Okay, if council members can turn on their cameras. Is the city clerk ready? Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to our 2.30 p.m. session of the September 27th, 2022 meeting of the Santa Cruz City Council. And I would like to ask the clerk to please call roll. Thank you, Mayor. Council member is Calentary Johnson. Present. Holder. Here. Cummings. Here. Brown. Here. Myers. Here. Vice Mayor Watkins. Here. And Mayor Burner. Present. Before we begin with our agenda and our presentations, I would like to take a moment of silence regarding the Iranian protests and deaths this last week, 57 deaths since Sunday. And supporting Iranian women and condemning the acts of the Iranian government. Okay, thank you. I would also like to thank council member Calentary Johnson. And I would like to just offer you a space to say anything to that. Thank you. Thank you for the moment of silence and the acknowledgement. I want to announce that the students at UCSC are organizing, have organized a vigil tonight on campus at the Quarry Plaza at 7 p.m. It's student-led, but all are invited. And I'd like to propose to the mayor and the council that we, at the next agenda, vote on a statement. And I'd like to read the draft of the statement today, right now. That's okay. Okay. The Santa Cruz City Council releases the following statement on the death of Masa Amini and then suing protests and Iranian security forces' response. The Santa Cruz City Council stands in solidarity with the people of Iran as they rise up in protest against the brutal and needless death of Masa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who died after sustaining injuries while in police custody for alleged violations of Iran's oppressive dress code. These dress codes impose on women strict requirements not applied to men and expose even conservatively dressed women to the arbitrary whims and notorious brutality of Iran's security services. In killing Masa, the Iranian government is implying that dress code is more valuable than the life of a woman. We're shocked and saddened by the violent and overly aggressive response of Iran's security services to the protest against Masa Amini's death, which at last report on Sunday, September 25th, has resulted in a minimum of 57 deaths and countless injuries and arrests. It's important to note that my body, my choice goes both ways. Baudelaie autonomy is a human right. Whether a woman chooses to wear the hijab or not, it should be her personal decision. Let it be known that the regime is not a reflection of Islam, but a reflection of abusive power. The women in Iran deserve better. We, the Santa Cruz City Council, stand in solidarity with the courageous people in Iran protesting. Thank you, Council Member Calantari-Johnson. Okay. We will continue on with our agenda. Thank you. Yeah. We need to take any action about putting that on our agenda. Thank you so much. I don't think we need to. I can set it on the, yeah. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Okay. Welcome. We will now begin with our first presentation item, Agenda 6, Downtown Library and Affordable Housing Project, our quarterly update of where we're at with that, presenting by Director of Economic Development, Bonnie Lipscomb. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor and good afternoon, Council Members.  Brian Berguno, who is our project manager for the Downtown Library and Affordable Housing Project, will actually be leading the majority of the presentation. I'll come in briefly just to give an update on the farmers market and the housing funding. The last time we came before you was in May, and this is roughly just an update from that time. A lot has happened. There is a lot of detail, but I just want to let you know that this will update will be available on our website under our project page, as well as all the accompanying documents. We're going to go through this rather quickly, recognizing this as a presentation update, but happy to follow up with any questions that you have, either within the context of the presentation or later. With that, I will turn it over to Brian Berguno, who is our project manager. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Bonnie. I just want to make sure I've got good audio and that you all can hear me right now. We can hear you. Thank you. And that you can now see my presentation screen, and they're able to view the main page slide. Correct. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for the opportunity today to give you an update on all the progress that we've made on the downtown library and affordable housing project. So I'm going to go through our agenda, and we've got, like as Bonnie indicated, pretty heavy content because there's been a lot of moving parts since the last time we were before you, but we're going to try to touch on some of the major milestones and information that we think is most relevant. So the agenda today is going to be a highlight of our recent efforts to date, the update on the design and community feedback that we received at a recent community meeting, update on the farmer's market, budget update, project schedule update, and next step. So jumping right into the recent efforts. So as of now, we have submitted a formal application for the planning department through our affordable housing developer for the future housing that was submitted earlier in September. We had a community presentation on that application design that was held on the 21st, and we've been completing a number of benchmark reports. So our phase one cultural resources inventory draft report is under review. We just received our phase one flash two environmental site work that was completed in draft report. We've undertaken a traffic impact analysis that is underway and near completion. We're expecting a final report here in the coming weeks. We received a finalized arborist report and report addendum. And the design team for the library, which is a separate architecture affirmed for the tenant improvements has completed their 100% design development set has submitted that to the city for review. And unfortunately, we received notice that we did not receive round one funding for the state library grant opportunity, but we are looking to apply for the second round funding. They have awarded about 50% of the available budget for those grant opportunities. So a brief overview of some of the highlights from the arborist report because I know there's been a lot of interest in this. Nine of the 12 trees on the site are classified as heritage trees, meaning that at the specified diameter of 14 inches at a certain height in measurement that those trees would be considered heritage tree by classification. All 12 of those trees are non native and exhibit a very various components of detrimental conditions and are in conflict with the current construction footprint. So some of those conditions that were called out by the arborist are, you know, restricted growing areas, severe pruning, structural weakness, evidence of past failures, limb and stem decay, and unfortunately, you know, buried roof collars that may disguise additional root disease as well as additional decay. Of the 12, two trees were identified as viable for transplant. And only one of those is designated heritage, but relocation was not recommended for a couple of reasons, one of which the health conditions of the root structure is unknown and they may not survive transplanting. And secondly, after our city arborist had reviewed some of the information, she felt that we could get healthier trees at a lower cost option than transplanting the unhealthy trees on site. So part of the application process for the planning department, we will be required to submit a separate heritage tree removal permit application. And so that is going to be submitted in the near future and have a separate track process for requesting removal of those trees. The arborist report along with the addendum will be posted to the project website if people want to dive into the additional details which will be made available. So an update on the design. So some of these images at the beginning are just going to be kind of a refresher so that we can kind of walk you through the progress that we've made. So back in December of last year, we brought the conceptual design as it evolved through community engagement and feedback. And we landed on a conceptual design that kind of changed the programmatic footprint elements of the design of which you approved in December. And then we moved from this onto schematic design, which we brought some of these images to you back at our last update of the downtown library facade and the building as it's starting to evolve from concept to schematic. And now we've further progressed those designs and some of these updated renderings which include different architectural elements, more of a landscaping plan, color, and different features that are starting to become more predominant as we continue to evolve the design as a whole. This is just another image from a different advantage point along Cedar Street focusing on the library facade, but you can start to see that the elements of the housing are starting to become more apparent. So the update on the design as a whole, you know, right now the library gross area stands at 38,000 square feet with the rooftop patio adding an additional 3200 square feet of programmable space. So the library total square footage at this point is 41,309 square feet. The project contains bicycle parking of 258 bike locker locations or stands with a combination of enclosed lockers as well as racks, parking cell count of 243 spaces, a housing unit count of 124 units, a daycare slash play area that combined equals about 1,900 square feet and commercial space on the corner of 9,598. So this is a view of the landscaping elements that are starting to become more apparent. Currently we have 13 street trees identified on the perimeter of the building and a number of plantable areas and those continue on to the upper level that is kind of the entryway on the third floor to the residential unit as well as our, you know, nearly 9,000 square foot green roof over top of the library. There's another vantage point that kind of shows you that we have other plantable areas that can include smaller species of trees and shrubs as well as kind of a view of what the green roof might look like from the bird's eye view. And just a reminder, as it stands now, we have, you know, three levels of parking, five levels of housing on top in the adjacent library and commercial use space. The information is currently, you know, being updated on an ongoing basis to our project webpage and for those that aren't familiar with that, the short URL is CityofSantaCruise.com slash makes use library. We continue to update all of our information on the design set and anything that we are going to be posting there relative to the planning application is going to also be posted on that webpage. We gave a presentation to the community on September 21st and that slide deck is available now. We're expecting to compile some of the feedback as well as the video in questions and answers and just kind of post all of that feedback available to the public by the end of this week. And the planning application documentation will also be posted there for public review and input. A general overview of the community feedback received at our community meeting. The meeting consisted of planning staff, project staff, our affordable housing partner, and their architect team. We had approximately 65 participants. It was a webinar format with a Q&A. We had 46 plus responses to eight survey questions. A majority of those responses were positive. And then we facilitated question and answer for about 45 minutes, which was about half the time we allotted for this meeting. And unfortunately had to, you know, stop it towards the end, but we plan on posting any questions we didn't answer. We'll respond to and make sure that they're available for those that didn't have their questions answered. Those questions ranged out a variety of topics. A lot of people were interested in the housing components and specific things around rent, childcare, the library, parking count, bicycle parking. It was definitely a spectrum of questions that we answered. These were the survey questions that we asked. I'm not going to read them verbatim just for the sake of making sure that we have enough time today to get to your questions and answers, but to give you kind of an idea of some of the topics that we covered. And there's a quick overview of, you know, some of the feedback that we received. So when we asked what aspect of the project are you most excited about, you know, a majority of the responses focused on housing and library. And there was a few highlights of some of the direct feedback that we received from the participants that attended. When we kind of summed it up in yes or no, like does the design meet your expectations? We had 34 that said yes and or exceeded 13 that said no, that we were not meeting their expectations in one person that was unsure. And now I'm going to turn it over to Bonnie Lipscomb to kind of talk about the farmer's market and lead off the budget update. Hey, thanks, Brian. So next slide. So just to update you from May, we have been working regularly with the executive team from the farmer's market, Nate Dillon, as well as with his board over the summer to really bring a lot of the designs from 27, 2018 that we've been working with on lot seven, bring it up to 2022 and where the farmer's market is currently, what their goals are for permanence long term. And we have been working throughout, you know, late spring, early summer on designs. We're at the point where we're close to a final design for lot seven. And at the same time, we've been working on a farmer's market memorandum of understanding and some of the main objectives for the MOU with the farmer's market is for permanence for the farmer's market. So a permanent location and structure improves site and enhance community space over what they have currently. They also are really looking at year round off operation. So not to be impacted by rainy weather, implement weather, as well as an expansion of what they currently offer. And so they're looking at special food trucks, special community events, potentially even increasing the farmer's market to twice a week. So really looking at how can we truly make this a community gathering space more than just one afternoon, one Wednesday afternoon each week. So we have this outlined in an MOU. We currently also have City Council, you have approved 1.775 million, 1.2 from a previous budget year, an additional 500,000 this year that is budgeted for farmer's market for permanent, some phase one improvements. And we're specifically looking at lot seven based on our current communications with the farmer's market board. So the proposal next slide is the MOU has been reviewed by the farmer's market board. We have had a presentation on the design and layout. You can see just some excerpts here of some of the recent work that we've done with the farmer's market and with the board that was presented to them in August, this August. We've received feedback on both the design and working on the finalized design right now, as well as have the final comments on the MOU. We are anticipating hopefully it'll be next week, if not next week the week after that the farmer's market will be voting on the MOU with the feedback that we've received. So we really have made a lot of progress and we'll bring that forward to you after it goes to the farmer's market board. We'll come back to the City Council for your consideration of that memorandum of understanding. Also want to give you just some brief budget updates since May. And so we're not going to go into it. May we went, we did a pretty big deep dive into the library budget breakdown of the various elements, the design, tenant improvements over the overall budget comparison to the renovation budget. What we're going to do today is just update you on some of the recent updates both per the project elements. So specifically on, thank you, on housing and then I'll turn it back to Brian to talk a little bit about parking and the library itself. So updates since May, specifically what we have secured to date. And when I say we, this is specifically our overall team, but this is largely public city secured funding. The local housing trust fund, we have 3.6 million secured specifically for this project for affordable housing. We also have a permanent local housing allocation of 1.55 secured for this project. Specifically at this location, we have 2 million secured a congressional earmark, thanks to Congressman Panetta. And that's both for the housing and the library components of the project. And then additionally through Eden, one of the developer teams, we do have a grant from Central Coast Community Energy for the net zero elements of the project for 240,000. So secured to date is over 7 million, seven, basically 7.4 million specifically for the housing, a little overlap between the housing and the library on the earmark to be secured. And I just wanted to just take a second to pause on where we are with the fact that we have over 7 million secured, secured for housing at this point in the project. And when I say this point in the project, we have just submitted, you know, this month, the formal application for the project. So to already have 7 million secured in funding sources for housing is pretty unusual. It's very early for that. For what you see under to be secured, the developer, once they have entitlements, so once City Council, when you get this project, hopefully in December before you, once you grant and approve the overall project, the developer is then able to apply for the majority of funding that you really pulled together for the various funding sources for affordable housing development. And so we've been working really closely with Eden and for the future and sure that we're lining up to apply in January, February next year for the supernova application. Following that, we'll be able to apply for tax credits. We're anticipating approximate and conventional perm loan for another 78 million and then affordable housing program funds will really round out the whole picture for the affordable housing funding that will be secured for this project. And next slide. And when we look at the housing, in order to apply for a lot of those, we had to early on and Eden really put this together is look at that the unit count, the unit mix and the affordability mix. And some of our goals as the city and our affordable housing team is to make sure that we as a city and as a public entity are providing the greatest need and the hardest hardest to build in the community. That's really where you want to focus the majority of your dollars and you're leveraging for affordable housing. So we are really focusing on 30 to 50 percent for the majority of our focus of area median income and a few units at 60 percent AMI, but we're not focusing at what's considered low income, which is 80 percent of area median income. We're going lower because those are the most expensive units to build. Therefore, we really want to leverage our affordable dollars in that area. So that 7 million 7.4 that I went on the previous slide is really being leveraged to create these units in the project. And the breakdown is just before you 31 three bedroom units, 31 two bedroom, 48 one bedroom, 13 studios and one two bedroom managers unit. And we've had a lot of just questions and follow up recently about, well, what does that mean? It's pretty complicated when you start talking about 30 percent to 60 percent of AMI. So I just put in there what that range is. And this does does change each year based on the state level from housing and community development. They print out and we can go through forward and really go take a deeper dive of this at a future meeting. I think we're going to focus on a housing topic and we can go into the formula of how these are determined each year, what these ranges are and what you need to qualify. But basically, in order to be eligible to come into our 27 of these units that are reserved for those making 30 percent of area median income, it ranges between a sort of a studio or one person income of earning roughly 32,000 a year up to a three bedroom unit, which assumes, you know, to two, you know, sort of wage earners potentially up to 46,000 a year. So that's what you would need to be eligible for one of the 30 percent AMI units. So that's an update on the housing. And I will turn it over to Brian to give you an update on the budgets as far as parking in the library. Thank you. So this slide might look familiar to those that were involved with some of the previous meetings. But basically, the parking budget has been shuffling as the design changes. And so right now this parking financing kind of overview is based on the current design that is in the application. And so that consists of 243 parking spaces. Some previous discussions we have presented design concepts that had higher parking count. But at this point, we have three levels of parking in 243 parking spaces as we began to shuffle things around to accommodate needs for fire in the alley. And as we carved out mechanical components and other elements related to infrastructure that was needed. And so at this point, we've estimated that that service would be about 1.1 million annually. And the amount of financing that we would need for the parking component would be about 14.5 million, which is reduced based on the space count. We still have to determine the best financing options as we get closer to having to secure this financing, which we won't do until we're further along and have entitlements and are starting to look at a realistic construction schedule. We don't want to have funding secured too early and have to start paying debt service on money that we have in still the facility that helps support that debt service. And so the timing of that is still kind of down the road at this point. There are a couple of different options. You know, the parking district has the ability to do district bonds, but there's also some direct loan lenders that have worked with government entities that we've been in discussions with. The funding will be secured at a later date, but these are the updated estimates of what we would expect. When it comes to the debt service, it's important to remind I think everyone that there's still been some confusion about like, how does this funding evolve? And it's a combination of the facility itself will produce revenues as well as the parking district as a whole has always supported debt service for the parking district. And so those two revenue streams combined will give us the ability to meet the annual debt service. And we're updating all of our financial modeling that we used to prove this concept back in 2018 with an outside firm because we've had impacts related to COVID. We've done things to impact revenues by providing temporary release to businesses and waiving fees. A number of different things have factored in since that last revisit of the financial model. And so those inputs are being updated now to be vetted by a third party to help, you know, bring any decision making that might need to happen on project design back to the back to the council for consideration. And so we're expecting to have that work done over the next several weeks with that happening prior to having action on the entitlement process in December. On the libraries, the library design has moved a little bit further ahead than the overall building envelope. And so at this point, we already have 100% design development TI sets for the design because that process has a longer lead time to get through the community input on collections and, you know, working with the library staff and all the elements that affect the library footprint. So like the overall building envelope is dialed in, but there was a lot of moving parts that affected the timing that we needed to keep working ahead on the library design. So at each interval that we receive any designs that we get a new cost estimate. And so now we've received in the last couple weeks, a new base estimate that has brought the cost down at $625,000 from the base estimate that we had at the previous schematic design set. And when we add the alternatives, there's an additional savings. So we're down to base and alternatives being just over $24 million and reduced $830,000 from the last estimate that received. A number of the design changes that are affecting this change in cost is related to us bringing the building height down to meet the 50 foot maximum on the Cedar Street side. And so there's been some movement on the floor height that has had cost savings on material use as the cost estimate has been produced. So that's one of the things that's helping drive down, you know, as we further design and more known as known, we'll continue to fine tune and look for ways for cost savings on material use. So the next update is on project schedule. So right now we're still in design development phase because we just received that 100% design set to review as the city will provide feedback to the architect team working on the PIs for the library. And then we've started the entitlement process for the overall project of building envelope to move forward. And so those are the two phases that we're predominantly focused on. Post entitlement will be additional design work on the overall building envelope and they'll be transitioning from design development into construction documents across the board so that we can meet our construction schedule. And so this is kind of an extended view of kind of, we're still in this year end phase of design and engineering and we won't be pivoting to construction until 2024. The next steps. So the project design application planning process is starting to materialize as we have the formal applications submitted this month. We're targeting a December council meeting for those entitlements to be approved. And then we would begin the next design phases as we hit different benchmarks in the entitlement process. The finalizing of the farmers market MOU which we're expecting to happen next month. And the finalizing of the farmers market design at lot seven. We anticipate having a second project community meeting as part of the entitlement process and we're targeting from time in November prior to it going to the planning commission and before it comes back to council for action. And then of course, the reason we're targeting that December meeting is we're hoping to apply for housing funding in January of 2023. And with that, we will take any questions that you might have that we might have answers for. Thank you for that update. Let's see. I'll take it out for any council members who have questions on that quarterly update. Council member, council member Brown and then council member Myers. Thanks. So thank you for the update. Lots of lots to chew on there. I wanted to ask if I could follow up on the parking piece of this because I feel like I'm hearing some different information about the financial position of the parking district and what that means for the potential to either bond or take the alternative file. Sorry. So are we is the city in a position right now to finance the parking portion? I, you know, I clear colloquially did talk about this at our meeting last Thursday, but I'm still trying to understand where we're at in terms of the potential to finance the parking piece. So if we were to, for example, be ready to move forward now or sometime in the very near future, could we, you're confident that the city could finance in that, in that fashion, in that manner? And why are we confident of that, given that we don't have updated financial model? Yes. So I think like the purpose of the financial model is just to prove our assumptions and have them third party vetted and also take into consideration the unknowns that we might experience like interest rate changes, you know, how do we approach finance, the financial structure in a way that is most beneficial and most efficient for a project. So at this time, yes, we still believe we have the resources and the district is the one that has the ability to bond for its projects and supply projects. It's historically been able to do that in a specific existence. And so we believe because we're kind of coming out of COVID that the revenues have rebounded in such a way where we're getting rid of some of our temporary reductions and fees, we're unwinding some of our temporary measures, and we've eaten up some of our cash, our flexible cash reserves to do that. But as a whole, we do believe that we're on solid ground when it comes to the parking district. And we have that for a consistent period of time. But as we go out to get competitive interest rates and bond rates and make a determined nation on how we want the structure of the financing, because there is different path forward, that we will have not only a project that's viable, but one that is competitive with getting secured lower interest rates. Thank you. I have a couple of other questions if I could just get through those. So one of the reasons that I wanted to ask specifically about parking, because I'm curious about the, there's a lot of pieces to this and there's a lot of different funding sources and the timing and sequencing of how and when we get money matters for these different components. And so just trying to think about what we need to have in place in order to demonstrate what I believe is commonly called shovel readiness to be able to go after some of those additional funding sources. And I'm thinking now about the housing piece. And so I appreciate how you've laid out what we have and what the possibilities for additional funding are in collaboration with our partners. But I'm wondering if, I did hear and you noted in the presentation today that we did not, we were not successful in the last round of funding on the, I remember what the pot of money is called, but the library. And so I'm wondering if you received comments or if you're, we're applying again and there's a suggestion or it's been stated that we are going to do, we're going to go for the next round. Did you get comments where there are ways that this or what are we doing to make that more competitive, I guess, try to get that funding? And did you get comments about why we weren't funded in this round? Were there big areas that or anything like that? I'm just curious because I want to make sure we're going after money that we're competitive for. Yeah, I think I can start on a couple components and maybe have Bonnie answer some of the housing components. But from a, from an overall project schedule, we, we will really start to shore up the financing post entitlement in part because that's when the housing funding becomes available for us to apply and we have an approved project. And the same is true. We don't want to be too far ahead of when we're starting construction or have too much flexibility in trying to borrow more than we need for construction of the parking garage. And so like in some ways that that really is our next big benchmark to get passed that will help us start dialing in securing the financing and applying for the funding for the housing, you know, starting the process of determining which the financial tool that's best fit for the parking component, as well as, you know, just shoring up, you know, where do we have potential gaps that need to be identified? And what other grant opportunities are there that we could be competitive for now that we have an approved project? I think that's the next big hurdle for us to get through from a project standpoint of giving more certainty around the financial models. And in the meantime, we're doing all our due diligence to make sure that we are trying to be ahead of that by working out, you know, those inputs and having them that is through, you know, our economic firm that we've worked with in the past that has proven, you know, to help us determine that we can afford, you know, the parking component and that we have a viable plan. And so I think that unless Bonnie has additional things to add, I think that's our big benchmark that will really open up the door for us to be more competitive in applying for the financial component. Thanks, Brian. I would just add to that that we do have a million dollars set aside for this project specifically related to parking elements from previous development. So to development, developer contributions of 500,000 a piece for future parking related to this project and future parking capacity. So we have ample funding to continue, you know, for the next, you know, I'd say year plus or more with that funding set aside for this project related to parking to make sure the parking is paying its fair share. And, you know, as Brian mentioned, you know, we're looking to come before you hopefully in the December timeframe regarding entitlements for the project. But the anticipated need to actually start having secured bonds is not until, you know, much later in 2023, if even in 2023, it could even go into 2024. So based on the parking fund now, and the fact that we're really looking to secure parking revenue bonds, so they're based on, you know, our future revenue. So users that come and park in the parking structure, you know, will be basically providing the future revenue to pay the parking fund. So from that perspective, and looking at the city's bond rating, the health of the fund over time, we don't believe in and feedback that we've received from our financial consultants is that we're not going to have any trouble securing the financing we need on the parking side for the project. So I want to say that now we'll come back to you with updated models when we have that, but we don't have any indication that the feedback from the pandemic is going to ultimately impact our ability to secure financing for the parking. So I think that's something we'll continue to, in our quarterly updates or sooner as needed, we'll come to council and provide more information to you on that front. Thank you. Thank you. One last question. So in terms of the, I think about cost escalation, I know we all do, and, you know, we talked about that a lot and being on the library committee, we did get some really detailed financial information about the specific components to get us a cost estimate for, you know, and it was fascinating and, you know, it was really helpful to be able to see that information. It was the financial work that Mac Five did as part of that study with Jason Architects. And we don't really have, I mean, I'm trying to get a sense of what something comparable would be to try to think through the costs for this, you know, we have a big number and we have some designs and just thinking about what the actual costs are going to be and then also trying to factor in cost escalation. I know you do that in planning, but we obviously have had some pretty significant inflationary years here. And so I'm wondering if we're going to get any additional more detailed cost information and if we can get, I'd love to have a better understanding of what you're seeing in terms of the costs that we're estimating now versus when building actually begins. And I guess I would respond first with the cost estimations that we're bringing doing consider cost inflation and cost escalation. And so those numbers that we're bringing you do factor that in as a future based on our construction timeline so that a future start date. And that has been one of the drivers of some of the numbers changing that we've been bringing back to you is that it has impacted those base costs. As the design furthers, we're offsetting that by, you know, with material changes and space count changes and things that are also bringing the cost down. So the numbers that we are bringing to you are what we're expecting to have to spend at the time of construction and not excluding those numbers at this point. And I would just add to that just to further, you know, sort of clarify your questions about, will we get more updates? You know, as Brian really went over earlier, you know, taking it from 50, 50% DD to 100% actually ultimately resulted in a reduction over all of our TI costs. So we are getting updated at real information as we move forward on each, each element, each step in the project and we'll continue to do that and revise the numbers. As we get to each subsequent phase in the project, we will have a new cost estimate, you know, for the various elements.  So we'll continue to come forward at key milestones with financial information about the project and the project elements. Thank you. And I was very pleased to see the decrease there. It's very unusual. So thank you. Thank you. Council Member Meyer and then Council Member Cummings. Council Member Brown asked some of my questions. So I think I'm just down to one or two. So yeah, I guess I had a couple real quick questions. One question remaining about the parking, the parking district and the sort of financial solvency. So, you know, some of that, obviously that revenue loss was related to the city actually pretty much stopping parking fees during COVID. So folks, you know, wouldn't be hit with those. So I think it's important for the public to understand that, you know, when you see that drop in the revenues on our parking district, you know, a lot of that had to do with the fact that we just, we just didn't require people to pay to park anymore for during COVID a lot. So, but it, you know, again, seeing that we're just building replacement parking, we're not building new parking in that parking garage, but we are consolidating it into that structure. I mean, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that, you know, our payback, you know, annual cost is only a million dollars. That's really not much or 1.1 million. So I'm glad to see these numbers. I'm shocked by the numbers that you've presented today. And I know that there's, it's always hard to estimate on construction, but I think there's, you know, a lot, kind of a little bit of misinformation about our possible success on this project and the numbers you're showing me today are really encouraging. So, Brian, I understood that you did, what was the percent escalation figure you used for the cost? Was it 10%, 20% percent? I haven't fully, but we just got the 100% design development cost estimation, like the end of last week. So I haven't gone over that in full detail, but we could provide that answer to you, like the exact numbers that they're using for their cost escalation. I know we have that available. That would be good to know just because, you know, if they're using like a 20% escalation, that, you know, I feel like that gives us some pretty solid coverage. But if they're using like a 10 or 15, it's pretty standard, I think nowadays to 20. But I'd be just curious to know what that is, because I know construction costs are all over the map right now. So, yeah, but I could follow up with you on an email on that, but really encouraging numbers. And so thank you for the presentation. Thank you. Councilmember Cummings. Thanks for that presentation. I'll try to keep my question short. The one question that I've been hearing people bring up is, you know, we've talked about funding for library, parking, the housing, but the commercial space and the childcare. I'm just wondering, is that funding coming out of the funding for the library or where the funding is coming from to incorporate those pieces into this project? So the commercial actually project, so what one of the things we're doing is we are, as part of the overall building envelope, is looking at what the cost or value of the existing commercial building is. And creating a condo within the project is one option for that value. And then any subsequent value for the space will be made up by the business owner if he's interested in securing that space. So that's something that will bring forward to you. We've been actively sort of working with the business owner about it really is right now an expansion, almost double the size of space that he has now. So there's real value created through the project. It's not a component of the library or any of the library share at all. It's a portion on the housing project footprint. And so looking at as part of what you can as far as land acquisition, it's part of that piece for the affordable housing. And it's actually underneath the affordable housing component of the project. On the childcare, that's something that is critically needed in all housing projects for housing, and particularly for affordable housing. So that's another element that actually helps in some of our funding applications for affordable housing, being able to secure some of that. So that's something that we've been working very closely with the developer on as we go forward. Great. That's helpful. The next question I had was on lot seven and the potential for the farmers market to move there. And that's obviously dependent upon the outcome of the measure O campaign. But I'm just curious because I was just looking at the timeline. And let's say, for example, this project continues to move through after November, when would we anticipate the construction on lot seven to take place to create those structures that were kind of outlined for shading, because it would seem to be that we'd want to have all that completed before any construction began on lot four. Because if it wasn't complete, then the farmers market really doesn't have anywhere to go. So I'm just wondering if you could speak to that in terms of the timeline, depending on the outcome of the November election. Thanks for asking that question. One of the options we're talking about with the farmers market, they're really interested in pursuing lot seven as a potential permanent home, but also potentially as an interim home. They want to really keep that option open if measure O does fail. And they can look forward to the current library site. So right now they want to keep both options open, which would mean that for lot four and the interim, we would resurface do some utilities grading, initial phase upgrades to make that parking lot a really great site for the farmers market, but we would stop short of doing the structure in that scenario and in that option. If farmers market moves after we resurface, repave, which could happen well within the next year because that scope is a much as a first phase is a much shorter, much smaller scope and very achievable, particularly within the budget funding that we have. They can decide, hey, we actually really like it here. I mean, that option is going to be theirs, whether they want to stay on lot seven or ultimately whether they want to focus on the current library site should that opportunity come forward in the future. Got it. So I guess with keeping that option open, then it's going to be a little bit of a challenge if they decide they want to stay on lot seven and then what happens while these structures get constructed. And specifically just to follow up on your question, do you mean the surrounding private development? No, on lot seven, if the the schematics of the city is kind of laid out, if that's not done prior to them moving to create that permanent space, if they decide they want lot seven as a permanent space, I guess the question would be like, where would they go in the interim while that construction takes place? Yeah, what we're looking at is potentially for the preliminary first phase is to go ahead and put some of the pilings of foundations that would support the permanent structure. It's just a matter of putting in those concrete footings initially when we're repaving a lot. And then the type of structure we've been looking at is more like a butler building. It's almost like a pre-babby put down. It's minimal disruption time because the concept for the farmers market is this great open air, tall ceilings with a community really gathering space as it adjoins Cathcart, so big open area. So I think it's achievable within the timeframe. And I think that what is that period? Can the farmers market locate depending on how big that building is on another portion of the lot expand into a couple of the streets while this structure is being put in place? I think probably so. But I think that the period for putting that down is certainly nowhere comparable to a ground up construction project like we're contemplating in some of the other areas. Great. And then last question. So when we were on the subcommittee and we met with folks from Public Works, there was initially like a real urge to try to keep the 600 parking spaces as part of the project. That was then reduced to 400. It's now reduced to 243, I think it was. And I think earlier on, the hope was that we could reduce it as great as possible. And there's a lot of pushback from city staff. And so I'm just kind of wondering why now is it coming down even further when back and when we were having these initial discussions, there's a lot of pushback for us to not reduce it past 600, let alone 400. Yeah, I think the concern is still there that we're not providing enough supply with this supply project. But I think the hope is that we can supply it in a financially sound way with the project that we have before us. Some of the changes are being steered by things like fire access for the alleyway and ensuring that we can maintain the footprint that we have for the commercial, the childcare and the library. I think if we could build a 600 space parking facility, it would be warranted from a supply and demand, but it may not be wanted from a project feasibility or from an aesthetic standpoint of like what we're trying to attempt to accomplish here. So I think the concern will continue to come up. We continue to fund transportation demand management programs. And we know that we need to get really aggressive with that regardless. And to this replacement parking is going to be meaningful for some of the existing projects that are going up adjacent to it that aren't supplying parking on site. And we're going to have to consider some other long term investments in other supply areas. And that might mean being creative with doing things like automated systems within our existing facilities to expand capacity. You know, those are the options that we're looking at as we continue to look at that parking count. And we're trying to hold it as best as possible. We also initially looked at the pre-application and included an underground component to expand parking capacity, just so that we could flush out if there is any challenges from the planning department on that. And that is something that we might be able to consider as we do our financial modeling and bring back to you for direction if we want to try to expand capacity beyond the 248 spaces. Thank you. That's helpful. But just because I'm trying to understand, you know, how there was like this urgency of like, don't reduce it past 600. And now, you know, we're down. We're able to make it work with less. I think, you know, a lot of people appreciate, but it was just really trying to get an understanding of kind of why there was that shift. So thank you. And just to, just to add to that, I mean, as we get further into design, I mean, I think the realities of the project on our overall objectives for the project really come into play. And so when you're balancing, oh, we can get, you know, a whole other floor of housing units here, that that's a priority that overweighs at least I'm going to say from my perspective, you know, overall on the on the project, that doesn't mean as a city that we don't have a real need for parking. We do. But when you're looking at this envelope, I think there's decision points. And so Brian is sort of alluding to, we wanted to just technically see, you know, are there any building challenges? Are there any, you know, just we all know the water table is really high in the downtown. Could you even consider going underground? You know, right now, we're not proposing that. But that is something after you look at the updated parking numbers. I know that, you know, Claire and public works and Brian, they've all been sort of, you know, meeting regularly to sort of look at the as development goes forward in the downtown and new projects and more housing units are built, you know, that parking number and that deficit overall is increasing. So I think it's, you know, it's going to be a really important decision point, I think for you as a council to really look at and provide some direction to staff, ultimately, what you want in this project, you know, what you want overall in the whole parking district downtown, because with the development, you know, that's proposed and in many cases already underway as you're seeing that really does change the future of parking and what we're providing downtown. So as it relates to this project, you know, we're making our best recommendations on the overall objectives and goals of what, you know, we really feel like we've been directed to include, but also feel like it's the best for the project as we move forward, but there will definitely be decision points for you coming up. Great. Thank you. And I would add, I would add one more thing with Claire, the lovely just presented a supply and demand update on the pipeline projects of the downtown commission this month. And we can share that to the council members that presentation because it highlights, you know, the position of public works and the need. We still believe it's there. And I don't know that we're going to achieve, you know, satisfying all the replacement parking that's required with with the new pipeline numbers being updated. And so I think that would be beneficial to pass along to the council members as well. Thank you. Do any other council members have questions on this presentation? Council member Myers. Thank you for all the detail, detail answers. Bonnie, I just want to make sure I understood just a little bit more on the sort of where the farmers market is. So my understanding is that lot seven potentially could be temporary, but it could be several years. I would assume mostly because, you know, when we build a library over on lot four, that then gives us a planning period to work to look at what we could do over here on the existing library site. And I know at one point, I think that that the farmers market did did sort of indicate that, you know, this is a one, this would be a wonderful place for them to be because of that concept of being able to tie it into city hall and the civic and some of the other uses around here, as well as again, additional housing on this site. So when you say they may they're kind of temporarily interested, but they may want the option. So during that period of that planning process that we would do for the existing library site basically is where the farmers market would re engage at that period. Is that correct? I mean, you know, if things go forward and that opportunity site of the existing library is available, you know, the study that we did, oh gosh, I want to say the summer before last, you know, identified and ultimately council approved, you know, a affordable housing, civic sort of commons potential farmers market for and other civic uses for the existing library site. So we would move forward on that process, but we could start some of that planning earlier than when the library is relocated to their new home, but we can't get too far ahead of that. Ultimately, the farmers market on lot seven would be there at a minimum, I would say for five years, you know, because you have to both do the planning and then you have to build the new project and create the new home for them. So yeah, as a temporary area, I would guess more appropriately an interim site would be lot seven with the option to either stay on let seven or five, five to six years down the road, move to a new sort of civic center, you know, opportunity that would be built in and planned in the, you know, in the, you know, forthcoming next few years. And I don't want to obligate the city into the future too much, but I mean, with the number of housing units that are going to go up right around lot seven, you know, on other projects, you know, there's a, there's a built in built in a buyer base right, right next door, literally. So people aren't going to need to drive to downtown, they're going to be living downtown and they can walk right next door to the farmers market. So I would imagine that gives them some really nice long-term, you know, opportunities to become a major, a major part of downtown, which is pretty exciting. That's right. And I, and, you know, I think also when you look at two of those, they're both private projects across the street from lot seven, you know, there's close, I think, 400 units between those two projects that includes largely market rate, but they included some inclusionary housing as well. You know, the one, the Southern project or the more Southern project of the two has a 60-foot public Paseo that connects up to the Riverwalk that also aligns with Cathcart Street. So there's some real synergy there with what you can do in sort of public spaces and community gathering spaces that I think are going to be really exciting, really being able to maximize and work with some of the public elements and even some of our grant funding that we have for the public infrastructures that connects to the Riverwalk. So I think there's some real opportunities ahead for creating some very vibrant public and community spaces that can really tie into the farmer's market. Thanks again for the update. Very exciting. Thank you. All right. It looks like that concludes questions from council. We will now move on to our next presentation. Thank you so much, Brian Borgino and Bonnie Lipscomb. We will now move on to agenda item 7, Unified Animal Model Ordinance Update. And I'd like to welcome Erica Smart, Interim General Manager Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter. Welcome. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us today. My name is Erica Smart and as was just stated, I am the Interim General Manager of the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter. And with me today is Field Services Manager Officer Todd Stosie. We're going to present to you the new Animal Services Unified Ordinance for your consideration along with our agency's recommendation for it to be ultimately adopted by the City of Santa Cruz. While I have not been a part of this process, as I've only been in this interim role since July, I know that for many years leading up to this moment, our prior Shelter Director Melanie Sobel, as well as Officer Stosie, have been working tirelessly on the information that you're going to learn today. And I know that Officer Stosie has put a ton of work into this, so I'm really excited for him to get to share this with you. His work on this project ultimately did get this ordinance passed with our Animal Services GPA Board, which consists of representatives from every jurisdiction in our county, as well as the county Board of Supervisors. Ultimately, this ordinance is important for our community as it does create a uniform and consistent regulatory enforcement and appeal process throughout the entire county. And this is going to result in less confusion and inefficiencies for both our animal control officers, shelter staff, and then, of course, the general public. Currently, each jurisdiction does have its own separate code provisions for regulating animals and all these different ordinances for animal services. And similarly, situated jurisdictions just causes confusion. And ultimately, we're looking for consistency and uniformity throughout the county. So with that being said, thank you so much for your consideration on this matter. I'm going to turn it over to Officer Stosie, who's going to share a presentation with you. Thank you very much. I apologize that we couldn't be there in person today. It was our intention. I definitely like to meet people in person and not do things over Zoom, but I ended up going to work today and getting very sick. And so I'm at home right now. So we ended up having to do it this way. Because I am at home, I don't have my normal county equipment that I have. So I am unable to bring up the presentation on my iPad. So I'm hoping, Bonnie, that you were able to bring it up so that we can move it forward. Yes, one moment. Thank you. Here we go. Thank you. So as Erica had mentioned, and I should backtrack a little bit, I've been employed with the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter for the past 19 years, serving all the beautiful cities in our jurisdiction as well as the county. It's unfortunate that I haven't met any of you before today, but I have worked in your city for the past 19 years, regulating animal ordinances, everything from bite investigations to cruelty and neglect to just basic leash law. As Erica mentioned, the current ordinances throughout the county are very dramatically. What happens in one jurisdiction is different in another jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions have, the animals have more rights, and some jurisdictions that humans have more rights. And it's just very confusing for those officers and for the public to have an understanding of where they stand and what we can actually do to help protect the community, as well as help protect the needs of animals in our community. So if you can advance the slide. So as Erica did mention, we do have our member jurisdictions. We are JPA. This model ordinance that we did put together over the past four or five years was ultimately approved by the county board of supervisors in approximately January this year, I believe. We are now enforcing the model ordinance within the county of Santa Cruz, and it has proven to be very effective, particularly in our dangerous and potentially dangerous animal situations. It's much more streamlined, provides our officers in the county much more streamlined requirements for animal owners to keep those animals, as well as to keep the community safe. Our other jurisdictions are the city of Capitola, city of Santa Cruz, city of Scotts Valley, and city of Watsonville. And currently the ordinances in each one of those jurisdictions do vary very, very widely from each other. In particular, the city of Watsonville is missing probably about 10 to 15 ordinances that all the other jurisdictions have. So if a dog kills a cat in the city of Watsonville, there actually is no crime against that under their current city of Watsonville law, which is why we're hopefully going to be presenting them in the near future. Next, please. Again, and as mentioned, it does create a uniform and consistent regulatory enforcement and appeal process throughout the county. Currently right now, if prior to the ordinance passing in the county, if someone did appeal a dangerous or vicious dog case, it was heard in front of what was called the nuisance abatement commission. As part of creating this new model ordinance, we did dissolve the nuisance abatement commission. And anyone who appeals a vicious or dangerous dog case now or vicious dangerous animal case is heard by an independent hearing officer. And it's made it much easier to schedule those. It's made it much less, the previous nuisance abatement commission had 45 days to hold a hearing to get the five or six panel members together, sometimes resulting in dogs sitting in cages at the shelter for up to 45 days, which was not in the best interest of that animal. So now we can get these hearings held pretty quickly, usually within four or five days of the appeal process. Within the city of Santa Cruz right now, the appeal process is heard through the city manager's office who does hire a independent hearing officer as well. If we were able to pass this process within the city of Santa Cruz, we would be looking at basically using the same hearing officers. In the city of Capitola, those hearings are heard by the Capitola city council, which is very confusing. And then in Scotts Valley and city of Watsonville, those hearings are heard by the chief of police. So it's very, very different in each community. And this would really help streamline that throughout the county. Most importantly, again, I've been here 19 years and I still get confused by the inefficiencies within the various ordinances. I still get confused when I'm standing at Watsonville, what I can do, when I'm standing in the city of Santa Cruz, what I can do, and this ordinance would really make it so that myself, other officers and new hires had a true understanding of what we could enforce and the public would have that knowledge as well. Next. So for getting this passed within the county, obviously the county has a very different demographic than the city of Santa Cruz. We did a lot of outreach with a lot of farm folks. We met with the director of the board of the California Rodeo several times. We met with the Watsonville fairgrounds CEO and board on a number of occasions. We also did meet with Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, both individually and then as a group. And then we also met, you know, we did a lot of public outreach. You folks on the city of Santa Cruz board probably don't know me very well, but I'm very community oriented. I'm very big into community policing. I'm very big into understanding what the community wants so that I know how to serve them. And so in drafting this ordinance within the county and working with a lot of livestock, a lot of cows, horses, I live in Live Oak. I don't, you know, I'm not a farm boy. And so I really wanted to understand what these laws I was creating did to affect folks who had these animals. And so we met on a number of times with the Farm Bureau, the Horsens Association, the Livestock Association, 4-H Club as well as FFA, and as well as a group called the Santa Cruz County Coalition of Family Farms and Homestips. And through those community meetings and meeting with various people, we were able to change quite a few things we had in there, getting an understanding of what it was the community wanted from us. And one of our goals within the city of Santa Cruz is to do the same, same with the other member jurisdictions is to meet with the various demographics of each of the jurisdictions and find out what it is the community wants from us and how we can serve them and making sure that our ordinances don't misalign with some basic, you know, things that people want in that community. Next. So some of the main general provisions that we did change within the county is under Chapter 6.04, which is the general provisions. One of the big things we wanted to add was interference with an animal control officer and their performance of their duties. Animal control officers are kind of a weird hybrid of law enforcement. Under California Code, we do have all the rights of a peace officer while we are working. We do have the power of arrest and we do have the power to write and serve search warrants. However, under Penal Code 148, which is resisting arrest, we have found that sometimes a DA will prosecute that. Sometimes a DA will not because of our weird hybrid status that we have. So we felt it important to add this provision in there so that our officers are safe. Our officers do on a daily basis interact with a lot of the community and our officers are not armed. Again, we do have the power of arrest and the power of writing citations, but we don't have the full protections of most peace officers. We wanted to make sure that we were protected if we did come into some situation which does happen out there. We added in staking out or tying out an animal. Under California state law, there is a provision in regards to tethering animals, making it illegal. That particular law was written into state law because of a health and safety issue in regards to animals, particularly male intact animals who are tied up or more prone to bite. The particular code was written after a young boy was killed down in Southern California by a family dog that was tethered and intact. So the law really focuses more on the safety of humans, which is great, but we wanted to make sure that the safety of the animals was also tied into our ordinance. So we added general provisions in there that if you are going to use a trolley system or a runner system, which is legal under California law, that that animal be put on a harness as opposed to a collar. In my career doing this, I've seen many animals that have choked themselves out, died, have not been able to get water appropriately. So we added quite a few provisions in the county code that just strengthen the state health and safety code to protect animals. We did add a provision about keeping animals with communicable diseases. Particularly now, we are definitely seeing a very high uptick of even influenza, particularly in the Bay Area. Santa Cruz has just been added to that list. The waterfowl population, geese, and I don't know if you're aware of this, but the lake, and I'm forgetting the name of the lake, but it's up off of high streets. City of Santa Cruz on the Upper West Side. We did work closely with Fish and Wildlife recently regarding a goose with avian influenza. And now that that is in our community, we want to make sure that if that particular disease or other diseases start infecting the animal population, that we can regulate it so that those animals don't continue to infect other animals. And with avian influenza, it is very communicable to chickens, which raises an alarming red flag with a number of backyard chickens that are particularly in the city of Santa Cruz, making sure that we don't spread a disease if we don't have to. We also added a section about maintenance of foul goats, rabbits, and guinea pigs. Currently, under all the city and county ordinances, there really is no regulation on how to maintain those animals. And so we wanted to put something together that people who decided to have a backyard flock of chickens or wanted to get a goat, wanted to have a rabbit or guinea pig knew exactly what they needed to do to care for that animal, knew what those, understand what those animals' needs are so that the animals do get the proper care when they are put in people's backyards or in people's homes. And then we did also add spare neutering of adopted animals to ensure that any animal that's adopted out by any organization within the county does have to spare neuter them to keep down the companion animal over population crisis. As you may or may not be aware, we are the county's only open door admission shelter, which means we take in any animal day or night, no questions asked, which doesn't unfortunately mean we do have to euthanize some animals for sickness, for aggression, and by making sure that any organization out there is adopting out animals, that their spare neutering them is going to help us alleviate that problem. Next. As far as licensing goes, we did currently in all jurisdictions, dogs are required to be licensed through our agency. But we decided to really look at expanding that. And a big one for me, I've been involved in a number of cock fighting cases in my career, taking down a lot of folks. I currently know where a lot of people are breeding fighting roosters for cock fighting.  So if we get a search warrant now, a lot of these large facilities, we're not going to find anything but roosters, which is not a crime in the state of California. So to try and help us with that, we decided to add a licensing section for folks who have a certain number of roosters per acre. If I'm not mistaken, you can have two roosters on a half an acre property, four roosters on a acre property, and then it kind of moves up and allows a maximum of 10 roosters. When we originally started this particular section, it was called the rooster facility license.  That a lot of people who do have roosters in their flocks are not fighting those birds, that they're there to fertilize the eggs.  That way we would target the specific breeds that were being utilized in cock fighting.  I don't think a lot of people are aware of it. Most people think it's in different sections of the county, but it does occur within the city as well. We also added under licensing non-commercial rabbits to the microchip section. Currently under all the member jurisdictions besides the city of Scotts Valley, all dogs and cats are required to be microchipped. And the advantage of this is really getting animals home quicker. All of our officers carry microchip scanners in their vehicles. When they scan an animal and has a microchip, we run that microchip and if we have an owner attached to it, we drive that animal home. The animal number never comes to the shelter. And we felt that getting rabbits microchipped, because rabbits are actually a very highly owned pet within the county of Santa Cruz and our member jurisdictions, and we do pick up rabbits straight quite frequently. Getting the microchip would get them home a lot quicker as well. The reason you see the word non-commercial rabbits there is in speaking with a lot of farm groups, there's a rabbit breeder down in the Watsonville area, the county section of Watsonville, who does breed rabbits for consumption. And he felt that he did not want to have to microchip all of his rabbits if he was breeding for consumption. And so we brewed with that and said, you know, this truly is an ordinance that we're creating to get pet rabbits home. And so we'll add that term non-commercial to it. In addition to the county code chapter 6.10, we did amend mandatory spay neutering for non-commercial rabbits. Again, the same thing there, which is adding non-commercial to make sure that pet rabbits are spayed and neutered. And then we did, what we found to be very important is adding a requirement on the care for all cats. There is a big movement within the state of California right now that a lot of animal shelters are one no longer accepting cats. Because state law does not require them to take in cats, they're just turning cats away. We as an open-door admission shelter, leaving the philosophy that all animals are equal, and so we still take in cats. In addition, what's happening in a lot of places in California is agencies are doing what they're calling feral freedom, where they're taking an animal, taking cats, feral cats, domestic cats, any cat they can get their hands on, spaying and neutering them and then just putting them back where they found them. And we don't feel that's right. We feel that that is abandonment under state law. We feel that cats should have the same protections as dogs. And so if someone wants to start a feral cat colony, we are not opposed to that. We actually would encourage people to have a feral cat colony. But with that, there are some responsibilities that come with it. If that cat does get sick or injured, the person should be required to take that animal to get vet care. You know, if that animal gets feline leukemia, it's probably the best interest that that animal then be moved indoors for the rest of its life and or be euthanized due to the severity of the spread of that disease to other animals in the community. So we found it very important to add that clause. In my career here in Santa Cruz, I've seen a lot of people who do TNR that don't have any requirements and they call us say there's a sick or injured cat in their backyard. When we get there, they say, oh, yeah, I've been feeding that cat for five years, but now it's your problem. And then the county or the city is responsible for paying for the care of that cat or the euthanasia of that cat as opposed to the person who's been caring for them. So we just found that very important to put that one in. Next. We strengthened our animal control, what what our officers can do. Again, this is that tethering dog section I mentioned earlier. The safety requirements for animals in park motor vehicles. Currently under state law, it's an infraction. It's also an infraction in all the member jurisdictions. But we wanted to strengthen that up a little bit about what is legal, what is illegal for an animal to park a motor vehicle. The unfortunate thing is a lot of people think just having an animal in a vehicle is illegal. We're lucky in the city of Santa Cruz that it normally doesn't get too extremely, the weather doesn't get too extreme here. And so oftentimes if an animal isn't a vehicle and it's parked in shade and windows are somewhat rolled down that animal is safe. However, we do have some of these these heat waves that are happening and we do have people who don't park in the shade. And in my career, I've definitely had to break a few animals out of vehicles, particularly at the boardwalk down in their parking area. We definitely have to break a lot of animals out of there during the summer. So we wanted to make sure that that there was more requirements in there that that we could enforce. Dead animals in public places might sound like a silly one, but there's precedent for it. There's definitely been people who have kept dead animals longer than they should have definitely kept them in public places longer than they should have. And we wanted to make sure that, you know, if someone's animal was deceased, that it was moved fairly quickly to either burial, cremation or what they were going to do at that body. As far as animal patrol officers present at rodeos and similar events, that currently is in the county code. We did not touch that particular code. In speaking with the attorney for the California Rodeo Association, he actually liked the code the way it stood and liked having animal patrol officers there. Like the transparency of us being there and didn't want that change. So we kept that in there based on his feedback. I don't believe the city of Santa Cruz has rodeos, but if they do in the future, we would like to be present at them just to make sure that if animals do get injured, they do get the vet care as required. Currently, there really is no law about poisoning animals. We get a lot of neighbor disputes where people will poison meat, throw it over the fence to the neighbor's animal, usually based on barking complaints. So we wanted to strengthen that, that it is, you know, poisoning an animal is illegal. As well as on that, there actually is no law that giving any sort of drug, whether it be marijuana, methamphetamine, alcohol to an animal is illegal. So in the county ordinance, we did add that as well, that you cannot intentionally provide cannabis, alcohol, methamphetamine, what have you to an animal. We do see some unintentional people, people's animals ingesting edibles, marijuana edibles, but that would not be subject to this particular ordinance. Non-intentional, it is not illegal. We definitely speak with those people when that happens and ask them to store their edibles in different locations so that their animals can't get to it. But mainly that part of the law really is more intent. I don't know if you're familiar, but about a year ago, we did have a houseless person living down in the Benchlands that did possibly feed methamphetamine to a wild hawk. And we weren't able to prove it at the time that it was intentional, but this would, you know, further strengthen us in being able to enforce it if we could have. Additionally, we did add injuring wildlife in here into the ordinance in the county. And again, this was, we met with a hunting group in regards to this. And we did put the caveat that anything that's illegal under Fish and Wildlife Codes in the state of California, it's not illegal. It's not illegal to hunt. It's not illegal to fish. As long as you have the proper licensing for that, we just don't want people going out there and injuring raccoons or possums because they see them as a nuisance, which does happen, and so we want to prevent that from happening. As mentioned, we do have that new restriction on the old English game mill, game burger, and game cocks. And then as far as the more enforceable excessive animal noise section, currently the way the law reads is really is open to interpretation. What would challenge the reasonable sensibilities of a person regarding animal noise? And so we strengthened it up a little bit. We no longer allow for anonymous noise complaints. We definitely found that a lot of times our agency was used in neighbor disputes. Even though the animal wasn't being noisy, we were called in to to deal with it. So now we do have a section where people want to make a noisy animal complaint, they do need to sign something. And affidavit on a penalty perjury that the noise is occurring. And when they do that, we will then go in person and meet with the animal owner. What I've found in my career is about 90% of animal noise violations are because the animal's board, which in my mind is a is a is a low level form of animal neglect, not an illegal form of animal neglect, but something that we can quickly change by providing resources and information. All of our officers carry cons and other dog enrichment tools within their vehicles. And so when we do these noisy animal complaints now, and we meet with someone whose dog has separation anxiety or is barking in the backyard because it's bored, we provide them with enrichment activities and that dog now has a much better life. Previously, we would a lot of times just under the old ordinance would just mail postcards for their first two complaints and wouldn't visit until the third complaints. So this is really helping cut down on neighborhood or neighbor disputes, as well as helping out those animals much quicker as well as resolving actual noise complaints. And from what I've seen since this ordinance has been in effect for about nine months, that the community is much happier with it, the community is much happier with an actual presence of an officer response, the fact that we're actually solving the problem much quicker by providing that enrichment activity. So it's a win-win for both the community as well as for the animals involved. Next, as far as wild and dangerous animals, we did want to add a section about feeding, sale and release of waterfowl and pigeons. There is, it's not an epidemic to say the least, but there are people who do release pigeons and waterfowl and do feed them and that really can mess with the natural ecosystem and the natural animals that are out there living in the wild. So we wanted to make sure that that wasn't happening so that our wild creatures didn't have their natural environments overtaken by domestic animals being released. The wild rodents in vermin, we definitely wanted to make sure that people were prohibited from feeding wild rodents in vermin just for the safety aspect of it, just for the health and safety aspect of it. I'm sure you're aware. I've been down to the Benchlands many times over the past few years and the wild rodent population down there is out of control and it's because people are allowed to feed rodents, people are allowed to leave things out that they can eat. This would help combat that, would help combat that in neighborhoods, in areas where the houseless are living and it would really help cut down on any sort of communicable diseases that could come from the wild rodent population. Honto virus is real. We've definitely had a few staff members catch it, so we want to make sure that that zoonotic disease is not affecting the members of our community. And then chapter 6.19 is definitely the ordinance that all of our jurisdictions need at the most, the regulation of dangerous animals. We were able to mirror state law quite well in changing it from in the past and currently the way it reads in the city of Santa Cruz is a vicious animal is any animal that barks, yelps, howls, chases, threatens to chase or harasses a human. So my little dog who's a rat terrier who occasionally will chase someone who comes into my office, she could be de-ambitious under the city of Santa Cruz code as well as all the other codes besides the county now. And that discrepancy led to a lot of animals being de-ambitious who truly weren't vicious. You know, I take liability very seriously and the way the law is written very seriously and there wasn't a lot of, you know, it was a very broad ordinance. So there was a lot of animals that were de-ambitious who truly weren't vicious, but I wanted to make sure our agency and our members jurisdictions weren't held liable if that animal did something in the future. So the new regulation of dangerous animals does have a couple tiered system. We now have potentially dangerous animal or vicious animal. And it's not specifically just dogs. I've deemed a few cats vicious in my career. I've also deemed a donkey vicious in my career. So there are other animals out there besides dogs that are attacking people. So by providing the potentially dangerous and vicious, we truly are going after animals that do pose a public safety risk. And in addition to defining more, much less open to interpretation and more black and white in regards to potentially dangerous and vicious, we also added a very long section of what animals or what owners who own those animals are required to do in regard, you know, one of those is they have to have the animal wearing a basket muzzle. If it's a dog wearing a basket muzzle while off property at any time, this will prevent any future bites that occur because the basket muzzle is on. Well, at the same time, the basket muzzle does allow the animal to eat, drink and breathe normally. So while a dog wearing a basket muzzle may look a little bit like Hannibal Lecter, it's actually safer for the community to have that dog like that. So if it does break free from its human, they can't buy it again. We also added the liability section to that. So people who do keep a potentially dangerous or vicious dog do have to have a certain liability amount on their home or renters insurance to ensure that, you know, if the dog does do something again, that the victim is compensated. There are other additions to that, including fence inspections that our officers go do, sometimes having to pour concrete around fences so dogs can't dig out or building, you know, 10 foot fences so they can't jump out. But it really makes it much more streamlined for animal owners and the community to know what those folks are responsible for. And this does include the house of spokes as well. There are a few dogs that have been deemed dangerous or potentially dangerous within the city of Santa Cruz. Actually, I should back that up and say vicious within the city of Santa Cruz that currently do live in the benchlands and do live in the Pogonab area. And on the ordinance when they're being vicious, there's really not much we can do except say, hey, your dog's vicious, it violates again, we may have to destroy it. This new code, if adopted in the city of Santa Cruz, would also ensure that the house's community was safe so that they're not being exposed to animals that could attack them wherever they're living. Next, the administrative appeal section. This was a big one for us because the nuisance abatement commission, while I enjoyed my time working with them, was very difficult to have all the members come forward. As mentioned, sometimes animals would sit in cages for 45 days while we tried to convene. So the new administrative appeal section really makes it so that we know exactly what it is we're doing. If someone appeals a mandatory spay neuter, we know how it appeals. If someone appeals impound fee, we know how it's appealed.  It's very just straightforward. And it also does address the cost for administrative appeals. Previously, if we have to hire an outside attorney and some of the jurisdictions were responsible for paying that fee, this now puts the onus on the person who's appealing it to be responsible for those fees. If they do win the appeal, then they do get refunded the money so that everything is fair for everyone. Next, so I know you haven't seen the county ordinance as approved. I'm happy to send that out. Also happy to meet with any groups that you may feel necessary that we meet with within the city of Santa Cruz to understand what it is the community is looking for. But we really hope that the Santa Cruz City Council will consider what we're talking about. And ultimately, and I know it takes time, approve the unified, I'm sorry, united animal ordinance so that we have that uniform, a consistent regulatory enforcement and appeal process throughout the entire county. Next, I think that's it. Are there any questions? First, thank you so much, officers to see. Thank you, Erica. That was really informative and thank you for the presentation. And before I go to questions, I think Laura Schmidt here also would like to add. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank Erica and Todd as well for the details around the content of the potential model animal ordinance that we would adopt. As far as next steps for the city of Santa Cruz, as a member of the JPA, what would now happen is we would work, the city manager's office would work with the city attorney's office to reconcile our ordinances with the model and try to figure out how we could fall into the model and then bring back to the community any issues that we thought we would need to have community conversations around and then eventually back to council for adoption of the changes. So those would be the next steps. So just wanted to put that forth that you will have more detailed opportunities to talk about various aspects of the ordinance so we don't necessarily need to do that today for this presentation item because you can't obviously take action on it at this point. But it is a project for the city manager's office to move forward with the animal shelter and the city attorney's office. Thank you for clarifying that. That was definitely one of my questions. Do you have a projected or estimated timeline for that process? We do not. I know the animal shelter board would like us to move forward as quickly as possible, but we also have the other agencies that need to move this forward as well. So it is not an easy task. I already had somebody in the city attorney's office a little bit ago do a reconciliation and it is quite significant than changes to our existing ordinances. So it will take some time. Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions from council members at this time on this presentation? This is agenda item seven unified animal model ordinance update. Council member Cummings. I'll just say a quick comment. Just thank you for the presentation and for the work that you all are doing to try to bring alignment around all these policies at the at the county level, but you know incorporating the cities into that. And so just want to express my appreciation about that. Thanks. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you very much. And we have council member Myers. Yeah, I just also wanted to say thank you, especially around the details around some of the dangerous animal items and some of the things you put in place. I recently had some experience with that in our neighborhood and it was it was a great process. It was very clear.  So thank you for your work and on improving everything. Thank you so much. That concludes our questions. And thank you again. I will move on now to agenda item number eight. This is a presentation of fire prevention week. And we have our fire chief Rob Odie present. Welcome. Hi, Mayor Brunner, council. Thank you for the opportunity. It's nice to be in front of all of you in person today. Obviously for an important issue as well as wanted to just bring up some upcoming events that will be critical for the community as well. And believe Bonnet has our presentation. So this week, or I'm sorry, this year, fire prevention week falls on the week of October 9th through the 15th. Next slide. I want to discuss with you sort of the important theme that they have identified for this year, as well as remind everybody about some fire prevention practices and overall emergency preparedness. Next slide. Like I mentioned, fire prevention week runs from Sunday October 9th through Saturday the 15th. And as I get into the history of fire, fire prevention week will discuss why October 9th is so important. Go ahead. So the history of fire prevention week again marks the great Chicago fire that occurred in 1871 started October 8th. And actually most of it occurred on October 9th and actually was fully extinguished on October 10. Since 1922, the National Fire Protection Agency, otherwise known as the NFPA has sponsored this public observance. And it was actually instituted, formalized in 1925 by President Calvin Coolidge, which actually turns out to be one of the longest running public health observances in the U.S. The goal obviously is to remind and educate the public, adults, children and teachers alike on how to stay safe in case of a fire. Again, observed every single year during the week of October 9th, income commemoration of the great Chicago fire. I think it's important to note this particular fire burned 3.3 square miles of the city of Chicago, destroyed 17,000 structures, 300 people died, and it left 100,000 people homeless. So a lot of lessons learned again, which is why we have fire prevention week. And it's so important to remind the public of what the themes are and how they can stay safe in case of a fire. So again, 100 years as of this year for fire prevention week. Next slide. This year's theme is no coincidence. It revolves around planning your escape and particularly in your homes, where you reside and spend the majority of your time with your family.  Obviously, the NFPA has a bunch of different materials on their website for teachers and community members to help send this message and have it both English and Spanish. Next slide. Some of the big takeaways from this fire won't wait. Planning your escape is quite simple. It's draw a map of your home. Visit every room and have two ways out. For those that have second story bedrooms, it's important to have some sort of ladder for children or other members of your family to get out. It's important to walk outside, walk inside your home, and plan for your abilities for every family member in your home.  You want to practice this two times a year. So again, protect your loved ones. Have a plan. I think it's important. I'll admit this in public.  I used it as an opportunity to educate. So it was get down, get low, get out. And we actually practiced in our home as recent as last night. So again, very critical and they're never too young to start practicing these safety measures. Let's see. Next slide. Again, two ways out of your room. Clear paths so we don't want to be hoarders. We want to make sure we can get out in the dark. Have that common meeting place and of course practice twice a year. Next slide. And of course on the NFPA.org website, they have this little checklist that is very user-friendly for everyone in the public. We can also print these out and people can come pick them up at Fire Admin. Next slide. And as again, sort of a coincidence but something I think is very appropriate given the time of year we find ourselves in with fire season. We'd like to also draw attention to our own emergency preparedness flyer that the fire department prepared a few years ago. Next slide. It's a four-page flyer. It's actually sort of interactive. Acting fire marshal Tim Shields. It's sort of modeling it here. But again, this is something we want everyone to have on the refrigerator in every vehicle in their go bag. And again, it's sort of an interactive tool for people to check boxes and make sure they're prepared. And it's not just for fires, not just for wildland fires but earthquakes, tsunamis, floods. So we have a variety of different sections if you want to go to the next slide. That sort of highlights in the case of flood, tsunami, fire. So again, there's some nuances to each emergency and we just want to make sure everyone's educated and prepared for each one of those emergencies. And most recently, next slide, we were able to successfully translate our flyer into Spanish for that part of our community. And we're hoping to, we just had them all printed out and hoping to set some outreach events in the near future to work with the community on making sure that they are too prepared for an emergency. Next slide. This is just the fourth page of the Spanish version. And again, there's a map on there that highlights the various routes in and out of the city. And also some radio stations, TV outlets that also will potentially have emergency communication for the public. Next slide. Some other things for emergency preparedness, we want to make sure people become familiar and connected in their respective communities. So you can join a community emergency response team, otherwise known as CERT. Join a Firewise group. There's a number of them developed or currently being developed in the city. The two of the most well-established are in Prospect Heights and in Highland Neighborhood on the Upper West Side. You can sign up. You can go to our website or you can go to Netcom, our Dispatch Center's website, and sign up for Code Red, which is basically your reverse 911 service that would advise you if there was an evacuation and what instructions you would need to follow. Again, develop an evacuation plan. Develop a family communication plan. So single point of contact. The recommendation is to always have someone identified outside of the city of Santa Cruz potentially out of state where everyone could sort of that they would be independent of whatever emergency was occurring here that you could communicate with and make sure everybody reports that they are safe. Evaluate your home and property for hazards. And also a big importance is making sure you know where your utilities are.  So if you do have an issue, you can promptly shut those off and remain safe.  Have it in each car that you have. Make sure you have all those critical items like medications, documents, food, water for at least three days. Some clothing, an AMFM radio. One thing that we point out in our flyer is the six P's. So personal computers or phones, plastic, meaning credit cards. People, pets, and all the associated needs for those people and pets. Important phone numbers, prescriptions, and of course any important photos. So have all those things in one common place so you're ready to go and have them with your go bag. Next slide. Here is a link and again just a sort of advertisement if you will for the Code Red Mobile Alert app. That's okay. And this next slide and that again is the current provider that we are using for the Reverse 911. And again that is conducted through our dispatch center up at Netcom. Next slide. And the last thing I want to draw the attention to is again through partnerships with other various community groups. The Firewise groups within the city of Santa Cruz are planning a National Fire Awareness Day. It's going to be an event on the Upper West Side on Sunday, October 9th at 12 o'clock until 4 30 p.m. It's going to be at the High Street Community Church 850 High Street. Again a joint effort between the Prospect Height and Highland Firewise groups for more information. It's hard to read on this flyer but you can go to HighlandFirewise.org and again it's just an effort to get the community together to get them prepared and they want to enhance emergency communication and wildfire preparedness in their respective communities. And we'll be there as well with the fire engine and handing out some various information and of course interacting and answering any questions that the community may have. I think that was the last slide. And then of course one other important thing I want to draw your attention to is October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and so you'll be seeing your local firefighters wearing these shirts in lieu of their Class B uniform shirts and again just to raise awareness about breast cancer and all other cancers. And we also are selling those at our fire stations and at admin $20 and the proceeds go to Breast Cancer Research. So again just wanted to make everybody aware of that as we approach the beginning of October. And that concludes my presentation. Of course I answer any questions that you may have. Thank you so much and also thank you so much to Tim Shields for providing the demonstrations. I do have a question on the emergency preparedness flyers. I think like I have a stack of those that I keep and provide to businesses downtown. So even though it's it talks about and you mentioned evacuation plans for your home and your family I really try to encourage businesses. We spend a lot of time at work and a lot of times people at work don't know where gas shut off or who's in charge of that, who to call, what to do, where to go and creating a plan that you can keep posted and that sheet is so handy. I've given it out so many times and people really appreciate that because everything is there for someone to fill in. So it's a really helpful tool and I encourage anybody in the public if they want to pick one up. I think they're also available at the library and at your fire station one and online. Yep, there's many ways to get that sheet. Do you have anything to add anything else to add for workplaces and evacuation plans, emergency preparedness, things like that? No, I wanted to say that I appreciate you bringing that up because as you know we spend a lot of our time at work and of course during the 89 earthquake there were a tremendous amount of people during those hours of the day that were down here at work and were affected some negatively because of that natural disaster and so having this awareness and having this document there and again we encourage everybody to take a stack because they're working documents that change. We change email addresses, our personal and business addresses, phone numbers and so forth and contact information for our loved ones and so we encourage people to come by our fire admin. They can go to the website and print them out as well but again the more the merrier and we always want to get that message out so that people the other motto is don't be scared get prepared and so that's both in the home and in the workplace. So thank you for bringing that up. Thank you. Yeah, we great. Thank you so much. Other questions? Are there any other questions? Yes. Okay, we have Vice Mayor Watkins, Council Member Myers. I don't have a question but I just want to say thank you and I was up in De La Viega Park and you can really see it and then most recently there's the Firewise sign that's up there and I just really appreciate you being so receptive to working with the neighbors, being kind of cc'd on some of the communication. It's just really builds the relationship we need to have with our neighborhoods for our mutual safety. So thank you for the presentation and I will stop by to get a start. Thank you. Council Member Myers. I just want to give a shout out to Tim, the Fire Marshal, not just for your modeling of the merchandise but you met with the Firewise Group from Pogonip a couple of months ago and I see a lot of those folks when I walk in Pogonip in the mornings and anyways they're just thrilled and very very thankful also for the department's really the efforts to get additional funding for these these community efforts so they're just thrilled with what the department is doing and they feel a lot of partnership and so thank you for doing that work. It's well appreciated. Absolutely. We were most successful when we had those partnerships with the community so we look forward to continuing those efforts in the future. I think you should make a model like a big dollar sign next time. Exactly. All right. Are there any other questions? Okay. Comments or questions? Council Member Cummings and then Council Member Calantari Johnson. Thanks and thanks for the presentation. I do have one question. I've heard this come up a number of times in the community but just you know given the fires that we experienced back in 2020 some folks are concerned with like you know what if there's another major catastrophic fire like what is our plan in terms of how people should you know get out and like escape you know evacuation routes things like that and like what's the kind the city's plan you know if that were to occur and so I'm wondering is there any kind of centralized location on the city's website fire where people can get information on like what those plans would be? That's a great question. Council Member Nipers, I appreciate you bringing it up because we are currently working on finalizing a finished product or platform if you will it's called Zone Haven. We sort of beta tested it during CZU, ironed out a lot of the different kinks that we have particularly locally and a lot of it we we learned especially being that the valley was had a lot of remote locations and kind of one way in one way out and so we have since worked on finalizing our maps and we've uploaded them to this server in this platform it's called Zone Haven. There's two portals there's the first responder portal which is Zone Haven evac and then there's the the public side which is Zone Haven aware and so as we work on uploading and finalizing those maps and then actually I think it's tomorrow or Thursday we're doing some training with PD to make sure that all of our command staff respectively are prepared on how to use and execute this platform and then once we get there we'll do a sort of a PR campaign to get this out to the public so they're aware of the product and of course that will be located on our site and then we'll do some other measures to make sure that everybody's well informed and that includes some community outreach events as well. Thank you for the question. Council Member Colin Terry Johnson. Thank you for the presentation. I was jotting down all the websites so that we can get that information out. I've reached out to you Chief Odie been meeting with some Firewise leaders throughout the city and thank you for offering to join the meeting that we have this week. There is a real big interest in understanding what the evacuation plans and communication plans are and partnering with the county to do beyond the Fire Prevention Week at Town Hall meeting where there's an opportunity for folks to do some Q&A so thank you for your work. Thank you for your partnership and I'm looking forward to working with you on this. Absolutely thank you for the opportunity and again many of those websites on our department website and again we just look forward we can always do better when serving the community and so we look forward to having those meetings having those events so that we can just make sure that we're meeting the expectations and the needs of the community. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay so I will now move on with our agenda today. I have a few announcements. Today's meeting is being broadcast live on Community Television Channel 25 and streaming on the city's website cityofsantacruz.com. Our rules of decorum are here in person on the window ledge to my left. It's my job to keep the meeting running without disruption and we ask that you respect your fellow citizens when you are inside or outside of chambers. For the consideration of our community please stay home if you have any symptoms of a cold or flu or a feeling unwell in any way. If you wish to comment on an agenda item today and are attending virtually call in at the beginning of the item you are wishing to comment on using the instructions on the screen. Please mute your television or streaming device once you call in and listen through the phone. Please remember there may be a delay in streaming so that if you continue to speak on your television or streaming device you may miss your opportunity to speak. When it's your time for public comment please raise your hand by either dialing star nine on your phone or selecting raise hand in the webinar controls of your computer. Please note public comment is only heard on items council is taking action on and not on regular updates and reports. The items that will be open for public comment during today's meeting are numbers 11 through 22 on our agenda. I'd like to ask the council members if there are any statements of disqualification today. Seeing none I'd like to ask the city clerk to announce any additions and deletions. Okay thank you. At this time I'd like to ask the city attorney to report on our closed session this morning. Yes good afternoon Mayor Brunner members of the city council. Council met in closed session commencing at noon today to discuss the following items. Item one was a conference with labor negotiators. Council met with its negotiators involving the SEIU temporary employees SEIU service employees and supervisors OE3. Item two was a public employee performance evaluation involving the city manager and the city attorney. Item three was a conference with legal council involving liability claims the claims of Jose A. Talamantes Harrow and Seraphine G. Ruiz. Those items are also listed as number 12 on your consent agenda this afternoon. Item four was a conference with legal council involving anticipated litigation significant exposure to litigation. Council received a report from the city attorney's office and gave direction on that item. Item five was a conference with legal council involving existing litigation ace entitled city of Santa Cruz versus the Regents of the University of California at all currently pending in the Santa Cruz County Superior Court. Council received a report from and gave direction from to the city attorney's office on that matter and there was no reportable action. Thank you. At this time in the agenda item nine I'll call on the clerk to provide any updates to the calendar. There are no updates. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to agenda item 10 this is the time for council members to report out on actions at external boards committees and joint powers authority meetings that we've attended. For future meetings please come prepared and provide an update on any meetings or actions that occurred since last council meeting so that the council and the public can be informed and I will start to my right with council member Golder. Yesterday council member Cummings and vice mayor Watkins and I met for a public safety meeting and we discussed the is it the independent auditor knows that it was the use of force thank you the use of force report and we also decided to have an additional meeting in before the end of the year in November I believe the 30th and we at that time want to set a schedule for next year's meetings and kind of talk about what the scope of that committee will look like moving forward because previously it would only meet annually to discuss the independent police auditor's report and we feel like there's a lot of public safety issues that need to be addressed and it's a good way to maybe bring things to council through that conduit so that was pretty much all we discussed and it was a pretty brief meeting thank you thank you does that conclude your report thank you I council member Myers thank you mayor um yeah I'll report out on um central coast community energy policy board first um the the board did hold um actually a joint operations and policy board meeting last week in Monterey City of Monterey at the conference center and we basically heard a panel presentation of really where community uh choice aggregate um CCAs as they're known in the state are heading um 3CE was recognized as one of the first um uh CCAs that's really gotten into actually the purchase and and procurement of clean energy sources been a focus of the agency for the last year um including um some major construction projects underway that are associated with providing um wind energy geothermal and other and solar as well as other clean energies so it was uh it's a great presentation I'm sure you can find it on the um on the agency's website it was a really good panel discussion they also had um the many of the folks the directors of state agent of the state agencies including the california energy commission there um really providing uh presentations on kind of the governor's roadmap to get california to zero emissions and reviewing some of the current um legislation that was passed this past year so that meeting was held last week on wednesday and I'm sure that the presentation will be posted on the website hopefully um in the next uh you know next week or so um so that would be would have been on the 20 21st and 22nd of um september that those meetings occurred the agency did adopt a budget um as well uh in the in the next day's meeting on the 22nd policy board took action on that as well as um outlined a new approach to member agency and public grants um and I believe there will be some you know just additional work to look at how those grant resources are being put out into the community um there was a lot quite a lot of discussion in terms of you know how to really make the grants most effective especially with some of the investments coming from the feds on that so um but a good meeting and lots of information and I'm sure people would be very interested in looking up on the website they get a chance um in terms of the metro board we did meet just last friday um we had a pretty brief meeting but some highlights um that were pointed out by the new um the new ceo is really branding and looking at um if you've looked around town or been driving around the county or riding buses preferably around the county um they've redone most of the bus stops um and sort of rebranded the look on those so it's looking really good our um electric buses are up and running um and you can really see them out and about um they're beautifully sort of um tagged with you know um a lot of really neat um graphics to make them stand out but I believe we have four in operation right now so those are fully electric buses um and the agency continues to look at that greening of the fleet um and we'll be working on that in the upcoming really in the upcoming year there's also going to be a planning session of the board I believe it's on october 14th that right shipper shipper um which will be a in-depth planning session it will be broadcast um and it will be a strategic planning session with the board and so that would be another thing for folks to look and look keep your eyes out I believe it starts at nine a.m correct so I'll announce that um and I believe that is it for me thank you mayor thank you council member Myers council member Cummings thank you um so council member golder reported out on the public safety committee um so I'm not going to speak to that and I guess the only other item the only other meeting I was able to attend um was the climate action task force and last at the last city council meeting the council took action on the 2030 climate action plan and that was pretty much uh what we had discussed was that coming to council at the last meeting so um that's pretty much it's all I have to report thank you council member Cummings council member Brown thank you mayor um I I did attend multiple meetings but for the sake of time I'm not going to report out on all of them there was pretty much standard business for the most part um I did want to um highlight a couple of opportunities for public engagement though um two in well one with the city one with the RTC and one with ambag so first I'll just say that the and you all know this but I want to just repeat it here uh for members of the public that the draft environmental impact reports for coastal rail trail segments eight and nine are out now and the comment period is open um that this that's the uh segments that run from beach street to approximately 17th avenue um so for people who are interested in that you can find out more information um either at the city of santa cruise dot com website um go to city of santa cruise slash coastal rail trail uh there you can also find information about how to make a public comment and the city is hosting a meeting about the draft EIR on wednesday october 19th from five to seven thirty p.m. again you can go to that website for information on how to access the meeting and another piece another item I wanted to highlight is that the regional transportation commission has entered into a partnership with uh other coastal counties um the kind of central coast and uh we are working on a um getting input public input on uh the future of electric vehicle charging uh placement of stations and kind of the overall framework for EV charging on the central coast and um there's a really cool interactive mapping tool that public can participate and offer really valuable and really critical input on um as as we move through this planning process uh for more information on that you can go to the RTCs the santa cruise uh sccrtc.org website there's information right on the front page or visit central coast evstrategy.com and just go straight to the fun part uh with the mapping tool uh those and then ambag I um I did attend ambag as the alternate this past meeting and I wanted to uh just put out there that the um Monterey Bay areas coordinated public transit human services transportation plan uh the draft plan has also been published and there is a comment period for that as well so folks who are interested in uh weighing in or being involved in uh the conversation about how form funding is uh distributed to assist nonprofits and um transit operators in meeting the transportation needs of elderly uh and disabled people um this is an opportunity to weigh in on how to how to move forward without planning and uh that information is available at ambag.org leave it there thanks thank you for those highlights um let's see vice mayor Watkins well let's see so public safety was covered health and all policies met yesterday and we had an overview on um some of the work that's been going on in regards to really assessing and how to increase diversity within our commissions and that will be forthcoming to the full council which is really informative and um will hopefully lead to some action for improvement to increase more access and opportunity for all different types of people to participate in civic service in this way so we um had a presentation by community ventures that was really helpful and informative um and i think that might be the only additional um committee i have to add to report on other than that the um the revenue measure committee continues to meet and discuss um the current measure but also other opportunities as we move forward looking at future revenue sources and had a presentation on parks on which was really interesting so um that's all i have to thank you mayor thank you council member calentary johnson most of what i was going to report has been reported but i'll just add to council member mayer's report on the metro board um there's a huge huge push to recruit new bus drivers so um you can follow the metro on your social media and they have a lot of advertising not advertisement but posts on there that that would be great if you could all share with your networks um we have nine in training right now that will hopefully become new bus drivers but we are 20 to 25 operators down so there's a big big need for recruitment of bus drivers and then the fair free project that we had a couple weeks ago was really successful they saw an up uptick in ridership both from students and the general public that was i think a a week or two span and um because i reported on this last time i'll i'll report back the unfortunately a b 19 which is the free rides for students it passed through the legislation but the governor vetoed it due to the impacts on the budget so those were my additions thank you council member calentary johnson i guess the only thing that i will add um i also sit on the health and all policies committee and um uh that was already uh highlighted by vice mayor Watkins the community ventures survey data results um and looking kind of at those structural gaps uh we will continue that work and when we receive a draft report in october to come back in november we'll be able to make comments on that draft um our two by two meeting was canceled last minute and i do have a visit santa cruz meeting tomorrow at three o'clock on that agenda there is a president's report a state of the industry and covet 19 report a lodging task force update report and then the ceo's report includes a fall campaign presentation analytics symphony and performance metrics and key data and i think that concludes my additional updates thank you everyone okay moving on to our consent agenda first up on the consent agenda our items 11 through 21 now is the time to call in if you are a member of the public streaming this meeting and you wish to comment on consent agenda items 11 through 21 instructions will be on your screen please remember to mute your streaming device when you speak raise your hand by dialing star nine or select raise hand in the webinar controls on your computer all items will be acted upon in one motion unless an item is pulled by a council member for further discussion if you are here joining us in person and wish to speak on a consent agenda item you can line up to your right my left and i will call on you as well are there any council members who wish to comment on or pull any items council member brown just a quick comment on 15 okay comment on 15 okay looks like that's it so i will go straight to item 15 is executive employees compensation and benefits plan and council member brown i just wanted to say that i'm i'm gonna have to register a no vote on this item on our consent agenda i can't today in good conscience support uh the raises that are being proposed for executive management when we have not settled all of our contracts and my back at the envelope uh assessment on the cost of this for um the for executives is you know at least 300 000 so um i just can't in good conscience support that today we don't have money for uh settling our contracts we need to be fiscally responsible um so just wanted to say that and hopefully bonnie you can just record that when the time comes thank you thank you council member brown is there any other items before we move on to a consent agenda vote okay so i will go to public comment first i will look to our virtual attendees and participants to see if any hands are raised i'm not seeing any hands raised press star nine to raise your hand if you're joining us virtually and i don't see anyone in person lined up to speak okay i will pull it back to uh council is there anybody who'd like to make a motion on the consent agenda items 11 through 21 i'll move consent okay we have a motion by council member comings in a second a second a second by vice mayor walkins can i make one comment go ahead yeah just um i totally hear what council member brown is saying with regards to the is that executive pay and i think that with the outstanding um labor negotiations i'm just hoping that we can make sure that we're gonna provide a fair contract for our workers and um look forward to seeing how those negotiations pan out thank you okay are there any other comments before we go to a roll call vote okay may we have a roll call vote council member calentary johnson aye boulder aye coming hi brown hi hi what can i vice mayor what can and mayor brunner hi that motion passes unanimously with the exception of item number 15 uh with a one no council member brown six yeses okay next step on our agenda is item number 22 single-use tobacco waste for members of the public who are joining us virtually and streaming this meeting if this is an item you wish to comment on now is the time to call in using instructions on your screen the order will be a presentation of the item by staff followed by questions from council we will then take public comment and return to council for deliberation and action and i'd like to welcome emeline and if you could just state your name and who you are thank you absolutely thank you mayor brunner so good afternoon mayor and council members it's a pleasure to be here today as mayor brunner stated i'm emeline or m i'm the new principal management analyst for the city manager's office so as you may recall from the march meeting council directed staff to bring this item back for discussion in august but due to some scheduling conflicts it was postponed to september so here with me we have tara lennard and she is the health educator for the county of santa cruz and we'll be presenting an update on the tobacco product waste today so i will hand this over to tara for the presentation thank you welcome tara thank you for joining us today thank you mayor brunner and council members i guess i'll just jump right into it so um as emeline just mentioned and as you all know in april of 2021 this council unanimously passed can you speak to the microphone thank you or lift it up a little so it's closer to your mouth there we go how's that great thank you thank you this council oh there it is unanimously passed a resolution recognizing tobacco waste as a public health and environmental threat and as you can see on the next slide so am i doing the slides or do i ask the person great okay are you bonnie yes that's bonnie nice to meet you as you can see highlighted on the slide one of the things that was in that resolution is that the council resolved to advance policy approaches to reduce or eliminate this toxic waste in our community i'm not going to reiterate and you can go to the next slide thank you i'm not going to reiterate all of the content in that resolution or spend most of this presentation talking about the wise because we covered this in april of 2021 and all of you signed that resolution and there's also going to be a number of resources that i'm providing that'll cover that information but a few highlights tobacco butts are the most littered item on santa cruz streets and beaches we know that they leach dangerous chemicals such as lead arsenic and nicotine into our soils into our parks into our riverways they're toxic to wildlife marine life children and pets they break down into micro plastics cigarette butts are not made of paper or cardboard they are made of cellulose acetate and we're learning more and more about micro plastics in our community every day and moving beyond cigarettes to e-cig devices these things are a triple threat to our environment they contain plastic they contain toxic e-juice and they contain electronic waste and i want everyone to remember that nicotine including the nicotine salt in e-cigarettes has been listed by the environmental protection agency as an acute hazardous waste i believe that there are a number of members of our community either here in person or remote who will be adding to this list of wise so i'm going to move on more specifically to the house because i was asked to come here today to give an update on what the county has been doing since april of 2021 so if we can go to the next slide i'm going to launch right into that so on the one year anniversary of signing the resolution in april of 2022 a number of individuals and people representing environmental groups spoke during oral communications to urge this council to take action we appreciate their support and i think it's really important to keep this issue in the forefront of council's attention at the same time it's important that any action that the council take is both effective and enforceable so as part of that process in giving this update i'm going to provide you with a number of the tools and the resources that you need to move forward in an efficient and effective manner tobacco staff have been working with our tobacco education coalition with the california tobacco control program with the public health law center and with a number of other state and local organizations to gather data to review research to draft model policies and provide all the tools necessary as i said to move forward next slide so what are some of those tools in february of 2022 just a little light reading the california tobacco control program published this comprehensive overview of the environmental health and social impacts of tpw this document compiles the latest research on the proven toxicity of tpw the social and community impacts of tpw including health equity and environmental justice implications and it also talks about the tobacco industry's response which has been to externalize the cost of their toxic waste onto local governments nonprofits and voluntary organizations probably the most important thing in this document is this final statement that's on the slide there that cigarette filters quote have no benefit in preventing the adverse health effects of smoking this is really important because as you know there have been some efforts at the state level to pass tpw related bills and a concern about doing additional harm to smokers was one of the biggest barriers to those those not moving forward and now we know thanks to this document and other research that that barrier has been removed next slide please in march of 2022 there was the first meeting of what's called the tpw economic model advisory committee and i sit on that committee we know that banning the sale of tobacco products will cost the city in terms of tobacco taxes however we also know that tobacco product waste already costs the city of santa cruz a lot of money this statewide tpw economic model advisory committee is trying to put together a framework to quantify those costs the advocacy group includes california environmental scientists economists public health professionals statisticians and tobacco subject experts including local tobacco staff and in may several members of this council along with several members of the santa cruz public works department attended our first stakeholders meeting where we try to identify local cost centers and you can see some of them up on the slide everything from anti litter education to mechanical and manual cleanup to stormwater management and many many others this work is ongoing and one of the things that the council could consider is allocating staff time and resources to respond to requests from data from this committee so that we can put together a financial understanding of the costs and the benefits of banning the sale of some of these products next slide in april the public health law center in collaboration with the american lung association published this tobacco product waste a public health and environmental toolkit this toolkit includes a menu of recommended tobacco product waste policies along with backward information legal justification and model policy language this is in your agenda packet one of the things t