nning a little bit late this evening um you'll want to press star nine and queue up right now uh if mr hall john hall arrives um john just identify yourself and i'll give you that three minutes but i'll go ahead and start with the folks that are queued up and raffa sun infill is our first um for speaker yeah thanks very much um so i'm just speaking for myself as a resident of Santa Cruz and um i have to say that the the proposal is really beautiful um i really like that uh you know we're looking at a grand reading room with a lot of light and um i really appreciate the fact that uh we're considering uh having a modular designed parking garage that can be converted uh to other uses in the future i think that's a really important sort of future looking um possibility for the city and i hope that we commit to actually having those flat plate designed um parking structures so that in the future if we realize we don't need the parking but we can convert it into um uh offices or more affordable housing or something like that um the other thing i wanted to say is um i hope that we can consider um making the housing component of this project uh more substantial like adding more units and maybe uh even going taller um if there's any place to have uh tall housing in in our town it that seems like downtown is the place that we should do it um so i would hope at the very least that we're as tall if not taller than the other um uh buildings in the area and um you know we've had a long conversation just earlier today about um uh the idea of uh segregation in housing and um you know as proposed we're looking at a hundred percent affordable housing project you know that is in a way is segregated housing um and so i i would hope that um as we're considering how to uh add more affordable housing that we look at cross subsidization where we actually add some um marker rate units that could subsidize adding more affordable units so we actually get more total housing in the project and more affordable housing on the project thank you very much thank you next up is michael wool hi can you hear me yes we can hi so i'm a ucse student lifelong santa cruz county resident and um member of the student housing coalition um i'm just coming out in support of the project um i understand that there is significant community concern and i actually share a lot of the concerns specifically the high number of parking spots i'm really happy to see that the number of parking spots has gone down i think it can go way lower and i think we should think about going way lower considering you know the climate crisis and the fact that santa cruz is a sea level town we should be really trying to push ourselves out of cars um recognizing these concerns i do understand how severe and urgent the housing crisis is i mean just look at what happened outside of the santa cruz um government building with all at the homeless encampment by the levy that's insanely awful it's a humanitarian crisis these are our neighbors these are people who live here and we have a duty as a city to help address this housing crisis and i think rather than starting over with a whole new project we got to move forward and make this project work um to address the needs of the county because we don't have a lifetime to build more affordable housing thank you thank you next i have jim meccus good afternoon uh jim meccus here i've viewed the updated project plans last week and i have to say the design is simply stunning i'd ask you to please move forward and build it i used the old carnage library through high school and the current library through its life library should grow with the town and our town has more than double in population since the current building opened a few people claim that the trees on lock four are special i'd say they are not magnate magnolias are non-native they're invasive nuisance trees that's not just my words southern living magazine that's the sunset magazine of the south places magnolias in their dirty dozen list of quote 12 trees that will ruin your yard unquote the proposed project has more trees and greenery than today uh the provided parking in the design is vital to downtown businesses as we're losing parking lots including the one across the street from the current farmers market uh do include electric vehicle chargers in the new building i'd ask you to just approve the project it's an excellent project we need to move forward thank you very much thank you next i have lyra philippini hey lyra philippini here jason architecture is excellent providing beautiful designs for their library projects that show thoughtful incorporation of features that reflect some of the community's input but they have unfortunately been given a partially wrong task and wrong parcel to work with overall this is the right architect wrong location and the project elements are rather mixed we do need an updated 21st century library we absolutely need this very low income affordable housing we do not need the parking garage the parking consultants hired by the city in 2016 concluded that we have a surplus of parking downtown they considered projections of increased development and loss of certain surface lots and still found that downtown Santa Cruz will continue to have enough parking what we do need is better parking management today you passed a green economy resolution that includes quote a working definition of the green economy as one which is low to no carbon end quote building this garage will create a carbon debt to our environment a financial bond debt for the city worth tens of millions and it would be basically investing in carbon while you're resolving to do the opposite not for as the best locations reserve as open green event space and to be improved to be a town square or downtown commons the air scrubbing heritage trees have seen a mix of generations gathering supporting our farmers and each other for good and bad times this is the epitome of building a sense of place of building a sense of community around a shared tradition in a specific location that sense of place is on lot four and the civic library important to thousands of peoples who have frequented it over many decades please step back and consider what it really means to invest in this parking garage and that we can build a new beautiful library designed by jason architecture in its historic and cherished location we can also build the affordable housing there and or on love seven thank you thank you i mean it go out of wine here real quick i see jonah hall did arrive mr hall if you want to unmute yourself i'll go ahead and queue in you have three minutes please i just saw him now he's gone um yeah i don't see him anymore either okay okay we're going to move on to phone number ending in eight eight five three please go ahead you can unmute yourself by pressing star six please can you all hear me yes we can hey good evening may or may or is in city council members this is elizabeth matthew calling on behalf of the modern day economic partnership we support staff's recommendation to approve the updated site program and design for the library mix use project include the proposed changes and to direct staff to return to council with the preliminary library cost model based on the updated library design and site program changes we continue to express our support for the inclusion of increased sustainable affordable resilient housing and opportunities for economic and workforce development we also continue to advocate for an increase in density measures to go beyond 125 homes and encourage the council to direct staff to do the same to ensure we are maximizing affordability and sustainable land use well we have not yet officially endorsed the project we hope to continue to play a role in the development of the design and affordable housing inclusions as they continue to take shape we look forward to next steps leading to completion of this visionary project when that fulfills we'll be sure community goals of a first class downtown library permanently affordable housing and a multimodal vibrant downtown thank you all for your leadership and time thank you very much next i have don lane hi can you hear me yes we can don great thanks thank you mayor and council members i'm excited about the prospect of getting something like 125 new truly affordable housing project apartments in this in this new building in the original project as you know there were none how did this happen it's because the city and its committees and consultants have listened and adapted and i'm glad to say you didn't just adapt in terms of housing you adapted by moving toward less parking you adapted by having an even better library design you adapted by not having parking on top of the library you adapted by creating new public open space downtown these are really important and they represent the fact that you heard many different concerns and different voices in the community i think it's time to recognize that some folks will make the dubious claim that you have not listened they say that because you didn't do everything they asked but you know well that nobody in our process gets everything we compromise we find middle ground we meet multiple objectives simultaneously please move forward with this new approach and new design new homes for essential workers a great new library and a modest amount of replacement parking thanks very much thank you so much next we have joseph thompson hello my name is just thompson and i'm a student at UC Santa Cruz and i also work so much uh let's probably think of the kid back here yes we can go ahead cool perfect um yeah so i'm just thompson i'm a student at UC Santa Cruz um i would just like to thank all the council members um who voted in support of the 831 artistry project and encourage you to support this project as well you know um it's really important not only that we invest in community but especially with this library project it's not only going to be really like building upon community but making sure there's also affordable housing for it too um and you know joining my actual story about homelessness um unfortunately about three years ago um i was living on the street to my car i'm 18 years old and i actually had to leave the state of california and go live with my with some of my family all the way out in texas um just because of housing prices and the conditions there luckily i was able to apply at UC Santa Cruz and come back to city california and that is why i'm 100 passionate about fighting for affordable housing is because in most situations students graduate students and lower income folks aren't having access to affordable housing and that's one of the main reasons why we need to be looking for projects like this and expanding them and really building upon the foundation of affordable housing in the city of Santa Cruz so i urge all the city council members to really support this project because the downfalls of it are not only be like less economic value for the neighborhoods but also really hurting the overall community in regards to affordable housing the library and everything else involved in this project thanks so much thank you next i have zenin zenin there we go hi uh hi everybody my name is president of the student housing coalition and i come to you today with really appreciation for this project i also was pleasantly surprised when i went to the community meeting this past week and i just really wanted to reiterate that you know as the student columns in coalition we really support more housing for students more housing for everybody because we know it's a crisis we know that every single thing is going to help and so when it comes to this project we're really supportive of the additional units and we actually i would also uh further want to call for more units because we know that this is a crisis and everything we can do can help and i also surely agree with a lot of the climate change concerns regarding the parking and i think one interesting fact is i actually read the neil guard study and it's really interesting to look at the maps in terms of where people are actually commuting in from downtown to get downtown in their cars and about 80 percent of people are within two miles of downtown driving their cars and i think there's a really really prime opportunity to there to convert a lot of people to different transportation modes to not have this reliance on parking especially as we tackle the climate crisis and know that this kind of induction of vehicle mild travel accounts for 60 percent of our county emissions and while i completely do have sympathy for the old growth trees i really believe that we need to preserve as many trees as possible i think in this case if we could additionally secure maybe some reductions in that parking space and some more housing the carbon benefits of people being able to live near their jobs not having to commute from Watsonville every day the carbon benefits of all of these um you know preventative sprawl measures would outweigh the downfalls of removing a couple of old growth trees and so i really support the direction that this project is going and i also would encourage further reduction in parking and further increasing of affordable housing thank you very much thank you next i have kasey buyer and unmute thank you mayor and council members i sent a letter in earlier before this hearing but i just wanted to highlight a couple of things that are part of the letter one i want to give a kudos to a bonnie libskin and her staff they've been a tremendous job throughout this five-year process and number two jason architects see your team uh hit it out of the park um the community workshop presentation on december 10th unveiled the design concept that incorporates exactly what the community wants a mixed-use library an affordable housing project an adequate shared parking for downtown changes that the jason architecture went through made the project in response to public comment or spectacular they transformed the entire project bringing light green space and character to both the library and the housing units i just want to say thank you for taking the leadership incorporating the community involved from day one and i urge you to prove this project thank you thank you next we have emily ham good evening thanks for having me again my name is emily i'm the executive director of the santa cruz county business council and i just want to echo the comments of um my downtown forward colleagues particularly don lane who pointed out just how responsive the city has been to community feedback um and while opponents will continue to create moving targets in hopes of ultimately squashing the project public input um and the city's responsiveness really is the reason that we have uh this beautiful project design and site plan in front of us um the city's thoughtful and proactive approach to designing the library mixed-use project has entirely paid off and we thank you for your leadership um on this and look forward to supporting um future decisions thank you next i've got phone number ending in 8288 hello can you hear me we can yes thank you so much um i want to thank abe and katie uh for the presentation and uh thank you city council for your time city council members we are apparently now talking about a project of well over a hundred million dollars for the sake of some local perspective this is roughly one third of the city's most recent expenditure budget for a project this major this expensive and having this much impact and debt for our community for years to come it's only appropriate to let the voters decide thanks so much thank you next we have phone number ending in six five three no excuse me five three four seven hi this is Cynthia Matthews and i'm speaking as a former member of the library joint powers board a library patron and a downtown resident i'm urging you to support the recommended site program and design the sites that you have before you now represent a long robust planning process going back over 10 years we've already seen what the new renovated libraries can do to other communities in the county and the downtown branch should be the capstone for the entire system and a key attraction for downtown others have spoken to the need for housing and which i fully support but i think it's also very important in mind that a library is part of civic infrastructure and social infrastructure and that's part of what we're getting here i've lived downtown for over 50 years and one of the attractions is so much that you can do without needing a car but people do need cars and the parking really is an important feature of a commercial downtown i think as don lane and others have said the project has evolved thanks to public input in a remarkable way it's a beautiful project and i don't consider the changes compromised i consider them improvements so i'm urging you to move forward with this it's a fantastic project it will be an asset to downtown to our community for generations to come thanks thank you next is eva kim hi i'm eva i'm a third year student at uc santa cruz um and i'm a member of the student housing coalition i would like to speak in support of this project i'm really looking forward to um all community members being able to use the library space and um to touch on the parking i i agree that um with points being made that it's maybe not necessarily uh you know necessary that uh we have all this parking space but i appreciate that uh the design uh has considered um how we how that this building and that that parking space may be used for different purposes and how that building may evolve as we can better assess uh what the needs are uh for parking as as people move in and as that space is being used and so just to reiterate i am uh i'm speaking in support of this project and i hope that uh the council will vote to approve thank you thank you next i have ryan meckel i'm ryan meckel i work at uc santa cruz and i live near downtown i just wanted to emphasize um the location of this project it's in a great location oh and before i begin i also want to say thank you for the great presentation the design looks phenomenal um but this isn't a great location it's right in the heart of downtown a block away from our transit center right in the middle of pacific avenue i think this is a great location for the town to be bold and be brave and show what santa cruz really cares about here i think we should push for more housing and less parking and enable the people who are going to live in this space micromo the access to micromobility you know bike sharing car sharing access to the transit center things like this uh to set an example for what santa cruz really does care about um which i would hope is you know our community our neighbors our environments things like this is what santa cruz to me is all about and i want this project to represent that i think the library does a great job of this with how it's designed with the green space with the light with the openness and i would love to see the housing reflect that as well so i love this project i hope to see it move forward just with a bit more housing and a lot less parking thank you thank you next i have phone number ending in seven four nine six good evening can you hear me yes we can all right my name is matt ferrell i'm the chair of the downtown commission and i'd just like to make a few comments on parking and also uh because that's the charge of the downtown commission just divides council on this and parking issues downtown and then secondly talk about some critical features of the project beyond the parking i want to remind council that the downtown commission has consistently supported this mixed use project as it evolves as it has evolved and that um this project will not only serve neighboring businesses but it will serve three affordable housing projects with in a block to two blocks of it those projects being pacific station north pacific station south which are next to the transit center and the calvary church project and all three developers of the affordable housing projects on those sites have expressed the concern about parking for their employees and customers so this project is making it possible for developers of affordable housing downtown to fill the property footprint with affordable housing because they can rely on shared parking at this location so it's a benefit that really makes it easier for affordable housing developers to move forward with confidence that they will have places to serve their customers and their employees secondly i just like to say that this project responds very well to the council direction that was given the last time of concern thank you thank you so much and i've gotten garrant as our last caller tonight okay um you know i don't really have too much to say other than i don't think you did a very good job of really analyzing and and being transparent with the public about the the value that you got for selling you know public aerospace divided by the number of people that you're actually benefiting and but i simple math would say the more people in that equation then the better the value so i i i like that idea and it is a beautiful design and uh but that's all i have to say about that thank you okay we got two more folks and then we'll call that uh we have phone number any and five three six two we're running very late so we're gonna i'm gonna call it on folks now five three six two please uh good evening this is judy grunstra librarian um i've got questions and i've also got comments i don't know which one should go first uh question what happened to the total fitness space um question how are where's this 20 million dollar is going to come from for the garage are we in fact subsidizing you know more parking for these you know people other people as well as community parking another uh where's this 49 million dollar is going to come from for the housing how can we be assured that that's going to show up um and the eight million dollar gap between the measure s funds and what the library is going to cost where's that going to come from uh yes the friends are good at raising money but but they can be able to raise that much money uh and let's see what so uh basically it's heartbreaking to think that we're gonna lose this opportunity to have a beautiful town commons on parking lot four you know we're gonna look back and see boy that was a mistake because that is the last great space downtown an increasingly intensified town um you know farmers market be there could be a lovely place for events and I would say that Abe Jason has produced a beautiful renovation uh uh plan also as a renovation of the existing library people don't seem to realize that could be a really beautiful space too with outdoor space all new hvac all new systems 21st century library blah blah blah that could be all in the renovation we don't need to destroy that building I'm just roughed you know the entire footprint of downtown yes change is inevitable but it's got to be wide change thank you thank you next I have phone number ending in 0193 and then I have Zach Davis and then we'll be done good evening my name is Henry Hooker and I really appreciate the council's taking the time to listen to everybody and I'm happy to be the last person and I'll take as little of your time as possible I love this new project looking at something that has several features that I just like to highlight one is that we're looking only at a concept a concept that evolved and will continue to do so as we move into actual design it will only improve the love that the housing is virtually a separate building with its own open space on top of the parking podium providing affordable homes for families and people of all sizes descriptions and allowing people to live where they near where they work we should look as possible at more housing on this site I like the fact that the parking space has flat floor plates designed with repurposing mind and we point out that there are currently projects in progress elsewhere that demonstrate the potential of turning such parking structures to other uses including housing library has its own identity with a two-story modern daily facility replacing an outmodable an essential feature for many folks who rely on the library is that there's no need to find a temporary home while the old one is being remodeled finally a look at the schedule for this project shows how much time and community effort has already gone into this project long imagine how long it would take start the process all over again to achieve on some undesignated site what we have in front of us now I'm hoping that the council will move forward with this project this evening great opportunity thank you thank you very much and last speaker tonight or last public comment will be from Zachary Davis thank you very much Zachary Davis I've had the the pleasure of this council for 10 years on the downtown commission vice chair of the downtown association board of directors but I'm speaking tonight as a downtown business owner a vendor at the farmer's market familiar with this project going back a long time I just hope you are all as excited about this project as I am it's beautiful when I saw the presentation last week I felt that this is the project for the present and for the future got the housing that we all desperately need that parking that will allow for more affordable housing development downtown EV capacity the ability for people to visit the central branch from all over our county and and how place to park it that's how they get here and it is an absolutely beautiful naturally lit inviting library fast outdoor space I wrote my business plan at our current library I would want my new business in our downtown to be next to this library you know we had a we had a library a hundred years ago in our downtown at the current site and it was torn down to build a new library we understand that as a community our our existing civic infrastructure at times outlives its life and new and better development provide for our community and and this is absolutely the project that meets the needs of of the present and the future and I'm just really excited about it I hope you all are too thanks so much thank you okay I'll bring this back to the council now I see that there is a council member walk-ins please yeah thank you mayor and yeah thank you to all the community members who spoke on this item and obviously to our staff and our consultants I have been on the council and this has come before us many times in different iterations and I'm just really pleased to see where we are today I think it really incorporates a process that is inclusive and reflective of various input and compromise and it was what I was speaking to in terms of I think the ideal process moving forward in these types of big decisions that we make I also appreciate the 100 affordable housing amongst our downtown where we want to see this type of housing and amongst like buildings so it doesn't stand out but ultimately what I am encouraged and excited about is a beautiful library and a community hub in the future and the design is really just remarkable so it's my pleasure to at this time move the staff recommendation I'm happy to read that just to make sure we're clear and the motion is to approve the updated site program and design for the library mixed use project to include the following changes one an increase in affordable housing units from a minimum to 50 a minimum of 50 to a minimum range of between 100 and 125 units to a decrease in the parking count from 400 to 310 parking stalls three program expansion to include an on-site daycare facility and four library design changes to include a two-story library facing cedar and Lincoln streets with the green roof and adjacent roof deck and other design elements as presented by the master library architect and rec staff to return to council with a preliminary library cost model based on the updated library design and site program changes so that's the motion that's the motion that was not for us and with appreciation I'm happy to move it and I'll second that motion and we'll continue with council comments and deliberation councilmember Cummings thank you mayor and I just want to say we'll express my appreciation staff and everyone who's really helped bringing forward what's before us today it's been mentioned we're not going to go into too much depth but there's been a lot of community input on this and this project I feel like really tried to strike the balance and continues to you know address some of the concerns that have been brought up you know initially when I was campaigning what I had heard that was going on this site was a six-story parking garage 600 you know new units kind of on top of a library and you know we've heard from the community about their concerns with the parking need for more affordable housing and what's before us today I feel like it's a really it's a big improvement as was what was mentioned before and what we have is you know a site where we mean it's an improvement from even when the subcommittee made its recommendations we're going from 50 to a minimum of 100 to 125 affordable units um we have increased the amount of green space on that site so it's not just a parking lot we have um we're you know going to get a beautiful lot library out of this we're also going to meet some of the parking man and you know to be quite frank I remember people who were saying we want no net new parking in the parking structure and we're not going to have any net new parking in downtown um and so you know I feel like we've the the staff and the council has worked really well with the community to meet their needs and I'm just I'm supporting this recommendation I did have a couple of friendly amendments I wanted to make on this project based on some of the feedback that I heard a couple of them uh are to address some potential legal issues and so and then also I think the other one is in line with the staff recommendation and Bonnie I'm wondering if you could put the either the staff recommendation or the recommendation because I was prepared to make a motion as well and change some language but the change would be to change from the staff recommendation approved to accept and the reason why is that I had heard from some community members that in other cities where they had approved designs for projects that they were contested because of the fact that this hasn't gone through SQL yet and then it's a it's a pre-approval of a project that hasn't gone through SQL design review so accepting the recommendations would allow us to move forward in that way but we wouldn't be approving the project until after it went through SQL review and came back and so that was a concern that was brought up I ran it by Tony and staff and they agreed that that was a fine compromise in terms of language and semantics the I think staff had the cost that they were going to bring back the preliminary cost model and that was part of the language I was bringing forward as well people were interested in learning more about how the measure S funds are going to be spent and then the the the last part that would be the friendly amendment would be direct staff to work with Jason architect to ensure the program in design is in compliance with the requirement of the city council's heritage tree resolution number NS 23710 and to fully evaluate with a certified arborist and developer and the developer whether any of the heritage trees can be included in the final project make every effort to include the trees were feasible and I think staff had brought that up but really just making sure that we don't get to a point where um but one that we're in compliance with our own ordinance because it would be detrimental to move forward to a point and then be faced with a lawsuit where the city was not in compliance with one of its own ordinances so those are friendly amendments largely changing approved to accept adding the information around for the direction around the heritage tree ordinance and I think that's it I would look to the motion maker who works by entities um the amendment from approved to accept why is that again I don't understand that because the the discussions I had was that by saying you're approving the design of this project and you're approving um if you're approving the design of this project then you're technically the project hasn't gone through CQ yet and so it could be construed as a pre-approval of the project and other in other jurisdictions when this has happened there have been lawsuits that have been filed saying to seek that the the cities or the jurisdictions had approved a project that had not gone through CQA and so as a result um we're not in compliance with that kind of review process um is that true on terms of uh our city attorney or other staff who have done this before I don't I don't know whether or not that's I I did speak with councilmember Cummings before the meeting and I think out of an abundance of caution that's not a bad idea and it also doesn't change the effect of the motion as far as the direction that's being given to staff so I don't have a problem with it from a legal perspective okay okay I'm I'm happy to accept that um in regards to the uh cost model I I read the uh motion to incorporate an updated um kind of uh preliminary cost model so I don't know if this needs to be really that number two doesn't need to be in there okay so let's go ahead remove that one um and then in terms of the heritage trees I I guess I'd look to staff to understand sort of what was already considered or where you're out with this and in general um have a chance to respond you know Tony you might want to weigh in on this as well I I think in in looking at the resolution and the criterion expanded just this exhibit at A I think the the one area that um you know we'll we will come back to you and discuss is let's see one C3 which says a construction project design um cannot be altered to accommodate existing heritage trees or heritage trucks I think right now we don't know the answer to that but as I indicated earlier in the meeting we cannot design and build the project with the number of affordable housing units that you saw today and include every heritage tree that's not possible so I I know that there are members of the community who have interpreted this language to mean that we can't remove a single heritage tree I don't think that's staff interpretation um but I I want to be as clear as I as I can be now I when I look at the language of that I don't want there to be an ambiguity of expectations from what the community is expecting and what staff's interpreting so Tony I don't know if you want to add to that no I think that's that's right um the the heritage tree ordinance does provide a mechanism for removal of heritage trees under certain circumstances if it would if the not doing so would render the project infeasible so those are findings that the city council would have to make in order to move the project forward and authorize the removal of heritage trees and incorporate mitigation measures into the project to offset the the loss of the trees so if I'm hearing you correctly it's sort of incorporated into our overall city approach to how to handle this type of um issue in regards to the heritage tree uh policy as well as the trade off potentially for this type of project to proceed so isn't necessarily needed to be a component is that correct that's right okay well in that case I won't accept that either since it's inferred and I'm I welcome the second year if it's don't I think yeah it sounds like yeah I'm happy with I accept number one as well yeah my understanding yeah is the second one is inferred as well and and I think Bonnie mentioned that they would be doing that work with the uh two arborists sound like very soon all right mayor can I just confirm you guys are accepting one and not two or neither of them we're we're accepting one and not two thanks uh council member brown um yeah I just I guess I'm wondering if so oh as I understand it part because I received a request to uh raise the heritage tree item as well and my sense was that the wanting to do that was because of a concern that this had already been directed and um the community thought that they had some assurance that that was going to be part of the conversation and then it thus far has not been and so this would just kind of memorialize that it's happening so um that just I understand that you're not inclined to accept it but that was the rationale for doing it even if it seems to be a bit redundant um just for what it's worth um I have some comments um are if we're heading towards vote I'll make them now and unless we have more to do on the motion no I'm happy to have comments now um I have a clarification on the motion okay um Bonnie it says uh vice mayor instead of mayor at the bottom there so if that could be um corrected council member Watkins and mayor Myers thank you thanks yeah go ahead uh stand here with your comments please please go ahead thanks um okay I'll be brief I um I'm I'm fine I'm having an internal struggle here a really really significant one um because I I do believe I agree with a lot of the comments that have been made here about the um kind of evolution of this project um when I first came to the council this what I saw in the city manager's office was a big six-story box with the library on the first floor and the rest parking and I remember thinking on that like third day that I was finally at city hall and I thinking can we have a green room for least on the top of this thing if it's gonna happen um and it was kind of laughed off I mean not by anybody here but some folks who were involved in early conversations and here we are and it's like that's gonna happen and um you know and I think that it has you know the new design has is very responsive to uh a lot of the community concerns and um you know and I like it and I'm I'm excited about the possibilities and I also recognize that there is a large swath of our community that is really really upset about the decision to use this particular lot for this project um and so you know and their their voices are are heard and not really incorporated into the conversation and that level of frustration has led us to this place um that I think is you know it's an unfortunate one to be making this kind of major decision about you know probably the biggest project the city will will do certainly in most of our lifetimes and um and so and I feel like those voices need to be heard um or at least represented on this body um I didn't support the library garage um I was involved in conversations to improve the design and the model and I'm I'm glad to have been involved in those conversations um and I look forward to uh what you know the the magic that even Katie and Jason and Katie Spencer have been able you know what they're gonna do here and what our community will do as we move forward and um at the same time I feel like I I I need to represent I this is a voice that needs to be represented here um people are very frustrated and um you know this isn't gonna end here and we have um you know pretty consistently and if anybody wants to challenge me on this I'll send you my spreadsheet received um at least during my time on the council um the messaging has been has run about two to one in opposition the messages that we receive so it's not just a small group of people um this is a community concern that I think should be taken seriously um and so I'm I'm gonna be voting no at the same time that I'm really happy to see what I'm seeing so it's it's it's hard to do um but uh I just wanted to say that uh to to be clear about where I'm at right now thank you council member I advice me a breeder next my hand was still up but I do have um comments and um this project and the history of it um predates my my time with with council um but thank you to the website up on the city website that has outlined kind of the the road to this point today and um you know it's always it's always good to hear and important to hear everyone's in the community and and their perspective on an impact of something and with this project there are clearly I think we're all in agreement a lot of positive impacts and um as council member brown has brought up there are community members that only want to see this site for an open space um um plaza type location and um you know and I did bring up that question earlier about the ballot measure um that had that initiative that has started and what that means with this project um and so I think you know we have to look at the investment into our community and um the overall um options that this design uh brings and and the open spaces this brings um and the working with the front farmers market to um find a location that um can really benefit them as well and um I don't think anything is um ruled out in terms of alternatives and um there are alternatives that we can start working towards and I know that some efforts have have been started in that um goal and the old library site there have been um some community engagement that has begun um as an example for potential farmers market location and civic center um area um potential more housing um we're really um I think it's it's it's a good step forward for us to be thinking of the overall investment that this this design and project it has brought to this point and the housing and the library we can't get that from the current location and from everything we've learned to this point um it's really um a wonderful investment into our our our main branch library system and to our community members that I know all use the amenities and and everything that the library will bring to this location I think it's a it's a bigger benefit so um I will be supporting this motion thank you great thank you vice mayor I'm going to cue myself in your council member coming did you have additional comments I just had a quick follow-up clarification because I didn't get to you after the um I made those from the amendments okay so just just for clarification with the staff because I want to you know be clear when I go back to talk to members of the public um so city is since the front of the amendment uh was not accepted I just want to be clear that the city is going to be um following the rules that have been set out in our heritage tree ordinance is that is that true I mean I guess to take that on so we are going to be doing the analysis I mentioned earlier we'll come back to council with some options um for you to consider um that's consistent with our ordinance and if we um you know have determined based on the analysis you know what could be feasible what not be feasible that would be a future council action for you to consider okay thank you I just wanted to make sure that that was clearly stated so the community members are clear about you know the city is going to be um following a heritage tree ordinance and if any decision needs to be made that'll be coming back to the council so thank you great any other comments by council members um I'll just also just briefly say that um I just want to thank Abe and Katie and your team um yeah I'm just I'm kind of floored by what you guys have come up with um and I especially enjoyed Abe listening you described to your uh you know your palette your uh the things that make you think about what to do with the you know a civic building as important as a brand new library you know that's going to last another 50 to 60 years um and I I think that not only did you inherently capture Santa Cruz in the way you thought about that but you know you also just created uh just I mean this building is a game changer in Santa Cruz I mean I'll just put it put it out there that that bluntly um we have not seen this level of creativity and quality of architecture in our town probably in decades and um so I I love that you have challenged yourself and I really respect the process that you've gone through to really acknowledge and try to understand what the community is really you know seeking as well as um also challenging our community to say yes to something you know to say yes to something this foundational in terms of an investment into our future generations and our future families and you know I just want to congratulate you I have zero hesitation voting yes on this motion this is what government is meant to do this is what we should be doing it's challenging ourselves to create a great and wonderful thing for future generations we're paying these taxes we've been paying them for a long time I see them every every every two months or every six months there they are and our community has stepped up and invested in the two libraries in the in the city already they're excited um other libraries capitol a la celda felton are gorgeous they're full of people um and kids and families sitting in these amazing little places reading books and there's beautiful playgrounds out front and people are enlivened in those spaces and I know we can do the same here in downtown santa cruz so I have zero hesitation um and and I acknowledge people who have struggled with this for many many years but um I'm a big yes on this I always have been from day one and um I'm just excited that I think you have captured the spirit of santa cruz in this building and um and I'm really really proud to um to vote yes on this tonight and give you that direction to keep going so with that that I will go ahead and ask for a roll call vote bonnie want to member rewattkin hi calentary johnson hi no holder hi face mayor bruner and mayor byrne hi that motion passes six in favor and wanted pardon me one against thank you abe and katie and we wish you all the best to have a happy holiday and thank you bonnie lips come in your team too I know you guys have been working hard on this we will go ahead um we are approximately two hours late so we're going to be moving into a late late meeting this evening uh we have three more items to go uh we have next up item number 27 which is the children and youth bill of rights and support for the youth action network for members of the public who are streaming this meeting if this is an item you want to comment on now is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen the order will be a presentation of the item by the council members who brought the item forward followed by questions from the council we will then take public comment and then return to the council for deliberation and action so for presenters tonight I have a council member calentary johnson council member golder and council member walkins I'll turn it over to you guys thank you mayor um okay just take a moment and breathe and stretch with that so it's a little chilly too yes um but I'm really really thrilled to bring this item forward with my colleagues council members boulder and walkins um you know I'll just give a little brief intro and uh and then we'll jump into the presentation so you know we even though children are a part of each and every one of our lives in some way or another it's not uncommon for government at all levels to not prioritize children and youth um we just saw this week the surgeon general just just released a report on youth mental health and um there's a lot that he goes into but he really urges us to act differently and proceed differently um at all levels of government when it comes to youth and children so we have a brief presentation for you um we have some other speakers as well actually that I'm going to introduce um Anushka Shah who is a UCSC student uh Robert Acosta with our parks and rec department Amanda Gambon with united way and youth action network so and that's the order of the presentation and then myself and council members boulders and walkins will um we'll close it up so with that I'm going to pass it to Anushka and if we can proceed to the next slide one my name is Anushka Shah I'm a 30-year student at UC Santa Cruz and I've been working with council member Contari Johnson on the Children and Youth Bill of Rights project so in my experience I've seen my peers and I observe throughout our schooling and even college experience adults making decisions that directly affect us without our perspectives and opinions being taken into account we weren't allowed to vote in a lot of the issues and many of the times we just didn't have time to go to our local government meetings or even city council meetings to voice our perspectives and suggestions because of school and other work so I understand why it is so crucial for adults and governments to gather and prioritize youth children voices in other ways when making decisions that especially affect them in Santa Cruz children and youth account for more than 18.5 percent of the Santa Cruz population and national data continues to suggest that we consistently fail at investing into issues that affect our children and youth the national center for health statistics suggests that there were more than 6600 deaths by suicide amongst the ages of 10 to 24 in 2020 and mental health is a Santa Cruz issue as well 31 percent of Santa Cruz County children that participated in a survey said that they had feelings of chronic depression in the previous 12 months there are so many other issues such as poverty homelessness food insecurity affordable health care violence substance abuse that we must focus on for our children and youth and these issues just go to show how vital it is to keep young young people at the forefront of budgeting and policy decisions and any other initiatives that we support and especially we must protect and prioritize the most vulnerable members of our community the groups such as racial minorities lgbtqp and even children from low income families that are at an even greater disadvantage this is where the children and youth rights come in California at a state level as well as more than six jurisdictions in california have adopted a form of this framework and even operationalized the rights that they have listed in their bill of rights i hope to see our city do the same thing so that we can emphasize the rights of children and youth that are listed in our bill of rights and start to prioritize them within all city budget and budgeting and policy decisions that we make and i hope to also see more of our children and youths being voices being heard and incorporated when making decisions about them thank you so much and i'll be passing it on to robert now thank you and it's good thank you city council for the opportunity it's always a pleasure to speak with you um one thing i'll notice as you look one thing you'll notice as you look through the children's bill of rights one thing we realize is that every department in the city already kind of does some work that falls into within the children's bill of rights um one one example for example we provide jobs and volunteer opportunities for youth in the community however we can't do it without human resources doing their part and that's just one of the many examples of people who um of people in this city doing their their part to to make sure that the children um in this community are are well taken care of um you know we we have a lot of parks and facilities and and places that people use to benefit use some of them are indirect for example there'll be a board meeting for little league at the clubhouse or something like that but the kids will benefit eventually because they're planning things for you um as you know we have volleyball in our beaches we have baseball games in the hardy west park soccer classes at daylight vega games at depot there's a lot of stuff that we are doing already for the youth of this community one of the aspects of the children's bill of rights is to ensure that youth have a healthy mind body and spirit and one way to get that done is using our well-known outdoor spaces we are known for skating and biking there is a company company's called Santa Cruz youth are wearing the Santa Cruz name all over the world um and the things that we do don't always have to be organized we have great places for kids to gather and play um another aspect from the children's bill of rights is access to quality education now we're not educators here in parks and rec but we do have a working relationship with county office of education to get a discounted lease to cover the educational to cover excuse me to cover the educational section of the children's bill of rights county office uses space at harvey west park in the kids cottage and they use the space here at the london melson community center and in the past they have used the teen center as a place for alternative education as well some some of the things that we also do are done by the civic auditorium you know dad's club basketball tournament just ended we do fashion teens which is helpful for the healthy mind body and spirit we do the nutcrackers so families can go out and and see this presentation in their graduation mission hill that has graduated there before and there are many things that happen at the civic to make sure that youth are taken care of additionally here at london melson center we have junior theater youth theater we have classes for youth and you can go to the next slide thanks um we have classes for youth we have events like our frosty fun fast halloween events and even things that aren't specifically dedicated to youth like our juneteenth event it's for all ages but it's welcoming to the youth of the community another thing here at the london melson center is is something near and dear to my heart is our teen center and as i was looking through the children's bill of rights we we are art of nine of the ten items in the in the children's bill of rights we have adult mentors we have safe spaces for the teens when to come where it's tough just to be a teenager as we all remember and those of us are seeing in our own families it's tough to be a teenager we currently do circles which is where we get together with the youth and we give them a space to express themselves and and there's some of our gender so specific some of them are all genders but it is something that has really taught our kids to open up and just be themselves another thing that we are very proud of is our teen intern program i think many people on this call have benefited from our teen intern program which hires children teens who are in school to then intern in different parts of the city and many of these interns have gone on to become city employees outside of the intern program um another thing i want to talk about is the recreation programs that we provide that help the healthy mind body and spirit we have our well known junior guard and lower guard program and summer we have our summer camps we have classes and sports fitness dance art and everything and then we do city-wide events including our 13 days of halloween on the war and family events where everyone is welcome like our clan chatter um one of the other couple things i want to mention is our volunteer opportunities for youth we have our captain corps program that works with our junior leader our junior leader program captain corps program works with our junior guard program and then our junior leader program which works with our summer camps program and again many of these volunteers eventually become employees which is only is a benefit to them and then the last thing is you know we have job opportunities as i mentioned earlier starting at 15 and a half you can be hired to work in our summer camps junior guards summer trails crew in our sports leagues and kind of everything that the parks and recreation department does so we are very proud of what we're already doing for the children's bill of rights and what we're going to do in the future and i look forward to the opportunity down the road to uh to be able to talk to you guys about the state of youth and what and what is what is going on with them so thank you for your time and um i will pass it on to the next person thanks Robert hi everyone my name is Amanda Gamban i am the coordinator for the youth action network which is the community impact initiative the united way we're also formally known as youth violence prevention network and we're composed of youth and adults working together to identify emerging needs within our community and to increase overall youth well-being through youth voice and youth leadership we're very excited about this bill because it's directly aligned with our goals which are youth adult partnerships youth voice and youth leadership development and really just increasing all of those putting youth at the center and making sure that their voices are being heard so we're excited that the city's taking need and prioritizing overall youth health being by partnering with youth in the community and our hope is that this is just a starting point and that other cities and the county will work to create something similar to these youth children and youth bill rights if this bill is passed we look forward to working and partnering with the city and operationalizing these goals with youth at the center and then i'm going to go ahead over to our next slide and in this next slide i'm going to be sharing with you all why youth voice and youth leadership is important to youth themselves unfortunately we like to acknowledge that a lot of our students that we work with are unable to make it to this meeting at this time because it's a busy time of year it's final week for most of our students but i'm going to be sharing on behalf of them today so we have some quotes from our steering committee members that have been working closely with about what youth voice means to them and in the center we have a wonderful word cloud of the prep session that we had last week of what youth are looking forward to with this youth children and youth bill rights and i'm going to read a brief speech by one of our co-chairs Malia who is a high school student about what this means to her she wanted to speak today but isn't able to make it so we go ahead and leave that for you all youth voice and youth leadership is important to me because i believe youth should have a say so and what is happening in the community and we youth should have a say so and what solutions are going to be used to resolve these problems i also believe it's time for youth voices to be more heard and to be put into action as well youth leadership is important to me because it gives us a chance to lead something where adults are following along and helping us along the way and a chance for us to show what we believe in and to make a difference in the world both youth voice and youth leadership is important to me because youth come out and speak their minds speak their opinions without someone without feeling like somebody out there is going to shut them down when youth work together we use each other as an anchor we support and stabilize each other to fight for social justice racial equality and use each other to fight for what's right for all people all i can say is i believe if all of us use and adults work together we can make wonders happen in this world but we can't make wonders happen on our own so we can do it together hand in hand so we're really looking forward to incorporating more youth voices and more youth from across uh the family who's city area and making sure that they um are able to contribute to local decision making within the city so we're very excited about the opportunity um and what this will look like for youth and community moving forward and i'll go ahead and pass it over to uh shabra actually rene go ahead okay so we wanted to get um uh from the kids mouths the youth themselves what what what would help them feel um important and what would be um ways that they want to be involved in the community i don't know if we can go to the next slide so we made a jam board that we sent out to different groups and different um groups like um the youth action network the the teen center the the social studies classes at harbour and santa christ high school were able to add virtual post-its on their all about things that they thought would be beneficial from their perspective and so i just think that this is such a tremendous opportunity to really put kind of our money where our mouth is um as a as a council and invest in the future leaders of santa cruz and really putting um these pro social activities at the forefront of every decision that we make um for our kids and for our council i'm just going to keep it brief in the interest of time and i'm passing it on to martin right i'm happy to take it from here no problem so if we could go to the next slide um i too for me the interest of time won't read these but you know in the agenda report what you'll see is we have a number of statements uh you know ranging from employment opportunity increasing uh freedom from mistreatment leadership uh support and beyond and these are the bill of rights that are incorporated into the agenda report they're half of them and bonnie if you could go to the next slide and these are the other half which you know in terms of these values and statements we have uh committed and what we're proposing is committing to incorporating those into every aspect of our work and our hope is that every youth will be able to be thriving and healthy in our community and be engaged throughout and i want to think at this time the youth who participated uh in providing input and feedback and our various community partners uh who have helped shape where we are today and helped formulate the bill of rights um and these are the final five and then i'll have uh you go bonnie to the next slide please and essentially what we're asking is how do we put this into action a lot of this is actually kind of incorporated into the motion language and recommendations of the agenda report and essentially what we're saying is how can we kind of put our money where our mouth is how do we uh operationalize this work and that looks like having our council and staff appointed to uh the yen or other youth focused initiatives because having our youth being consulted on policy work and issues um youth voice and its involvement in the climate action plan which as a result of a lot of these conversations is already happening we talked about participation in leadership development through uh stipends for youth which is best practice and an annual presentation to the council on the state of youth in santa cruz and a lot of this work is actually already generated conversation i know councilmember calentary johnson was in communications with our law enforcement about addressing commercial exploitation of dildren through law enforcement training and that i believe is underway already as a result of these conversations happening um next slide please and so essentially what we're um what we're kind of looking like is ultimately just really youth well-being which you see on the slide is sort of standing out in bold that looks like uh many things from leadership to meaningful participation in government um and connectedness overall to our city and a sense that as adults that we value our youth opinion and as a result we'll hopefully also get some interested civic leaders who could be future council members and mayors and beyond but ultimately a incredible population that we want to hear their voice um throughout all the work we do so i'll hand it back over to uh councilmember calentary johnson thank you um so we can go to the next slide um so that to really to demonstrate that this is really important to young people as rename and or councilmember golder mentioned um we we went to youth and we heard from them and and one of the things that that i consistently have heard over the years and and was reiterated again through um these engagement efforts is that we need to go to youth we can't keep expecting them to show up on our schedule you know on finals week a couple hours later than what we said time the time that we gave them you know we need to go to youth we need to go to their spaces we need to hear them um so so we've heard that and that's part of what we've integrated into the operationalizing of the bill of rights um so this youth said investing youth is important to me because it affects me personally as i myself from the youth and it would benefit my younger sisters in the future thank you for prioritizing youth and investing in all of our futures and that is what this is about um i do want to read just one more quote from the surgeon general's report and if anyone um is interested i would really recommend that you look at that report the youth mental health report uh so dr murthy says this is the moment to demand changed with our voices and with our actions only when we do will we be able to protect to strengthen and support the health and safety of all children adolescents and young adults and ensure everyone has a platform to thrive and so as council members as um city staff as community partners like united way and friend and at life um as youth advocates we are responding to this call to action and we're asking the city to prioritize children and youth in this way through the city's bill of rights um you all have a a grid in your agenda packet that shows again how we're doing it already and some of the ways that we could expand on it so i think with that we'll pause and see if there are any questions are there any questions from council members at this time not seeing any um i'm going to go ahead and take this item out to the public for public comment then and uh we'll go ahead and allow um the public to speak um for two minutes on the item and i see David David Brody has his hand up welcome yes thank you can you hear me yes we can great thank you good evening mayor mires and council members um again my name is david brody i'm the executive director of first five santa cruz county and as you might expect i'm here to speak in strong support of your council's action to support the youth action network and adopt and promote this children's youth bill children youth bill of rights um as well as the important related actions including your direction to staff to provide an annual report on the state of youth in santa cruz i think that's just wonderful um you know in addition to the weld laid out case that was included in your council's report um uh and the record i'd like to thank you for your recognition in particular of your inclusion of young children in this action but i'd also like to focus as others have tonight for a moment um including annushka and council member kauntari johnson um on youth mental health in particular uh and as the council member stated the um the surgeon general's recent national health advisory is really a wake-up call for all of us just a few statistics you may or may not have heard already um in 2019 uh one in three high school students and half half of all female students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness which is an increase of 40 percent since 22 since 2009 and that same period the percentage of kids seriously considering suicide or attempting suicide increased by 36 percent those making a plan increased by 44 percent it is just devastating to hear those numbers and to think about our kids um and and you all know that since the pandemic began rates of psychological distress you know have only increased and and as admiral murphy states another quote that i loved in addition to the land that council member kauntari johnson shared this isn't an issue we can fix overnight or with a single prescription ensuring healthy children and families will take in all of society effort including policy institutional and individual changes sorry i'm almost done um and how we prioritize youth mental health so i would argue in closing that this action by your council is exactly the type of all of society effort that our youths desperately need and so i'm here again tonight to speak in unqualified support for this item and sincerely thank each of you for once again standing up for the youth of our community uh and to the united way and to the united way staff and youth um thank you sincerely for your leadership thank you very much thank you i think i have another attendee in the audience that would like to speak to more uh nor hawkman go ahead please thank you can you hear me okay yes we can thank you thank you i i have two issues to raise one is is the two thousand dollars the city council is allotting to a youth uh uh commission evidence of the commitment because that seems like very little money and i'm not sure that small amount of money would be allocated to an adult commission and the second question i have is is the city council going to do anything about the number of young people that are sliding away in the flood at the san lorenzo benchland thank you thank you and garrett you're next yes um i don't have much to say but i i do think that children uh nobody speaks for them uh you know they they have silent voices and uh you know a lot through and including like uh the border crisis is really you know just an open invitation for pedophiles to take advantage of of children coming across the border and no one speaks for them and as to your idea i don't know much about it but i i do have strong feelings about the government keeping their hands off of children in some ways such as in public schools certain things they teach and when you have a mention of health and all policies you know i disagree with that as an ideology and i think you can keep that out of it otherwise you know yes support children give them a voice thank you and i will go ahead and call on uh council member callantari johnson did you want to have do you have clarification i know there was a question um and around the funding i don't know if you want to respond to that and then councilman comings i'll go to your go to you and then council member walken sure i also wanted to present our motion um the two thousand dollars not for a youth commission we're not quite there yet it's to support uh a youth who would be designated liaison and working with city council and we came up with that stipend amount working really closely with united way and youth action network who have a lot of experience and expertise and have done a lot of research on compensating youth for their participation and and work um in youth adult partnership and and i did have a slide with a motion to present okay great i'm sorry councilman comings did you have questions no i had in my hand because i was going to move the item um so i had i was just going to say that i had my hand first do you mind seconding it then or i i think council member callantari john sorry i bought going on so uh i don't know how to read this will you second the motion she's in the middle of making the motion so if if uh if bonnie you wouldn't mind putting the slide up um we just put together a slide that articulates the motion that was in the agenda report and and i can also read it and that's a motion to adopt the resolution supporting the newly formed youth action network um adopt and promote the children and youth bill of rights direct the mayor to appoint a council member and staff person to participate in the youth action network and set aside two thousand dollars annually for youth participation and leadership development stipends develop metrics aligned with health and all policies to measure success direct staff to return with an annual presentation outlining the state of youth and Santa Cruz thank you so i have a motion and council member comings did you want to second that i'll go ahead and second it with um one amendment which would be to set aside the 2000 annually from the cannabis children's fund for youth participation and leadership leadership development stipends so you know we have this fund we just think the voters just agree to increase it and some of the questions i had um when the um when the election was taking place was you know what has the fund been used for and i think this would be a really good um you know program to have that fund support council member comings if i may um the committee that worked on this has discussed this and it's certainly going to be part of the exploration but we are still develop an advisory committee for the children's fund so it seems premature to um designate what it will be used for when the advisory committee that will be made up of members of the community hasn't been formed yet so um we'll we'll explore that this 2000 comes out of that but we're not there yet because we don't we don't have an advisory committee for the children's fund just yet then i guess my question i think a lot of people are going to be wanting to know where's this money going to come from and i mean it seems like you know a program that supports children i mean this could be absolutely and that's that's going to be our recommendation to the advisory committee um but we can't speak for the advisory committee just yet that will be our recommendation to the advisory committee that we allocate two thousand dollars for these purposes i'm wondering if a um possible way to remedy this is to say uh requested amendment number four the motion to recommend setting aside two thousand from the cannabis children's fund with that remedy that yeah we could do that trying to acknowledge sort of where you are in your process okay and then i do have another question related to this which is um when would this kind of terrible who that was okay keep going council member i'm just curious when this would take effect as well like when when do we anticipate this um this program to like start i believe with the passage of the with the passage of the resolution this evening these items would be start to be acted upon but i'll look to council members or staff that's correct i guess i'll just well i said the floor i'll just um you know thank council members for bringing this forward and one to acknowledge i think it was council member Watkins that mentioned um that yeah like you know there's a lot of stuff that's been happening bringing in youth voices to the conversation and really engaging elected officials with uh the concerns of youth um council member Watkins and i i remember back in 2019 went to give a mock city council meeting at i think it was westlake school and one of the things that came out of that was a recommendation that we display the lgbtq and trans flags outside of city hall and not only did we do that and working with mayor mires um who at the time is council member mires um but not only did we that all three of us worked on bringing that forward last year we kind of we codified that into um uh city policy where every year for lgbtq month we'll be displaying the rainbow and trans flags outside of city hall and that's just one example i think of how we've been able to amplify the desires of youth and their voices in decision making and i just want to also thank all the teachers who invited city council members to come speak to their classes i've spoken with many of many of the council members who are here have spoken to classes and talked to them about local government and their concerns and i will say that is a really good way for us to be able to hear the voices of youth and to be able to try to see how we can bring um their you know requests forward whether it's you know displaying certain flags outside of city hall or addressing you know the number of garbage cans are at our beaches i think these are great opportunities for us to hear from um the youth and their classes and we just also encourage if there are teachers out there who are listening who have not reached out to us please you know engage with us and let us know if we can come talk to your class and what you like to talk with us about and so happy to be supporting the motion before us and and i look forward to hearing how this program is rolled out and updates on the the program and how effective it is thank you council member council member calm tarry johnson this briefly i know we're out of time before we move to a vote i wanted to just acknowledge and thank um my colleagues um council member watkins and golder for working on this um amanda and anushka for all your work on this and and robert for the work they've done and then all of the youth who participated on the jam board and um who uh came to the meetings that i attended and for their voices so i just wanted to put make those acknowledgements and thanks thank you council member and uh us uh bonnie will you please take us through what roll call vote please yes council member is watkins hi ellentary johnson hi brown older vice mayor bruner hi and mayor byrd hi um yeah and i want to thank the council members um and it sounds like we have a unanimous uh vote on this one and the motion carries um so thank you for bringing that forward we should be a little more time to discuss but i appreciate everybody's brevity and thank you robert and amanda and anushka for joining us tonight and really appreciated your your presentation so thanks so much for all the work you're doing with our youth thank you very much thank you okay next item um for this evening will be our oral communications and then we are going to take a break uh and uh so we'll go ahead and do oral communications at this time uh for members of the public who are streaming this meeting if you want to comment during oral communications now is the time to call in instructions are on your screen oral communications is an opportunity for members of the community to speak to us on items that are not listed on today's agenda if you're interested in addressing the council press star nine on your phone to raise your hand you will have two minutes to speak when it is your time to speak you will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted we request that you clearly and slowly state your name before making your comments so that we can accurately capture the meeting minutes however it is not required to state your name please remember this is a time for council to hear from the public we are not able to engage in dialogue with each member of the public but when we are able we will address the questions raised after oral communications has been completed we'll go ahead and look to our meeting attendees um for folks who would like to speak to us and i see garrett's hand is up go ahead garrett okay one more okay following up on all those systemic racial discrimination left as ambag housing mandates i would mention all regional authorities including hud are among the worst structures in government as they are unelected bureaucrats granted regulatory authority by lazy elected politicians and are beyond the reach of the people in this case ambag did a big bend over to the radical yunbi activists who additionally overfill some communities based on their being too white with poverty enabling public or other housing is treating a singular group of people differently based on their race and is therefore a racial discrimination period full stop none of you even blinked no rational moral justification exists to zone one additional unit in communities citing simply they're too white a race demographic come to cram that idea of real type another standalone method of overfilling communities if they are too affluent is a mandate of action to destroy successful communities and remake them identically in a lowest common denominator cookie cutter fashion that is central to the growing to proletarian defective marxist equity dogma infecting our politics these are not opportunities zones they're the resource rich zones they are collections of people who produce affluence because they are successful capitalists not marxists not socialists who understand prosperity comes from capitalism with a moral and ideological foundation of the value of individual goals self responsibility knowledge skill building discipline hard work spirituality and family not a belief in state dependency victimhood worship real prosperity is not contagious nor an entitlement nor a right it is earned and bag is not about liberty and not produce prosperity thank you next is nor hawkman go ahead please good can you hear me now yes we can okay thank you um four and a half minutes ago i watched the city council under the leadership of you donna mires passed a vote on the whole package of uh youth and youth in all policies and when you cast that vote the clerk of the city council was already showing on the screen to all of us that it was a unanimous vote that had somehow magically taken place before you actually voted could somebody explain that to me thank you thank you miss hawkman any other members of our public want to speak to us tonight on items not on the agenda this is oral communications go ahead abby samuels please i want to understand how you can on a friday night around nine thirty p.m. kick someone out of their RV with a 12 year old child with a grandmother who has who's ill onto the streets a day before it's raining now they're in their tents with all of their belongings all strong all over the place in the in the rain drenched including their 12-year-old kid how do you sleep at night i want to know yesterday at nine p.m. i spent all day yesterday at the bench lands i want to understand how you can have the cops tell people after they spent all day moving up to the upper park of the bench of the san lorenzo park where they're out of the flood zone that the police came at nine p.m. at night and kicked all of those people out of the park and did not bother to go down about below where it was flooding instead all they were focused on were the people that were above the flood play in san lorenzo park how do you sleep at night really i couldn't sleep how i was there this morning at nine a.m. after around 20 25 people had already moved their tents up and and this morning at eight in the morning i was there the cops were there with the four remaining tents kicking those people out letting the people down below flood thank you next i have raffa sonnenfeld yes thank you um i just wanted to uh respond to a comment i heard earlier during oral communication about uh the so-called uh radical agenda of affirmatively furthering fair housing um uh this was in regards to uh uh comments i presume about the uh association of monterey bay area government's uh uh discussion around the arena methodology and um uh basically the the state of california requires uh cities and councils of government like ambag to consider affirmatively for actually to implement policies that affirmatively further fair housing uh to to break the uh historical um inequities and imbalances that have happened over the years when it comes to lending policies and segregation whether it's through exclusionary zoning or racial covenants or uh or redlining um so uh the fact that we're just now in uh uh 2021 uh working towards uh reversing some of these historic uh inequities is well it it it's troubling that it's taken this long but it it's good that we're finally here and we're finally making progress towards uh having a more just equitable society um and that that starts with with land use policy and um so i hope that in the coming years that uh uh as zana cruise is uh considering um where it's placing its uh uh housing as part of its housing element uh which will happen it's due by i think uh january 2023 um you know we'll have a really robust community process around this and um i hope that that we uh really think first and foremost about uh uh our responsibility to to reverse that historic inequity and to affirm affirmatively further fair housing thank you very much next i have um sabina three minutes hello um i would like to second abby samuels comment what happened at the benchlands and other encampments over the past few days is criminal where was the city we hear over and over again from council members like calentari johnson and watkins that we can't just do nothing you're always saying don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good we can't do nothing guess what you did literally nothing literally nothing at all have you seen the photos have you gone down to the benchlands have you done any of that it's really shameful um you need to stop taking avail the only available shelter away from children in the vulnerable for them to just go be intense in flood waters so next time that you're standing up for the children like you so valiantly did please think about those children that don't have homes think about the foster youth that are way over represented in the homeless population in our county you did absolutely nothing and so next time i hear you guys say well we can't do nothing i mean please vote these people out they're doing a terrible job thank you that'll conclude our oral communications it's now five after seven um and we will go ahead and take a half hour dinner break we'll come back and we'll have one item um on the regular agenda and then we'll transition into um the evening of um remarks by the outgoing mayor and then the swearing in of our new vice mayor and mayor so let's reconvene at um let's just make it 740 okay thank you everybody the council members are back just turn on your camera here's some jumping jacks getting warm sonia and martin hi sonia martin if you are on i'm gonna turn on your camera if you need to stay off just let us know okay rosemary's here body's here rosemary is the staff here that needs to be here for the um i'm looking at number 20 and i know we have bobby i see lee i see bobby we're good i see larry yeah okay great we're pretty good we're ready to go we're ready to go ready okay oh wait i gotta open up before next up on our agenda is item number 28 implementation of homeless response program for members of the public who are streaming this meeting if this is an item you want to comment on now is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen the order will be a presentation of all three sub items by staff followed by questions from the council we will then take public comment on items 28.1 28.2 and 28.3 public comment we limited to 30 minutes and each speaker will have one minute and i do have extra time for two minutes reserved for stepping up santa cruz so i will go ahead and um turn this over and um we will hear from rosemary minard our interim city manager thanks mayor council members and um i want to just kick this off a little bit and talk to you about item number 28.1 but it's it before i want to sort of do that i just want to do a little bit of an overview of of what these three items are they are related to each other and there's been a number of ongoing conversations over many months about how are we going to and and what's what's going to be involved in implementing uh some of the homelessness response plan and programs that that council have taken action on this year whether it's the um capping and standards and services ordinance or the oversized vehicle ordinance and a lot has been going on in this space uh i think that that would happen over the last couple of days actually several days as it relates to this most recent rainstorm is a really good sort of an example or a metaphor for what goes on which is you're moving down a path you think you've got things planned you know you're watching what's going on and then a little bit of a curve will fall not necessarily completely unexpected but you know you you uh you get sort of thrown down a little bit of a different path so uh yesterday our folks you know really worked hard to help a number of folks from the area behind the cemetery and the area at the confluence of branch 40 creek and the San Lorenzo river moved to higher ground and you know kind of created a emergency shelter for them in a place that um you know was a little ways from where they've been but it's still a very challenging and constantly evolving situation so i i think that's a theme that if you were to ask the staff what they've learned over the last six months as they've worked on this kind of uh the implementation of these kinds of activities related to the homeless programs i think they would emphasize it's it's constantly evolving and i think that's probably one of the things we can expect so the three items tonight are there's a there's a description of a process and an approach and for how the state general fund 14 million dollar allocation that we're working with the county and a way to both figure out how to what recommendations we have for how that money should get deployed but also using that process between the city and the county to sort of consciously develop a stronger more resilient more functional relationship where we are working together as partners and that the takeaway not only will be spending these resources in ways that leverage and are synergistic with you know that affects the efforts of both of them parties but also that leave behind a set of tools for us as staff to use in managing our relationships so that when we disagree we can sort that out in a way that is functional and you know gets the disagreements resolve the priorities that and allows us to move on so that's the first item and that includes a resolution to accept the money from the state so that's a that's an action for the second item the second and the third items here are basically i want to talk about the third one first because this is a thing that we talked a little bit about in an fyi that we released i think in early november that described kind of what was going on on the development of programs and services to implement the camping services and standards ordinance and then subsequently added the issues related to the services they parking and what programs etc that are involved in the um oversized vehicle ordinance that are part of that that process and so this is a number of things related to those implementation actions so there's contracts with the Salvation Army there's a lease with the with the National Guard with respect to the armory there's a resolution of support for the city support for a encampment grant that we're collaborating with the county on that the county happens to be the lead on just because it will be stronger and and work better if it works that way the staff have been working together and assuming that those things are aligned with the work that you've seen before through the the fyi that was just uh distributed and described to some degree then the last item which was actually happens to be the second item here the is the budget adjustment that gets us going that gives us the resources both one and allocates one time and um and uh ongoing resources for these programs and services this is not the be all end all in terms of what uh you know that once we've done this there's no going back for one thing I think I'm pretty sure that some of the state 14 million that's going to be discussed under item one is going to ultimately pay for some of the things that we're trying to get moving by allocating resources in number two here so we'll be moving money back into cover some of those things once we've gotten that uh that processed them with the county um so tonight what we have is like I said the three items I'm gonna I'm the first and basically briefing the first one I don't have a presentation for you I'm happy to take your questions and see if there are concerns and then uh we're gonna move right into presentation between Bobby McGee from finance and the staff um Larry and Lee from the homeless and services staff to brief on the last two items so um and actually I think that we're all going to do all the presentations and then we're going to open up for questions I think it's out of the planet so with that I'm going to turn this over to Bobby I think for his piece of it hi Bobby hello um actually I believe Larry was going to do the presentation honest I had heard okay I'm sorry I this is what happens when you have rain and you have to deal with the crisis yesterday and you're not in the loop so go ahead Larry that's Larry oh there he is go ahead yeah let me share my screen good evening um good evening uh mayor members of the council Larry Imwale homeless response manager um I'll be presenting uh this evening on the implementation of the homeless programming efforts and I have a short power point we can see it great thanks so yes so um I'll be providing uh an update and overview of the implementation of our homeless response programming as rosemary mentioned in our introduction this report really builds upon the updates in the informational memo that was provided to council on november 8th and was discussed at the council meeting on november 23rd um and again these are in relation to the implementation of uh the camping and services and standards ordinance and the oversized vehicle ordinance and so the first component um is our efforts around establishing safe sleeping and shelter the council direction was to add 150 beds in terms of shelter capacity and so the efforts that we have moving forward um are with the armory city outlook uh as it's being called is that that's the establishment of an additional 75 bed capacity up at the armory building uh we have a lease agreement as rosemary noted that we're working with to extend the use of the facility through 2022 this calendar next calendar year that starts in january to keep that current and for this lease the city is the will be the lease holder but we're sharing programmatic operations with the county has two programs up there as well so the county the city will be leasing the facility and we'll be working on a use agreement with the county for joint operations again the county is using the armory building through fiscal year 2022 so june 30th and 22 they have programs in that facility and then also the pavilion program they have which is under a large tent that's accommodating approximately 45 people will be winding down in january or february so there's some fluidity in terms of the use of that facility over the next 12 months uh we're moving forward uh in and recommending to execute a contract with Salvation Armory Army to operate a 24-7 emergency shelter for 75 people um on the back lawn it's been called the golf lands uh the language that the Salvation Army is is using as city overlook of those 75 10 of those will be reserved for overnight emergency and 65 will be for ongoing 24-7 services given the changes and with the county programs that are anticipated over the next several months we're recommending moving forward the six-month contract with Salvation Army that includes the operation of the shelter the staffing required meals and transportation service to and from the armory again this will give us flexibility depending on what happens with the county programs what other plans may emerge to just have the flexibility to and adaptability with our operations up at that location in terms of timing the Salvation Army we're hoping to have hiring and training staff early january and targeting programs start date in late january the next component of the safe sleeping is the transitional community camps that we're recommending again this is a different kind of model than we've had in the past where we're looking at a smaller group of individuals that are ready to make a change and our work will live together and create a community under an agreed upon code of conduct and the idea here is supporting that work with case management and coordination from city staff to support their pathways towards housing and creating connections to county services so city staff will manage those programs presently they're identifying the initial participants from the benchlands area and the city staff that will be working at that side of the existing camp stewards at benchlands chris and jeremy who are familiar with all the individuals down there and are going to help identify those who are ready to make that change and that's part of the rationale of the city operating this first transitional community camp is really to facilitate getting this up as soon as we can and then if the city is actually vetting the initial participants for this program related to this transitional community camp at 1220 river we're doing outreach in the neighborhood surrounding that location we've met with folks the tannery there will be a letter going out to the neighbors very soon that's been drafted and so we're hoping to start that again late december or the first week of january for 30 to 35 participants we've talked about establishing in the near term a second community camp we're currently doing the site analysis for that and after we get the armory outlook city outlook on online and operating and the first transitional community camp will put our emphasis towards getting a second transitional community camp up and online and there's the potential to do more of these later in the near term with the benchlands we're proposing to continue to have that as a location our goal though is really to reduce the size of the benchlands encampments as additional capacity shelter capacity becomes available and ultimately working towards the closure of this camp in beginning to prioritize with the lowest lying areas in the south end of the benchlands encampments with safe parking programs that were part of the oversized vehicle ordinance council directed the development of a three-tier program set of programs tier one was emergency with three spaces that space is available the police department lot currently right now associate the association of faith communities is operating one spot on that lot with two spots reserved for this the police to be able to use as needed tier two excuse me tier two which is overnight parking the direction from council was 30 spaces with a direction to have it operational early 2022 we've identified three lots for minimum five to six spots each we're doing the feasibility analysis presently on those locations in terms of the number of potential vehicles egress in and out the building have hygiene stations located etc and again we're continuing to look at additional lots that may be we available for these programs tier three program is an operator supported 24 7 safe parking program to be set up in spring of 2022 and presently that site analysis is underway and we'll be looking for potential contractors to submit proposals for operation in 20 early 2022 an update on some of the implementation steps of the oversized vehicle ordinance these are underway the permitting process development the need for signage on the new parking regulations and then there's work with in terms of getting the coastal development permit process underway and we have a hearing before the zoning administrator that is set for early january a couple of other items that are important as we think about again with this focus on trying to have our programs towards creating pathways to housing and part of that is really trying to also develop the support services community-wide that are able to create those pathways and create permanent housing solutions so as rosemary mentioned one of the opportunities that we're collaborating with the county on is this encampment resolution grant they will be the lead applicants for this but the focus is on working in the along with the acampments along the San Lorenzo river and working with the the new county grant through mental health behavioral health to provide outreach and service coordination with folks in encampments so we leveraging that county grant that's going to provide additional staff to work with folks living in that encampment the work collaborate with city staff in there to make those connections but the idea here is that the grant would provide flexible funds or the language is housing scholarships to support the development of personalized plans to move on house person persons in the encampments towards more permanent housing solutions so that's the goal of that grant it's focused on and has a priority for encampments that have 50 or more people statewide it's a statewide competitive process there's 47.5 million dollars statewide the target the expectation is that's the county Santa Cruz will be submitting grants somewhere around the range of 1.5 million dollars for this work and in addition to the programmatic work it's the request was also going to assist in formalizing policies and protocols for a collaborative city and county response to encampments so as noted one of the recommended actions on the agenda this agenda item is the adoption of a resolution that's formally endorsing this application from the county for this encampment resolution grant the other item is the development of additional affordable housing for low and extremely low income individuals that's project home key is there's two applications that are in development within the city of Santa Cruz jurisdiction one is an 801 river seven units to be restricted for extremely low income for 55 years and another application that is in development is at 119 Coral Street for 120 permanent supportive housing units that's the Harvey West Studios project after discussions with city and county staff in trying to work collaboratively to address these issues the county will be moving forward as the co-applicant with the developers on these projects but these are the two projects that may be submitting applications the project home key within the city of Santa Cruz jurisdiction the fiscal and funding impacts are related to this again as noted the agenda report the projected annual cost of the homeless program programming that we're recommending is 4.7 million dollars annually funding sources include real out potential reallocation of American Rescue Plan Act funds that's what finance will be speaking to also the use of community development block grant funds there's the 14 million dollars and the state appropriation that will be done in collaboration with the county and of course city general funds are another source of the California state and cabinet grant opportunity that I mentioned is an also a potential funding source that may be available to support these efforts and again we will continue to identify and develop new revenue sources that can support these homeless response programming and get us a note of the recommendations within this section of the agenda item and is to receive recommendations from the council directed homeless response programs and services including and not limited to lease and sub lease with respect to the national guard armory and additional direction as desired also authorizing direct the city manager to execute a six month contract in a form approved by the city attorney with the Salvation Army for shelter management at the armory in an amount not to exceed 1.2 million dollars and then to adopt a resolution supporting the county of Santa Cruz grant application to the California homeless coordinating and funding council for funding through the encampment resolution funding program and directing staff to collaborate with the county on the implementation of the grant of the work outlined in the grant that concludes my part of the presentation and rosemary is that is that the last of the presentation or do we have anything else oh you're on mute it's by me providing additional or is he just here for questions larry i'm sorry apologies i'm basically just here for questions tonight um i know the council's already aware of the uh the ARPA money that's come in to the city already which is about 7.1 million dollars and then our staff report kind of outlines um how that's going to be used in this fiscal year which includes the the one-time startup cost as well as a prorated portion of the ongoing operational costs and of course i'm here for any questions related to that thank you all right i think back to you then mayor okay are there questions from council members on the items on before us on these these three items um please let me know sandy excuse me council member brown thank you mayor uh and thank you larry and rosemary and bobby for being here for backup for giving us the introduction and pretty thorough documents to help us understand what's been happening and where we're headed i have a question related to the the armory and river street kind of the the safe sleeping component of this because i'm i'm i'm not clear that we're getting as a result of this and this is not not no offense to you all that you're you're working on the direction we provided the city council provided but um it feels like these may not actually really be new spaces that we're just kind of filling the gap that's going to be left by the county when those funds run out am i understanding that i mean like where we are i mean the armory is operating the golf lands the sprung structure is operating and we're talking about setting up there so um i know that my recollection is that the ordinance that you all adopted um did not state explicitly net um new spaces but i'm just wondering um if you could help help me understand that because it doesn't seem it doesn't seem like it we're going to make much progress if all we're doing is kind of backfilling and you know wondering what to do about the rest or you know tba on the rest and then the other question i had is related to the river street which i'm i thank you for um you know getting that moving um i know that's a site that's been used effectively and i i think we've talked about the numbers there but 35 it seems like i mean given the need that really there there is a possibility to for more people to be able to be cited there go ahead lady sure um so i'll start by um addressing the first question with respect to the number of spaces um we were able to um we collectively the county in the city you know but particularly the the covid funds that came into the county um allowed for a substantial increase in the number of shelter spaces um you know literally hundreds of extra spaces um not just here in san cruz but elsewhere in the county when you're looking at project room key and so forth and um a number of those have been um closing down as those funding sources um become no longer available um that is uh that's the case for um the golf lands area the uh the city overlook um which is on the south lawn behind the armory um that was open um and had individuals in a 24 seven camp there until uh the uh october time frame september october time frame uh when the county closed that down um and so we would be reinstituting a program uh the council will recall that were actually the um the county was actually um anticipating closing down the armory building itself as well and so we were planning on moving a safe sleeping program into the armory building itself and fortunately the county was able to um utilize additional funds uh to continue that through june so that's when we um recalibrated and back to rosemary's initial comment of this is a dynamic situation um we recalibrated and uh looked to that uh rear area but um you know i think as we're coming out of covid um a lot of those resources will ultimately be going away you saw um in larry's report the pavilion um with the uh the state funding um ending soon for the pavilion the county is going to extend that for a limited period of time but not for a um a extended period of time um so yes that is a challenge that we're going to have to continue to address is um with the dropping numbers of covid shelters we're going to continue to have um additional challenges with um you know meeting the types of numbers that we saw even um within the past six months even as we're adding overall there could be um fewer beds when you're counting those covid shelters being lost and then um the second part of the question was the number of um individuals there um they at 12 20 river for example um one of the things that we are looking at doing is really trying to set up a community at these locations one that allows the individuals to support each other and that allows them to um really form those social bonds that help create the the trust so that that um that location can thrive and the individuals in there can thrive um and we could fit more people in there the concern is that if we start increasing the numbers that um there's a inverse relationship with the success of the community and so um that's one of the concerns and that's why we we wanted to start off with a smaller number of people we had we had 60 there um and you know very small spaces um when we operated this a few years ago um so this is you know roughly half of that a little over half and you know that's not to say it's going to stay right at that number but that's where we want to start off to see if if it can be a successful model in um you know a light touch management you we will have staff there every day but you know there are going to be significant expectations from the participants in terms of the oversight and management and and self um and self-management of the camp even though we'll have staff there on a daily basis ensuring people that are meeting are meeting the the milestones and working towards permanent housing solutions thank you if I could just a quick follow-up on that and I promise this is my last question for now um so and I really appreciate that yeah I think that makes a lot of sense uh in terms of the scale and the potential to kind of facilitate a space that is um meets people's needs in a way that um you know just packing people in is does not I and developing community so I really appreciate that and given that and given that we know there's significant need beyond the numbers that we are currently looking at and again with an understanding that the resources to do these kinds of things are substantial um you know I see in the I saw in the slides and in the um written materials um possibly more sites like this to be established in the future and I'm just wondering um um based on what your your research so far and your your efforts so far um I mean is that or what might we see something like that in the coming year a proposal for something like that an additional location are you like where is that at in terms of the I mean it's tba but tba do nor you're just kind of where it's at I guess sure can I can I just say one thing before um maybe want to add something Lee I think this is one of the reasons why it's really important for us to be doing this conversation with the county the 14 million kind of creates the opportunity to to talk about what their plan is which has been very heavily focused on the housing first part right and then what the problem is we're dealing with in our community which has a lot to do with the front end of that pipeline that ends with the housing solution and trying to um and and and using that process so that we can talk about how we're all we're going to both deal with the whole problem and not to say I'm only dealing with this part and we don't know about that part so that's a uh it's it's a ulterior motive that's not hidden I guess you might say for why this is so important to do this collaborative process to engage between the city and the county and thinking about the bigger the bigger picture because it's clear that if the county walks away from any kind of sheltering operation not a good thing for our community and it will not be something that we can just keep writing text to cover thanks for resume that's that's great context and and I just quickly say it's it's a much shorter time frame than that council member brown you know we're looking at hopefully having um an addition at least the next um uh transitional camp um up in the winter so you know the the february march time frame um as larry was mentioning you know we've got a lot of things in the works right now with with the safe parking and with the armory and with 12 20 and just the encampment management that occurs on a regular basis so we are we're starting with 12 20 but as soon as we're getting that up and running we want to um try and get the next one thank you council member brown uh i see council member colin tarry johnson and then council member comings thank you um thanks so much for that presentation larry and rosemary and lee um you know so contrary to some comments that have been made clearly there's a lot of work being done and and i want to thank um lee and larry and all the staff for all the work that you've done and you continue to do and and i want to thank my colleagues who um have voted to support this services oriented approach um and so we are where we are now and i really appreciate all the work that's been done i do have a couple of questions um and and one of them i i know you probably won't be able to answer right now um so you know i a lot of money and a lot of resources have been spent already this last year and in previous years in abatement and response and i think it's important to understand some of these costs as we're moving forward uh so at some point in the future if we could um have an estimate of how much we've spent i mean so the you know hygiene stations that have already been stood up those aren't new costs those are those have been in place but what's that what does that look like and uh for example the tier one safe parking um i know afc runs that and and they pay for that but what are some of the associated costs so so some of the things like that that we have been doing for the last several years um not in a robust way that we are moving towards now but what what have been some of the crude costs and then and then of course there's costs that we can't put our fingers on like uh the lack of response and people ending up in emergency rooms and law enforcement but as much as we can understand how much it has been costing our city in the last year or a couple years i think that would be helpful and again i know that we don't have an answer for that right now um and then i have some questions about the encampment grant um that that i talked to to staff about but i want to ask again here so that community can can get responses to is how much we are requesting and um how this will specifically augment the city's efforts around encampments and um how it will augment the proposed uh three fds that we are asking as part of this package and my last question is there've been there've been a lot of uh concerns and questions about our flood response and i'm wondering if someone could touch on that if and if now's not the appropriate time then then we can say that for another time but those are those are my questions and comments for now i'm sorry council member your last question was the the city's uh response to the floods over the last couple of days okay uh in the interest of time i might see if we can get the first two done and then well if we have time a little bit later we can kind of get an update from staff on that if that's okay that'll hold to you sure thank you i'm not sure who on staff would like to take those questions you want to take it larry or i'm happy to either way um i can at least take a start um on the encampment grant for sure so um again the county's the lead applicant on that uh that application is being drafted uh and we'll be we'll be revealing it uh with the county so we're still waiting for that it's due it is a quick turnaround it's december 31st but really the principal part of the funding for that is really to support these flexible funds for housing scholarships to actually be able to get people on that pathway towards you know whatever array of needs are getting the way of getting to housing including also paying for housing so it's not really intended to augment staff um through the use of these grant funds that the grant requirements are really looking to see how the applicants can leverage what they're already doing so good example is the county itself is already trained to as part of this strategy it's utilizing the outreach workers that they're going to be hiring uh in january to do this outreach work and really the rule of the city uh based on the conversations we've had so far is really having our camp stewards be those connectors with county outreach workers uh to help build uh bridge that gap because they have relationships with the folks in the encampments and that's going to make a more successful connection to the county but that's really the emphasis of the funding and this approach for the encampment grant the one thing i'd add um you'd ask the amounts councilmember carter johnson and it's um 47 million statewide so that's a competitive grant across the state 47 million total um when we spoke with the county they were looking at one million to one point five million that kind of range um for those flexible funds that larry was speaking about thank you councilmember did you okay great okay i've got councilmember Cummings next for the presentation i have a lot of questions i'm sure you probably won't get to answer most of them and i'll like to get cut off but um this is a big item uh for us i mean i think this is you know we're making a huge adjustment to our budget and um i do have some concerns about um what's before us this evening but i'll start with just you know really wanting to get a sense of what's happening with the county because for the the three years that i've been well the previous years that i've been on the city council many of the council members have expressed that you know addressing homelessness is the county's responsibility and we need to work with the county and this year we've been taking a lot of um you know we've been making decisions and it's been seeming like we're making these decisions in the in the absence of the county and we haven't really had the county at many of these meetings and so i'm really wanting to better understand kind of you know where the county is at with their programs because you know we're reaching into what's being proposed is that we reach into funds that were set aside and well i wouldn't say set aside but we received to you know help us with our deficit that was um the result of COVID-19 and now we're putting that towards homelessness and make sense or one would think that you know what's the county doing around that as well you know are they using some of their funds to address some of these issues so i'd like to really just start there with understanding kind of what's going on with the county around the programs i know some of the COVID-19 programs are coming down but prior COVID the county was also helping the city stand up programs and it sounds like they're bailing on on this responsibility and so i'd like to get some clarity around you know what's happening with the county right now and their responsibilities help us with this i mean i'll turn it over to staff but i wouldn't mind answering just as an elected that's also been sitting at the table with the county now for for two years on the homeless on the on the two by two um you know the county took on the burden the primary burden of housing people during the COVID crisis so they were operating all the hotels they've also increased and are taking on the housing week re-wave effort and they have been rehousing people out of the hotels the COVID hotels that were being closed down i can't remember the exact amounts but i think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of six to 12 people a month that might be i'm not sure that's every month but there's a consistent effort effort they've hired at least a dozen people to work or more on those i believe they've also successfully participated in purchasing a hotel for veterans just recently um they were part of a coalition that did that that will house veterans we have about 40 you know a certain amount of folks in our community are veterans and they will be able to be served by that um the county has also um as you know they've come to this city council meeting three times this year one was to ask us to endorse the plan that they created um the second was to validate and endorse the new governance structure which of course is now complete and we've placed two members of our community on that and from a council member vice mayor council member Watkins soon to be vice mayor Watkins and our staff lead butler um they have also um i would say that the the partnership with the county is stronger than ever we're both suffering from an overload of hundreds of people who have nowhere to go um but they have been communicative they've been supportive of the 14 million um they've also engaged um with hcd at the state level through john laird's office seeking clarification and actually sought um ability to bring home home key funds to santa cruz as quickly as possible so my at least as an elected to an elected with um supervisor McPherson and supervisor coonerty been a series of problem solving it's been watching their county staff really create a homeless program all the way from scratch because there never really was one before they've expanded the homeless management information system so i feel like their work has been just um it's been it's been uh very consistent and very forward thinking the whole time this past year year and a half so that's just a report out from an elected prospectively you probably have more details on the nuts and bolts but i wanted to share that and vice mayor pruner has also been involved in a lot of these conversations so she's aware of a lot of what they're doing as well oh i can't see that her rosemary i can also report that the housing re-wave 108 people have been um you know put into permanent housing solutions as a result of that and i think that was a result of particularly during the covid and in the hotels where they were able to provide a lot of case management services working with those folks through that whole time frame and getting a lot of them ready to you know move from a homeless situation into a housing solution and so through a whole series of things we're able to you know put 168 people into permanent housing solutions which is you know really great and some of that's obviously section eight vouchers and finding you know uh landlords who will rent to section eight etc so i know there was a quite a bit of stuff going on with that and i i just repeat with with what donna said i mean a lot it's very difficult when you have the kind of needs that we all see in our community and and some of the challenges we see and then simultaneously we realize we've got you know organizations that are really standing up new functions the the um human services division took the housing for health section partly out of the health services agency in the county and created a brand new division and hired somebody to come in and you know run that division and that's really like a year old um the city has obviously done its own somewhat you know smaller version of that um one of the thing i guess to point out because i know that uh vice mayor bruner has you know talks about this quite consistently in these conversations about concerns about mental health and the provision of you know people who can work with folks in in with dealing with substance abuse and substance um you know kind of dependency and also mental health situations and they fairly recently made a major commitment to um fund a uh you know a significant increase in workers in that behavioral health section i'm sure some of whom are going to be engaged in this work i know that they're talking about another sort of big increment of new staffing here shortly and they are talking as we are you know looking at the possibility of revenue measures and how do you plan for ongoing funding for homelessness in uh as their part of it and so you know i i think that it's not really just be seeing what we're seeing with respect to you know them closing down shelters and what have you but on the other hand i don't know that it's necessarily means that they're gonna you know fold up their shingle and move out of town so to speak i think like us they're in a transition phase yeah and i would i would add um also um i'm not completely clear but but just so everyone knows publicly this was announced almost a month ago now they did receive an eight million dollar grant for mental and behavioral health programs and that's going to include the needs of areas homeless um and that's going to create new and expanded programs to provide what that will provide suicide prevention services direct mental health outreach mobile crisis response units and mental health professionals attached to county ambulance units so um so much of what we talked about is actually happening so it's refreshing to see all the progress that actually happens when there's resources at the state of California that can come to local government any other you said you had a lot of questions i have a number more but that was really helpful um i do want to follow up on something that was stated and uh i think it was the 28.3 report at one point it's mentioned that the county is is more or less kind of tapped in terms of their resources around um providing um case management and so i'm just curious how that's going to be handled because it seems like one of the things that has the biggest outcomes for these kinds of services is case management and i think in the beginning it was saying that the county was only going to work with um individuals already in their system of care within the end um you know it highlights how county wraparound services are required to move individuals out of emergency programs into permanent supportive or rapid rehousing so an ongoing collaboration with the county will help reduce overall cost to ensure program success so those are two conflicting statements and i'm wondering how we can kind of reconcile the fact that the county is not taking on more case management but we know we need case management in order to have effective outcomes yeah maybe i'll um i'll take a first out at that um so um i'm not sure exactly where that reference was to the system of care it may be some of their programs um like the rehousing way for example um they have been focused on individuals in the um the covid shelters you know those individuals that have um been stabilized in the motels or hotels for you know quite some time now um 18 plus months in some cases and um they want to build on that stabilization and they're focusing some of that uh some of that rehousing way of effort on um those individuals and so um version of um outreach services and case management um Mayor Myers mentioned the recent grant that they received the SAMHSA grant the eight million dollars and we do expect that they're going to have a substantial amount of additional resources to dedicate towards um helping individuals move from homelessness and so um you know even with these extra this extra money you know resources are going to be an issue we have so many uh needs in our community that you know with whether it's the 14 million from the state or th