hundred thousand dollars of requests that came in So it's really a difficult Job to really figure out ways that we can prioritize that from that experience though and from the conversations that we had I'm really looking forward to finding additional streams of revenue that we may be able to infuse into community programs Thank you Just a couple of quick updates from so I said on the Monterey Bay Community Power Or which is the powers authority that over for now? I think 20 jurisdictions one more coming in the tri-county area that has taken responsibility for procurement of power and distribution of Well, we in a we still we continue to work with PG&E for the time being The distribution they still operate the power grid, but we we had a conversation about How things might proceed and what it might mean for ratepayers given PG&E bankruptcy and So far it does not appear that there will be any significant changes We it looks like given that we've made some sound decisions in terms of our procurement we're likely to be stabilized through the This process so I'll update you again if we hear anything new, but for now ratepayers can be assured that Things should be status quo as PG&E works out. It's financial dealings with the bankruptcy courts The Regional Transportation Commission has a meeting we finally Did approve the staff recommendation for the preferred scenario on the unified corridor investment study? This is going to lead to some pretty major investments in Highway and rail trail Rail trail Development and so I think that for the city of Santa Cruz What we'll be seeing most clearly and immediately well immediately in the medium term will be improvements to the segments of the the rail line and the trail that come through the city So we've begun working on that and this the city council has voted the past to support The measure D allocations for those projects and so that'll be continuing here if you're in South County You'll see that freight Up, you know freight service continues to operate on the rail line. We have a contract with progressive Rail as a as a common carrier for us be given the withdrawal of Iowa Pacific from the area. So Everything's moving along smoothly there and last but not least the area agency on aging has met and we meet monthly and Have I think I mentioned this at a previous meeting, but now things are kind of Starting to move ahead So there's a legislative agenda that they support and I'll be bringing a couple of key pieces of legislation or with or across the city of Santa Cruz sign on for some supports for senior services around housing and Meals and other health care services. We finally have some potential for movement there with the new governor And so I'm hoping we can support those efforts and in addition. I think I've reported on the AARP Has requested the local jurisdictions big try to become age-friendly Jurisdictions age-friendly communities. There's a process that we go through and so I'll reach out to staff to try to bring A proposal back for us. There's no real fiscal impact at this time However, we have that may give us access to some funding through AARP And so I'll be working with the county supervisors on the AAA to try to make that happen as well To to be continued. Yeah, several of mine have been reported on already the the UCSC community advisory group and Metro Really, I think we're reaching a very encouraging Spot with Metro discussions on Pacific Station and looking at the broader possibilities there. I Sit on the mid-county groundwater agency, which is collaborative for the mid-county basin aquifer and we're continuing good research and progress on work with Soquel Creek on aquifer recharge your comments about the Issues for aging Reminds me that the health care and all policies committee met to kind of get that off the ground That will be good information to incorporate as well Very general preliminary discussion with that subcommittee Yeah, and we met community programs, so that's it. Thanks. I Do I say I think I appreciate you're putting this early in the agenda because I think we all spend a lot of time on these subcommittees and Assignments and typically it's been relegated to the very end of long meetings and we're kind of pride So I think it's important that we share these updates. So thank you. I like this. Yeah, okay. Thank you for the feedback on that So I'm gonna prove I'm on the Association Monterey Bay Area Governments as one of the One of the committees that I sit on and there's a presentation by So the acronym for Association Monterey Bay Area Governments is AMBAG so I'll refer to that the rest of the day there is a presentation by the AMBAG energy watch program and it highlighted energy watch energy savings in our region and From 2006 to 2018 annually our region has been saving 103.5 million kilowatts of energy per year which is and in six and in 2019 were projected to have an annual energy savings of six million kilowatts per hour for the year and The AMBAG region has actually met the 2020 goals under AB 32 targets in 2015 and so these targets that we Were supposed to be by 2020, but I'm now a bit by met already I was a reduction in greenhouse gas by 20% back down to 1990 emission levels And the hope is that by 2050 will reduce our levels by 80% of the emission levels that we were producing in 1990 There's a beacon program which honors voluntary efforts by local governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions save energy and adopt policies that promote sustainability and In 2017 and 2018 the city of Santa Cruz won both silver and gold for agency energy savings and We won platinum the Platinum award for community greenhouse gas reductions The gold award for an agency greenhouse gas reductions and silver and platinum awards for sustainability and best practice And Santa Cruz County was the first county to ever receive a gold beacon award We're doing really great with with greenhouse gas savings They also announced that SB 1 local streets and roads program project lists are due on May 1st 2019 so this is Dedicated 1.5 billion dollars per year in new Formula revenues to cities and counties for basic road maintenance rehab critical safety projects on local streets and roads and so cities will And counties will need to have a resolution approved by their councils or boards and project lists Information uploaded on to the online intake pool and submitted to the California Transportation Commission by May 1st to be eligible for these funds Moving on and also on the Local agency formation commission so laugh go I just know it by attack or them so but Patrick McCormick who's the executive director has announced his retirement and will be succeeded by succeeded by Joe Serrano and I just wanted to see if we could pull up Something that I handed out a map that I've handed out Sorry That this one Okay, so there's copies by the window if the public want a copy of this map Let's see if it comes up. All right, so One of the things that Patrick McCormick wanted to do before he left was there hadn't been an official City map none for the city of Santa Cruz And so he began working on this and it turns out that in the late 1800s the city limits were extended in parts Along the eastern bank of the Salamence River and then south to the southern boundary of the county of Santa Cruz Which is three marine miles out into the ocean and so this is actually a more accurate map, which hadn't been produced and And it shows that That's the city of Santa Cruz actually their boundaries actually extend out into the ocean Three miles and so we decided at that point in time that we should extend the sphere of influence of Santa Cruz to meet the boundary limits and so we voted to extend the sphere of influence at that point in time and So this is the accurate map of the city of Santa Cruz take too much time on this But I'm just curious about this this little carve out. Oh, yeah You could I mean people might be wondering what that is. Can you yeah? So when when the de Anza property was included into the city limits, they did not annex that one sliver of Of the three miles out into the ocean and so if the city at any point in time Or if laugh go at any point not in time wants to annex that portion into the city of Santa Cruz then Since it's within our sphere of influence. It would make sense that we could go ahead and annex that into the city Yes, not to load it on at this meeting, but it seems that this must have practical implications for us Yes, no, so that's a question for the city attorney at some point in the future. No, don't even bother now Hascos added this to our sphere of influence it must have some Theoretically Just one quick thing I wanted to point out the you'll see the little island where the water treatment plant is The other island that we have that's not shown in this map is the landfill Facility so that's also an island of the city of Santa Cruz No, not skypark we owned the property but The landfill is actually annexed into the city just like the wastewater treatment plant That's actually a territory of the city of Santa Cruz So I a lot of the things that I'm involved in have already been reported out The only thing I would add is that at the community programs meeting We also had an update on the core process Which is the community investment process with the county in the city? So there will be probably some information forthcoming on that. Did you have something to add to that as well? Or I'm sorry today When you're done, I do have a report out on the library board. Okay, perfect So then I'll just before before we we move on to your report for staff reports We have our budget subcommittee meeting continually on that. We'll have a presentation from Marcus today and There was a CJC meeting with the the criminal justice council and there was a presentation on the BASTA program as well as some restorative Happening in our in our city and county And I think that I think everything else been said so, okay, please So the city manager participates on some of these regional bodies as well the one I wanted to report on today is the library board which has the Join powers authority That is comprised of the city administrators And so just to provide a brief update on what the board has been working on Part of it is it's been getting ready for the budget. So we've been receiving presentations on budget assumptions and we're receiving in the report from Marcus on budget projections in the coming months So just getting ready to go over the budget for the next year In addition, we've been reviewing or starting the process of reviewing a variety of different policies including a patron data privacy policy Library security security cameras policies. Those will be first reviewed by the library advisory Commission or committee that's established and then they'll come up to the board So the director's been giving us drafts and just giving us background information as we look to review and adopt those policies and then the other thing just more particular to the city of Santa Cruz is the director is moving forward with beginning to implement the improvements at the our two branches Garfield and Brants of 40 the two smaller branches and They've done some preliminary designs and we'd be holding some community meetings So be on the lookout for those meetings that each of for each of the branches to get the public's input on The redesigns and remodeling of those branches, which hopefully will start later in the year They've hired a project manager get those going so we want to get those projects completed as soon as possible That's it. Thank you Well, thanks everyone for your work in the community and for taking the time to report out today Okay, so at this time we'll move along to our consent agenda and Those are items five through sixteen in our agenda And all items will be acted upon in one motion and less an item is pulled by a council member for further discussion At this time, I'd like to ask are there any council members who would wish to pull an item. I Just want to make it quick. I don't want to pull anything, but I want to make a quick comment on number nine Very quick number come members of the public one-minute pull item seven and it'd be great to get a brief Report on item eight as well. So I'll pull both of those Any other consent items to be pulled I Had a comment on one, but I'm trying to find it if you would just bear with me for one second Yeah So we'll go ahead and move on to any items that there's comments only I remembered what it was. Yes, it's item The item regarding the Santa Cruz affordable housing bond initiative Is that item nine or yes item nine Asking the mayor to submit a letter of support to assembly member stone and others as appropriate and I would just suggest that we also Send that Information and request for support to community housing advocates. So we get more voices Supporting that action. It is really really significant to us and let others know Antisport marks effort, and I think this is the item you planned. Yeah, so and I had a similar comment that was Request that we reach out to the Santa Cruz City school district to see if they would also this this bill and I know perhaps through the schools committee we could take that action or And just also just to thank assembly member stone I met with assembly member stone with some our staff and he was quite Amenable to doing this and so I'm glad to see that we are gonna Hopefully should this pass Actually be able to make use of the 16 million dollars and the funding that the city Has and has been unable to use for the development of affordable housing in the future Thank you. Yeah, quick follow-up. I think as you all know Don Lane and Fred Keely have been continuing Their leadership of a group interested in the future of funding for affordable housing and they've got a deep list of people who are Interested in that so just asking them to spread this message out would Would spread the word well. Yeah Thank you, and thank you council member Brown and working with for working with assembly member stone for this Any other comments on items or any items to be pulled? Okay? so if I Want to make sure that I'm clear the recommendation for item 9 is to extend to have the letter go out to our Community housing advocates and our Santa Cruz City schools district Should we add could that be a component of the motion to be the city schools? It could be included in the others with an interest in promoting affordable housing, okay? So at this time is there any member of the public who would like to speak to any items on the agenda Except item 7 or 8 which have been pulled Seeing none We'll go ahead and return for motion to move the consent agenda with the exceptions of 7 and 8 Okay, okay motion by council member Matthews seconded by council member Brown any further discussion Okay, all those in favor, please say aye Okay We'll go ahead now and move on to the pulled items We'll start with item number seven and I'll have you council yeah, thank you very much I want to thank the mayor also for bringing this forward with me, and it's something real important It is a resolution supportive HR 530 to rescind Federal Communication Commission regulation Related to 5g technology. It's a very very short item But it just it gives the power back to the cities is what it's going to do to regulate What we should be regulating correctly, I think is and it's sort of We're reporting These boxes and how we're going to deal with 5g technology as we move forward But as I said a couple members of the public I think want to speak to the council as well So I'll turn it over We'll go ahead and thank you for that and happy to support this item We'll go ahead and see if there's any members of the public who would like to address the council on this item Please let I line up to my left Okay You'll be given two minutes and just before we get started you you had requested additional time for the other item correct So we have that yeah, okay, so two minutes for this one. Okay. I'll do my best Thank you mayor Watkins and council members For supporting on issues bill. It's very important and I appreciate it very much The FCC is facing many legal challenges now, which I'm very grateful for no one knows where this is going We only have a small window of time left to choose wisely what we'll do before 5g actually arrives So I think there's many steps that we do need to take in addition to this one although I'm very grateful you're taking this first step became an emf refugee in 2014 when I became severely disabled by wireless radiation I Found ways to control my personal environment But it's still very difficult for me out in public especially here today But I it's worth it for me to come takes me a couple of days to recover after I've been out in public Every new tower limits where I can go very soon This is going to get much worse when the 5g antennas there's going to be hundreds of them in our town come Tomorrow the first 5g satellites are going to be launched by a company called one web The first of 900 for that company. There's been Elon Musk and SpaceX has been FCC has approved 4,000 and 425 satellites for them to be launching as well 12,000 Total is what Elon Musk is asking the FCC to approve so this is Much more than just a Santa Cruz emergency It's really a planetary emergency and I just really want to highlight the importance. It's I'm like a canary in the coal mine I'm a person who actually feels this with my knowledge I think everyone's being affected, but this is coming very quickly So I ask you to please Listen to what the butterflies are telling us as the butterflies are rapidly disappearing. It's been said. This is why thank you Next speaker Hello console. I refuse to get bogged down in Spirit by all these things and I thank you for taking up this resolution on supporting 530 I wonder if you've seen the letter from the Marin lawyer Who has a lot of technical background and experience? It's It's very frightening to me at this point. I really think we have to Take care. I mean he's pointing out that is okay This happened with DDT. I saw thousands of pelicans and in two years they crashed I Cashed after early exposure and it took having to walk not even in the neighborhoods But out just out in the wilds in order to gradually Get myself back now with 5g there won't be places like that We will be condemning everyone and here's the thing if early exposure Leads more and more people as it increases to become sensitive. We're backed into a corner We thought barely got out of the DDT thing You know and reclaim that We've gotten the pesticides off of our street medians and out of where they were putting the cheerleaders on them up at UCSC and worked it out here but This is I'm very worried and if you think oh well these are just good business people trying to make money I mean what is the purpose of this all it is going it is really set up for is For there to be streaming that doesn't use cable It's a money thing people think about it from a money thing They're not maybe evil setting it up, but look at the ways that we could destroy ourselves with this Thank you, please This is my first time here, and I I'm very impressed with our city people and what you're doing That's why I clapped a couple times and I want to thank you for even having this resolution It's revolutionary. I remember when Santa Cruz stood for something besides itself I mean being selfish like we all are tended to be when we put up a sign that said a nuclear free zone Well, I protested against the nuclear proliferation in 95 and we stopped the Nevada test site for four hours Including Greenpeace and all the other people that were aware of the dangers of Radiation look what happened with FEMA Shema to look what happened around the world. We have now Nuclear on every doorstep and next we're going to have satellite shooting down Well, we already have satellite shooting down, but they're going to be shooting to every corner of the of the planet and These are owned and operated by worldwide conglomerates Corporations, they don't care about any of us They want us to die is what I think But you know, I only see what's going on around me I started at HP with a master's degree and I did 25 years of Silicon Valley. I saw how corporations work I saw how They don't care about anything but the bottom line because the law dictates that And we're not going to have any rights If you guys don't stand up And I know you guys have got the guts to do it And I'm praying for you and everyone on the planet We need a lot of prayer Right now I wear this outfit because it protects me. I have shielding in my home. I spent most of my retirement money Thank you staying alive. Thank you. Thank you Okay Next speaker Marilyn Garrett, uh, thank you for supporting Anna as shoesville 530 And 5g is an extension of the untested extension of a Technology we know is dangerous All the microwave radiation from cell tower cell phones wi-fi And as I've been coming here since I retired from teaching in 2000 You all have received documentation of the harm And one of the most recent piece of What I want to give you on 5g is on November 30th, there was a talk called 5g microwave on slot What it means for us And though Anna as shoesville Just deals with the proliferation of the 5g It really encompasses the totality Of the exposures we're getting which are multiple So on this dvd. I'll give you and I might have given one to you already chris at an earlier event Dr. Carl Merritt who was trained as an Electrical engineer worked in radar in the canadian air force and knows about the Biological effects of these exposures. He speaks Occupan chris marquette bakova Dr. Brian anthony who's a chiropractor and it also shows Verizon promotional videos on how this 5g Goes through walls millimeter wave technology And they don't say this is what the military uses to debilitate people Thank you, so I'll leave this with you and something that appeared in the comic news on 5g, but I don't I'll give one copy. Please do. Thank you for supporting this bill and let's go further to stop the harm And an additional speaker Are there any other speakers who'd like to speak to the council on item number seven? Steve con cannon a resident of felton fourth generation santa cruzan I I won't go into the technical aspect of it, but um somehow the tele Communication is very ambitious and moving quickly. They got into washington with their wish list And they got her approved back in 96 Now we're stuck with it I benefited from growing up here and seeing the changes. I went to local schools I went to cabrillo probably kept me out of jail as I found my interest However, if the 5g Materializes, I'll have to leave the area and I think I have something to offer to it And um if you give this consideration, it's like we're uh in a war here and we're calling for reinforcements We're in the 11th hour Um, I'm kind of independent I'd like to see the federal government stay back there in washington. They seem to be very busy Very intrigued with themselves So if we have an opportunity locally To keep some independence, I encourage it. Thank you. Thank you castle And I believe you will be our last speaker unless we have others interested. Okay, go ahead My name is ronda haves I want to thank you for supporting ns shoes 530 Um What you're seeing here today is really the tip of the iceberg of people who are being affected by this already Um, I normally don't make it down here for the same reason some people have said I've been very affected by this. I had to retire early That's cut my social security It's very threatening And to add more that there aren't places people can actually go to get away I know someone that goes to the parks every day to get away from this Is is is insane and this bill at this point Cities and counties, I think have accepted it more on a financial kind of a Outlook, you know, we can make the money here instead of having it go to washington or to the companies There's a lot more to it than that We would hope that you would think about the health of the community even though we've been restricted from doing that If we don't know, I mean, there's been lots and lots of studies coming out of europe israel We've you've been given a lot of these materials. I imagine maryland can give you more This needs to be really looked at You know, we need to be a leader in other ways and not be Looking back thinking about the tobacco thing and thinking why didn't why didn't we see this? Why don't we pay attention people? We have sleep epidemics attention deficit disorder. We've got so many things going on What are the causes of all those things? It's important. Thank you Okay So seeing um no other members of the public interested in addressing the council at this time We'll bring it back for action and declaration Councilor come. Oh, I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to thank the mayor again and also anna issue our Representative represents parts of santa Cruz resolution supportive Excuse me. I'll make a motion to adopt resolution In support of hr 530 to rescind the federal communications commission regulations related to 5g expansion second So we have a motion by councilmember crone seconded by councilmember glover any further discussion Okay, all those in favor. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That passes unanimously So we'll then move on to item number eight and I will Go ahead and look to councilmember crone. I believe that you hold this item. Thank you, mayor. Um, yes, this has to do with Our city participation in county-wide landlord incentive program. I just had a couple questions uh for our economic development director Just uh wondering what and this is more just to inform the council. I I think and see if we can Um Assist more in getting this program to work As I understood it did none of the money was was you utilized and we're asking for It to be a longer time period instead of just a year Um, that's one question and the other question was the 21,210. Is that rolled over from last year? Or is it going to be effectively doubled or was it doubled from the previous year? Good afternoon mayor and members of the council at bonnie-lipscomb economic development director Councilmember crone i'll answer your second question first and it will roll over to the second year So it's a maximum of up to 21 000 a year that's committed towards the program And so any funds that weren't used in the first year. It's just it's the same commitment of funds So in the follow-up and advance of this meeting. We had a few sort of back and forth Questions so councilmember crone had reached out to me in advance with with his question And I would say and from the feedback from the housing authority that that in the first year of the program the pilot program The program actually has been very successful. So It's a it's a lost mitigation fund So even if we haven't spent the the funding the fact that it's there and available If there are problems with section 8 tenets is what makes the program successful Um, the reason why we're requesting the expansion of the reach of the program beyond the first year of tenancy So the way the program works right now We initially and in all the jurisdictions across the county set it up so that you could only file a claim a landlord Could only file a claim in the program If um, it was a new tenant and it was within the first 12 months of that rental agreement And the reason why we did that is we we each had limited funding and we just weren't sure how widely or how many claims We would receive so we wanted to limit it the initial year to make sure that we were Attracting perspective landlords into the program However, after the first year, we didn't receive any claims in the city of Santa Cruz. There were some other claims across the county We didn't receive any but the success of the program during the pilot year Is that they actually increased the number of landlords participating in the program by 65 landlords So it went from 1800 to almost 18 1865 and they added over 200 during that same time frame over 200 units New units of affordable housing countywide um, so The housing authority feels like the pilot year has actually been really successful as as an extra level of assurance for landlords That whether you're an existing landlord or a prospective landlord that if you participate in the section 8 program That there's a loss mitigation fund for you if there are problems arising from any tenants that are that have section 8 vouchers So they really feel like this program has had a big impact That is good news. I that's the missing piece that I didn't realize that and I'll be ready to move it when it's time Okay, are there any other questions? Thank you. Thank you Any other questions from council? Well just a comment. I'm happy to support it as well And I had many of the same questions which I talked with money about And it seems to me a double success in that there wasn't much need to draw down these funds But their availability really encouraged a whole lot of new landlords And and made more subsidized units available and we all know It's it's a huge problem with people having a section 8 Certificates and places not willing to take them So the fact that we expand the pool of landlords willing to take those certificates is a real step forward in Affordable housing preservation creation. So good work. Yeah Thank you Are there any members of the public who'd like to address the council on this item? This is item number 8 on our consent agenda Seeing none. Okay. We'll move it back for action and deliberation motion to approve an amendment to the agreement between the city and the The city of Santa Cruz and the housing authority of Santa Cruz county for county-wide landlord incentive program Authorizing and directing the city manager to modify the existing agreement revising the program requirements to allow for participation From landlords with a longer term tense Okay, so we have a motion by council member crone seconded by council member matthews Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. All right. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously So that will conclude the consent agenda So that brings us to item number 17, which is the encroachment permit for the wireless facilities by verizon at 117 at moracy boulevard and Go ahead Mike fairy planning Good afternoon council. So this item was continued from the last meeting because there was some confusion on plans and what had been reviewed I did meet with Sata over ryan and we went over the plans and then she had some specific questions I attached the rf engineers response to the staff report Since that meeting, I think yesterday you got another email from sata And this morning I forwarded an email response from hamlet netison from bill hamlet Um, so I'm here to answer any questions you might have and the verizon representative is also here Thank you Are there any questions of mike at this time? Seeing none We'll go ahead and maybe and open it up for Public comment and then we'll return to the council for action and deliberation Are there any members of the public who would like to speak to this on this is item number 17? Okay, and you'll be given two minutes. I'm sorry. You have your this is the additional one. You have four minutes for additional Go ahead. Thank you for the extra time So I've I looked through the report again, and I saw there were still there's still a major error that concerns me The antenna model is still not correct And the and it's being referred to in the body of the report as a panel antenna still which it is not So in the 220 report from hamlet netison It says and I quote there are indeed three antenna elements within the shroud Although the 360 degrees indicates that all three are always active providing service in all 360 degrees around the antenna unquote To me this this explanation is not correct And it's a misunderstanding of what the antenna actually how it actually functions Which is not three antennas totaling 360 degrees I went to the website on this of the empanel website about this antenna to find out about it And it describes it as having three different frequency bands with each band broadcasting a full 360 degrees One at a range of 696 to 960 megahertz and two at 1695 to 2700 megahertz But in the h&e report it describes only two frequency bands One for aws at 2100 megahertz And one at for pcs at 1950 megahertz There's nothing listed for the range of six of 696 to 960 megahertz, which is the third band on the antenna Um, so if it's true that quote all three are always active unquote, then this is this seems to be a very serious omission to me So when I look at the table of prevailing exposure standards from the engineering report it lists three possible frequency bands for this 696 to 960 megahertz range None of those are listed What I also note about those three is that there they have much more restrictive public exposure Limits about half of what's allowed for the higher frequency. So this is again very important if that band is going to be active So um, so I anyway, I considered this calls into question all of the rf You know calculations because I don't see that this antenna is adequately understood in my opinion Um, so I also take issue with the statement by Hammond and Edison that quote It's a common practice for the zoning drawings not to include operating specifications for the proposed facility That is why we include the pertinent information in our reports unquote But to me this is not transparent I mean, how can the public see what's actually being proposed? I I've spent hours looking through these reports and I've you know, I'm not an rf engineer, but I've You know we're being asked to trust these reports as being true and accurate But I've found all these errors. So How you know, it's just not the case are we trusting them because they're experts How can we we as the public or even how can When they are using a proprietary system, which they've stated for their rf calculations We don't have the information that we need to verify How can how can a city engineer confirm these numbers are with the and within the scc maximums exposure values so So this is the second time we've done this and I didn't expect to find more errors But I did when I looked more closely a couple days ago So I you know when I look at the conditions for approval It says I had sent to you a number five That if there are errors In this the documents then that's reason for denial. So I ask you to do that Are there any other members of the public who would like to address the council? This is item number 17 are in our agenda And you'll be given two minutes I'm I'm opposed to any additional cell towers being added. We have plenty of bandwidth in this county Only the ultra High techers want to have even high higher frequencies Throne at us and we don't know what these frequencies are. It's all proprietary Everything is private. We can't know the the public's too ignorant to know Right and the city council obviously has to be come up to speed and Get information that's inaccurate in many cases and one of the things I studied I was I was a technical writer For 25 years in the silicon valley and part of the reason I am sensitive and I have and I love butterflies And I love bees and they are dying In droves the insects are dying already. We don't need any more Bandwidth and in this bandwidth. What is there? Well, this is quantum physics folks And quantum physics is all about dancing. It's the universe is Vibrating and what do you think these these insects do they vibrate and have antennas to pick up the vibrations And they they they migrate according to these lines that are invisible for us to see And one of the things I found in trying this to heal myself from this electronic Ooze that has affected my whole life And caused me to retire or well not just retire early I had to leave because of disability from Hewlett Packard in 2003 and ever since that I've been studying This phenomena and trying to find solutions and one of the things I found is what's called rife technology You can look it up on the internet It's about these frequencies One of the most important things I found in getting my rife technology, which helped me a lot And why i'm still here talking is there's a frequency. I just want to say it and then i'll your time is up And you're welcome, but you're welcome to submit your your comments to us, but your time is up at this time Thank you. Thank you 1910 hertz are known to have deleterious effects and cause And I'm gonna go ahead and say your time is up to everybody gets the equal amount of time. I appreciate your respect I just had to add that. That was what I was trying to get to. Thank you very much. Thank you Okay, our next speaker. This is item number 17 on our agenda And you'll be given two minutes I was just walking by I had some city business and I noticed this was on the agenda I'm a little surprised that there's this Fake science for lack of a better word is still out there regarding dangers of cell towers and RF radiation In my previous career, I have a bachelor's in master's degree in electrical engineering Carnegie Mellon and I was an engineer and rf engineering is one of the things we we I worked on in the various defense companies 5g is the beauty of 5g is it's going to have many many smaller Size cells so they'll be transmitting less the danger if there is any and there is some documentation about you could see Things on the internet where there's the head is heating. It's from the cell phone If you don't like the radiation, put your cell phone down. Don't own one. It's very it's really that simple The the radiation is again the smaller the cells as 5g will develop Is less radiation and just for point of reference The we've been bathed in radiation since marconi first, you know I did his first experiments and the human body absorbs the peak absorption for the human body is 70 megahertz That's not that far from your from k-pig on your fm dial So k-pig is doing more damage to us probably than any 5g cell towers or future Future technologies and also the deny 5g would be like denying the interstate system It's a huge economic. I mean there's it's a 20 50 billion dollar projected industry Revolutionize the internet of things the iot and so forth. I can go on but that's tough. Thank you Are there any additional speakers to item? Okay Given two minutes and then you are interested, okay Despite what industry says No safe amount of radio frequency microwave radiation Has ever been determined There is no safe amount The effects are cumulative When you watch the dvd, you'll see some of the independent science and the facts about it In terms of fcc limits of exposure, there's an article here about Uh The violation of the of cc radiation limits at wireless antenna sites monitoring was taken place Thousands of sites are violated so We're getting this in voluntary mandatory exposure And putting these locations in the public right of way as that's happened where I live in aptos 13 In a square mile freedom boulevard day valley mcdonald I have this detector of microwave radiation. I've shown this before This is the sound component And it's way up in the red as it is by the bus stop where I go where they put an antenna Prior to that there was no reading The effects I will give you just one report by Santini in france several years ago titled neural behavior symptoms near cell towers Fatigue sleep disturbances headaches feeling of discomfort difficulty concentrating depression memory loss visual problems irritability And um cardiovascular problems think the list goes on and you're welcome to leave that with us I will do that and I hope you deny this Okay, and your time your time is that because it will be committing this harm very much Okay, is there any other speakers here to address the council? Okay Okay If it's you know, there is the ada and you have no business ever allowing anything in the right of way Since we already have people who are sensitive to it. Secondly, I want to point out this marine Lawyer is pointing out that the Ways that we've been looking at are not the only ways that people are damaged When they compare it to microwave the thing is it all has to do with Jostling and it is affecting chromosomes at much slower levels now Babies in utero already have their gonads. They already have all the eggs or sperm They will ever have We have seen a dramatic decrease in male sperm over the last what 40 years From all the assaults that may not all be um wireless microwave But by golly it sure is and those little babies who knows whether or not they will ever be able to conceive and We're just setting ourselves up. We really have to just stop now I wouldn't put any more cell towers in I would make there be have to be An absolute demand for it by the citizens in an area before you put anything more up Because it otherwise it is just allowing ourselves to be walked over By an industry There is no reason if this we're trying to give clean food or water or sewage treatment to people And you had to weigh the problems with the benefits that would be one thing But this really isn't a benefit. This really is something that is Uh making bound to make more and more problems. Thank you. Thank you Okay Are there any additional speakers who would like to address the council? Um, I only have one thing to say and that is that when I looked at the map of where this is going to be located It surprised me. It's like right in the middle of a shopping center. It looked like close to many businesses People who have to be there at their jobs for eight hours at a time Or perhaps there's even some living areas close to there too. Um This isn't right. They these people, you know, they don't know this tower is going in They may depend on this job and now They may become ill or have to quit and As we know there's already a lot of problems We're going to have a homeless thing here tonight I think you know how big the homeless thing is and how many people have Ended up there some of them because of this very issue Please consider where this tower is. I think you're pretty close to the staff of life, which is a health Business and then I think 24 hour fitness people are going there for their health. They don't really want to Be bombarded by any more unhealthy Technologies and they already are please consider The location of this tower. It's a very bad idea. It's here for they're doing it for the money It's a money thing for them. What are we getting out of it? Thank you And I believe unless there's any additional members of the public who'd like to address this, you'll be our last speaker. Go ahead just briefly I I I have to applaud the ambition on the telecommunication people it's it's it's like a crusade But when we went through the thing on the smart meters with PG&E and they they gave us their information some of it proved to be false the PG&E is kind of under the microscope at this time But there's a legal term. It says do no harm And regardless of these philosophies or these pushes for telecommunication my god Young people in the unborn There's experts out of England who are saying What this lady just said These young women they're not protected as at the young stage They'll have they'll have problems in the birth even if many won't give birth. So it's It's a very serious situation I frequent Morrissey Boulevard there and I I think these things need careful review Fugitious careful, but we don't want another cigarette debacle And the estimate is the tele The Wi-Fi X emf is going to far exceed The cigarette cover up That's all I have to say and thank you council. Thank you Okay, so seeing no more members of the public interested in speaking to us We'll bring it back for action and deliberation to the council Okay, is there any council members who'd like to I was wondering if the Verizon person could answer a question about the accuracy that people pointed out or the inaccuracies sure Good afternoon council mayor. My name is ben hacks that I'm with sequoia deployment services representing Verizon wireless on this project Um, I'll address that right off the bat First thing I want to address because I keep hearing this is that Bill Hammett is the Verizon RF engineer and that is incorrect Bill Hammett of Hammett and Edison Incorporated Is a consulting agency which we hired because we have to get an independent agency That will show that this complies with FCC standards Which in his report he states Will be 0.089 of the applicable public exposure limits And is 0.2 of uh in the second elevation 0.2 of the public exposure limits He also in his transmittal that I believe mr. fairy Provided you as well as his information this morning, which he was nice enough to provide us on very short notice Stating that the antenna that is on the plans the antenna that is referenced in everything the antenna That is with the encroachment or with public works right now and being reviewed Is the antenna they did their Um Modeling on and their report and he stands by his results He probably they probably do thousands of these reports for not only the carriers but for cities who also want reports Not to mention they will also be providing a report after this is on air To make sure that it meets the standards that it says it will in this report As for the bands it sounds like i'm hearing She's saying there's three bands three bands aren't three antennas. It's not a band. It's like a radio like a frequency There's only two frequencies that are being used on this So the third one is not being used Verizon doesn't have the sec rights to that frequency So that's why it's pcs and the the other one That is why there's two bands they are 360 as they also state in their report They take in the worst-case scenario. So the highest power levels the most usage at one time. That's what this report is based on That's also once it's turned on whenever it is built They will go out and confirm that these results are those As of that i'll answer some of your questions I'm just just a and this is not a rhetorical I mean who's who's asking for more cell service because i've never once That's my seventh year on the council. I've never once had anyone right to me and say we really have bad cell service Could you please um, you know get some more cell towers or? I would encourage you to go online and just type in Cell You know just type in the word cell tower and you'll get a million different forums just as there's forums there Who needs a cell tower? You'll find a forum of a million people who say I get no service. This is crazy. I'm gonna move Uh, I have to switch carriers Because of this and that's the whole thinking people say oh, well, I don't need one. Well, you might be t-mobile I'm t-mobile. I'm representing Verizon today, but I have a t-mobile phone Um, I have a t-mobile phone because there's a tower that I can actually use I live in a predominantly residential area where there's nowhere that You know you could get it through planning To propose a tower. So I have t-mobile. It's almost a prohibition of service for the other Uh companies, but it is what it is So that's how I'd answer that. Thank you council member Myers and then I think we have a question from council I just have a two quick questions. Um, and mike this might be you. I'm not quite sure. Um You you I mentioned that that this the company will you know be monitoring the the tower and The antenna and reporting out the the the levels and if there was an exceedance What what happens so is there someone on you know city staff that would then receive that And how does that handled? I don't know if you want to tag team it, but I'm just curious how we handle that as a jurisdiction The only time I've ever Seen um or and I've only seen it in testing not in the actual once the site was on air But it will happen sometimes you you put a site and we have to see if it's going to work and and if it's even close to The exposure limits they figure out a different design. They have to reconfigure it Before they even build it now if you're saying from an after we provide a report to him Um Sometimes the cities even go out when they conduct those reports generally not bill hammers a very respected person He would lose his license and lose his entire company Same as verizon Verizon will lose their Verizon will lose their License and will not be a company anymore if they break these FCC laws. It's it's in their best interest to follow the law um Like anything else and and mike just are these reports available in in the planning department if someone wanted to look at these or how how how could these be looked at by somebody if they If they needed to if they felt the need when they're ready to get a final I give them like a temporary final on the computer and put a little notation in there that says within 45 days Come in with an rf report. I usually get that emailed to me. It's a pdf and it shows Typically it shows that it's operating at what they predicted or even less most of the time So they go out with meters and ground truth The modeling study and then I just put that in the file So they are available if somebody wants to look at them. Okay. Thank you Councilmember matthews Yeah, I just have a question regarding the final paragraph on the agenda report Which says a recent FCC ruling severely restricts the ability of public entities to regulate small cell installations To 60 days So this is time sensitive So my questions are what are the limits and what happens if we fail to act? I don't know So that's a new FCC ruling that goes into effect April 15th So planning of this year so planning and public works are currently going through ordinance amendments So that we can meet these new shot clock deadlines and the deadlines are 60 days for all city permits from the day of submission to When the permit is when the decision is made For any new micro cell site going on an existing structure If they're going to put it on a new structure or a replacement utility poll Like this case, we have 90 days And that's from when they submit their materials Well, typically we can toll a clock, you know, the regular State permit streamlining allows you to toll a time limit. You get 30 days to review an application We have 10 days with this new FCC ruling So we'll get we'll receive the applications. We'll have 10 days to either ask for more information Or not and then 60 total days again for Any new small cell that's going on an existing facility or 90 days for a small cell that's going on a replacement or new poll so And that's just an honest question so Um When the staff report says the ruling severely restricts the ability of public entities to regulate Is it strictly the amount of time they have to reach a decision or is it other criteria? And I I do remember previous discussions that you can't take into consideration health That's that's still In effect that's from 1996. So the health issue for us as regulators for the city That's kind of it's out of our jurisdiction We are allowed to regulate the aesthetics of how these are going to look And so we've seen some we've brought some up to city council where we had examples of some really horrible looking ones and And after working with the applicant some much better looking ones So one of the things that we're going to be coming to you with is the design criteria That we would like to see and and that would be part of this whole catch up with fcc recent rulings And existing rulings Any additional questions council member Mike I was just wondering a member of the public said if there are errors in the proposal then we can deny the permit Is that true and are there any errors in this proposal? Uh, the condition is true. That's a standard boilerplate condition. I don't think that there's any errors I think that the email That we got this morning from bill hammett explained some of the discrepancies that that Mr. Ryan talked about if you look at This is the email that came in this morning from bill to myself And on number one he's talking about the three and tele antenna elements and he says that there is some confusion there However, um and and the different bandwidths that she was concerned about And the last sentence of his paragraph is for not horizon is not authorized by the FCC to operate All of those bandwidths. So the antenna has the ability to operate five or six bandwidths but horizon isn't allowed to use that so they're just using the ones that they modeled and that's the result That you see in that rf analysis Um, and then there was some confusion about the antenna type and he's got a very complicated Explanation each letter in those antenna models Represents, you know a panel Whether or you know if it's an o then it's not going to use that particular panel I didn't want to I could read the whole thing to you but So no, I think that this is accurate and I should have said that he's an independent Engineer that's registered by the state and we have used him as a third party review in the past So that when we get something that that we're kind of scratching our heads about we've hired this company to do a third party analysis I think I've worked with him for 20 years easily Thank you. Thank you And I meant to ask this as well So what happens if we fail to act or deny the permit again? This is an honest question What happens to Failing to act in a timely fashion results in the permit essentially being deemed approved. Okay one way or the other I just remind the council that this is uh coming before you as a request for approval of an encroachment permit, but the Planning department already reviewed and approved a permit for this project back in 2017 Get it out there. Yeah I will go ahead and move the item Um And uh, so it's uh, I'll make a motion the resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an encroachment permit to rise in wireless for installation and maintenance of underground conduits vaults At great cabinets and wireless canister antennas Mounted on utility pole at 117 moracy boulevard within the city of santa cruises right of way We have a motion. I'll second that motion pointing out that we did previously take Action supporting a federal legislation that would give local jurisdictions more authority over these types of facilities and in fact we have Virtually no jurisdiction Right now other than aesthetics and I look forward to updates of the the zoning code, but For what faces it's right now. Yeah, I will support the motion So Yeah, I'm just from what I had heard about some of the timelines associated with the shot clock the Timeline for the new law starts in april So we have about another six weeks or something according to that timeline right april 14th So Is there harm in delaying the decision until the council meeting before that april 14th deadline so that we can Have as much information as possible or to follow the process of the bill and all that stuff I'm not sure what calendar we're operating under currently, but the regulation that was Promulgated back in i think september of last year and that either took effect in january or or will take effect in april Shortens an existing shot clock So it's not like we're not under any time constraints based on regulations that were in place prior to the new FCC ruling Um, so again, I don't know What the current shot clock timing is but it may Um result in our having deemed approved the project so I anticipated this question. So the application was submitted on august 31st 2017 The zoning administrator approved it within 90 days. They approved it on 11 15 17 And the shot clock for a 90 day project expired 11 31 17 So we have been working with the applicant and and this again is one of the reasons we're Going to adjust the ordinance because after they get through the planning permit process Which is typically about three months for a public hearing Then they have to apply for an encroachment permit and go through that process with public works So we're very far behind the shot clock Cut off Yeah, I just I just wanted to state to that. Um, I think we're in a difficult decision. Um, and obviously we we support legislation to try to provide local local oversight again for these facilities. So Uh, yeah, I just would encourage that we stay on top of on top of that and uh, but I did want to move the item Okay, so we have Thank you. I just want to go on record and say that I am concerned if there are in fact physical elements that are Experienced by some of our residents with regards to the increase of microwave technology even if it is important for different aspects of Life for other individuals. I think it's important that we're making Santa Cruz a space in a city that works for everyone And trying to figure it figure out as many solutions as possible to mitigate the impact or unintended impact of installations of new cell towers on our vulnerable populations. I just wanted to come on the record and say that So we have a motion by uh, council member Myers seconded by council member Matthews Just wanted for clarity for clarity if this were to not pass you said that it would the permit would go forward regardless We will go forward. The question is, um What are the what are the circumstances under which it will go forward? Will Verizon file a legal challenge? Asserting the In a declaration a declaratory relief action asserting that the shot clock has already expired or will it simply Proceed as though The permit had been issued my recommendation. However, is that you Um, not just decline to take action on this because the encroachment permit has a lot of important conditions that we want to be able to ensure are enforced in When this project goes forward so so declining to take action does not Without consequence even though it may result in the application being deemed approved Okay. Yeah, that is a point that hadn't been mentioned before that there are a lot of conditions associated with the easement And I would be quite comfortable Including in the motion that we encourage ongoing rigorous science scientific investigation into the effects Sure, I'll accept that. Okay. So, um, did you catch that in terms of our support? Okay So it seems that we have sort of limited choices here I just want to put have something for the record that um that I hope that As a city we do our best to make sure that these types of technologies are Producing the minimal amount of impacts on a community if not You know zero amount of impacts on a community monitor them very closely Yeah, I would I would just add and I know that the circumstances around the choices that we've made in in other cases Where we are not necessarily fully supportive of federal law um, you know that we the city has Chosen to in the past stand up and say we do not support those laws. For example with sanctuary city um nuclear free zone um, there are different circumstances obviously, but you know, I am reminded of a comment made by A public commenter at our last meeting about Sometimes it's time to stand up when it comes to um, you know, what we consider to be laws that are You know not in the public benefit and in fact have deleterious effects on I know that we're not allowed to say that Or the federal government tells us we're not allowed to say that as per the FCC But and the telecommunications act, but it doesn't mean that we can't say it and so I say it and Yeah, I can't support the motion on the floor only because like I said before I've never had anybody come to me And say dang I want more cell service. I want more cell service Of course your cell phone drops out lots of places around Santa Cruz, but it's not I don't think it's because of this particular box We don't have people who come to us Saying we want more cell service. We have people who who are here saying Really, let's let's take a step back and really rethink this national policy as well as our local policy. So For those reasons, I'm not going to support this motion Okay, so, okay Just one more um on that note just something uh to That came up from the city attorney's response for me was that if the Concern or the reason why we're moving forward on this is threats of a potential lawsuit from Verizon Then I am even more principally concerned of moving forward with this for that reason because then we have the federal telecommunications department with telecommunications monopolies and large corporate entity threatening with Community members that have expressed that this will Detrimentally impact their life and ability to reside in the city limits. So I don't think it's a good idea Um, I'll go ahead and see if you want to clarify your comments My interpretation was something other than that in terms of the limitations for our control given the constraints of the situation in general Is that that was my comment? I'm not concerned because I don't think there's a legal basis for the telecom companies to Bring a legal challenge against members of the public for merely expressing their own valid Concerns about the health effects of e-mf radiation The bottom line is it's the city that is subject to the FCC regulations Not not individual members of the public and and they are free to um You know express themselves and advocate for what what they believe in so I didn't mean to suggest that it constraints um Ms. Garrett or or other speakers who who have For a long time now at least as long as I've been in the city of Santa Cruz Advocated against the placement of these cell tellers throughout the community Okay, so um, we'll go ahead and take a vote. We had the motion by councilmember meyer seconded by councilmember matthews So all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, so that So then that fails with and so then The eyes were councilmember matthews councilmember meyers and myself the nays were councilmember brown vice mayor comings councilmember glover and crone councilmember matthews just a question follow-up if we could get an idea of what conditions of the easement are As a result of this no longer enforceable That would That would be helpful this time A lot of public works come up for that. Okay Schneider system director of public works the encroachment permit requires that Person that's issued or the organization issued the encroachment permit provides a city with uh insurance that Indemnifies the city if anything happens You know related to the installation So without that insurance where I don't know how well we're protected or not Got it. Okay So we'll go ahead. Okay. So that concludes the vote at this time the Yes, I would just Say if I could I believe if there's if there are any second thoughts it could be reconsidered Today if someone who voted against it decided they wanted to Re-initiate the item. Is that a correct statement? Yes, it can be it can be reconsidered um during Same day that the action was taken. That's right Okay. All right Thank you. And so at this time we'll move on to item number 18 And so item number 18 as the one possible reappointment or appointment with the term expiring january 1st 2022 Starting with council member brown each council member Will name one nomination and once their nominations are complete then we will have each council member say their vote So go ahead Okay, sorry to stall time. I didn't include public comment So I don't know if you want to do public comment before you do the nominations and vote Okay So at this time, is there any member of the community who wants to speak to us on item number 18? And that is the parks and recreation commission appointment No, it's okay. I'm glad. Thank you Okay Seeing them we'll go ahead and return it back for nominations I would nominate um, I'll I'll tear a hat Yes, I'd like to nominate ron goodman and I'd like to speak to the reasons for my nomination We did get a letter from tony elliott elliott the parks and rec director who spoke to about the Pillars of objectives for parks and rec agencies which include health and wellness conservation and social equity And urged us to consider diversity In our appointment I'd just like to say that um, I have Known ron not well, but In the course of community activities for many many years And I think he would be an important addition To the existing commission He and his family have been active users of a great number of parks and rec programs and facilities over the years um, he has a Long breadth of community involvement in a wide variety of issues and activities He has um A professional experience in the development and implementation of long-range plans I think that's especially important since we are About to move to adoption of our parks master plan Uh, he's provided personal leadership in a Variety of sports and athletic activities for both kids and adults in a whole whole range of activities Not anyone he's He's widely respected for his constructive participation and leadership in the community Um, and for those reasons, I think he'd be a really strong addition to the commission in its work ahead And particularly since the um, we always have an eye to diversity Um, there's uh, currently only one man on the parks and rec commission. So Let's hear it for a guy Thank you Is there any other names to be nominated? Okay. I don't have any other No, neither any other names to be put forward as a nomination Uh, no, councilman brownstone my nomination Councilman crown I just want to uh, read the last line here of al-terra hatton's um application Lastly as a woman is significant uh with a significant mobility disability I offer a perspective derived from a set of life experiences Which are likely quite different from other commission members I can confidently say that plurality strengthens any group and a diversity of perspectives allows for innovative problem solving Thank you. Okay. We'll go ahead and call the vote. We have um, Ron Goodman and al-terra hatton as the two, uh, nominations put forth And Goodwin Goodman, um, I'm going to go with hatton I'm with hatton Al-terra hatton All right. Thank you So at this time we'll move on to uh agenda item number 19 And that's the user charges for wastewater services and the proposed five-year increase And we have steve here I can just say, uh, my name is steve wolfman. I work for the public works department. I'm a senior civil engineer and um The subject today is The user rates For wastewater users which we pretty much all are within the city of santa cruz There are a few septic users around A handful just to let you know Mostly out beyond Meter canyon not meter canyon Further out. It's a ways out. There's about 12 large lots out there so I can kind of begin before my power point comes up really the purpose of Is the purpose of the action Day is to approve A flyer Because by proposition 218 When we increase user fees We need to let everybody know who is a user on what the increase is going to be And send, uh, you know a flyer with information on it for those For those users and um, so you have before you you have, uh, you know the user flyer and the rates that are proposed in the user flyer and, um We would be sending those out to everybody and then, uh, 45 days after that flyer is sent out We would be coming back to the council for approval of the rates So Come on up there Place anyway, so There it is That's a picture of our wastewater treatment plant down near near lagoon um The blue domes are the trickling filters and um Also in the forefront is the that's our secondary clarifiers. Actually one of them is empty At the at the when this photo was taken and then in the background is the The earlier portion of the plant Called advanced primary So we have a wastewater enterprise fund The money is used exclusively for the construction operation The maintenance of the system Uh, we have a very extensive collection system Usually one pipeline on every street in the city Some are in easements and sometimes we have two pipelines. So we have 160 miles of pipes 25 pump stations and we have the regional wastewater treatment plant Which does include a state certified lab Nice photos there So the regional plant, um, we've won several awards there. It's a it's a very well run plant Very innovative. We generate a lot of electricity at the plant from both solar and also We use the gas that we collect off of our Anerobic digesters We treat all of the wastewater from the Santa Cruz county sanitation district So I listed there, you know, it's it's basically everything along the coast all the way To I think there's even some in La Selva beach that is part of the Santa Cruz county sanitation district But definitely all of live oak and capitol and so cal and aptos that it all gets Collected by the Santa Cruz county sanitation district. They have their own collection system They pump it to us And then we treat it So about half of the wastewater at the treatment plant is from that That district and half from the city 10 million gallons every day is about what we treat um by By state law and by the grants that we've received over the year We our our rates have to be based on the cost of service. So um, each user category they're charged based on how much they generate and more importantly How difficult it is to treat treat their wastewater So A gallon of wastewater from a restaurant is more difficult to treat than a gallon of wastewater from a residence or from an office supply store or Or city hall. So the rates there's different categories and different charges There's just a list of the different users That's kind of a repeat of that. We treat All those different types of users the high strength users are mostly the restaurants and some food processing type um The medium strength users are You know different people who use a fair amount of water for some sort of business so, uh Last year over the last year we've we decided to do an infrastructure Uh equipment study The treatment plant is is aging nicely, but it's still aging and a lot of the facilities now are 25 to 30 years old We did major projects Uh, the advanced primary and the secondary projects in the 90s We spent approximately a 100 million dollars at the treatment plant To upgrade it to add secondary but also to modernize the plant So the infrastructure study, um, which really, um, Basically says you need to spend more money at the treatment plan to keep the equipment and the You know up to snuff and and really You know the proper working condition Um, we maintain it very well, but sometimes you just have to replace Uh, especially the electrical and the controls it just stuff gets obsolete You can't you can't get the equipment anymore. Uh, the replacement parts This is a list of, um projects that I would uh, uh, I would hope that we would accomplish most of these during the five years of this rate study The one at the top the ultraviolet disinfection We are under design right now to complete that we have a pretty, um, innovative system for Disinfection we used to use chlorine gas that was always very exciting at the treatment plant Um, and then we went to hyper chloride, which is basically a stronger bleach Which we still have as a backup system, but we we installed about Well, it says in 98 we installed the ultraviolet system And it uses lights Basically and the controls on that system the lighting systems. It's just it's very it's obsolete now The the technology has come a long ways. We will save power on that But it just has to be replaced the the equipment is hard to find parts for now and So we're pretty excited about that project. It'll reduce our maintenance costs, too And then this is just a list. It's uh It's it's preliminary for sure. So are the costs They could go up Hopefully they'll go down. So that's Um, this is kind of a summary of what the increases are for The top line is probably the most important The second line there with increased operational costs just from basic inflation And also because there are Like for example, the the lab is doing a lot more intense testing and has the ability to So the lab costs have also gone up more than just inflation The fund balance is approximately half of our operating budget, which is what You're supposed to maintain for a For a operation like this and Without the fee increase we would have no fund balance within two years if we do the projects which There's really no choice but to continue to operate the plant at that level With those projects So we have a five-year rate increase 7% a year. I'll get a little bit more detailed about what that means per customer You can see that the fund balance You know will stay around The 11 million dollar mark, which is the targeted mark for fund balance So for a single family resident This in the first year of the increase it would be a little over three dollars a month As an increase multifamily a little less than three dollar And we have the low sewage producer. It used to be called low water user rate It would be about a two dollar A month increase And we can go over a little bit later if we have questions about what that low sewer producer is, but it's basically Well our residential rates are flat rates so Whether you have six people living in your home and you do laundry every day or you're a single person and You you don't do laundry and you don't use the shower much or whatever, you know, it's the same rate The low sewage producer gives that person who's a single person and they're living in a house and they're not doing You know, maybe they're doing the laundry at a laundry mat and it also for multi residential Apartments and such not that if they have a really low water usage during the winter Which we assume is going to the Waste water system they have a special rate and it is a significant discount for those users And then we just have the low strength and the high strength business like I said the high strength would be a restaurant An increase of around 36 dollars a month for for those users and that's for a typical because your Your businesses We are charging them based on The usage that shows up on their water meter This is cumulative. So over the five years if you're a single family resident You would have a monthly increase of almost 18 dollars a month in 2023 Yes, 2023 And and the same, you know It shows what it happens to the other user categories there This is a cost comparison to the county of santa cruz or the santa cruz county sanitation district. I should say We are significantly less than them In the different categories, they do not have a low sewage generator category The 65 dollars and 25 cents is their existing rate And they're slated to also go up on july 1 um and somewhere I have that information about what they're going to be but it will be more than 65 dollars and You know at the end of the five years will be at about what they are right now And they don't appreciate me saying that but How it is So You know we have we have to increase the rates I mean if we're going to keep the service that we have right now And we have no real choice of how keeping the service we have right now. I mean we are providing secondary wastewater treatment um, we are you know, um, we have a big collection system which You know, we have to maintain We clean all the sewers Usually once a year Many of them we clean more than once a year. We have uh inspectors that are going out and being sure that You know, the businesses aren't putting more Improper waste into the system that we can't treat Um, and of course, you know, we have to provide the level of treatment that we're providing by law and By our environmental responsibilities um I say here that the fees are modest um I mean you you could look at over a five-year period that they could be Significant and I'm sure to some people they will be uh, but It is uh, such a critical environmental System that I don't think there's um any choice And This is a slide. I wasn't actually going to show it to you, but this is a slide that does have some comparisons to some other um districts in the in the local area um Cifika is quite a bit more Watsonville is significantly less Uh, probably has to do mostly with the fact that they have some very large rural users that they um That helps quite a bit Scott's valley is about the same And you can just look at the list. We're we're we're doing pretty good in terms of our um In terms of our rate when you look at similar sized and similar locations so Any questions? Let's see the best picture I like that one. That is our secondary effluent our final It's uh, the only thing that happens after that is it goes through the uv disinfection Thank you, Steve. Appreciate the presentation. Are there any questions from the council at this time? Councilmember Myers? um Steve I noticed in the staff report that there was a rate increase in july Uh first 2017 and I was just curious what that rate increase was And sort of it was less. I think it was three Or is it three years? Oh, no that rate increase was a that was part of a four-year increase Okay, and so that was a four-year increase. Um, that was the last time we came to council for an increase So it was a four-year increase. So, um It would have been like the four previous years would have had an increase and that was the last increase But you you don't recall sort of the kind of the range of three percent typical. I think that there's increases Actually, you know what? I have that That increases those increases were five five five and two and a half And um with the low sewer uh the the lower Basically user. Yeah people who aren't Do do you find those customers? Yes, we find all of those customers. I identify them They do not have to apply it is automatically done by our IT Okay, billing department. Thank you And on that that's tied to the water use isn't it? It is tied to the water use during the winter. Yeah Other questions from council Mentioned laundromats, uh, where do where do they fit in on that on that table? I believe they're in the medium strength And pretty much anyone who uses water as part of their business Is typically like a small coffee shop that's not really doing dishes or maybe he's just doing a few Things like that. How did you come to 80 hotel motels? Well, um When we developed the ray, um, that was just how many hotel motels were in this Were in the system Looking at ucsc It's hard it's hard a little bit hard to see it's tiny font It is on one of the colored pages that we have. Um, this is what they this is an interesting example So they pay right now 51,000 almost 52,000 a month Is that that's a month and then it's it'll top out with this rate increase at 67,000. Yes I mean I You tell me but yes, that sounds right. Yeah, is it the single largest water user in city? Absolutely by far by far It used to be select con systems, but now it's ucsc And did you know the the kind of like numbers they're using? Do we take any of that in consideration if they're going to grow by 10,000? So 5,000 they are they are what the one sewage They are the one customer that actually has a meter on their wastewater discharge So, um, they are metered So as they use more as they generate more wastewater Their bill goes up And I just want to add that I really appreciate um responses that the director public working mark that'll has as offered During we have kind of a back and forth on emails this weekend It's always great when you can get a department out on the weekend To get to respond. It's wonderful. Um, and I will say most of them do So I was really concerned a couple questions This is well above the cost of living These increases and if somebody's paycheck There is there's nothing for low income discount And the senior discount was I think responded to you just responded to it's good that we they don't have to apply for it They we actually go out and find the low sewage users um I just you know, it's it's a hard Going from you know that that much of a percentage increase even though the county is already there You know, it's still you know our our customers haven't contemplated yet that yet Is there Director Dell mentioned something about we can't because of 218 we cannot give low income users A lower rate but We can use the general fund If the general fund wants to pay the difference, I didn't exactly understand that go for it Do you want to respond and then maybe I can respond to council member crone whenever you like Is your question is your question related to the question that okay? Yeah, just um would so and if the council were to decide Just in the event that we decided we wanted to provide some kind of subsidy Because recognizing the property restriction would it have to come out of the general fund or could it come out of water enterprise? So mr. Conduct I think okay go ahead. Yeah, I think Tony will answer that so, I mean the way I look at it is that um that Providing sewer service in terms of the fees that are collected in order to provide that service is sort of a zero-sum game Where the full cost is attributed or is is paid for by the by the rate payers and under proposition 218 the amount of the Proposition 218 defines different types of fees into different classifications and And sewer service is is considered a property related fee or charge So it's under the the um rule set forth in section six of article 13d, which is prop 218 What it says is that the amount Of the fees cannot exceed the proportionate cost of service attributable to each parcel that's subject to the fee and so um If you if you look at that in terms of what an individual rate payer pays And the cost of service study analyzes it is how much does it cost to provide sewer service to each Connection that is using the sewer service and we're the council to Take some portion of those rate payer funds And and use them to subsidize rates for a certain class of users then that amount Can't be attributed to the parcels that are paying the fees. So that type of a subsidy is not permitted under proposition 218 and that's why the directors Reply in my opinion correctly states that The council is free to do that. You're not prohibited from by prop 218 from doing it. You just can't use other rate payer funds to subsidize You know a low income tier of uh of fees Councilmember clever, did you have a question my my question was pertaining to the impact just because it is disconcerting I really appreciate the the presentation and I totally understand the importance of Recycler the water treatment and how we can use that with our wastewater and sewage Management, I am concerned though about the cost of living and how this could impact low income families, especially with the Stagnant wages that we see and the unregulated housing market that we have right now It could detrimentally Impact people's finances because I was just doing some rough math here and I will reiterate just rough math I'm a people person not a math person But at for a year at the total of the 17 $17 and 80 increase by 2023 Then that's an increase of 213 dollars a year On someone's living expenses. So I just want to put that out there and express concern and I would be interested since now I know it's not possible because of 218 for us to offer different levels of Costs for rates. I would be interested in exploring Ways that we may be able to supplement or subsidize the cost for low income people I I share the concerns expressed by council member Glover. I don't believe there was a question though, and I'm happy to respond to any questions Thank you for the presentation. By the way, I was just curious as to whether or not Um If homes or businesses are to put in any kind of water saving mechanisms Would that be able to allow them to shift down? in terms of consideration for how much they'd be paying Well, we for for businesses. Yes. I mean if the business We so we take a business and we assume that like for example for most businesses We assume that 80 percent of the water that they used Is going to be wastewater and 20 percent is used for whatever irrigation and things like that and so um Their their cost per year. So especially let's say a restaurant Their cost per year is closely related to how much water they use Especially the larger water users like restaurants or maybe the wineries or the new beer You know producers. So, you know They do save based on that for For residents The only time that that would really save is if they were able to get to the low sewage generator That would be the only way that they would really be saving if they you know reduce their Uh Worked at all public works director. I just add that we do have a significant portion of our Residents that are in that group. So that is uh, I believe it's about I think it's four 4,000 4,000 so it's not you know, it's not a Hard to reach level, but it just does recognize So if they did significant water savings that could put them into that group if they're close and we do an automatic You know, um check of their water use so that puts them in automatically. They don't have to apply I just want to speak to that it's easy all you have to do is use less water And then it appears on your water bill at some point. Congratulations. You're a low Low water user Yeah, I mean I I would I mean it's true. Uh, it's a really nice. It's a really good program. Um, you know and The argument in the water department would be that it's It's harder for your normal person, you know a family is gonna It's just gonna be really hard to reach, you know, it's it's just not really for your typical You know four unit family and you know It's just it's pretty hard, but we have 4,000 customers that are in that category And like I said, it can be a multiple it can be multifamily units Which I think, you know More than half are in but there are a fair amount of single family Units that are in that Category and it is probably the biggest question that comes over to customer service is about I didn't I'm not in it anymore or you know, or how can I get in it? You know, so it does happen where people go in and out of it based on their water use One more question Last question is Is that water consumption? Rate like for each of those categories fixed and how is that projected to change over time Just to get a sense of like if people are in one category now Um Is that percentage level going to shift for the and then result in them becoming at another level for the residential or for the Residential yeah for the residential it it would shift each each year. You can qualify for the Low water low sewage producer. So each year they can shift The rate itself is going to go up evenly for each category.   I think I might have misspoke on that What I was referring to is the amount of waste that's produced. So I don't know what for example Whatever the low sewage production rate is right now. Is that expected to change? Adjust no over time. Okay. No. No that would not Yeah, sorry. Yeah, that's So I was going to open up to public comment. Did you okay? Is there any member of the community who'd like to address the council on this item? This is item number 19 are in our agenda Okay, seeing none. We'll return back to the council for action deliberation or did you have a further question? We have 8 000 it says here the um Multi-family those are apartments Well, uh Any Let's see Anyone who it could be a it could be a duplex it actually um We actually put into that a single family resident with a adu We consider that two multi residential units even though it's really one single family and one multi residential. We consider it to Multi residential units. Would it have two meters or no just one We do not we do not we do not judge on meters. So it would be one meter But their low water usage would be based on two units So whatever they use would be divided by out of 8 000 How many um, do you think are single meters for a bunch of either apartments? Yeah, um, I think we've got I think about It's how many it's 4 000 and I think that it's um I don't know if I have that I do somewhere but it's I think it's around 60 to 70 percent of That 8 000 is a Single meter Well, yeah, I just have the number of connections. So for 4 000 the number of connections is 2800 Some of them are single families so because the issue is like There's the incentives for For um, you know apartment dwellers to save water You know, you know, there's none there if they're not paying it directly if it's then I've heard during this whole rent control thing that People were getting their rents increased and the justification was be beyond what the 2 percent Was the water use they said oh Now we're gonna charge it for water It was it was kind of insidious, but I'm just wondering how do we give incentives to single, you know studio apartments, you know That are all in the same meter Well, I mean a couple things there, I mean In the incentive here is for low sewage generating um It is true that the water department has over the years has been encouraging meters per unit instead of one master meter but that doesn't Really? Well, I guess that would change things for us also, but that kind of gets my question. Appreciate it But if I get to just say it's just these are fixed costs. So they don't vary every month They're fixed for the year. So Um, so it it's per unit. So I think I don't know there's justification to say that your Sewer rate's gonna vary. So we're gonna raise your I mean, it's once the rate set for that year Then that's what it is. So I'm you know, it's per unit doesn't matter how much you use Just to follow up sort of a follow-up on the The ability to subsidize ratepayers While I think it is true that the ability to Get in a water conservation tier might motivate someone to use less water thereby generate less Sewage discharge The legal basis for doing so is that it actually costs less to provide the service to people who use less water and and not per se Just to encourage people to use less water And I think if I remember correctly in 2017, we talked a little bit about the Just the sort of the cost of living challenges and the imbalance and trying to support People and ways that we can and so I think that would be we I think if I'm here kind of getting a sense of the council I think there is interest in exploring what that could look like in the most legally kind of A sound way whether it be an application type program or such like that Um, because I think I remember that conversation. I don't know for the council members that were with me then Taking place then knowing that, you know, it is that cost of living in balance that we're seeking to kind of bridge Um, and we have aging infrastructure in a lot of needs. So how to balance that but um, I think now would be the time for action and deliberation if Well, this is merely just set a public hearing and this has been very informative But I will go ahead and move that we set the public hearing based on the proposed, um uh Rate increases and other information presented to us second Okay, oh Well, they motion by council member Matthew seconded by council member clever any further discussion council member So the public hasn't heard any of this yet, right? This is just here and now we're going to send out postcards and stuff Correct. So we might be hearing something. Yes. Okay. I mean that's the whole idea Thanks Yeah, I also just want to give big props for this thing that went out from the wastewater this newsletter, which I thought was Fantastic and speaking to the quality of service the Both the environmental and public health benefits, etc. It said it was great And I got to assume you're going to be doing in addition to the notices a good deal more visibility public education and and um, both the the aging infrastructure the, um Rising standards for environmental quality to protect public health and environment. All of those are just undeniable Got to do that. So, um It's it's one of those utilities we take for granted, but Good work on this Thank you. Okay Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes you news Thank you, Steve Okay, so we're moving right along to item number 20, which is the budget adjustment adjustments and information on the city's financial status and we have Tracy and marcus here Thank you, mayor calce members. We're here for part two of three part series on Primer on government finance today. We're focusing on a little deeper dive into the city's Operations part one we recapped kind of governmental financial trends at a high level what's going on in the state of california What's going on in the country today? We're diving a little bit deeper into the city and part three in a couple weeks We're going to focus in our unfunded Needs within our capital investment program I have i'm marcus pennantel your finance director. I have with me proud to have with me tracy coal or Principal management analyst Focusing on the budget and she's going to help with our presentation We had planned to do a combo presentation a couple weeks ago. And if you remember we we moved pretty quickly So i'm going to share the show a little bit with her with her tonight So we we thought because we moved so quickly we want to at least start with a quick recap of a few of the slides A few of the themes from last time just to orientate you So that'll be the first few minutes for our presentation trace We'll be covering most of that and then we'll get into what we're calling our big five topics that you should know about as Accounts members and what our community should be aware of there's certainly other things and there's certainly deeper dives That we would be more than happy to go do But we wanted to start at this level to make sure we're understanding at a high level what's going on in the city So we're going to spend some time just orientating yourselves with a few of our financial reports Our budget document and how that's orientated our annual financial Report called our CAFER our audited financial statement One of our reports that you see frequently our investment portfolio report So we're going to focus on some high level just reports that we do Then we're going to jump down into our what we call our first full service plus concept and just orientated you to How much we do as a city of santa crs More above beyond most cities might maybe our size we do a lot of services beyond our boundaries You've heard a few of them just prior in the prior session We'll talk a little bit about the complexities of our reporting structure. We're bigger than a few checkbooks or quickbooks We're very complex a business service provider nonprofit hodgepodge of funds we also provide accounting and services beyond our city so we do Records for other another agency, which is a whole another complex system. So we have we're a very complex dynamic Model from a funding standpoint We'll spend some time a little bit on our financial trends. Again, we can probably spend three hours on our financial trends But we're we're carving some maybe we'll do a deeper dive in there and we'll finish with the keys to fiscal health all told I used Would joke about we have 40 slides. We do have 40 slides We're on time here. Yes So we'll we might skip through a few pretty quickly Some maybe we'll come back to march 12th depending on timing and we would definitely want to pause about every five or eight slides Just to see if there are questions We don't want to move beyond where you might be with questions because we're going to be shifting from different topic to topic So that's my long Long-gated intro and we'll get going So marcus for clarification. You'll go ahead and let us know when you're ready for us to ask questions in terms of So why why now we had this concept really it's preparing for our may 8th budget study session Leading up to our may 28th budget adoption We want to start bringing you contact high-level content. So you're you're orientated to what's coming ahead We'll also want to prepare for community engagement and presentations. We'll be doing to you and other community partners and stakeholders and community members This is a second of three study sessions. We plan to release our budget our entire budget in april So you'll see that document and the public will see that document in april And you'll have hopefully close to a month before the budget hearing not at least three or four weeks We also plan on publishing as they become available more reference materials online And we're working with the your city council budget ad hoc committee on some possible new financial reporting Structures and tools. So that's something we're going to be exploring over these next couple months It's aggressive, but you know, it's something we we want to try to endeavor for So That's our goal. I'll turn the floor over to tracy Thank you marcus So as marcus mentioned, I'm just going to recap a few of the items that we kind of rushed through the last time We were here a couple weeks ago We're just going to talk a little bit about the local government is not in a boom cycle How the state is again Doubling our pension payments Our decreasing tax bases where we'll talk a little bit about that The projected economic slowdown and some unreasonably low reserve levels So why consider reductions in an economic boom? So local government is not in a boom cycle You'll see in a later slide that many many other cities are facing the same budget issues as the city of santa cruz The state again will double our pension payments to backfill for state pension investment shortfalls Decreasing tax bases our sales tax utility users gas tax those types of taxes Those are declining at this time or staying very stagnant projected economic slowdown Is just coming up and unreasonably low reserve levels again. We talked about There's no disaster contingency and our general fund reserve is only at 10 percent Okay, projecting economic slowdown the next 12 months right now. We are in The second longest expansion Soon to be the longest period of economic expansion in just a couple of months And why we feel the slowdown is coming we've got a regional housing crisis that's that's going on The economy must see continued increases in consumer spending As increases interest rates increase Because consumers will see their debt increase their car payments credit card payments those types of things housing school debt And we also have the federal and state government Threats to our our city with our impact fees and the fact that we're a sanctuary city So I have to do this one You're talking about this Pension investments we hit on this a lot, but it's really important to understand We are part of the state's pension system most government agencies in the state of california Part of our pension system most government agencies throughout the country are part of a statewide pension system Our pension system is underfunded By nearly 30 they have a 144 billion billion dollar shortfall in their pension system It doesn't mean the benefit is unaffordable If you look at the benefits between miscellaneous and public safety There's there's some arguments and debates over the the cost of public safety But generally the benefit of itself is not what's causing this current issue It's it's the lack of investment returns when we've done some general analysis of Comparing calPERS investments versus what they usually have done in prior economic recovery cycles And then compared calPERS investment cycles to what the market other index funds eight different index funds How they're individually doing and we average those and these are you know You're one of the male normal index funds not necessarily your high aggressive funds Both of those scenarios turn out that calPERS could be superfunded right now instead of shortfall Which would mean we wouldn't have had seen our rates double and then poised to double again So it isn't that we're saying that the benefits are not The there's too much discussion on the benefit side. There's not enough discussion on the investment side And that's been a topic that hasn't necessarily got enough traction And it's something that we've talked about as staff with league of California cities We've talked about a staff with calPERS And it's something we we want to finish tonight with a little bit of support and see if we can get a direction to Have this council take Direct staff and or yourselves to write a letter and appeal to the state investment board calPERS to reconsider their investment objectives If again, if they just follow the market or what they've done in the past We wouldn't be in the situation as we are right now and that's unfortunate You know, we're we're doing what we can to be prepared But a lot of government agencies who just don't have the resources or flexibilities We're going to have so i'm worried about a lot of my peer of our peer cities throughout the state as we go forward So just wanted to pause on that Again, just a reminder If it weren't for the investment shortfalls not just the losses of seven eight nine But they're shortfall since then in the recovery period We wouldn't be having most of our financial issues right now And we'd be able to talk about how we're investing new resources into new programs But because of that we're seeing our rates double and double to 11 to 12 million dollars a year again Just let that settle in 11 to 12 million a year more every year to maintain this cost Because of the shortfalls that's a lot of new revenue that we have to find to offset So that's a big big issue for us Okay, then we have declining and eroding revenues. This is a pretty Great slide. We talked about our sales tax staying very stagnant or declining Tangible items that we used to buy cds Sales tax programs dvds games. We're now like downloading all of these online and and doing this all online now. So there's no There's no sales tax that are associated with those anymore We have aging baby boomers that are shifting their spending to non-taxable health care and services And the law is still playing catch up for all those online sales That we love to do gas tax We have the ride sharing Reduces a few sales and the energy efficient cars and you know while they're great for the environment That does decrease our our gas tax that we receive And then franchise and utility tax Of course online streaming is replacing our our cable and you know, we'd rather just watch netflix instead of you know getting our cable through a provider and Landline phones are are vanishing although I still have one but a lot of people are getting rid of their landline phones and Taking cell phones instead And we are facing higher risks and occurrences of emergency failures Some of these pictures are are pretty Pretty crazy to look at. Um, I can't believe that west cliff one every time I look at it But every other city every year the city has some major project that wasn't budgeted for And it would be really great if we had funds set aside for this These types of emergencies or other general fund cip projects. Um, we just don't have that at this time Okay, this is a slide that we've used before but we've updated for the current fiscal year and as you can see with a lot of our comparison cities Um, we adopted a structurally balanced budget for fiscal year 19, but a lot of the other cities were not so fortunate And this is something that's happening across the state Advancing for questions. So we'll pause there. That's part one again. Just a recap We've talked about these themes a lot over the last couple years We pushed through pretty quickly a couple weeks ago. But just wanted to pause and see if there's any questions or comments on Are there any questions from the council at this time or It's the sixth slide and you talked about The slowdown federal and state government threats And you mentioned impact fees. Can you just explain what those are? Yeah, certainly the the feds are not in a position Our current administration on looking to how they can help local government. That's not necessarily their their poise So we're concerned about a lot of initiatives working, you know, they've threatened that sanctuary if you're a sanctuary city Then this is going to happen. So that's a concern at the state level In the sense of kind of similar story to what we're talking about fuel taxes That's a there's a good story coming out of the state But part of it could jeopardize a funding source for us We rely on impact fees traffic impact fees Building impact fees parks relies on certain fees to help fund capital projects and the sta