Good morning folks. This is commissioner Gonzalez Vice chair, and I'm gonna start today the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission meeting Thursday April 2nd It is 917 and we were doing this by teleconference. I have no control over the screen that's in front of me the PDF now and so I I can see my agenda on the inside but You first item is we done roll call already. Do you want to do roll call again? Sure, and I have control of the PDF screen or no, I will control that for you. Do you want to scroll that up? There's there's nothing next until we start our agenda There's nothing what? There's not another PowerPoint screen until we start I thought we were starting Yeah, but when we when we go into like scent item, we'll go ahead and Okay, it's real call Commissioner low here Commissioner Bertrand Commissioner Brown Here Commissioner Bertrand here Commissioner Commissioner Johnson here Commissioner Kaufman Gomez she's having trouble with her audio, but I know she's on Commissioner cap it Commission alternate shifrin here commissioner friend Commissioner Mulher Commissioner Leopold here Commissioner McPherson, I know he's gonna be on shortly commissioner Batur commissioner Gonzales Here and commissioner Rockin Okay, that was your roll call Thank You Sonia Can we Green up on the PDF or the PowerPoint We're on the so we're on the oral communications now on the agenda Is there any anyone in the public they'd like to speak at this moment for oral communications? Commissioner Mike, can you hear me? Yes Well, I guess I get to be the guinea pig here. Here we go Who's speaking this is Michael Saint with camp for sustainable transportation Great. Thank you, Michael. You're welcome. I really appreciate you guys doing this video conferencing and you sinia. You're doing a great job And I just hope everyone's and yourself and your families are doing well, this is a very strange time we're going through but I think Overall, maybe we can learn from this tragic event and find a silver lining somewhere and mixed here We've had our video conferencing Last week at campaign for sustainable transportation It went very well, but as you know, you just we're all trying to do things a little differently. So it's very interesting Watching you you sin you get everybody organized. So I really appreciate it I think there are definitely some comparisons between COVID-19 And climate change two of the things is they're both very very real And they both can affect positive changes in our behavior as a society But I have sent an op-ed to Sentinel, which was accepted a few days ago and Seen several and though in there and mainly the theme of that was that Climate change is still our most serious threat Although this COVID-19 is hitting us personally I feel people I guess it's human nature even though they see people around them getting sick and People dying there are still people out there that are denying that this is actually happening and not following the social distancing Pretty much call this kind of they head in the sand Kind of a characteristic and that has definitely happened with climate change as well as our transportation issues One of the examples I have here personally is my son Matt my wife Elizabeth and Myself are presently all three of us on video conferencing and Telecommunicated and I think what it's done for me. It's hit home on How important this telecommunicating can be To reduce our congestion in Santa Cruz County, and I think if we miss this opportunity We've done a disservice for our community Tell community as well as possibly a bus school program run by Metro Would be two things that I think we should use our some funding for and also do some outreach Metro is hurting definitely and you're going to continue to hurt and I think we need other ways to find some type of Income for them, and if they run a nice Robust busing problem for children you not only help digestion you help Metro So just to end this thing and continue on with your meeting I think a lot of time and money should be spent for promoting these two features Telecommunicating in a school bus program and allow Metro to handle this They think they need to fill up those seats gonna be a little hard Because people are still going to be a little bit cautious about being infected even after the Virus is gone and we have some type of thing to control it But I think there's a two very important things if we don't emphasize those We're going to miss the boat and and miss one of the silver linings in this tragic event Thank you for your time and have a great day Thank You Mike Anybody else would like to speak now in the oral communication. Is there any more public they like to speak during oral communication? I Don't see anyone else. So is there any commissioner they like to speak now during oral communication? No hearing on I'll go ahead and move to item three additions or deletions to consent and regular agenda items Is there any additions or deletions to the consent or regular agenda? There is a handout for item 18. There are no other additions or deletions to the agenda Okay, we're gonna go ahead and move on to the consent agenda item the minutes Consent agenda is up through 16. I would move the consent agenda if it's if it's the appropriate time I'll second This is Andy We have a first by John Leopold and a second by Schifrin Andrew Yes, I guess here we can Do a roll call. Yes, well sure we asked for public commuter if anybody in a public. Oh, yeah Sorry about that back up Is there anybody from the public they like to comment on any other items from the consent agenda on the consent agenda? See none Is there any commissioner? They'd like to pull any items from the consent agenda at this time Very none. We have a motion and a second. Can we have a roll call? Commissioner low commissioner Bertrand Hi Commissioner Brown Hi Commissioner Johnson Commissioner Kauffman Gomez texted a yes vote she's not in issues with her audio Excuse me commissioner cap it Commission alternate Schifrin Hi Commissioner Leopold hi Commissioner Gonzales Yes And commissioner Rockin Commissioner McPherson He's on yet Okay. Okay, move on. We're gonna go ahead and move on to the regular agenda Item number 17 commissioner reports all reports. Is there any commission reports or all reports that they'd like to give now? hearing none I'm gonna go ahead and move on item 18 directors report and the oral report from guy pressing executive director Good morning commissioners and public. Thank you for attending today's meeting As it's evident by today's meeting the regional transportation commission is working We are primarily working at home. There is some essential services being done in our office as well as hosting this morning's meeting other than Hosting meetings at our physical location the general public is The office is closed to the general public, but it is available for Those who need Accessibility for meetings such as this morning all of our staff is doing well and We are definitely moving forward with our programs Starting with the first item on my directors report is an update on the emergency rail line bridge repair project At the March 19th transportation policy workshop meeting staff provided information regarding damage to a Timber-Trestle bridge located on the Santa Cruz branch rail line at mile post four point five seven In order to prevent a potential critical failure to the bridge the commission authorized me to enter into emergency contracts Provide in mark environmental services engineering designs construction management and Construction over the past two weeks. I have entered into the following two contracts a sole source contracts with contract with rail pros incorporated for an amount not to exceed 20,801 Dollars and 33 cents to prepare engineering to replace bent three Armoring around bents three seven eight and ten a drainage ditch and review of contractor falsework plans And a sole source contract with rail and surveyors Engineering incorporated for an amount not to exceed forty six thousand five hundred and twenty five dollars for construction management Staff is negotiating a contract for environmental services, but a contract has not yet been executed Prior to entering into the new contract with rail pros Staff directed Ralph Rose to commence work using RTC's existing contract with them for bridge inspections Added work included the emergency inspection and development of preliminary plans needed for the repair This work was tracked on this existing contract and staff intends to return to the commission next month To amend that contract to replenish its budget an amendment to the original contract with Ralph Rose will be needed to ensure That there are sufficient funds and that contract to complete work Anticipated in the original scope Last week RTC engineer Sarah Christensen performed a pre-construction bid meeting on site with one contractor present And another contractor on Skype the contractor who attended in person is local and is available to mobilize immediately Their expertise is at grade rail infrastructure including earthwork The other contractor is based in Wisconsin and stated that they were willing to reprioritize their work to quickly mobilize from Seattle The Wisconsin contractor has considerable timber trestle bridge experience with material available to be used on the RTC project. I was considering possibly Executing two contracts to take advantage of contractors complimentary services However, since then the Wisconsin contractor has decided not to pursue the work due to concerns associated with the COVID-19 situation RSE who will be managing the construction work has been in contact with additional contractors to gauge interest Our biggest concern has been providing enough detail to quantify the extent of work needed Especially with respect to earthwork and grading bid documents were released to contractors Yesterday April 1st if we cannot get bids with a reasonable level of confidence It may be in the best interest of RTC to enter into one or more construction contracts With qualified contractors on a time and material basis My goal is to get a contractor mobilized as quickly as possible in a matter that will minimize risks and control costs I will provide additional updates at the next RTC meeting I have an update on the impacts of COVID-19 on TDA funded transportation services Starting first with Santa Cruz Metro Santa Cruz Metro is operating their weekend schedule all seven days of the week until further notice This means fewer buses running less frequently with later start time and earlier end times All school term service is suspended until further notice Paracruz Which is a service provided to the elderly and disabled and operated by Santa Cruz Metro is providing Service to and from essential services such as doctor appointment and dialysis In compliance with the shelter-in-place order travel in Santa Cruz County is prohibited Except for essential activities and passengers must maintain six feet of physical distance at all times both on the bus and off the bus Community bridges lift line, which is also a service to provide Transportation for the elderly and disabled and operated by community bridges Expanded its service to provide essential trips to grocery stores pharmacies and other locations Lift line has temporary Temporarily removed the need for an application to schedule rides in order to remove barriers and assess Access to riders until the end of the shelter-in-place order Meals on wheels of Santa Cruz County's congregate dining centers are closed until further notice Participants who need food delivered are being added to home delivery meal routes Shelf stable meals are Being made available to homeless seniors and distributed through local hotspots and shelter coordination Elder day has been reduced to serving To client Excuse me a limited number of clients But due to the lack of financial support to provide these services at home other day is planning to shut down Today April 2nd The Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County Had to cancel a hundred and eighteen rides for seniors using their transportation program services To meet the needs of their most vulnerable seniors in the community the Volunteer Center developed the grocery shopper program as a fully vetted Volunteer program to provide food groceries and medication pickup services to the most at-risk group of COVID-19 virus The Volunteer Center is also working to screen recruit and train volunteers They will receive grocery requests from participants and will attempt to purchase and deliver using approved physical distancing guidelines Those grocery items and pharmacy medications to the individual The goal is to serve low-income seniors age 60 plus that are health compromise First priority will be to serve those who do not have access to a computer Purchase groceries and those who do not currently have the support of families or friends AmeriCorps tech support will be available by phone for seniors who have computers and need help navigating the various online shopping platform The Volunteer Centers has already begun to support their 135 clients with the new grocery shopper program and on April 1st Yesterday they began to offer support to participants of the senior service provider network I have an update on transit economic stimulus legislation The $2 trillion COVID-19 emergency stabilization Taggage agreed upon by Congress and the White House was signed into law last week The legislation includes 25 billion dollars for public transportation relief with 3.7 billion dollars for California Funds are expected to flow quickly through the federal transit agency Designated recipients via formula and have broad eligibility to find operating expenses including reimbursements for lost revenue Operating costs and other operating expenses related to COVID-19 response Per the funding package transit agencies may use the funds to purchase personal protective equipment and to pay the administrative Leave and operations personnel due to reductions in service Highlights include the following Funding would be a portion no later than seven days after the passage of the funding package Funding would not be subject to obligation limitations Funding expenses would not need to be included in a TIP or RTP Emergency assistance does not require matching funds. There'll be a hundred percent federal In mid-march the transit advocacy group trans center estimated that transit agencies Will experience losses this year anywhere between 26 and 38 billion dollars, which is higher than the transit stimulus funding Tranted agents agencies will need more operating funds to guarantee that they can run enough trains and buses to avoid overcrowding and maintain physical distancing There has been considerable outreach to rtc regarding The impacts on transit. We continue to respond to their surveys and we hope any subsequent stimulus bills will provide even more funding for transit I have an update on tda and measure d allocation estimates to local jurisdictions Each year the regional transportation commission provides allocation estimates To transportation development act and measure d recipient agencies This year's estimates are based on the proposed budget, which is part of today's agenda Although traditional tda funding will be impacted by the effects of covid-19 On economic activity rtc will do everything possible to meet the tda allocation estimate The aforementioned stimulus funding is expected to assist with that effort RTC is also prepared to use tda reserves Which have been set aside for emergencies such as this RT staff rtc staff will continue to monitor tta revenue tda revenues And update the commission and recipient agencies as soon as more information becomes available RTC has notified direct allocation recipients of measure d Who received formula funding that measure d revenue is expected to be less than forecast Due to the national emergency Unlike tda local sales tax did not receive any funding from the recently passed stimulus bill and measure d does not have a reserve fund recipients of direct allocation formula funds were reminded that revenue distributions Will be based on actual actual revenues received Not on the estimates estimates provided RTC and direct recipients have been on a cycle of approving annual five-year program A project updates in the spring Prior to commencement of the new fiscal year and oftentimes as part of their capital improvement program or agency budgets Due to the uncertainty of revenue forecasts RTC plans to delay the approval of this year's five-year program of projects for regional programs until new forecasts can be developed While many direct allocation agencies Prepare their direct allocation five-year plan updates as part of the development of their annual budget for capital improvement budget program Some agencies may want to wait to use more conservative estimates this spring RTC is providing that option More information will be provided as it is developed In the interim the most recent five-year program of projects will be used and can be amended depending on a project's immediate needs I have an unfortunate update on the north coast rail trail segment five funding and schedule The federal highway administration has notified rtc by the attached letter to this report That due to cost overruns on their other projects They are changing the construction programming to mid federal fiscal year 2024 This would correspond to a summer 2024 construction start date, which is almost a three-year delay RTC staff met with the central federal lands team on march 26th to discuss the status of their design work And to come up with a game plan We agreed that we should continue to press forward with all pre construction work on the current schedule CFL has committed the resources to complete the design and we are making good progress on resolving the right-of-weight issues With this effort the full project should be shovel ready by the middle of 2021 as planned CFL has already identified this project as a candidate for potential stimulus funding Therefore continuing to work on our existing schedule is very important to get the project construction ready for this Or other potential funding opportunities We are also planning to apply for phase two of the next planned federal lands access program or flap grant Which is expected to issue a call for projects in the fall 2020, but that funding isn't expected to be available to 2025 Again, I emphasize we are moving forward with this project as we believe Stimulus funding is on the horizon. There has been recent discussions with the federal government and the Congress regarding stimulant but stimulus funding and shovel ready projects are those that will likely be targeted I have an update on enhanced mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities project After a march meeting the California Transportation Commission approved funding for the section 5310 enhanced mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities projects Which include three projects in Santa Cruz County Community bridges secured $195,537 to replace three paratransit vehicles and operations equipment UCSC secured $168,000 to replace three paratransit Minivans that serve students staff faculty and campus visitors Living with permanent or temporary disabilities who are unable to use the campus shuttle The senior council secured 261,786 dollars for a new For a two-year period to provide mileage reimbursements and or transit fare reimbursements For low-income individuals volunteering with the senior councils foster grandparents and senior companion programs I have an update on transit corridor alternative analysis The transit corridor alternatives analysis team has drafted its results of the initial screening In a short list of alternatives also known as milestone two Input will be solicited from the public and stakeholders on milestone two For a four-week period by means of an online format that is a two-week increase from what we originally Planned due to the COVID-19 issues This item is expected to be brought to the june 4th 2020 RTC meeting with community after community input in order to seek RTC board approval of the screening analysis results in the short list of alternatives The approximate timeline is as followed on april 13th We will start public stakeholder input through our online activities On may 11th will be the end of online activities May 25th, we will Finalize our staff report and on june 4th We will seek approval from the RTC board on screening analysis in the short list of alternatives With that, I would like to again thank all of those individuals who are putting their safety on the line to provide essential services Specifically those related to transportation I provided significant information today on some of those services being provided And the community as a whole really appreciates what those individuals are doing To ensure that transportation services are still provided to our community. With that, I conclude my director's report Looks like Commissioner McPherson is on the line. Commissioner McPherson, is that on the line? This is Mike Rockin. I'm on the line now Okay Do you hear me? I can hear you Okay, I don't want to speak. I just want to let you know I'm here. I was here at 9 15 Thank you, Mike Is there any questions for the director on his report from any commissioner? Yes, this is Andy Go ahead, Andy this has to do actually really maybe with the next item, but since We talked about status of stimulus funding I wonder given the current uncertainty whether it makes sense to continue the budget until our next Meeting when hopefully we'll have more information about How realistic it can be for the 2020-21 year, so I just wanted to ask that question. I think to make sense to Give us Give us more time before making this decision and sending a message to other agencies about what the funding may be That's a very difficult question to answer We put a lot of thought into it. We also looked at what other agencies are doing What we have found is almost uniformly across the state where budgets had already been prepared That agencies are moving forward to get those budgets approved So we have a budget in place at the beginning of the fiscal year Although we may have more information next month We would have to do considerable work to modify the budget and we are looking at possibly doing an amendment as early as may But there's always risk associated with Each time we don't have a budget in place Once the fiscal year begins that we would Potentially not be prepared to continue operations So most agencies are approving their budgets Continuing to do amendments as more information becomes available And i'm moving forward with that sort of a process You know, like you said before You started your comment This item is on the regular agenda and we can have more discussion at a time that we feel is warranted Thank you, andy Is there any other commissioner that has any other questions for the director on his report? I guess I have one more thing Go ahead andy Andy andy, could you do me a favor? Could you speak a little bit closer to your mic or We can't even know it's worse. We can't hear you I haven't had this problem before there you go. You're good good now Okay, I guess the further away I go the better I sound Okay, I wanted to comment on the north coast project and thank the director for his report While it is discouraging that the funding may be Delayed in fact given the history with previous stimulus Grants having shovel ready projects really makes an enormous Difference, so i'm glad that the staff is committed to moving forward as quickly as possible With getting this project to the point where it is shovel ready so that if new money comes along we'll be We'll be ready to move on it. So I just wanted to add my support to the staff This the staff recommendation on that the director's recommendation Thank you, andy There's any other fellow commissioners that like to have a question for the The director's report hearing that we're going to go ahead and move on to the item 19 cal trans report Hello commissioners. Can you hear me? Yes All right. Well, good morning everyone I also would like to thank the commission for carrying on in this format with this meeting It's important for us. I think to come together and do To do the important work group does to Ultimately keep critical infrastructure in place Transportation as you know is identified as one of those elements that's essential to our functioning and As everyone else is cal trans is also working very hard through this COVID-19 pandemic to keep the highways open Number one and to keep our construction contracts on track as best as we can We're continuously evaluating all of our activities to ensure You know ensure the health and safety of all of our employees our contractors and the public We do have about one billion dollars of construction contracts Underway statewide So we're we're working hard to keep keep that moving and then keep the new contracts coming And in support of that we do have a very high proportion of our office staff who are teleworking and Keeping the projects moving keeping our plans going And so forth. So we're doing our best to keep keep things rolling And I would just like to point out The project on your update list there under our item there project number 18 the The pedestrian enhancements project. We did receive the bids. We expect to award the contract By june and get the work underway this summer So I wanted you to know that that was moving along as well Any questions for me? Yeah, elene, I have a question. That's the uh margin and big beach street projects pedestrian number 18 Yes, um, yes, mr. Chair that That location that location is included. Yeah, I know there's multiple ones in Monterey county. Also, there's some Yes Is that like uh, gonna be a 150 day out lead time still from june well, um According to the report. It's yeah, I think yeah From the awarding of the account of the bid. Yeah, there's That's like a specialty item. So they have to order that Construction will start this summer. Uh, if you want the details on each location We we um, I can probably get more information for you But it's uh, it's scheduled to go to go to um construction this summer Okay, thank you Any other questions for Caltrans See you then. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for participating. Uh, be safe We're gonna go ahead and move on to item 20 approval of fiscal year fiscal 2020-2021 proposed budget staff report Commissioners, this is facing the director of finance and budget You have backfeed from somewhere I think we're ready. Um staff presented the proposed budget at the march 12th budget personnel and administration committee meeting Prior to the outbreak of cobin 19 in the shelter in place As we receive information staff is evaluating and preparing for the fiscal impact Staff is communicating directly with all partner agencies and local jurisdictions We are waiting to hear from our partners at the state about how the federal bill may provide assistance with projected shortfalls and transit funding HDL has provided us with updated projections. Um, as the events unfold, um, we will be bringing this information to the commission And we're waiting to hear more about how the governor's executive order on extending deadlines for tax reporting and payment may impact timing of measure depayments From the california department of tax and fee administration At this time based on all of this information staff is recommending the commission approve the proposed budget drafted before the outbreak of COVID-19 No one knows exactly how long this will go and what the final impact may be on tax revenues We have started to prepare scenarios That we plan to share with the commission in may and update again in june The staff report includes regional programs and project work to be completed during the fiscal year We've listed these in the proposed budget recommendations. I'm happy to go through the highlights or I can answer specific questions Is that is that your report uh tracy? Is there any questions for me commissioner? For the staff Thank you, um If we pass the budget as it is currently structured and we have to make like major amendments For example in the worst-case scenario cutting it lots of funds to various groups Do we face any liability that we've been Sort of set them off on a path of for being believing they have a certain amount of money coming Or is that something that we can just amend if we're forced to do so by the circumstances? That's a staff question. We approve an allocation It's directly to the recipients What the executive director has mentioned earlier in his report is that we are communicating with our The local jurisdictions and recipients about what this shortfall may mean. We do have a reserve budget that's available We would need to come back and possibly Um, I mean, I don't know a lot about the history prior. I do know we have money to cover Um, the near term, but we would have to go back and talk to our partner agencies The local jurisdictions to adjust the allocations Depending on how long this lasts and what the final impact is For measure d we distribute the actual revenues we receive Again, we're communicating with everybody to let them know what our most recent projections are and how we feel this Will impact our cash flow going forward All that Executive director Preston add to this so You know These are very good points. Um, as far as I know Our budget is a separate document and it's not a legal commitment in any agency So when revenues do come in that are less than projected and this has happened in the past We have not been Legally obligated to provide as much as what was provided in the original budget Another good reason to approve the budget as planned today is It'll be able to be used as a tool for us to see what the actual impacts are From the cobit 19 issue compared to what We anticipated when we were originally budgeting and forecasting What our needs were and what our revenues were going to be so um like The news stated we have been in constant communication with our transit agencies With all of our recipients in terms of you know, what the impacts may be We have gotten inquiries from from various different agencies and we've been letting them know Exactly where we stand and where it's going to go We could try to amend it. You know, we we are looking at amending the budget as early as may That forecast likely will not be accurate either. Um, we're going to have to do A lot of budgeting this year and a lot of adjusting this year to try to see where we are And make sure that we don't Over extend ourselves as we move forward during the fiscal year I still recommend that we approve the budget as as currently proposed With full knowledge that we're going to have to come back and make amendments to it To adjust for for the impacts That that stated, um, we do, you know, as this new mention, we do have a tda reserve There is stimulus Funding out there that is going to help Tda there could be future stimulus funding that could help some of our other revenues So I still recommend that we move forward with the budget as planned This is so this is mike I'm persuaded persuaded by the director's Argument that we ought to pass the budget rather than wait till we know more But i'm also concerned that we not simply use our reserves to keep stuff at the current level while we you know We're finding out so that I would not make that presumption In other words, we might rather spread our money out over the year or whatever rather than spend it at the current level With the reserves and then find ourselves with a cliff that we're going to fall off I have a question Can I respond to that? I think Randy had a question Yeah, I just wanted to respond to the concern that mike is I'm acknowledging randy Oh, i'm sorry Yeah, I didn't mean to excuse me interrupt So I guess what bothers me a little bit is that we have a budget committee that makes recommendations And the recommendations apparently came before all the lockdowns from the from both the federal and state governments um so To me it seems a little bit reckless to Approve a budget that we know is going to face severe shortfalls Why wouldn't we want to bring this back? To the budget committee for some very very good scrutiny on where we're going um Right now it seems like this budget is pretty much business as usual and you know With the caveat that hey, maybe in may we'll have to make some adjustments to me That's not good enough really for the taxpayers. I mean they expect us. I mean, we're sending a message that That We're going to prove this and we might make some changes here and there No, I think it needs more scrutiny. I can't support a I can't support voting. Yes on this budget today When the recommendations came from the budget committee Almost um a month ago when things were not severely impacted so What would what would be the problem of us of the of the budget committee? of Forming again looking at this line by line and then going moving forward with at least some Indication of where we're going to be not you know not having to wait for two months and say oh, okay Now we know where we are. I think it's Very important that we as as a commission know where we are financially You know not in may or june But uh in april that's kind of what I have to say and and it does bother me that again the direct revenue from where each of the cities is going to have a You know direct shortfall apparently if I heard died correctly um where Well, some of these other programs. It seems like are not going to be affected. So there's that as well. Thank you. Thank you, randy Go ahead. Andy Acknowledging. Thanks a lot. Can you hear me? Okay? Yes, andy. Yeah, I wanted to respond to mike First in terms of the use of the reserves And why it makes sense to use the reserves if we if in fact the revenue drops during this budget year And that's because all the agencies have prepared their 2021 budgets based on the the allocations that were Granted through the 2021 budget So to the extent that our revenue doesn't meet those levels In the past it would be tremendous hardship for Agencies like the transit district having to redo their budget You know when the year is almost over and absorb about A decline of a couple hundred thousand dollars So that from my understanding is really the purpose of the reserves is to Help get through the current year As a minimum should things Take a nose dive And so I think that rather than thinking of using the reserves over next year We we need to you know try to assure our various agencies that have based their budgets this year on the On the the allocations that we provided that they'll actually get that money to the extent we have the money to do that That's that's what the reserves would do in terms of what what randy was saying and you're holding it off I started out with that notion myself and raised that question during the The director's report. I think the director made a couple of good points in terms of Why it might make sense to approve the budget? as You know as recommended Recognizing it's the fact that it's going to have to be amended To send it back to the budget committee now And as the chair of the budget committee, I was thinking about what that would mean We don't have we have so little information about what the effects are actually going to be We don't know about the stimulus. We don't know about The drop in tda the potential drop in tda revenues. We need to get a new Estimate from the order that we don't know when that's going to come So what I understood guy to be saying is that look If we adopt the budget today, we'll have a base upon which to analyze the changes that are going to have to be made It sounded like he's going to keep that the intention is to keep all the other agencies informed as we have information about the changes But at this point at least we'll have a document that we can be amending At the time that we have more information. I'm not sure that between now and our main meeting We're going to have any definitive information that would Help us understand how this budget has to be changed I think there's no question that it's going to have to be changed But I think having something that's that is the you know, so that the base that we're operating off is Helpful and as long as it's presented to the public in that context that this isn't this is our final budget This is a this is our starting point and once we have additional information will We'll make the changes that that seem prudent and hopefully by next month We'll know enough to be able to come up with some amendments If the if it makes sense to have a special meeting of the budget and administration committee to consider amendments I think that makes sense But at this point it everything seems so uncertain And in term and including when we're even going to get information that you know, my recommendation at this point is that we I adopt the recommend the staff recommendation recommended budget as a preliminary As a preliminary budget With the understanding that it's going to need to be changed based on the effects of the Changes in the economy once we have additional information. That would be my recommendation This is Mike with a comment. Thank you, Andy Mike do you have one more comment? Yes, quickly I I agree. I'm not going to repeat the things Andy said that I agree with I will point out that the transit district always passes a preliminary budget for claims purposes in I think mark Even though we know it's going to be dramatically different by the time we do a final budget in june I don't think there's a problem with having a preliminary budget that's You know, I wouldn't spend a lot of time today going through little points in the budget because it's going to be changed dramatically I think we should just you know, fairly quickly approve their recommended budget just for the purposes that the the director Preston suggested But I went back on the other point about the Reserves, I'm not saying we shouldn't use any reserves. I'm just saying I don't think we should make an assumption on the wholesale basis that we're just going to simply spend the reserves And then find ourselves with no reserves and no way to handle any kind of problems that happen later I think we have to make careful decisions about How much of the reserves we want to use because again both from the city perspective in the past from my experience And from the transit district you make a big mistake when you basically Try and keep stuff up at the current level until you have nothing and then you're forced to have such radical and dramatic cuts that You would destroy the system completely So I think it makes more sense to be very careful about how much of the reserves we use and have a careful discussion about that Before we assume we're going to just use the reserves to spend at the current level Or at the level of the budget that we're probably going to approve today That I think we should not be done. I think we should be more careful about that. That's my comments. Those are my two comments Thank you, Mike. Is there any other commissioners that would like to have any questions for staff on their report Raise my hand Yes, uh Just uh, good morning, everyone just a quick thing In the past when we've had similar situations with the commissioners that is a combination of things and that is use reserves, but also Work to, um, you know, modify The apportionments to the very to the various, uh, jurisdictions if that became necessary So that so that the reserves would not be fully depleted Uh, so it is the commission has has been, you know, responsible in that regard in the past That's what we expect the commission to do in addition Um, this work to then reduce costs, uh, and minimize costs Uh commission and also, um Work, um extra diligently to try to secure Uh additional funds from other socially from the state or federal government and so on and through that sort of strategy that in the past the commission has been, uh, very successful at ensuring that, you know When the commission isn't just relying on the reserves, but using a, you know, uh, a strategy that that combines various Effort to uh to get through these two difficult situations And if I can add on to that too, um payments payments for, um PDA is made via claims And those claims would come to the commission and if There was um the need to dip in to any reserves Or to use other funds to try to make payments We would be able to present that at that time and the commission would have an opportunity to weigh in That'd be fine. That would solve my concern Richard leopold has had his hand up Go ahead commission leopold. I don't see people's hands up on my screen Leopold, commissioner brown, and then um those are the two that i'm showing right now Go ahead commissioner leopold. Uh, thank you. Uh, I support, um passing, uh, this budget recognizing that it's a It's it's a draft budget that's going to see big changes uh to keep the the uh machinery of the RTC going I I think we did we had uh lots of discussion And we even had some disagreements in building up our reserves But we showed foresight In creating those reserves and if there was ever a time to use it that we're obviously going to be in that period I do think it's important, um To get through the end of this fiscal year That we use the reserve to be able to honor the commitments And the projects that are ongoing And when we look at the budget for next year Once we have more information we may decide what level of the of the reserve we want to use But I think it's important to be able to finish this year um with uh With people who have projects that are that may already be on the ground already be under construction or other uh critical moments Uh to make sure that those projects can get done And as over the next couple of months as we learn more about what the real Financial situation is we'll have to make some difficult decisions for what our next fiscal year looks like Good point. Thank you. Thank you commissioner commissioner brown Yeah, I think all of my most of my comments have been covered. I guess I would want to respond to uh commissioner johnson because I agree that um taken out of context Passing this budget does look quite irresponsible. Um, even some of the materials from hgl suggests that um, you know, business would start going back to normal in april We know that's not going to be the case And so I I totally understand those concerns and I share them. I do think that uh providing that context though about understanding this is a uh, the budget will be the projections will be moving target for the at least uh Short term and then probably, you know, the indefinite future. So I think With that I'm also persuaded that um, we should pass a budget today Thank you commissioner brown. Is there any other commissioner? They'd like to comment or have a question on the staff report Commissioner kaufman gomez is having issues with her Audio, but she did send a note saying that this will give us a chance to evaluate how To conservatively use our reserves. We also have a working fluid budget document that we already know We will closely monitor She does agree. We need to document What impact is on our current budget and this covet 19? Impact will have on our agency Um, I also have a comment from commissioner mcpherson. Um, and his is Um, understanding our budget is a moving target. He approves the proposed budget with the expectation It will be amended in the future Thank you. Is there any other commissioner that That has any questions on the staff report I have I have uh, when actually I support, um Doing this, uh, I think it's important that we give a base and continue with that base and then move forward and um to our projects Uh, it's vital. I think that some of these projects continue because it's also part of the economic stimulus for our community um, and so looking at our reserves diligently and and using them, uh appropriately I think it's going to be a really important thing and the flexibility of our of our, uh, budget To be able to amend it will Give us the opportunity to really look at it and give that opportunity for our budget committee to Really dive into the next months. Uh, and try to try to kind of try to predict what's going to happen. Uh, which is An enormous task in itself I do have one question for staff Staff on your report you you've indicated that you've been communicating with the communities What type of communication have you been making? And I guess I want to say directly to the city of watsonville In regards to this budget So rachel marconi is our lead for measure d and she has um been reaching out and communicating with the local jurisdictions about measure d in particular Um for tda, I do know that the executive director has been speaking with the ceo at metro And that the cities and counties have been contacted as well With with the information We would communicate more as we receive it Okay, thank you. I have a question when when you're ready. This is mike mike go ahead mike Yes, so mike my question is to guy or to some of the staff It makes sense to me to adopt this resolution that approves the budget I wonder whether we also have to accept the revenue forecast the other that we had four recommendations on this item And those revenue estimates are what are actually clearly not going to be accurate And I wonder is it possible to pass the budget without approving those Revenue projections, which are clearly off Um, we are obligated by the tda ordinance to provide Estimates to the recipients for tda I don't know and maybe louise can comment on it whether or not it needs to be part of the board's recommendation or not So i'm going to defer To louise as to whether or not that that's a critical part of this Recommendation at this time Go ahead louise. Okay. Well on the The recommendations that are that are before you the revenue Projections that or forecasts that are asked to be Accept they have to do with with measure d because we take We take the revenue estimates from the auditor controls offers for tda And we just And those are the official Those are used by the by the rtc for the budget because that's you know per tda statute, but for measure d that that is an rtc administered Program and it's part of the rtc's function to provide some sort of new forecast for measure d Funds and those of course are based on the on the information that we get from our consultants that HDL services that analyze the revenues and let us know what they are But of course this analysis was prior to covet 19 at this point. They do not know Exactly what the The impact of covet 19 is going to be the revenue estimates will again just provide a base Of for the local jurisdictions that read the And santa criss metro and then communities that receive funds For measure d at this point and it is communicated to everyone That actual revenues they receive are not based on this forecast. They are based on the The actual revenues that come in and and that is you know per What's written in measure d so I think regardless of whether the rtc approves a revenue forecast or not That will continue per measure d to you know to provide everyone with the With the revenues as they come in one One component of the revenue forecast well is the I guess the five-year revenue estimates For the measure d recipients That's what derives partly from the forecast and partly from the Update of the Variables that go into the formula that's specified in measure d for the distribution of funds to the Cities in the county and you remember you call that as a formula that that involves Population it involves road lane miles and also involves The site where the measure d revenues Are derived from so Since that that is information that gets that gets updated each each year, you know I think it is a good idea to accept That that piece is saying okay. It's it does have the updated information and for the formula in itself And it's you know, we we feel it it's acceptable Uh, but then that formula will will get applied to the actual revenues that get received not to the forecast revenues So so my Mike Yes, so my thought is we should uh, I'm hearing that So we should add a whereas To the resolution that appears on 20-7 That in effect Guy could someone you know to summarizing guy's comments Whereas we understand that you know the effect that whereas The could be as a result of the a covet 19 Uh Follow-up from the economic from the COVID-19 virus We and our revenue projections will have to be amended during the year. There's an understanding that in effect This is a preliminary budget That is going to be subject to serious But potentially subject to serious amendment and add that I'd be happy to move this move the staff recommendation on all four points We still need to hear from the public I understand I'm just going to put a motion on the floor so people know where we're going Yes, I would like I would prefer Go ahead until we heard to the public because I'm not I don't agree with that's the best way to make the motion Yeah, I won't accept no motion yet. Uh, I was just a comment. Okay. Let's come back. I'm gonna there. Is there any other questions for the staff from commissioners Hearing none. I'd like to open this up to the public. Is there any public that has um, any questions on the agenda item number 20 approval of fiscal year You mean questions or comments? I assume questions or comments. All right. Thank you. I have my hand up Audience yes, um, this is sally Arnold from friends of the rail and trail Go ahead sally. You've been recognized. Thank you. Uh, well, first of all, of course, thank you everybody for You know, we're all just doing our best to try to keep business moving along and keep the public engaged in these difficult times Um, and we um, you know friends of the rail and trails look this over and we appreciate how hard it is to plan And I mean, you're you know, the discussion here has been very rich and nuanced about wanting to move things along and yet recognize The uncertainties that you know, you're dealing with Um, and so friends of the rail and trail understands that that this is a proposed budget And it's going to be subject to the economic changes that are coming And you know, whenever those changes come, of course, that's going to be reflected. I assume in the work program Um, you know, because less money probably means a different work program And we just request that those changes Be tracked in the work program document using the underline and strike through system So that they're clear to the public because for those of us who are trying to follow these things closely That would just make it a lot easier for us to understand what the on the ground impacts are going to be Of any Um, and other than that, you know, we just support your efforts to to try to keep moving in these hard times. Thank you Thank you, selly Please get your phones if you're Is there anyone else from the public that like to That has a question to take a comment on this item Yeah, michael sing Go ahead, michael Yeah, just a couple questions probably for director preston Um, if if this, you know funding scenario gets quite bleak Um This is maybe down the road. Have you said any priorities for which pieces of the ucis? Uh Pi will be funded in other words. Will you take money from certain pieces to go to other pieces? Or keep the percentages the same no matter what the funding is and then question two the Concern on a piece of pie that I have is with metro's funding Um And with that previous question, would you be able to transfer monies from other pieces of the ucis corridor study by? Uh and transfer to metro to keep them surviving basically as you had stated earlier Funding coming from the federal Is not enough To help help the uh metro to the degree that they may need some help and that's my two questions Thank you, mike. Is there anybody else from the public that like to make comment or question on the item on the agenda number 20 There's a comment from Mr. Clifford on the chat. I'm not sure if he's on the phone Um, Alex, are you on the phone or did you or should I read his comments? Go ahead and read his comment, please Okay Says I concur with guy relative to the budget adoption RTC can amend the budget later when the covet impacts become more clear The impacts both short term and long term of covet on tda is yet to be determined We need to collaborate with the california transit association ASAP To impress upon state officials the need for a state stimulus program that will attempt to fund tda and in parentheses sta and elif ltf At this point if the cares act will allow us to write off subsidy revenue losses against the 5307 grant funding That was it Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Clifford for those comments. Uh, is there anybody else from the public that like to Comment or have question on item 20 of the agenda Hearing none, I'd like to bring this back to the commission uh to hear a motion If I could try to make it which would be to this andy shifrin Go ahead and recognize you. Um, I would move that we approve the recommendations one through four of the budgeted administration personnel committee and add an additional recommendation to Direct staff to return at the main meeting with an update of the budget situation and any recommendations to amend the 2021 budget Or and or the revenue estimates Do I have a second second second by mike that's second by jock I heard right second by jock. Yeah second of my jock Can we have roll call? Commissioner Bertrand Hi Commissioner brown. Hi Uh, uh, johnson no Commissioner cap it Hi Commissioner alternate shifrin Hi Commissioner leopold Hi Commissioner gonzalez Hi Commissioner rockin Hi And commissioner coffin gomez votes yes and bruce votes Yes Thank you that seemed to pass We're gonna go ahead now and Move on to item 21 next meeting Our next meeting for the rtc meeting is scheduled for thursday may 7th At 9 a.m And the next transportation policy workshop meeting is scheduled for thursday april 16th at 9 a.m Right. Thank you guys for your time Thank you for your dedication I have nothing further to say Thank you Good job. Good job. Good job at sharing under difficult conditions Yeah, and yasina you did a great job monitoring. Yes Yes, great job sharing great job sharing when you didn't know you were going to Do we need do we need another practice pretty well they're still Thanks everyone Fighting off bye-bye


Hi, so today I want to talk to you about creating a video, about creating an introduction video. If you are applying for jobs, no matter where you're applying for jobs, if you're applying for jobs on Upwork.com or on translatorscafepros.com, if you're a freelancer of any type, chances are you're applying for jobs and you have an introduction page or a couple of paragraphs that describe what you do and who you are. But in these spaces where you provide a description of who you are and what you do, as well as a resume, you could also put a video. And the reason I bring this up is because, A, it helps you stand out from the crowd right away because almost no one has videos up there. Everyone just writes everything down. B, when someone's hiring you online, trust is a huge factor.  It could be someone creating a fake name and posting it up online and, you know, they can put a picture and that helps out. But every little step, every little thing you can provide to be more honest, to show that you're transparent and honest, that can always help. Every little step helps. And having a video is one of the most helpful things you can do at all.  You know, feel free to contact me for with any questions you might have and, okay, create a script maybe before you start talking just so you don't have so many ums and odds. But on the other hand, you know, if it sounds natural, it sounds natural and that's always appreciated. By the way, you don't need to get someone with professional videographic equipment to do this stuff. In fact, you shouldn't do this at all. If you follow these like famous vloggers and whatever on YouTube now, you know, people go through great pains to try to make things look natural and try to show that they're acting natural and all that. And you don't have to go through all those pains because you are just acting natural. For example, I mean, these, these videos that I'm doing, by the way, they're done with the video camera in my laptop. This is my mic and that's it. Okay. Now, obviously this isn't my main thing. I'm the main thing. My main job is as a translator, but you know, this is enough to do videos and when you're doing an introduction video, that's all you need. Or maybe if, if, if you want, just take a phone. So if you do record it from your phone, I would not record it selfie style because that doesn't come off as very professional and it can be shaky, et cetera. What I would do is I would take the phone and put it, you know, lean it against your laptop right there. And that way from the phone, when you take it from the phone, you'll get the same view that you're getting right now because right now I'm talking to my laptop and, and if you're on the phone, you'll get the exact same view. And, and that's all you need to do. You just do a video of about one minute describing what you do and, and why they should pick you, you know, what, what you can offer them and just basically introducing yourself and then saying, feel free to contact me by email, by phone, but, you know, by whatever contact details you have. And I'll be happy to talk to you some more. That way, whoever sees it gets the feel for who you are. They feel like they've met you, they'll remember you much more than the other people who are just names on a list and it can definitely go a long way. So don't hesitate, don't feel like you need something that's completely professional or be scared about what you sound like or how you look. Once again, you know, I know I have this list that, especially when I become conscious about it becomes, you know, pretty strong, but I'm, I'm just making videos like this and it kind of came from the fact that, yeah, I started making videos to promote myself to clients and I realized that it's pretty easy to make a video. So why not? And so I really do recommend this. If wherever your intro is include a video, the best thing is to put it up on YouTube, quite frankly, because if you can have a link on YouTube, everyone knows what it is and they can click on it. Sometimes otherwise they're not sure if they trust clicking on other types of links. It's very easy to upload on YouTube. I am, if you've ever, if you have a YouTube account, which I'm assuming you do since I think you're watching this on YouTube, then if you click on the top right, I think there, there should be an arrow that is, uh, you click on that arrow that, and that lets you upload and, um, and then you can upload a video. So it's very easy to upload a video and I don't think you need to edit at all. You just, you know, do a couple of takes, find one that you're happy with and then just upload the video or put the link to the YouTube video on your, uh, on your bio so people can access it. It really helps with transparency and for people feeling like they get to know you. Um, and I mean, that's it. That's just a short video just to, uh, tell you to make a video. And I hope you do find it useful and, uh, let me know if you've tried this before and, uh, and how that worked out for you. I'd be, yeah, I'd be happy to hear what stories you have of what worked out and what didn't. So feel free to let me know. And, uh, if you did find this useful, please click like and don't forget to subscribe for more videos and I'll see you in the next video. Thanks. Bye.


Yeah. Okay. So pursuant to governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. General law chapter 30 a section 18. This meeting of the board of registrars is being conducted via remote participation. So I would like to call the meeting to order. Good morning. Thank you both for being here. It is 915 a.m. on April 21, 2021. The meeting of the board of registrars I am now officially calling to order. Now, if each of you can note your presence, I'll call you by your first name. Jacqueline Gardner present. Jamie Wagner present. Demetria Shabazz absent. So the first and only item on the agenda is the delegation of authority and duties listed under charter sections 8.2, 8.3, and 8.4 to town clerk office staff. We will now be entering public comments. We have any attendees. So with that being said, we will now go into a vote. Jacqueline Gardner, please. State if you are in favor. I'm in favor. Jamie Wagner, please stay if you are in favor. I am in favor. I want to thank you both for being here. And I'm going to adjourn this meeting at 917 a.m. on April 21, 2021. Have a great day. Thank you very much. Bye. Bye. Thank you.


Well, good morning. It's a pleasure to be back here at Ancestral Health. I was dressed this morning as Dr. Phil, and I'm the original. I was Dr. Phil before McGraw was in grad school. I'm the one with the hair. He's the one with the money. Well, as members of this society know, stone ages did not have a miserable disease ridden existence. I mean, if they did, we wouldn't be here. And as Boyd Eaton and Marjorie Shostack and Melvin Conner have pointed out, generations ago, they were taller and stronger and healthier than most of us are today. So what were the kids like? It's really an interesting story. There are a few surprises in there. This is a condensed version of a two-hour presentation. So if you'd like more information, I have a list of references about 35 or so. And if you contact me through my website, I'd be happy to mail it to you. So what was the frame of reference? Well, we're looking at about 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. And the fact is that the human genome hasn't changed very much in those 50,000 years. There are some changes. One is some of us have become resistant to malaria, for instance. Because of changes in red cell physiology. Some of us are tolerant to gluten. Some are not. Many of us are lactose intolerant, especially in those areas where dairy production has never been very common. So what did a stone age family look like? And that's what most people think of when they think of stone ages. But this is what they really look like. And what's the one thing you notice about this family group? Nobody is overweight. Nobody is obese.  So it's important to know that child health begins before conception. Because a pregnant stone age was healthier than a modern pregnant woman, which seems at first blush to seem kind of odd. But when we look at modern women, we find that 90% of women these days of child-bearing age are deficient in at least one major nutrient. And the examples are these calcium and iron and folic acid, for instance. And that has spanned generations. Studies continue to show that that is true. When we look at the pregnant stone age, we find that she was an excellent physical health. I mean, she had to survive to child-bearing age. She had a normal percentage of body fat. She didn't use tobacco or alcohol or drugs. And she had no sexually transmitted diseases, because in those small groups, sexually transmitted diseases simply didn't spread. Epidemics certainly couldn't spread. And she was immune to most local infections because of growing up where she was exposed to germs and she was essentially getting vaccinated by the germs that she took in her environment. Well, when it comes to a healthy pregnancy, she had fewer maternal complications because she was healthy and therefore fewer infant complications. For one thing, she didn't have gestational diabetes, which ranges from different population groups from maybe 4% to about 10%. And in fact, it's increasing by about 50% every 10 years or so. There were no elective C-sections, obviously, and she had fewer children with congenital defects because she had a healthy pregnancy. If we look at some of the modern hazards that we see among our child-bearing population, we find that overweight and obesity are linked to an increased rate of birth defects involving the heart, the eye, the GI tract, the kidneys, etc. And when we look at women who are overweight or obese, they have an increased risk of having a child with cerebral palsy. Simply being overweight increases their risk by about 22%. Having severe obesity doubles the risk. And these are things that simply did not happen back in the Stone Age. There was no tobacco back then, and what we know now is that smoking during pregnancy is linked to tumors of the eye in the brain and to leukemia. That mothers who smoke have infants who will have thinner retinas and therefore they have a greater risk of glaucoma later in life. Also, mothers who smoke are less likely to breastfeed than we all know what the advantages of breastfeeding are. There was probably no marijuana back then, you can't be sure of that, but we do know that marijuana used during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of childhood leukemia and brain tumors and a particular kind of tumor called Arabidomaesarcoma, which is a tumor of muscle. Both regular smokers and marijuana smokers have kids who have lower birth weight and more likely to be premature. When it comes to strength of the skeleton system, we find that a mother who has a low bone mass is going to have children who are themselves bone deficient. And one of the major reasons is because of a lack of physical activity and as a matter of fact, if we look at adolescents these days, only about 20% of adolescent females get as much as an hour a day of moderately intense exercise. It's important to note that calcium is only one of the many bone building nutrients. Calcium is important, but there are many other things that are as well. We also find that mothers who smoke will deliver kids who have a weaker skeleton and we know that from studies of eight-year-olds. Eight-year-olds are kind of the markers of bone fragility in children. We find that among eight-year-olds, the risk of forearm fracture today compared to 1970 is about double. And so we're clearly having babies whose skeletons are not as strong. What does that tell us about what osteoporosis is going to be like when these kids reach middle age? One of the challenges that we find now is that about 67% of modern women have had some sort of eating disorder, bulimia, anorexia nervosa, et cetera, and that occurs during a particular age span when they are building a strong skeleton and therefore they are not taking the nutrients that they need to do that. Looking at the very first moments of life, we find that there's a big difference between natural birth and C-section. For one thing, the birth canal obviously is very narrow and the baby gets really squeezed coming through so the chest gets squeezed, the lungs get squeezed, fluid in the lungs gets squeezed out, which is a reason why babies born by natural childbirth are less likely to have breathing problems afterwards compared to C-section babies. Well, the birth canal is a pretty messy place and so they end up swallowing a lot of the probiotics that will be so important to them later on. Generally speaking, the cord was either cut or beaten through and this really still grosses me out as a physician, but they had no instruments obviously back then. There's something called the Vernix Casioza, the Latin word for cheesy varnish, and when a baby is born in most places today, things are changing, but in the past generally, the baby was taken away and washed off and then give it back to the mother. They give the baby back to the mother because they know that in those first moments that contact is very important and so the baby ends up with that cheesy varnish. Now, this Vernix has a lubricating factor and an antibacterial factor and this is what it looks like. Only a mother could love something like that. Yes. Breastfeeding back then obviously was the only choice because there were no substitutes for breast milk back in those days and we didn't begin domesticating animals until about 10, 12,000 years ago. It's pretty hard to milk a mammoth and so that just didn't get done and it's interesting now we are so certain that there is a very close relationship between the breastfeeding mother and her baby. We call that the mother-infant dyad because the milk changes every day. The milk that the mother produces in the first week is different from what she produces in the second week and the second month and the second year and it varies with the gender of the infant because the milk that a mother produces for boy babies is different than the milk she produces for girl babies and the obvious question is what if it's a boy and girl twin? We still are not sure except that there is some research to show that same-sex twins when they mature are taller than opposite-sex twins and it may be something to do because of the breast milk that's formed for them. Well, one thing that is nice to know is that breastfed babies usually, not always, but usually sleep better through the night. One of the reasons is that there is a variation between day and night milk and that there is some more melatonin present in nighttime milk than there is during the day and so the baby obviously is going to sleep better. Another really fascinating factor is that the milk changes whether or not the baby is born prematurely or full-term. As an example, omega-3 fats are transmitted through the placenta during the last six or eight weeks of the pregnancy so what happens to the poor kid who is delivered early? Well, it turns out that if the baby is born prematurely the mother's milk changes and she then begins to produce more omega-3s in her milk to make up for what the baby didn't get during her last six or eight weeks of fetal life. The breast of course is a wonderful defense mechanism because there is an enormous variety of immune factors in breast milk and we now know, talking about probiotics, that those favorable bacteria are present in breast milk even before labor begins we used to think that breast milk was sterile now we know that it is not. What does that tell you about the priority that nature gives to the importance of probiotics in our environment? Well, there are live cells in breast milk there are no live cells in formula and if there are, the guys in quality control are going to be out of a job because formula is not only always the same but there can't be any live cells but breast milk contains at least five different kinds of live cells and if the baby takes cow's milk with live cells and say fresh cow's milk those cells will be digested but the cells that come from the mother's breast are not digested they pass through the intestinal tract and they migrate to the immune tissues of that baby where they can persist for years we know that they persist for at least seven years and it's a possibility that some of those cells persist for a lifetime to add to the immune capability of the baby it's certainly true from many studies that breast milk affects the brain and the eye development not to a huge amount but there are measurable differences no one has ever shown that that kids who are breastfed only have a lower IQ or whose vision is less good than those who are fed formula there are some other breastfeeding benefits one of the major ones is that they have fewer infections this is really important in the third world in developing countries because as you know we have been promoting infant formula in developing countries for decades and the problem is if that formula has to be reconstituted with water because it's either a powder form or a concentrated form the sources of water in those countries are not safe so that increases the risk of gastrointestinal diseases among children until early in the 20th century gastroenteritis was a major the leading cause of death among children is in developing countries and that's one reason as I mentioned breastfed babies tend to have a consistently but slightly higher IQ we used to say that breastfed babies were less likely to be obese when they became older that is not as true now as it used to be because there are so many other factors during childhood that contribute to childhood obesity so the breastfeeding factor tends to be diminished somewhat one of the important things about the baby who is born prematurely is that they are at risk of something called necrotizing enterocolitis and the younger, the smaller the baby the more likely necrotizing enterocolitis is a condition where a section of the intestine simply dies and we now know that by feeding the baby's mother's breast milk it lowers the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis possibly by as much as 40% it is now standard practice in many hospitals in the NICU to give babies their own mother's breast milk there is some maternal benefits of breastfeeding and one of those is that immediately after birth if the baby is put to the breast the uterus begins to contract as a reaction to that suckling and therefore it contracts the blood vessels lowering the risk of bleeding well in a developing country or back in the stone age that was a big deal because the major cause of death among mothers is breastfeeding they also have a faster return to pre-pregnancy weight when a mother produces breast milk for her baby every day she's putting out about 500 calories well 500 calories a day for a week it's 3500 calories that amounts to a pound of fat so mothers who breastfeed return to their pre-pregnancy weight faster than those who form the feed and we now know that that's for the mothers who breastfeed that's a complicated issue part of the fact may be because they tend to have less adipose tissue and as you know adipose tissue produces estrogen estrogen is a driver of some cancers and that may be one factor there may be other factors involved too that we're not yet sure of but one thing that we are aware of is that the immature breast is more susceptible to cancer-crossing agents if a mother has not gone through pregnancy those cells in her breast never completely mature and that lack of maturity means that those cells are more susceptible to carcinogens especially those that are present in tobacco smoke mothers who breastfeed worry about getting something called mastitis mastitis occurs when the breast either becomes very engorged or becomes actually infected there are two kinds of mastitis and when the swelling occurs some of those ducts begin to rupture break down send certain tissue into the mother's bloodstream and there seems to be some sort of immunologic phenomenon that lowers the risk of ovarian cancer there is a lower risk of later cardiovascular and liver disease in mothers who breastfeed again because they are less likely to be obese and less likely to have those drivers of cardiovascular disease and this really cute little kid has been riding around on the mother's back like that since the first day or so after he or she was born and that's the way hunter-gatherers carry their babies and probably they did back in the stone age so the baby was always around the mother which meant if the baby was carried in the front and was hungry he or she was simply reached up and grabbed the breast that's right there and for that reason the breastfeeding is done on a very frequent basis when we looked at the first baby foods we find that generally speaking weaning occurs in hunter-gatherers societies between 2 and 4 years or so and there is something called pre-mastication where the mother chews the food puts it back into the spoon and feeds it to the baby I was 10 years old when my brother was born and this really grossed me out when I saw my mother doing this still kind of grosses me out except nature is not stupid nature provides that kind of mechanism for feeding babies because there are salivary enzymes that the mother provides in that pre-masticated food that begin the digestive process makes it easier for the baby to digest that food it also has probiotics to the baby's system because the mother of course has these normal flora in her mouth as well and she gives that to the baby also there is something called IgA secretory IgA which is formed in the upper part of the mouth the respiratory tract and this is also protective so it's one more level of protection that the mother gives to her baby when it comes to combating infection when it comes to nutrition there are still nature has an enormous variety of plant and animal foods certainly they had 100 or more different kind of plant foods different kinds of animal foods and what they found was everything was organic and food was always fresh because they had no way of preserving food plant foods of course are low in sodium the high in potassium and we have reversed those ratios we now have taken twice as much potassium in our diet as we do twice as much sodium as we do potassium and that's not the way we are designed there was minimal contamination because nowadays you've heard about outbreaks of E. coli in terms of things like sprouts or ground beef and that's because of our ways of producing and disseminating food well back then that didn't happen because all the food they had was produced locally and there was no transshipment there was no storage there was no time for organisms to grow and reproduce in that food well there are some diseases that kids did not have they didn't have what we call the usual childhood diseases things like measles, mumps, chicken pox and one of the reasons was there was no epidemic diseases I mean they lived in groups of 25, 50 maybe 100 people and that made it impossible for epidemics to occur also at the time of the agriculture revolution we began to develop diseases that came from animals first how many have ever traveled to Switzerland have you ever noticed some of those houses of families on the second floor the animals live on the first floor do you wonder whether some germs are spread back and forth absolutely and that's been happening since the start of the agriculture revolution back then there was no such thing as type 2 diabetes because overweight drives type 2 diabetes and they didn't become overweight and certainly never became obese I was in pediatric practice for 35 years and it's been 25 years since I've left practice but during those 35 years I never once saw a child with type 2 diabetes if you go to any metropolitan pediatric diabetic clinic these days you'll find nearly half of those kids have type 2 diabetes which simply did not exist a couple of generations ago they of course had no obesity related problems because they were not obese and now we're seeing obese kids in the first couple of years of life 22 or 23% of first graders are obese not just overweight but obese they didn't have rickets and they wandered around all day with no clothes on in the sunshine and Stone Age of the Course didn't live in the far north they lived in a few hundred miles north of the equator where they had sunshine all the time they got plenty of vitamin D and therefore no rickets excuse me for just a moment so there was no one who was vitamin D deficient and they didn't have acne hunter-gatherers don't have acne when they go through adolescence and Lauren Corden was someone who published one of the seminal papers on this issue and indicated that there's something about the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that keeps that from happening well there were no epidemics in this Stone Age however they did have parasites in or out of their body part of my career was spent in Puerto Rico and I was visiting with the head of parasitology at hospital San Juan and I said this was of course over 60 years ago and I said what percentage of people who live in Puerto Rico have parasites and she's this doctor if we do a stool examination and we don't find parasites we think we've made a mistake so we do it again we've had a lot of change in the last 60 years in even places like Puerto Rico but they were part of the normal flora, the beneficial organisms back in the Stone Age what happened was that we co-evolved with parasites we need them and they need us and parasitic worms and bacteria as you know are becoming part of mainstream medical treatment we joke about poop transplants but that's happening both for bacteria and parasites when it comes to elimination there were no diapers in the Stone Age and so how did mothers handle that well you saw how that baby was carried in the sling hunter gather mothers learned to sense when the baby needs to void and they hold the child away from them pointing away of course and therefore the baby eliminates right there now when I was a pediatrician I got to be pretty good at telling when a little boy was about to unload not always but most of the time I could guess when I was going to be a target well so toilet training began in the very few months of age when it comes to crying babies you may have heard that apache babies don't cry and I have verified this by reading information from Native Americans and they point out that among the apaches raiding of other tribes was common so the mothers and the kids would go and they try to escape to it a royal or a canyon army or hide someplace and if the baby cried it was a giveaway that the raiding party would find them so from the very first days of life mothers began to pinch the baby's nose shut when they began to cry because babies are obligate nose breathers because if they're suckling they can't breathe through their mouths they can only breathe through their nose that doesn't change for several months and very quickly those babies learned that if I whimper mom's going to do this and the fact is that they didn't cry and some hunter gather babies never cry maybe for different reasons but one is that they're carried by the mom all the time they're always close to the mother's body no reason to cry because the breast is always there the tension is always there babies are meant to be carried until they can walk and keep up I know that's pretty hard to do these days we have six kids my wife never carried anyone around in a sling other things to do with the other five kids obviously but the fact is among hunter gather populations that's exactly what they do if we look at the way primates behave we find that gorillas and monkeys and other primates carry the babies on their backs for weeks at a time among hunter gather societies crying babies reflect badly on the parents in those societies so there's some social pressure to keep babies from crying I wonder if there are any moms in the audience who had a kid who was a picky eater yeah well picky eaters live longer I mean think about this you have an 18 month old who wanders away from mom and he or she begins to eat any kind of berries whatever they can find and if they're the wrong kind of berries they don't grow up to reproduce and so that trait is hard to wireness and some kids will only accept the new food when it's been offered 20 times very few parents are going to give kids peas more than two or three times if the kid says no but if they just persisted they would eat it because they saw mom eating it and siblings eating it and that pre-mastication tends to minimize the fact is that breastfed babies accept foods more easily but there's some behaviors that never change kids forever are falling and I'm sure that back in the stone some kids say hey guys watch this as he tumble off a tree branch or fell off a rock they fought with each other they certainly were subject to things like snake bites when I was in practice every spring I see a kid almost always a 10 year old boy who was sure he was faster than that rattled snake but he wasn't so it was always bites on the arms and hands there were animal bites and then of course there's something like this now he's obviously not a stone-ager but one of the things that you may be aware of is that toads and frogs have toxins in their skin some of them are really dangerous but some are hallucinogenic and it may be that that behavior happened back then as well there was of course a daily egg hunt kids were the best egg finders and the best that they had back in the stone age turtles, snakes, alligators did they all taste the same? no and of course you know who this is that's pigpen the pigpen theory is known as hygiene hypothesis and we are hosts as you have heard this week to about a thousand different species of bacteria and they boost our immune system they form barriers against harmful bacteria they lower cholesterol and they provide nutrients that are not present in food and we're exploring yeast and fungi and viruses also in terms of beneficial microorganisms and the fact is our kids are too clean because we know that kids who grew up on farms are less likely to have allergies like eczema and asthma than kids who are city-born and are not raised with kids their first vaccines came from dirt and feces because they acquired the germs that would protect them if a related species were a dangerous one they were already somewhat protected because they had ingested the more benign form you all know the 3 second rule when food falls on the floor if you pick it up within 3 seconds it's okay to eat well I have the 10 second rule 1, 2, 3 because I want to get some bacteria that might be on the floor well not really but the fact is that clean food is not normal for humans back in the stone age they didn't wash their food they didn't wash their hands they ate whenever they could going barefoot is something of course we are becoming aware of it because for 2 million years nobody wore shoes does it name Ababy Bikila Ringabel? yeah he won the marathon in Rome in 1960 and he was barefoot so what was the risk in the stone age well there was no glass and metal to get involved to stab your feet and barefoot running is coming back yeah this is known as co-sleeping because babies and mothers are evolved to sleep together and this idea of over lying and infant death as a result is something that only began to occur about 2 or 3 thousand years ago because back then there were no mattresses there were no pillows there were no blankets baby bumpers this is why babies suffocate in a study from Australia of sudden unexplained infant death that there were no unexplained infant deaths they all had a reason I'm going to go through this quickly but the reasons they found obesity, drugs, alcohol, bed covers etc we find toys and games among children's graves and before the agricultural revolution we didn't have any evidence of that but we find fingerprints of children on miniature bowls from the 9th century and miniatures found in children's graves boys are buried with weapons with kitchen utensils why do children fight with their parents because they're learning how to do that in a safe environment if a 12 year old has a terrible argument with his dad the dad will knock the snot out of him but he's not going to kill him but if he argues with some other guys his dad he might end up dead they learn how to hunt together from an early age hunting gatherers, boys learn how to track from the age of 8 stone age children in a similar pattern when it comes to puberty girls begin to menstruate at about 18 in hunter gatherers societies and they may be married by that time now girls married at the age of about 12 and because of that they may accumulate more body fat because body fat then produces estrogen etc and they have what's called incessant ovulation and ovarian cancer and the other side is that for millions of years children were discarded or sacrificed at many points in human history and the 10th plague of Egypt in fact may be this kind of problem it may be that the reason for the 10th plague the first born child the first born domestic animal dying was not because it all happened at once like in the Cecil B. DeMille movie but because it was a practice not to be sacrificed when I heard the story about Abraham and Isaac I wondered how is that Abraham didn't complain to God when he said you have to kill your child and it's because in that period prior to 2000 BC or so when Abraham lived child or infant sacrifice was a common practice and that's why Abraham didn't put up a fuss you know why Isaac was only 12 years old and Abraham was told to sacrifice him if he were a teenager wouldn't have been a sacrifice my wife hates it when I tell that one we know that the Aztecs sacrificed children for various reasons and modern hunter-gatherers sometimes do as well and finally when it comes to technology there is the old man with the arrow through his nose and the kids are saying that just can't get the hang of this new technology thank you very much I appreciate your attention if you have any questions we have about 8 minutes for questions if you have any questions right now these are very useful for people watching the presentation because they'll be recorded so maybe someone has a question they want to pick his brain great presentation thank you my question is around breast milk and we understand how important it is for a child I talked to some female friends of mine that say I just don't produce enough breast milk to feed my baby day and night the baby is too hungry so I have to start mixing in the powder milk what would your response be how do we handle that that's a tough question I wrote an article called breastfeeding inadequacy but I've never submitted any place because I don't know where to send it because it's such an emotional issue but it is that our culture for generations certainly during the mid 20th century downplayed or actually abhorred breastfeeding and so today's grandmothers many of them never breastfed because it was looked down upon so they can't pass down that lore to their daughters and so we have lost that entire body of experience of breastfeeding mothers who could teach their children and they had their own there's a study done on this issue that showed that if mothers who had this breastfeeding inadequacy problem were counseled and given some instruction that that so called inadequacy was resolved about 80% of the time and even a woman who has very small breast has plenty of breast milk breast forming glands that form adequate milk and I have had babies in my practice who are twins and they, I mean these were like the Michelin kids and the mother was exclusively breastfeeding for both of them and the interesting thing about breastfeeding is that when there are twins or three the breast actually produces more milk in response to that again nature isn't stupid nature wouldn't waste the child and so this breastfeeding inadequacy is relatively uncommon in breastfeeding skills and I think that's a major problem I'm curious about complications and death during childbirth in hunter-gatherers modern medicine is lauded for how much it's helped reduce that and there must be some bell curve over time where it has improved something that got bad but it maybe was better in the deep past well we really obviously don't know because we don't have any way of really identifying what the causes of death were during childbirth we know that during the 18th and 19th century infection was very common and if you've ever heard a story of Ignace Simmelweis and the Strep infection childbirth fever is a tragic story that was very common probably less likely that they died of infection but that was possible but certainly if there was what's called cephalopilvic disproportion the skull was just too big to come through the birth canal both the mom and the baby died and we see that still in developing countries my guess is that probably most of the causes of death in mothers at that period were either because of the cephalopilvic disproportion or from bleeding and I can't really make a good case for infection because again the kinds of germs that devastate populations didn't get transmitted from one group to another because of the distance involved so that's my best guess the encephalopilvic disproportion may have been less for nutritional and just lifestyle reasons I don't know I think it may be because the human pelvic anatomy is not quite perfectly developed yet the pelvic structures in some women are such that that canal is so narrow that obstetricians can tell by sonograms before delivery this baby ain't going to come through that way and when I was in practice I saw I was in the military for 20 years and I saw a lot of Filipino women who are Asian women who were very small and they had were married to guys that were a pretty good size I wonder how was that baby ever going to get through but most of the time they did not require a C-section and so there are all those individual variations and there's no way to predict that without a sonogram and they didn't have that back then so good question well thank you all for being here and enjoyed it hope to see you again next time thanks


So I'm gonna make a really quick video. This is not gonna talk about anything going on.  Our DMs have been blowing up on Amusement Insiders and a lot of people have been reaching out for advice or just to vent their frustration. So I'm gonna make a quick video based off of some information that I've gathered today and to be honest, the way I've been reacting and the information I've been presenting has been pretty accurate so far. So all I ask is to please take what I'm saying, obviously with a grain of salt. This is all just speculation and me hearing through grapevines and blah, blah, blah this, blah, blah, blah that nothing's official until any of the parks make announcements. But I feel like I have to make this video to help people out just based off of the DMs that I've been getting. So a lot of people have been stressing, well, I work for X Park or I work for A Park and I don't know what to do, I just lost my income. What should I do? Oh, this sucks, I don't know what to do, I'm gonna run out of money. So my advice to anyone that works at a theme park or works in a place or an entertainment facility like a casino, an airline, a cruise ship, a theme park, an amusement park or large group gatherings is go seek out a temporary job if you can. I know that's so much easier said than done but I would go find work, I hear cost goes highly crazy, grocery stores are obviously gonna be hiring, those would be two great places to look right now just based off of the amount of staffing levels they're gonna need to meet this supply and demand that's currently going on and don't panic, it's literally gonna be over with this summer. I will say though that it is looking like it could end up going into late July or August at a worst case scenario, I'm still gonna stick with the June date but for anyone hoping that theme parks are gonna open up in May, best of luck, they're not. So I would prepare honestly to get a job that will hold you for the next two to three months or four months up maybe all the way up until August. I'm hearing that Disney World is issuing refunds up till July 15th or whatever the date may be that date might be incorrect but it is June or July, mid June, July that they're offering refunds up until which is not a good sign, they've sent home a whole lot of their staff through the college program, intern program that tells you that they plan for this to be a while and I'm not gonna list any parks name in particular that I'm about to mention but I can confirm that training is being canceled at various parks across North America so they are not planning to open up early April as they've been stating on some social media platforms and I would honestly say that they will not be ready to open early May for any of the parks that have said that they're gonna be still opening early May as well, there's no way that they'll be ready based off of the information that I've been provided so if you work at a theme park again, I easier said than done, go find another job if you can or go to the, if you're a Canadian, go to the government's website, if you're American, I assume it's the same thing and apply for EI benefits, unemployment benefits, if possible, I've heard that the Canadian government especially is going to be approving situations a lot quicker and they're gonna be presenting some more information on things you can do if you do find yourself unemployed so definitely there's that option as well and there's nothing to be sad about, there's nothing like don't stress, like it's a very difficult time, it's a very difficult situation, the economy is crashing so if you don't have a job or you're finding yourself slipping, money-wise, like don't be sad, don't be upset, it's happening to a lot of people and it's just something that everyone's gonna have to get used to right now and things will get better, this summer things will get better, this is just temporary, I think that a lot of people need to remind themselves of that and social distancing is what's going to help and unfortunately social distancing means losing a lot of jobs and shutting down a lot of places of work and unfortunately it's going to screw over a lot of people and that sucks and there's nothing we can unfortunately do about that other than work together and unite and find different forms of entertainment and fun so we can come together and as a community maybe the Coaster community can really come together and strengthen itself at this current time in history or this current time of 2020 is a better way of wording it and yeah, just live through a different lens of humanity I guess, go out for walks, go out for a hike, explore your communities, it's not dangerous to go out for a hike, it's not dangerous to go out for a walk, it's still social distancing and just take extra precautions and washing your hand but yeah, I just wanted to make this quick video, I really wanted to get that out there, if you're expecting your park to open April, no, if you're expecting your park to open May, no, if you're really relying on that income for April or May you need to go look for a job now and I wanted to be transparent with everyone, I wanted to speak out before parks in North America, don't up until last minute and then you're left panicking a day or two before your bills do, plan ahead and if you have bills due in the next three to four weeks you need to go apply for a job now to the best of your ability or get yourself ready for that unemployment to help you out but yeah, anyways, hopefully this video helps anyone that had any questions or concerns or is expecting parks to open in April or May, yeah, hopefully it helps, I'm so sorry, it really sucks and it makes me really sad to talk about stuff like this but yeah, share this video for anyone you think it may help, I guess, if someone needs to hear this message. Yeah, thanks so much guys, have a good one, bye.