All right, good morning and welcome to the 1045 a.m. public portion of closed session of the February 25th, 2020 meeting of the city council In this part of the meeting the council will receive public testimony Thereafter the council members will move to the courtyard conference room for the closed session I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you mayor council members Watkins here Matthews here brown here Councilmember Glover will be absent crone Vice mayor Myers here and mayor Cummings Are there any members of the public who would like to speak to us on any items listed on the closed session agenda? Seeing none. I'll adjourn this meeting to the courtyard conference room where the council will go into its closed session Morning and welcome to our 1145 a.m. Session of the February 25th, 2020 meeting of the city council Before we begin I would like to take a moment to remember a day that we as the city will never forget On february 26 2013 at about 3 23 p.m Detective sergeant butch baker and detective elizabeth butler lost their lives in the line of duty while conducting a follow-up investigation We as a community are indebted to them for their service And this incident has impacted the entire santa cruz community in a very profound way Can we all have a moment of silence to remember their sacrifice and celebrate their service? Thank you, and I now would like to ask the clerk to please call the roll Thank you mayor council members Watkins here Matthews here brown here Councilmember Glover is absent crone Vice mayor Myers here Before we begin I would also like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the awaswa speaking upi tribe The amamut's in tribal band comprised of the descendants of indigenous people Taken to mission santa cruz and san juan batista during spanish colonization of the central coast Is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historic trauma And if the clerk if the clerk could please lead us in the pledge of allegiance So the first item on our agenda is the introduction of new employees And I would like to start by welcoming up the acting finance director, sheryl fife to introduce maureen dunne Thank you mayor and council members I have the pleasure today of introducing maureen dunne maureen dunne Is our the city's new accounts payable accounting assistant She was born in canada kit, but her father worked for was a aerospace engineer for nasa And so she moved to different states during her her lifetime. They finally settled in california, though Maureen comes to us from sacramento where she worked for regional transit She has a sister eileen and eileen works for our water department She and her sister chose santa cruz because of their fond memories of vacationing and going to the boardwalk and beaches in her past maureen has worked for habitat for humanity and She helped build two homes in sacramento She enjoyed vacationing in the bahamas and in jamaica where she Spent time with her family and her her brother-in-law's family got to meet them and got to know them She has a cat named katrina And a rabbit named riley and she holds an orange belt in karate Thank you, welcome All right next we have our director of human resources lisa murphy to introduce debbie bailey Thank you mayor council members. I am very pleased to introduce to you our newest team member to hr This is debbie bailey. We are now composed of my department. One third of my department is named debbie That's really easy Debbie's mom and dad drove across country from new york to california in their classic plimith Valiant and arrived in santa cruz just in time for debbie to be born in santa cruz general hospital So we're talking like all the time santa cruzan And she grew up in felton where her back door opened right to the henry cowl park on fall creek Where she spent her days exploring the woods with her brother making dirt bike tracks and playing capture the flag And now in her adult life her front door opens two nicey marks where she enjoys running and hiking with her dog sherman When not in the mountain she can be found at the beach in the water or on the softball diamond And apparently that she was an incredible softball and baseball player If she was on when the first female young ladies on the all-star team in her younger days And debbie has never stopped playing And left feel that dale aviega park is her home away from home from march to november And debbie wanted to give a shout out. I'll let it slide this time She wanted to get a shout out and special thanks to the department of parks and red for taking such a good care of field And debbie i always ask for a fun fact besides the fact that she's one like i said three debbies in our department She also once ran a one-on-one 400 meter foot race against the one and only great jerry rice So welcome to debbie. Thank you All right, next we have our director of public works mark deddle to introduce christopher heimsof Good afternoon mark deddle director of public works. My pleasure to introduce christopher heimsof He's a new wastewater mechanical tech technologist one at the wastewater treatment facility He was born and raised in boulder creek and still now currently owns a house in boulder creek Has a wife a dog a six-year-old daughter a three-year-old son and an old cat named grace His past work experience 16 years in the construction field for hudson construction And he graduated from san lorenzo valley high When he's not working he likes to play golf and attend music concerts And he enjoys helping family and friends with home improvement projects. So please join me in welcoming christopher That moves us on to our next item, which are presentations Our first presentation is international jazz day by prince lasha So i'd like to invite prince lasha to the podium mr. Mayor council members It is a pleasure to come before you to speak about international jazz day and week You should all have some information regarding this program before you so i will not go through that What i would like to do this is our seventh year of presentation I would like to play for you a two minute Video of what we do each year in the schools and for the city International jazz week Presenting concerts and music seminars at the santa cruz county schools International jazz day at the warf. I think that's it. Yes. Thank you. We go to the schools elementary middle school and senior high Working with children to make sure that they understand art and culture I bring artists from europe the east coast san francisco and santa cruz to make this development happen The reason i'm here before you is that i would like to ask for some support From the city regarding this program My goal is to make sure that these young people Are on the phone less practicing an instrument Not doing any Well, you know what i'm saying Playing with some type of video game It's important that we capture the minds at an early stage If you have any questions regarding The program that we do International jazz day it should be answered in the information That has been provided to you Right now you very much. Yeah. Thank you very much. I appreciate everything you do for the city with this and for our children Our community music is extremely important in the arts and we should never forget that and april Is jazz month? So i work with the smithsonian institute on that as well Prince thank you for your presentation Would you mind sharing the date that you're going to be having international jazz day on the wharf? It will be April 26 from noon until five p.m The special guest is a tony lansy the singer who was with Santana And his guitarist All right a diverse Of music and we'll also have a dixieland band with tap dance I just want to say thank you as well for all the work you do and I know that those of us who Enjoy coming and listening to the music We really you know it's just a wonderful thing and but I also know that it takes a lot of work to make it happen and so And you're here and I know you put in a tremendous amount of time and energy And then so if you could just tell us like how many people get together how many volunteers does it take to put on something like this? On a annual basis. Oh it takes about 30 And uh, it's it's a continual Because it starts I begin with everyone in august And it begins the concert on the wharf on april So it takes about this almost like giving birth to a new program each time nine months But it's fun and I enjoy it and this year i'm bringing a virtuoso violinist from paris over here to work with As well as a 70-year-old girl on piano To do the same down from san francisco So it it it works out very well And it is an honor to be before all of you Thank you very much. Thank you so much Well, the city is at my understanding is the city of santa cruz has sponsored this event for many many years at this point So i'm hopeful that we'll likely get this on our agenda before We have international jazz days so we can continue our support and sponsorship of your work Thank you very much. Thank you All right for our next presentation I'd like to invite up alex clifford for the metro state of the union Good afternoon mayor council members Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present our annual actual state of metro presentation And uh, I always like to start off with a couple of stats and I know for council member mires and matthews This will be old stuff. They represent you well on our board But I'd like to share some good information with you that that they get to hear about on a regular basis Our operating budget this year is 52 million dollars. We employ 300 people We have 98 fixed route and meter buses that run on 26 different routes and we have 41 paratransit vehicles Our service area is the entire county. We estimate about 264 000 We provide about five million trips per year on the fixed route and commuter service and about another 72 000 per year On our paratransit service, which we brand as para crews And certainly you've seen our our cutaways and our bands throughout the community providing that service And I always like to update you on our statistic for UCSC students faculty in cabrillo college last year we were They composed a little more than 50 percent of our ridership This year they composed about 60 60 percent of our ridership. So that has been growing as a percentage of our ridership We also recently completed our customer survey. So I have some some new data for you relative to pacific station and the city of santa cruz Pacific station ridership Was surveyed and was composed of 55 percent santa cruz city residents and 45 non residents Pacific station average daily boardings are 1265 per day And then the city of santa cruz ridership overall city of santa cruz ridership is about 48 residents 52 non residents And the city of santa cruz average daily boardings was surveyed at 2822 average daily boardings You probably have an interest in the eco pass You certainly do because you have partnered with metro to provide that to your downtown district 570 cards have been issued and over the first real four full months of the project october through january 9583 trips were taken on those cards or roughly 76 average daily trips Of the 570 cards 260 of those cards were used We're also partnering with the city On two focused outreach events to promote the passes and to educate the downtown employees about using those passes And those events date to be term determined will be in april One will be at pacific station and the other at the civic auditorium So we'll make sure we get that information to you when when that occurs and is finalized And then early this year we're going to launch our first real-time Smartphone app for people to look on their phone and see if that bus is going to be on time or not Engage when they go to that stop more accurately We're excited about that. This has been a long project in the making over a year It was funded by state transportation improvement funds And we're getting we're installing it on our buses as we speak Additionally this year we will launch a highway seven ting smartphone app Which will be for fair payment and if you know the highway seven ting service when our commuters are boarding at pacific station or scott's valley People can really get queued up when they're putting in dollars and coins Into the fare box And so this is going to be a way and the result of that is that our buses end up departing late and arriving at the other end late So by using a smartphone app, we hope that will speed up boardings And help us get more on time in our service So i'll have more to report on that Probably next year because it's a one-year pilot The exciting thing about that is if this works we can talk to our board about possibly expanding it system-wide So stay tuned on that. That should be really exciting As I talked about last year We have a lot of buses to replace the numbers lower, but it's still about 50 percent of our fleet We have a lot of old buses. We're still running 1998 full diesel buses They should have been retired a long time ago a bus should live on for about 12 to maybe 14 years and then be retired But that's an expensive proposition. So depending on whether we replace those with compressed natural gas or what we call cng buses That's about a proposition of about 750 thousand dollars a bus Or we replace those with electric buses. That's a proposition of over a million dollars per bus So it's very challenging for us to deal on the capital side But you know this you deal with capital all the time It is always challenging to figure out how to fund the many things that you have to do to stay in a state of good repair I know that you'd be interested in pacific station I want to assure you that those conversations With the city and our staff continue. We're exchanging paper on draft mo you And hopefully getting that pretty much resolved pretty soon and working towards state AHSC grant sometime early next year and we hope that we could get that award And that will lead to a redevelopment of our station and I know you're aware of that We've talked about that before but frontage on pacific avenue would be some sort of mixed use Likely controlled by the city or the city and a developer jointly and our operations would become On the back side of that facing front street. We would have a large tarmac there Is what we envision so those conversations are continuing And then I mentioned buses and i'm excited to report that our latest update from pro terra the manufacturer Of the four electric buses that we have ordered has said that those buses should be here in june That has been a little bit of a moving target But i'm going to assume that that's going to be the delivery date for now We'd like that to occur because we would really like to put those buses in service fall of this year Why the big gap well, it takes time to accept those buses These are our first electric buses And so we'll have to run them through the gamut and make sure that they can do what they're supposed to do Before we pay for them and accept them and then we have to train all of our 153 bus operators on those buses before we can put them in service So it takes there's always a lag time between when a bus arrives and when we can put it on into service Unified corridor. I know you follow that closely. So the rtc and metro transit Alternatives analysis project team. They've been meeting With focus groups and holding public meetings to solicit solicit input on goals and performance metrics That will be used to evaluate the transit options for the rail corridor between Watsonville and santa cruz two weeks ago the team met with the planning and public works Departments and staffs from the various cities And they all of this will continue through january of 2021 at which time The rtc will likely have a decision to make about what is going to happen in that rail corridor But a really good process an exhaustive process seeking input from stakeholders And all kinds of community members throughout the the community from the north to the south and back So we're really excited about that in the way of partnerships with the rtc We're also working very closely on the bus on shoulder I know we've talked about that before rtc is still working on the environmental clearance and design That wraps that sort of bus on shoulder concept into the auxiliary lanes project Overall that should be real exciting for our customers A lot of which are trying to make the morning commute from places south to santa cruz And this should speed up their commute and hopefully get them here And how exciting that will be to have a bus passing up all of that traffic just standing still in gridlock I can't think of a better marketing tool. So we will hopefully attract more people to that service So mayor council members that concludes my annual report and i'm happy to answer any questions that you might have Thank you Are there any questions from council members? Not a question, but that was a good quick summary and if we could get just a copy of your stats there your notes Absolutely Any other questions from council members? Let's make a comment that um, thanks for the report, um, alex and um, yeah, we look forward to Both working with metro on the pacific station and also um on the on the Eco pass program as as things move forward and um, I'm personally just really excited that We're becoming more smart with our buses and I think that makes a big difference In terms of how people consider that for transportation. So thanks for all your work and uh We're excited to keep working with you guys. Thanks This is a side note on that our buses are getting More interesting and nicer and sleek if you see our new gilligs our five new gilligs that are out there on the road These are the first gilligs we've had on the property in a long time And gillig is a manufacturer right here in northern california So how exciting that is to have those and they have what we call a brt front on it It's a much sleeker more aerodynamic looking front. So you can't miss it when you see a gillig out there Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you We'll see you next year. All right Okay, moving on to our next item Um, I have a few announcements and then we will move on to our regular meeting Today we have overflow seating set up in the tony hill room adjacent to the civic center for our afternoon and evening sessions Today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 and streaming on the city's website city of sanacruz.com Our rules of decorum are on the window ledge to my left It is my job to keep the meeting running without disruption and we ask that you respect your fellow citizens when you're inside or outside of chambers Next is our statement of disqualification. I'd like to ask the council members if there are any statements of disqualification today hearing none I'd like to call the city clerk Administrator to announce any additions or deletions. We don't have any I'd like to make an announcement about oral communications. Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the public to speak to us On items that are not on the agenda oral communications will occur on or around 7 p.m. Today I'd like to ask the mayor to call on the city attorney to provide report on closed session Thank you. Mayor Cummings members of the city council following we're discussed by the closed by the city council in closed session this morning in the courtyard conference room at a meeting which convened at 10 45 a.m Item a was a liability claim the claim of debora brown That was also that is also listed on your consent agenda this afternoon as item eight item b conference with legal counsel the two pending litigation matters discussed by the council The case of ronald e chinets versus the city of santa cruz at all and sunset farms llc versus the city of santa cruz at all City council received a report from legal counsel. There was no reportable action on that item third was conference with labor negotiators involving fire local 1716 Council received a report from its chief negotiator lisa murphy md was a public employee performance evaluation Of the city manager and there was no reportable action I'd like to ask the city manager to report and provide updates on city events and business items I don't have a report today. We will give an update on the army as part of the the cash report Um before we move on to the meeting calendar I was wondering if the city attorney might be able to given that we have A council member who's missing today for the public to know how that might impact Our ability to make decisions should we get to a Split vote certainly Given that there are an even number of council members seated on the dais this afternoon There's a possibility that a decision would result in a three three tie The effect of that decision When a council member is absent as opposed to disqualified is that the item is automatically Continued so if it does end up this afternoon that a council that a council decision results in a deadlock then That item would be continued either to the following meeting or to A meeting as specified by the council Thank you city I'd like to call the city clerk to provide any updates to the calendar There are none Our next item is Updates on Memberships in city groups and outside agencies This is a time for council members to report on actions at external boards committees and joint power authority meetings For future meetings Please come prepared to provide an update on any meetings or actions that occurred since the last council meetings So the council and public can be informed So I'd like to ask if there are any updates from external meetings I don't really have much we do have a public safety meeting scheduled for this thursday And I'll I guess the only thing I would add is that the Just to stay Informed about the different activities that are happening with the farmers market and as they start to expand their Services as a summer season arises in other parts of our of our community There'll be more opportunities to be engaged and the city of santa cruises Active partner and supporting their presence here in downtown santa cruises as well The criminal justice council did meet it was mostly just sort of a summary of the standing work that's been happening in terms of some of the Gaying intervention the north county bosta program for identified at-risk youth Our partnership with the youth violence prevention network As well as the community corrections partnership and opportunities to have discussion around other grant Kind of partnership and opportunities moving forward And we discussed some of the work around some of the tobacco enforcement, but also communication with Some of the early child care and after school providers in terms of being noticed if there is an alert or if there is some sort of active Crime activity happening. How can they get informed for lockdown purposes? similar to the k-12 system A few quick summaries of revenue subcommittee, which is myself councilmember brown and mayor Have been meeting there. We held a good meeting a couple of oh, well look what's up here now. I'll jump ahead Okay, put that one on hold I'm a member of the library finance Financing authority, which is the group of the jurisdiction representatives who meet I think a couple of times of year to review the Revenue from the bonds and how it's dispersed and I did go on saturday to the opening of the felton library, which was Amazing. They're the first of the measure s projects to come online And they held their grand opening. These are just a few of the shots So beautiful brand new building and if you want to go back bonnie to that I think I just gave you three slides that first one you get a sense of the Beautiful light airy art filled flexible space. I cannot say enough What an asset to that community this will be and I encourage you all just to drive up And take a look at it and allow some time. It's beautiful and I will just point out Capitol is online probably to open at the end of the year We approved the plans with some added funds for our two branches in the city and Just to point out that even when measure s was being put together as a revenue measure It was anticipated that all of the branches would have to do some additional fundraising to To deliver the type of the quality of building that they wanted that was certainly true Felton is true in capitol. We took that step for our branches here But I think collectively the city is going to be so happy with time and other branches are all in the works now so Now it takes time to do stuff, but really wonderful wonderful wonderful branch Couldn't resist a little enthusiasm there. It's so nice to get a product Back to the revenue committee. This is the considering the possibility of a tot Revenue increase in the november election. We've done some I would say very productive discussion meetings with some hoteliers Understanding what their questions and concerns are These have been productive and they've been very appreciative of being part of the conversation and we will be in the near future meeting with Representatives other jurisdictions that may be considering this just so we're kind of all on the same page about what we know What our needs are and so forth code of conduct meeting That's council members chrome Glover and myself and we've been going over some models of Other jurisdictions ethics and code of conduct documents Picking out what we like and what needs to be fleshed out and it's complicated. So Council member crone may have more to add to that, but I think we're we're trying to make progress and and get something that we can bring forward I don't need to report on metro because you had a good report on that And I think that's That's that's fine. That's business Going along again. Oh, and I did another couple things I do sit on the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Committee. It's not a city appointment, but I Kind of represent the city on that And we had a really good meeting in Santa Cruz that that group meets everywhere from cambria up to Half Moon Bay It's a huge area. So the meetings rotate around every two months But this month they met in Santa Cruz at the USGS Facility out on the west side and the mayor was able to make the welcome to the city of Santa Cruz And I do have just a couple of reports that were passed out at that meeting So I'll pass them around you can take a look and I also did bring the Program for the opening of the Felton library one for each. So I think that'll do it Thank you very much So I um Some of the committees Have already been reported and Director Clifford gave Some of my RTC update. So I would just add for the regional transportation commission That at our last meeting we did approve Measure D strategic implement implementation plan for this year We also And that's it just for those who are listening That's intended to help expedite delivery of projects that are funded by measure D and also Give us opportunities to leverage state and and federal funding Competitive funding and other programs we also Approved a draft set of goals for our regional transportation county regional transportation plan for uh to 2045 And that really is a policy document that guides The work that we do throughout the year with respect to funding of projects and direction and then The yeah the corridor study alternatives analysis is underway. We have really committed to public engagement as director Clifford suggested and We yeah, and so and we also Approve contracts for some improvements to railroad road bridges and some of the kind of bike ped projects that Are we have challenges to fund so that was nice to to be able to Get some of those underway Library subcommittee or committee We have awarded a contract on which the mayor and vice mayor and I sit we've awarded awarded a contract for design of a potential mixed-use project including a library and So we will be working with the architect to move through that process and help guide our decision-making of regarding our a proposal to the council First Group I would like to report out on is the climate action task force. We had a meeting on February 21st And I'd say the three big topics that we focused on at that meeting. We had a presentation by a group of ucsc students around best practices for NGO and non-profit engagement in our climate energy action plan 2030 process and this presentation really focused on Like engaging with some of these NGO and non-profit groups and also a survey that's been Created by the group to hand out and gather more information from members of those types of organizations and groups in our community we began discussing and Talking about what are some of the other cities that we want to whose climate action plans We can look at as a model for what they've accomplished Where they're focusing their efforts and what can we include in our climate action planning process and some as it relates to some of our goals And additionally, we spent a good chunk of our conversation discussing how we can involve The youth in our community as we begin this 2030 climate action planning process Just knowing that there's a lot of interest in the youth and there's a lot of movements now of engaging youth in these kinds of environmental planning practice Processes so trying to determine how we can involve our local youth in our climate action planning process In addition to that I was able to attend The association of Monterey Bay Area governments meeting and just want to touch on two of the presentations that were given The first was on the ambag energy watch program Where they were able to highlight that 110 million annual kilowatts of energy savings occurred between 100 yeah 110 million between 2006 and 2019 $75 million was saved from being spent on energy It was able to be used in other ways throughout the communities within the region And they were able to provide technical assistance to acquire Upwards of 42 million dollars in grants or loans for the jurisdiction schools and special districts To highlight some of the projects that were completed they had seven energy efficient projects across 65 facility locations and parks And these products are estimated to deliver over three million kilowatt hours in annual energy savings And together these upgrades were reduced energy costs by 643 thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars per year and an estimated 608 127 in rebates will be provided to support these projects Um with regards to 2020 There are four energy efficient projects across 25 facility locations and parks These projects are estimated to deliver 511 thousand four hundred and 77 kilowatt hours in annual energy savings These products these projects are estimated to deliver 18,051 Therms and annual energy savings and together these upgrades will reduce costs by 120 roughly 120 thousand dollars a year And estimated roughly 84,000 in rebates will be provided to support these projects Just to um also highlight that uh one of the things that was pointed out was that the city of santa cruz Given how much we've invested in energy savings At the league of california cities meeting last year was awarded the silver beacon award And so it's something that we can all be proud of as we as a community try to become more sustainable as it relates to energy use And then the last um Report that I wanted to just highlight that came out of the ambag meeting was the 2020 preliminary draft of the regional growth forecast and um This really looked at for the tri county region How is how what is the forecast of growth? Housing and employment And one of the things that they were highlighting in this preliminary report is that It's appearing that growth across employment population and housing is slowing and one of the um But one of the sectors that they showed there was growth is that our region's becoming is aging more quickly And so part of what they've related to that growth to is a reduction in fertility And so less people having kids and just seeing a growing an aging population in the area and um So this is going to be important as it relates to planning moving forward And um the next steps is that they're going to begin meeting with local jurisdictions to discuss the draft forecast And think about um how it's going to relate to local planning And I think that's all I have I think I'll report out on the cows working group. We actually have a meeting next week scheduled. Um, but just Let you know a little bit about the International outcome of some of the work that we've been doing at cows for the cows working group The Save the Waves Non-profit did did present on our work here in Santa Cruz at the global waves conference in Australia last week and so we're going global as a community in terms of how we're trying to address some of the water quality issues off cow speech and the partnership we've created with a number of nonprofits and so That's been great to hear the reception about that And we'll be meeting next week. We are working towards Getting the data together for the the heel of the bay Report that they do every year and we'll be working with them directly on some of our data this year to work through some of their metrics and we're hoping that We also have a few infrastructure fixes in in the works as well But we're continuing to work on that water quality improvement in the in the cow speech area So, uh, I think most of my other committees were covered. So I'm good. Thank you Nothing to report at this time. Thank you mayor I'd also just like to mention um that the council policy committee met and the other day and that um We're going to be working towards uh reviewing some of the issues that came up as it related to the process of of agendizing reports and so we'll be Reporting back on that as it as it develops Yeah, I forgot to mention. I also sit on the Santa Cruz Santa Clara round table, which is the advisory group appointed at congressional direction to advise the FAA on issues of flights Affecting approaches to san francisco airport. I think you're all generally familiar with that issue It's been around for quite a few years. Um, there's an important meeting coming up tomorrow And we'll be launching into some budget and work program discussions We do anticipate some likely changes in the flight path over santa cruz county And so I will likely be bringing an item For the council to discuss and submit a letter on that At our next meeting probably Thank you very much for All the report outs Next item on our agenda is consent These are items number five through 13 are on our agenda All items will be acted upon in one motion unless an item is pulled by a council member for further discussion Are there any council members who would wish to pull an item? Council member brown I'd like to pull item 10 Any other items that wish to be pulled? Seeing none. Are there any council members who only wish to comment on any items? Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on any of the items on our consent agenda with the exception of item number 10 Which has been pulled Seeing none Maybe we can return to council member Vice mayor mires with her comment on item number seven um, I just wanted to point out and uh, thank our Sustainability and climate action manager tiffani weiswest. Um I don't know how you do all you do, but um, here We have yet another almost a million dollar grant being processed To the state and and again just keeping us out ahead as a leader in all the work that you do so Excited to see the grant. I really hope we get it excellent list of partners and Just really excited and thank you for your leadership on continuing to do this work I just wanted to echo those comments and um, thank tiffani weiswest for bringing this forward and always maintaining A commitment to seeking more resources and we look forward to hearing back And so with that i'm happy to move the consent agenda We have a motion on the oh, I think people have to oh, yeah, yeah I opened up for a public comment there were no no one wanted to So there's been a motion that's been made is there a second to the motion So seconded by council member crone and then council member brown Oh, I just wanted to add um my tremendous thank you to tiffani weiswest and at since we're talking about it Also mentioned that this was one of Three proposals that she's been working on. I mean, you know, they they all they come all at the same time and those are Those are huge efforts so If we didn't already know the heavy lifting that tiffani does that was That I wanted to make sure we Acknowledged Are there any further comments okay, so um all those in favor to move the Items on consent with the exception of item 10. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? So that passes unanimously with abs with council member glover being absent And now we'll come back to item number 10 On our agenda So I pulled this um actually it's it's really just because I wanted to Highlight it and ask that we take one other action related. So this is the an amendment to our budget In for the purchase and installation of a bike and pedestrian counter on segment seven of the rail line Which I think is is awesome that we're doing this For many reasons But I wanted to acknowledge that this is a case where the budget adjustment we're making is Two nonprofits Who are gifting the city money to make this happen to help make this happen? And you know, we spend a lot of time talking about Funding for nonprofits and grants and this is a case where They have wanted to make a contribution. So I I just thought that it would be nice to Um include in uh approval of this Direction that we send a letter of thanks to ecology action and friends of the rail and trail for their contribution We get a lot of thank you cards. We ought to send them out as well So, um, is there any member of the public who would like to speak to us on item number 10? Seeing none, I'll bring it back for action the liberation We'll move the record. Yeah, I'll go ahead and move the staff recommendation with the addition of Direction that we send That the city send the letter of thank you the mayor send the letter of thank you to Ecology action and friends of the rail and trail for their support. I'll second that I'll Motion was made by council member brown seconded by council member Watkins Is there any further discussion? Just a comment for those viewing or in the audience who don't know what we're talking about It's it's to count the use of Bike and pedestrian activity on the new segment of the rail trail. So we have an idea How well is it used? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed so that passes unanimously with council member glover absent Okay, so that concludes our consent agenda We will now move on to our consent public hearing This is item number 14 are on our agenda Are there any council members who have questions related to this item and this item is The second reading and final adoption of ordinance number 2020-05 amending the Santa Cruz municipal code section 15.38.010 and sections 15.38.030 regarding small cell wireless facilities I know there was a member of the public who requested additional time and so I'd like to invite That member of the public Satya Ryan to speak first on this item And you'll have four minutes Thank you I'm grateful to get another chance to thank you for the ordinance. I think it's um I feel really happy with it Particularly that you implemented so many of our ideas Feels really wonderful and thanks staff and all the work that was done on it Um, and I'm really hoping that it'll be a model for other cities and I've already sent it to the county and um Capitola, although I haven't heard anything back from them. So we'll see So looking back at my notes the other day. I was uh noticing that the 1126 meeting Direction was given to the city manager's office to write a press release About the ordinance and this seems like the perfect time to do that The direction given at that time was to speak about the difficulties Faced by the city You know wanting to do more doing as much as you could but being constrained by the FCC's limitations regulations So I think it would be great to um have that press release come out now also, um Well, should I want to say oh at that's at that same meeting? council member matthews you asked um On public works for a listing of how many cell towers had been Um approved how many had been um applied for and uh, joshua spain group at that time said it would take a while But they hoped it would be ready by the first of the year or sometime in the new year So I'm I've asked for that myself. I think it would be really great to have a listing of what we have already um So thanks for asking for that. Um So just as um for inspiration. I want to tell you that there's there's been uh The oral arguments were heard for the consolidated case in the 9th circuit appeals court on the 10th of february And I listened and watched that online and it was very encouraging what happened and the possible outcome of that will be that the you will have more Regulating power if we if that succeeds so we should hopefully know about that within the next few months And my hope is that the shot clocks will be dropped And also there are two two brand new lawsuits filed challenging the FCC's uh refusal Refusal to consider The decades of science showing uh other than thermal only effects of rf radiation Instead declaring that their exposure limits are fine and they have no need to look at it anymore So that's been those two lawsuits have been filed And we're hoping to get some good results from that too. So this is just For inspiration also just to remind you is this is a new we're like starting a new phase We haven't had these cell towers in neighborhoods. Some of them have been close But if we start to as they start to come in These are 4g cell towers, but all 5g will also include 4g There's been many experts recently saying that 5g is never going to be feasible in Anything other than the big cities So just to keep that in mind that this isn't really something that we need although you're going to be told that it is Um, I feel really optimistic that more and more people are learning what's really going on There's a lot of hype and industry spin going on that the truth about 5g is it's going to be mostly about gathering and selling information about all of us So, um, I don't know if that's something that any of us want so Just kind of like let all these things swirl around as you make whatever decisions and thank you because you're helping us Not have this doing the best we can. Thanks so much Are there any other members of the public that would like to speak to us on this item? Seeing none, I'll bring it back to the council for action deliberation Remember matthews. Yeah, I'll go ahead and really appreciate the high level of Public engagement on this issue and move the second reading and final adoption Including direction that the city issue of press release about the adoption of this ordinance There's a motion made by council member matthews seconded by council member Watkins to move the recommendations and include a press release Yeah, if I could Just ask for clarification on the press release. Can we Um, make sure that the language regarding the limited ability of local jurisdictions to To um, regulate Salt towers be included as part of that letter or is that of that press release? Sure. Yeah, okay, and then I also just want to ask about the Listing so I guess it's a question for mr. Spammer. You're here. I see Um, is that something that's in process might we be able to get it? Of mere Cummings member city council of Joshua Spanger senior civil engineer public works Uh, actually we are putting together a GIS page that'll be accessible through our um a web page to set up specifically for this so In essence. Yeah, we're we're doing that. We have a list of it. I can't give you a number right now because You know, we're working on the uh There's not that many yet, but there might be so we're working on having the whole thing as an interactive web page So when that is available and accessible, you'll let us know Absolutely. Yeah, great. Thank you Just comment I was apparently the one that asked for that But I also totally respect workload and the time you said it's going to be complicated take time So thank you for working on it and let us know when absolutely progress is made city manager Oh, just a quick clarification. We did send out a press release on december 9th Per the council's previous direction. However, we can send out another one if you like just to clarify that All right, so we have a motion oh Yeah, mr. Spangard when do you think that'll be ready or what can give us an idea about When we'll have a list and then I assume there's a a permitting list of people who are asking for permits as well Yeah, um So after the new legislation Was enacted what we saw is all the cell carriers basically just waited so We do have a list of pending applications right now We don't we have not seen the influx the glut that we were expecting yet. So um But like I said, we're working on this. It'll be you know Everybody will be able to see where all the cell towers are and where they are in the permitting process, etc Impending applications would be like 5 10 20 Right now There's probably less than 10. Thanks right now. You're welcome Any further comments from council members? We have a motion to adopt ordinance number 2020-05 amending section 15.38 010 and section 15.38 0.030 of the santa cruz municipal code for small cell wireless facilities in the public right of way with an additional direction to Send a press release and a friendly amendment to include language around The ability of small municipalities to regulate local jurisdictions regulations regulation To regulate cell towers cell towers All those in favor, please say aye. Hi. Any opposed? That passes unanimously with councilmember glover absent Next item On our agenda is general business item Number 15 the community advisory committee on homelessness catch second status report and midterm recommendations to the city council There'll be a presentation given by Candace elliott co-chair of the community of the catch Taj lehi who's the other co-chair of the catch And fred kealy community advisory committee on the homelessness facilitator You guys are moving faster than we expected You never know If you need a moment we can take a Why don't we take a five minute break so that the presenters can get set up? Yeah, I don't have chief haiduk here yet Um the item we have for us that we're going to return to is a Presentation by our community advisory committee on homelessness It's a second status update report and midterm recommendations to the council and before we begin. I just want to say Um, thank you for all the work that you all have done We very much appreciate how hard you all have been working on this item And um very much looking forward to hearing about your recommendations that are before us today And I'd also like to thank our staff and fred kealy for helping us to organize these Meetings and you know keep us on track so that we can really get a sense of You know what the community really wants us to do around trying to address our issues of homelessness Thank you mayor So we also want to start out with some thank yous To you mayor and vice mayor mires and the members of city council For giving us this opportunity to return to you this afternoon with our midterm recommendations and We want to thank the members of the catch some of whom are here today in the front row and You all selected a number of representatives to Represent the diversity of opinions of this community and I think that that's led to a very robust dialogue And and then a high level like high standards that we're holding ourselves to as we're going through our deliberations And we'd like to thank fred who has been our convener And city staff as you'll see in this presentation This issue touches on every single department of the city from public works to water to parks to Every department and and so we've been so impressed by Seeing the ways that the different departments work together and the way that we've all been able to collaborate on The items that we bring before you today And then lastly we want to thank the members of the community who are here today and those who have Come to our different public engagement sessions and It's through hearing their feedback that we have also Come forward with our recommendations So our Three main focus areas have been engagement public health and safe sleeping And our process Initially, we came back to you with urgent recommendations that were focused on The immediate winter shelter needs mainly now. We're coming to you with more mid-term recommendations that focus on critical areas of need And we'll be coming back to you again later on with our long-term recommendations in a couple of months Good afternoon. So just as a reminder what we presented to you in december was We had an engagement component To facilitate community engagement on health hygiene and new shelter programs public health installing new portables ada accessible Handwashing stations and to keep loud and else and accessible to patrons and we also asked that For the safe sleeping to fund 1220 river street increase winter shelter capacity and move shelter intake undercover, which has happened And Also alleviating alleviating the impacts of winter season conditions on those sleeping outside So now we're going to transition because we're going to have staff actually Share and speak up because some of these issues They're the boots on the ground and they're going to be able to give you a better representation of of what's going on So i'd like to introduce susie Susie ohara first, please Thank you co-chairs susie ohara assistant to the city manager And i'm going to be sharing the staff update with a few of my colleagues and Taj is going to introduce us as we go along here So what i'm going to be talking about is a status update for the urgent policy recommendations that were delivered to council in december Although there was some challenges around the motion language staff took those policy recommendations to heart And we move forward with implementing and planning and implementing many of those so i wanted to give an update on that We are in the process of installing four new porta potties. So that is twice the amount that council recommended Including two ADA accessible porta potties and really this is to alleviate challenges around lack of access to 24 7 Hygiene and restroom facilities in the community. We have worked Through an engagement process. This is our public health subcommittee to figure out the best locations for those And that will be moving forward in the next few weeks We are working closely with the water department on preliminary design for a new RV dump site at 12 20 river street As we mentioned, um at the last meeting That site is somewhat challenged in that there is a construction project that starts in the coming months So what we're really focused on now is Developing an interim site that's temporary which does not impede access to 12 20 for the construction And staging needs that the water department has and then through that process Developing a permanent site as well. We really do need to work with a contractor. They I think are just on the precipice of Contracting with somebody so as soon as that contractor is on board. We'll have a better understanding of the feasibility of our plans there As taj mentioned, we have a new intake site for the winter shelter program for through salvation army The county and the city really bolstered by city staff and county staff Moved mountains to make that site available. It includes Storage for folks that are using the intake site as well as porta potties and bathroom access There's an indoor trailer that's heated For folks that are waiting for to queue up for the intake and the shuttle So much improved from our previous site The winter Street, sorry the river street camp program moved to the armory and i'm going to give a little update on the armory As in terms of moving mountains We have worked really closely with the county really pushed from the perspective of the city's needs to Convince the national guards who allow us to stay up there We have received word as of last week that they are guaranteeing an extension of 60 days But working really diligently with the contractor that's supposed to be on board in the next couple months To see if we can co-locate moving forward even while they're doing construction So we'll have more information on that but that really creates additional bed capacity for us in the coming months This week this week and next we are doing a concerted effort with the salvation army to do more outreach To get more people filling a few of the empty beds that we have up there We normally have intake for instance on thursday and friday at the library The intake specialist for salvation army is now out in the field as of this week really trying to deliver Message that we have existing beds that we can fill so that's a huge benefit to our winter shelter program Mention the increase in capacity and the extension and then really the catch has been focused Very strongly on engaging with the public the safe sleeping subcommittee had several public meetings Met with the business council the downtown association and had a greater Public engagement session really trying to hear from the community as to how do these recommendations resonate Getting getting and collecting feedback and that feedback was included As these recommendations were distilled into this report Okay, thank you Thank you, and uh, we are now going to hear from bernie escalante, please Thank you Afternoon mayor commons council bernie escalante deputy chief police I wanted to briefly describe our newly formed hero team homeless engagement resource officers It includes two officers that are actively out Engaging with people that need resources to try to get to the root of their of their issues and try to Help their situation whatever way we can This includes collaborating closely with county resources Out in the field and engaging with people one-on-one and really trying to help the root of the root of the problem It's a model that we've been discussing for quite some time There's other agencies across the country that are using this model. It's an outreach first model Because we I think all realize that Enforcement with these issues are is very ineffective So we're trying to get in the field and provide the resources to the folks We obviously we Would I guess prefer To try to find locations for these people to go It's ineffective as far as us out, you know enforcing the laws that we do have Um, so that's what we're trying to do with these with these two officers is get people To particular locations Um Where they are safe and they can take care of themselves and we can also help with that I wanted to quickly read a An email from an individual from the veteran resource center that has been out in the field with our team recently On two different occasions I'm not going to mention any names here. Is there some confidentiality stuff, but it does say I would like to update you regarding the recent successes that your team has made locating veterans In the first two weeks of coordinating with your team. They identified eight individuals with armed forces experience Seven of them immediately eligible for housing case management If veterans choose to engage with the program As your team progresses with identifying veterans We can share outcomes with you if the veterans sign a release of information We genuinely appreciate your team's outreach support and pursuit to connect homeless individuals To public health and welfare services And that's just a uh a snippet of four weeks of work That these two officers have done and gone out and engaged with Resources that are available and it was just a matter of connecting the individuals with the resources. So A lot more work to be done But this is just four weeks so far and there's been some some great success stories already Thank you so much Now we'd like to hear from jason. Yes jason is here jason hedrick, please Uh Mayor council uh members of the catch um, so mind ball of in and this really uh goes back Over the last couple of years recognizing where some of our fires have started within our open uh open spaces And on february 9th, we had a really significant wind event here within the city Luckily, we didn't have any wildland starts But the next day on the 10th in sycamore grove. We had a fire that was started unintentionally, but it was still started And given the conversation that's going on with all the different groups I thought it was important that the policy decision makers Had a real life experience and exposure to what some of the challenges that staff have As well as just what we're experiencing and so we uh conducted a number of Tours or site visits for the members of the catch as well as city council members and brought along parks and rec commissioners And various um members from fire police water department parks and rec And talked about what the impact was because it's not just a single impact It really reaches across all the different departments and divisions And from my perspective within our wildland open spaces I'm concerned about the sources of ignition and within those open spaces nearly 100 percent have been human caused Whether they're intentional or unintentional And the impact to the community as a whole and to the open spaces And so we brought um all the different uh groups out there and did a site uh visit and walkthrough And I think it was uh powerful for you to see that uh up up close and in person My concern again is uh right now we're in february and we haven't had any rain And as we get through this year toward the the latter part that whether it's intentional or unintentional A fire start in that fuel source and that vegetation could have a really catastrophic impact on the community as a whole So how do we eliminate that and how do we uh have that outreach and have that location that we can send people to Which I really think is the solution so we can manage that risk and have those open spaces be preserved without having that catastrophic incident Thank you so much And now we'd like to have travis back come up please from parks Good afternoon mayor comings members of the council travis back superintendent of parks And as we were able to share with the uh catch members and and those of you from the council who were able to attend one of the site visits that chief hi duke just described The absence of a coordinated policy around camping and the lack of a long term Shelter shelter alternative is having a truly enormous impact on our open spaces on our parks operations And on our parks and recreation staff members The photos that are shown here on the slide are depicting the current conditions in the poganip open space And these are merely illustrative of larger impacts that we're seeing throughout portions of the poganip and other city-owned open spaces The the direct environmental impact is very large from the the littering and pollution That is occurring Including latrines for people who are essentially living outside Also, there's a direct cutting of vegetation Terracing as you can see of hillsides which causes erosion And all of these are really devastating to our sensitive habitats And also to endangered and threatened species in our open spaces, which we in parks and rec It's really take us part of our mission to to steward these natural resources We're using quite a significant amount of staff time and City dollars to finance and go after the cleanup issues that are involved in The unsanctioned camping and we're behind on all of this We are not able to keep up with the impacts that are occurring and the demand there is And just the fact that we have Really an unregulated Environment out in many of our open spaces where camping is occurring. We're not quite sure where we're not sure who's out there What conditions they might be experiencing makes it difficult for our maintenance staff to perform their work We really try not to send people off of the the trails Because of the unknown situations that they might encounter and even as recently as last friday on a trail in Pogon upon of our staff members was Threatened so severely that they feared for their lives So I really think it's important that as we enter these deliberations You all consider the impacts that our current situation is having on the environment and on our staff And I hope we can find a way to move forward towards a resolution of these issues. Thank you Thank you so much. And now again, we'd like to have Susie come back, please All right, thank you. So I'm going to round out staff's presentation with Kind of some delivering of context that I received in educating myself on councils historical deliberations on amendments to the camping ordinance So as I was Preparing for the catches deliberations on this I queried sire our online document portal camping ordinance in chapter 6.36 And I think I've had several hundred documents that came up The camping ordinance was originally or the camping muni code was originally Put into place in 1978 Since that time there's been several times that the council has considered amendments Those amendments, you know, are perennial in nature in that the council has over decades really tried to balance The perspective of enforcement with ensuring that our our spaces our public spaces and otherwise public right-of-ways are protected from the Externalities associated that can be associated with camping and quite frankly as I look through honestly Hundreds and hundreds of documents the message was basically always the same It didn't matter who was delivering it It didn't matter what how far on either side of the aisle You were and knowing that the aisle is pretty narrow here, but So one thing that particularly resonated with me was And I delivered this message to the catch as well Is a document that was created by a task force of of council members in 1999 Those observations as you can see I cut and paste them directly in here are really consistent with what the observations of the catch And the message that was delivered from that task force in terms of amendments Was quite frankly Don't use other municodes to enforce camping and the way that they talked about this which I will read out loud because I've realized these that's really small the lettering Concerns over the city concerns of the citizens. I gotta go here. Sorry Um, no, that's too small too concerns of the citizens citizens free. Sorry regarding camping sleeping are focused more on the behavioral problems of Some campers than on the physical act of sleeping Unacceptable behaviors include public urination and defecation littering trespassing substance abuse and disorderly disorderly nest Sorry While they are separate code provisions to deal with these behaviors Their enforcement requires actual police observation and other considerably greater involvement by the citizens So that is really what we've been focusing on from staff's perspective what I included in the catch staff report, which was was not included in the city council agenda report was For the last year since we move forward with vacating the ross encampment The city has put together an encampment assessment team Which really is focused on and this is cross departmental Focused on evaluating and assessing the risks associated associated with camping really understanding that we do not have the resources To move every single person out there nor do we have the shelter space to do that There are campsites that should and can stay in place There are campsites that pose significant risks And those risks are not associated with sleeping those risks are not associated with camping They're associated with the behaviors that are listed, you know in this task force report Which staff is focused on and those conditions and the behaviors that lead to Rests and challenges and impacts to our community and to quite frankly those that are residing in the encampment Over that year we used an assessment tool created in portland Which I asked staff to provide to me city staff to provide to me about two years ago We used that assessment tool and really molded it to the needs of the city But there are urgent criteria that from staff's perspective are really never amenable for folks to be camping at permanently Nor having all the externalities that are sometimes associated with camping Having a safe place for people to sleep is paramount It is paramount We do need to be able to direct people to other places to go Whether that's in the city whether that's regionally whether that's somewhere else in the county that remains to be seen That's really a higher policy level discussion Um, but each and every time we're out there making contacts with folks If we don't have the resources to provide on-demand supportive services and shelter It's really challenging to do this work Enforcement outreach any of those components. So I just wanted to let you guys kind of Ponder that, you know, we're really in a very similar Place to where we were 20 years ago. Unfortunately The challenges have increased The level of behavioral health issues has changed And the needs of our individuals who are unsheltered has have changed significantly too So I just kind of wanted to bring that full circle for your consideration Thank you, Susie So there's a lot of talk about enforcement, but I want to I want to Bring our focus to that we are going into streams here. There's an enforcement component and then there's also An outreach first model, which is what we're going toward The catch recommends immediate amendments to chapter 6.36 camping camping ordinance to minimize public health safety and Environmental risks associated with high density unsanctioned encampment encampments while prioritizing the development of new homeless outreach and safe sleeping programs So two things at the same time One we'd like to urgently increase bed capacity Open new restrooms Increase public engagement. All those are very important Protect sensitive at risk areas of the city from the impacts of unsanctioned encampments And prior prioritize development of new homeless hygiene outreach and safe sleeping programs As well as create long-term vision visions for the city's response to homelessness and that'll be coming up in our final report So now we have we're getting to what our midterm recommendations are I'm just going to give you a quick overview as to where we're going with this So models of shelter and designated safe sleeping sites increased access to health and hygiene facilities public engagement personal property management and then the camping ordinance as well Candice if you will yeah, sure Okay, so we're going to start off with models of shelter and designated safe sleeping sites And I want to echo what Susie said about You know having spaces for people is paramount and we need to have places for people to sleep and our recommendations here Are around having managed spaces I think in a minimum a managed space looks like Disposal of trash and toilets and showers and storage and places for people to sleep And then you can go all the way on the other end of that spectrum to providing on-demand supportive services And so there's a whole range of what a managed site can look like But we recommend that it be managed We prefer models that allow for participants to Be involved in the management and operations and governance of the shelter And then we also prefer models with a strong connection to neighborhood needs and Issues and ways to resolve those issues The next set of recommendations Um Is around criteria so citing criteria And these can be weighted differently depending on their importance Um, but it's really important. I think that we reach out to the community and you know have their input on these Different considerations. We've spoken with some people, but it seems like every meeting that we have There's a whole nother group of people that feels like they need to be engaged with That to you Yeah, uh, so personal property management. This is something that has been echoed often that people feel like they're Things for necessary survival are being taken from them And so we we thought that it was important for us to bring that up So we recommend that the city develop new comprehensive personal property management guidelines to provide clarity to city staff Minimize the negative discarding Minimize. Oh, yeah Sorry about that survival belongings and minimize the community impacts of unintended personal property. So Yeah, it's kind of an unwieldy sentence there But the point is is that we are trying to make it so that people don't have their stuff taken whether they're incarcerated or maybe Moved along or anything like that And the next one So increased access to health and hygiene facilities Our urgent recommendation is focused on increasing access to public restrooms and our midterm recommendation focuses on initiating and evaluating new shower and laundry programs And public engagement. So there's two streams here We mentioned to you before about the wisdom council and as we deliberated about this We want to make two recommendations One is that There be a mechanism to To engage the the city in some sort of Conversation around all these issues and then we're making a second Recommendation to use the wisdom council specifically. So those are two different things and it's up to you what you'd like to do with that But we want to make sure that there's enough capacity and funding to support public engagement Moving forward and we don't feel like staff or cash can do this alone. We need your help with that And that's it And now we come to the camping ordinance. So thank you for giving us this wonderful task of looking through the camping ordinance and coming up with recommendations and this first set of recommendations recommends Increasing RV parking density in lots In specific parking lots. So churches businesses, although there aren't any businesses who are doing this right now Um, and then additionally to allow for flexibility to define what sensitive areas are So environmentally sensitive areas and the like the next set of Three recommendations are kind of meant to consider They are meant to consider the unique needs of those sleeping outdoors within the context of martin v boysy And you know without having adequate shelter capacity You know, how do we address people who are sleeping outside? The next recommendation which has many parts Excuse me so these So just kind of before I get into this all of these recommendations relating to the camping ordinance were all passed by consensus by everyone on our and committee so these are the The ones where we didn't have to Disagree too much on them in order to be able to move forward with them And so these were kind of broadly acceptable to everyone There are other recommendations that we have considered that are more wild and would require more debate in order to come to consensus And so this set of recommendations is really focused on the preservation and protection of sensitive and at-risk areas And that includes areas that are adjacent to playgrounds and schools and this last Next recommendation Has to do with prohibiting high density on permitted encampments. So this is saying, you know, if you have maybe five People who are camping in one area or within a certain distance of each other To be able to to limit the density of the camps So in conclusion, um, we're asking you to accept the status report and move on council accepted policies And provide catch with guidance on next steps We appreciate the opportunity to present our recommendations to this body We encourage the council to accept our recommendations, please Yeah, and you know, thank you and we're going to turn it over to the mayor and council for deliberation and staff and The co-chairs are here to answer any of your questions. Thank you Thank you very much for that wonderful presentation. And thank you staff for coming and also speaking to Okay, I'll bring it back to council for questions Councilman Myers I just have a couple questions and then I'd love to hear from the public and um, I'm actually I would also be Ready to make a motion as well I just had a couple of questions on Your recommendation concerning the Sorry, I'm just trying to find it Basically the increasing the safe sleeping to five Vehicle Yeah, the vehicle see itself from three to five Yeah, and do we I don't believe we have an existing sort of Uh policy or sort of conditions of sort of service related Um to that. I just curious about How do we I know we have the association of faith based community safe spaces program and I'm just curious Susie is that Primarily run by the county. So in other words Where where do those? Churches and how does that program operate? I guess is my question Yeah, so with regard to increasing from three to five there is Somewhat of a blanket allowance to allow for faith based Organizations to have up to three currently and there is not a permitting process With that within the city within the city's purview the afc Program is Contracted through the county. It is a regional program that is situated Here as well as in the unincorporated area and other cities within the county Moving forward because the camping ordinance currently I believe Has that limitation there was interest in increasing that to allow flexibility For faith based and other organizations, whether it be commercial or even city governmental laws or county governmental laws To increase that to five The afc program is of high demand. There's not a huge weight list But there is of interest and as we move forward with some of the challenges We have on Delaware and on west cliff and in other areas Having an increase of capacity in across the city. I think for managed programs makes a lot of sense And can you just um just briefly is that I remember a count at one point? I think it was somewhere up close to 48 or 50 spaces is that Ring a bell. Do you know how many how many uh safes? I think it's about 40 regionally. I don't think it's within the city Okay, thank you Are there any other questions? Thank you. Well, thank you so much. I'll keep my Uh expression of gratitude brief, but I really want to say it is amazing how much work you all put in and Thought the thoughtful process is much appreciated um with respect to The increased access to health and hygiene facilities 10 and 11 I guess I'm I'm just wondering because it wasn't clear here um the afc's willingness and capacity to Do something like this a storage or a laundry towel service program if we were to move in that direction Yeah, they do have capacity and interest to do that. Great. Um, and then um, I have a more Complicated question. I think uh related to number 21 mostly number 21 um on the list and having been out and taken the Uh a little a tour around the pogo nip and sycamore grove And then kind of every day one day closer to a drought. I am really very very concerned about this piece of it and so I understand that um moving forward with the policy Is important. I did want to ask if A little bit from the maybe from I don't know um The folks in parks and rack and the police and fire About their um thinking about the you know the potential for implementation I mean, it's a it's going to be a big project to try to address what's going on And I know we kind of talked about it on the tour, but I'd love to just get a quick um response if possible Can I add one point of clarification before I move it to bernie and others? So one thing and this did come up on the site visits and it was a very astute comment and consideration We are highly resource challenged as it relates to enforcement um in terms of our assessment team Megan and my outreach um on a somewhat weekly base basis based on demand And then ultimately between park rangers Our city rangers Officers, etc It is an all-court press out there, but there still is not enough resources And so the way I wanted to kind of set up the context around this is This does not mean that we're clearing out all of these spaces tomorrow. Have you move forward with this? What this means is we don't have to wait for significant public health environmental and safety risks To arise before we can move forward with enforcement Before we can move forward with outreach right now. We have to wait until What you essentially see in the pictures on the previous slides before we can post do a 72 hour post Make sure that we've gone through all of the standard operating procedures and at that time It's pretty logarithmic and scale. We're at a crisis We're at a crisis in terms of how much it's going to cost to remove all that trash We're at a crisis from the level of Um other externalities that are associated with an encampment So um with regards to 21 It really just gives us the ability to make sure that encampments don't grow to the scale that we're seeing in the Pogonin Now and then we can move forward quicker and then I'll let the rest of staff talk about the resources needed Thank you. That was pretty much what I was trying to get at so unless if you have something more you want to say any of The folks representing departments are here, but that was that was what I was trying to get at Thanks I think well, I have one last question, but it's not one that I think I'm gonna put you on the spot to answer right now You know in terms of direction on you know from the council on how you move forward You know, I want to you know world deliberate about that But I really want to I'd like to know what members of the catch feel are the most important things prioritizing moving forward because I'd like to help at least in our the discussion we have help facilitate your process rather than Either you know putting up obstacles or changing course or things like that. So just that's a great question. Thank you I appreciate the question as well. Um, and it's something that uh in our meetings We all have you know, I have something that's important to me. She has something that's important to her And so what you're seeing in front of you is a distillation of all of our what we think is the most important So I personally can't answer that I would add that we worked with staff to compile this list also and so it's representative I think of all of those different perspectives. Um, and I mean I can speak personally that That creating managed shelter space Would alleviate would would enable us to Make movement in so many other areas I'll speak personally too if that's okay My own thoughts, uh, this whole idea about outreach to the community and and having a facilitated process I feel like is a little bit outlandish And also it's very bold and I think it's something that needs to happen to help Um, re-weave the fabric of our community given that word, you know, instigious if you will so sorry that joke A quick question for the city attorney So one of the recommendations I think it's recommendation 18 Says to ensure that daytime use of blankets tarps sunshades and sleeping bags are not restricted Um, and I know that one of the recommendations was that uh the daytime camping item coming back Would that mean that under that recommendation that the tents would be In violation or how would that be interpreted because I know that that's been an issue around um tents being up during the daytime Not I'm not sure how I'm not sure I understand your question Um, currently the code prohibits setting up an encampment um Anytime and so how this would be amended really depends on you know What the council wants to accomplish I think an earlier draft of the camping ordinance that was presented to the council back in November would have allowed people to use blankets and tarps in in city parks During normal daytime use So that's that's something that's um that was contemplated as part of that draft But it really depends on how the council wants to zero in on that issue Thank you Um, I had a question for some of the members of the catch as it relates to the camping ordinance I know that there were some amendments um that were not recommended at this time and that there's um further consideration I think one thing after looking at that list um as it relates to You know as it relates to this idea of taking tents down during the daytime is the aspect of weather and temperature And so I think that if there is going to be a movement on that and there's going to be further discussion Um that that be taken into consideration. So i'm just saying that was a recommendation because um Even when talking to the police chief, I think that you know, if it's pouring down rain for three days It would be inhumane to tell people to take down their tents during the daytime Especially if it's cold and wet because then you know hypothermia death all those things. Thank you I have something to that mayor. So um The catch hasn't had a lot of time to consider this and put this into their deliberations But most other cities so in addition I did not include this as a slide But in addition to my research on kind of what the city council has done through the decades on our camping code other cities that have amended their code to be in um To work within the context of martin versus boise that have daytime restrictions many of them have Um allowances for inclement weather. So I think if you are contemplating any daytime restrictions Make sure that you allow for those Those um considerations as well Thank you Then I guess the only other um Question I had and maybe you know given that you all didn't dive Super deep into this ordinance. It sounds like but we're really trying to address some of the concerns I think another thing that's that's come to my attention from members of the community is that currently there's a part of that ordinance that says that There's day There's a number of day limitations on if somebody has private property and is allowing someone to sleep in their vehicle And so I think that taking that into consideration as well because for example Someone has an rv on their property and if someone sleeps in that rv for more than three days They're actually in violation of this municipal code But some people feel you know if they have Even if it's somebody in from out of town who's visiting and might be sleeping in that rv for for example a month Or whether they're renting it out that this ordinance could inhibit them From being able to allow people to do that and it's their private property. So I think that might be another thing to consider Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, I feel like we did talk about that and that came down to maybe planning department rules I'm not sure if that would uh could be changed via the mechanism of the ordinance or not But we can definitely talk about that. Thank you Council member crown thank you mayor, um I really appreciate the work that you all have done. I mean, it's really comprehensive, you know, but it is funny how History repeats itself and we're kind of back to the future Um, I like the whole thing about bed capacity restrooms hygiene centers public engagement storage trash and neighborhood involvement just like I'm thinking the Way to big thing up here the corridors plan of course neighborhood should be involved in anything that you know happens That's going to affect their their neighborhoods as well and we should do outreach. You never can do enough outreach I agree with you. You don't know which groups you're you're leaving out. Um, I guess I have a few questions for mizzo her How many campsites were found in the pogonip and sycamore grove? Do we have like a ballpark estimate? Like how many people are asleep actually sleeping out there? So yesterday during our council visits, um, we had the opportunity to engage with ron parego's clean team Staff that were out there cleaning up adjacent to highway nine And those folks there were two Men I think it was brad and matt and that we just happenstance. Um, we're there at the same time who have invested hundreds if not thousands of hours into cleaning up the railroad corridor areas of the pogonip And they were asked that question Yesterday from council members and one of them said there's a thousand people up there I don't know if that's true. We have not seen a thousand people But there are likely hundreds of individual camps up up there. Wow. Um, another question that I mean You said there are campsites that should and can stay in place. What does that mean? So what city staff has done with this assessment tool and I can provide that to council members if they're interested is um, taken a pragmatic and objective approach to looking at individual campsites From the perspective of several criteria, um, public safety issues, violence environmental damage considerations proximity to Important infrastructure for instance other areas of concern that The rest of staff have talked about and we have on a scale to from zero to a hundred Levels four levels of action Anything under of 25 points, which means they're not in close proximity to a playground. There is no environmental degradation The camp density is less than three for instance That is not something that we have the resources to move nor really should it Given the fact that we do not have places to direct people. So we have been Working under those guidelines to ensure that we are being careful about how we prioritize a response around complaints Our police department our parks department gets Dozens of complaints a week most likely We do not have the resources nor is it really reasonable nor is it A compatible approach for those that are outside to be moving people along So that assessment tool really gives us this objective criteria. Thanks, and um, I totally Empathize with the highly resource challenge. That's why I like I'm happy to hear that we have a manager Encampment happens that you have folks peer to peer But as well as oversight that the city is going to be involved somewhat that we're going to you know work with folks The uh I'm really wondering about the scenarios like you find someone at 3 a.m In an rv or or camping and you say hey you can go over there You know you can go to the shelter How do they how would they get to the shelter and would the shelter Would the armory accept them in the same thing if we had an rv site would they accept an rv at 3 a.m Also, I think you're getting to the million dollar question is how do we create on-demand space for sheltering and for parking And we don't have capacity like that right now With a hero team with our outreach teams that we have out there with the hopes team, etc There is there are warm handoffs There are not handoffs where most of the time somebody is driven to the location that they need to be When megan and I do outreach we make sure that we have a shuttle with us And we are bringing people for instance from the post office directly to the armory when we have beds available Moving forward. I think what the catch is is recommending to the council is we need to have Some semblance of on-demand sheltering capacity and that's that's different That's a different conversation than what we've had in the past And it's going to require, you know deep conversations with the community around siting around program models This is the stuff that they've just kind of scratched the surface of but ultimately, you know, we need additional capacity Where when somebody is in a situation that potentially is unsafe for them or unsafe for the community We can move them into a space that is not only meeting their needs To exit homelessness, but during critical times in their lives when they're outside and unsheltered that We can provide those services when they need it. Thank you and I have a question for the cash Did you all we we've heard a lot from ucsc the whole slug movement and have you did you have you dealt with that the unhoused students at ucsc right now So our We These take into consideration on how students at ucsc But that's another group that would be ideal to to do outreach with specifically because they have unique needs. Thank you and last one The long-term like strategic plan has that come up and do you all Vision that we're going to have a strategic plan and go sort of goals and move as we move into the future Yeah, so if you see item number 23 Not recommended for consideration at this time that gets at the creation of a strategic plan on homelessness So operational and staffing needs and identifying sites Identify developing a tiny home an affordable housing emergency shelter program and various other items that we haven't had the time to deliberate on yet Okay, i'm really happy to hear about the bathrooms to the four new port of parties and council member you wouldn't mind if I added to that so One thing to consider with regard to strategic planning moving forward and the catch Is very invested in having a unified vision from the city's perspective moving forward Is that there are many different trains going down this track right now? The regionally the county is working with focused strategies to develop a systems approach to Looking at our gaps in our system and creating connections between those That is expected in june or july of this year and that will really be the driver for our regional response to homelessness in addition to that The governor is filtering a lot of funding to the cities and the counties To focus on very specific outcomes that generally speaking are from a state perspective Things that we need to focus on here in santa cruz But not everything that he is suggesting should be funded is stuff that we need right here right now So I do think that um, it is really um We're we're kind of on this threshold to have a much more Collective and coordinated response to homelessness and it would make a lot of sense for the catch to actually Focus a lot of their intention on what what's happening regionally Moving forward rather than just investing in the city's strategic direction Because we could potentially be missing out on funding sources And truly assistance in getting this work done So that you know, I wouldn't want to make sure that they're looking very much towards what's happening regionally I appreciate the honesty here in in this conversation and um And it feels overwhelming and it had no idea that there was hundreds of folks. Maybe maybe hundreds Camping in in pova nipa right now and especially it's been dry for a long time Yeah, if I could just back that up what we're seeing also is this is the tip of the iceberg and um It's a it's a statewide issue as we all know But also it's a national issue and then someone reminded me the other day It's actually a global issue. So just want to bring that up, you know that what we're seeing right now We're dealing with a triage situation. Okay. What can we do right now? But then with the long-term recommendations It's going to be okay. What what's really going to help in the long run? So we're definitely going to bring that to you I'm walking Well, I'll reserve my comments But just start with my expression of gratitude for every one of you and your time and volunteerism and commitment To really dive in really deep into this really complex challenge. So thank you. I'm my sincerest. Thanks to you I um wanted to just sort of and susie you actually spoke about it was really just thinking about the regional kind of conversation and approach as We are one jurisdiction within the county who You know through partnership needs to be addressing these these really complex challenges But as I also was reading through the agenda report in terms of implementation And I was wondering if maybe the city manager could update us on Sort of the status of the position that we allocated funding for and really trying to think about how We as a city are investing in the work that's associated with some of this Yes, I would say that in general As susie pointed out the the city's involvement in an advocacy and in regional Efforts and state efforts is really critical Because part of the solution is going to be Uh involving You know those entities, you know, we have a role to play in homelessness, but it's it's somewhat limited And so without having you know, everyone sort of focus on Really what the role should be and in terms of direct Services as well as other ways to address the issue You know, that's really the most effective thing that we can do is to really Put our work there Having the council as as you noted Approved a position homelessness response manager position that Will be focused on really helping us with a variety of roles. There's the the direct role. There's the coordination role And there's just a lot of work that needs to be done on a day-to-day basis We did go out and do the recruitment. Unfortunately, the initial recruitment was not successful However, we are going back and looking at trying to get that another recruitment going here And so we hope to get that position filled as soon as possible, but unfortunately the first recruitment was just not successful Are there any further comments from council members? We'd like to thank our co-chairs again for the wonderful presentation and our staff and at this time I'd like to invite up the public for public comment And so there are two people who requested extra time And we'll start with Brent Adams from the warming center if Brent Adams is here Okay, since he's not we'll move on to our second presentation From surge cagno with stepping up santa Cruz and surge you'll have four minutes And then for the rest of the public if you Would like to line up to the left We will have you We'll have the public the rest of public comment after this presentation Made a power point. I hope you enjoy it Last week I went to The national conference to end homelessness up in oakland 1,200 people from around the country It's one of the biggest things It caused like 800 dollars. I got a scholarship for it I think you guys should go if you are interested in this stuff And it was sold out so staff city staff didn't get signed up because it was sold out And I got to meet some great people one of the best things that I learned about is whenever somebody tries something in a different place The lessons learned in it. You know what worked. Oh, this is this is really great. This is what worked for us Oh, don't do that. We tried that that didn't work like that's super useful knowledge People who gave presentations from san francisco was the guy in charge of homelessness in san francisco Guy in charge of homelessness in oakland and the one in charge of homelessness in In philadelphia too gave large presentations on what worked and didn't work for them For them it was very clearly you have to have a strategic plan With the county has an all-in plan The the city is sort of reactive and we have all sorts of different stuff So the city needs its own because we don't have the all-in plan for ourselves Uh San francisco had some amazing tactical meetings where Everybody was in the room not just city staff the county staff the nonprofits Everybody was there every week and they talked about the assessments and they talked about for the encampments And they talked about what are we doing and who knows those people and stuff like that Opening those into a more collaborative kind of meeting San francisco, I asked the guy in charge of san francisco He said I could go up in a couple weeks and watch one of those meetings I invite city staff and anybody else who wants to go up there. I'll be going up in a couple weeks And oakland does some tours I asked them to if we could come up in a couple weeks again Some cao staff are going to be coming up with me anybody else wants to please come with Very clearly everybody was saying that social media must be used to educate and engage the community Last year our heap money was actually we allocated a hundred thousand for miller maxfield to actually do engagement in our county The city and the official staff social media should be in line with that Yeah Because we have a lot of discord and it's there's a lot of misinformation in a lot of the discord Very clearly san francisco all of the big cities They were saying engagement rates of those who are homeless are directly proportional to how welcoming you are to get them into the shelters And engagement rates immediately drop when they were forced to switch to an enforcement policy When a mayor changed in san francisco or something like that The percentage of people who chose to go to the shelter or something like dropped from like 85 to 58 and then when they just kept going down Shelter provides safety was something that people said at the conference It was just a tag line and they kept saying houses solve homelessness. So yeah, we need more houses. Totally true There's another idea of diversion Homeward bound that we do that's a cheap fix and that's great when that works homeless prevention is probably the best thing But i'm going to poke at that first phrase up there for a minute Um So low barrier shelter is what we want because we want people to get into the shelters right now We have space at the armory and no one some people We can't fill it because people don't want it Low barrier is not just allowing pets Partners and possessions which fit on your lap to go up there. There's lower low barrier is actually a philosophy Low barrier is the philosophy that unnecessary rules keep people out of shelters get people kicked out of shelter and make Shelter unwelcoming So turning that whole idea around of how do we get people into the shelters? Keep only the rules you need for safety anything else Not sure that you need it because You'll be stop your choice if you can finish your last sentence and if you're wrapping it up Um, I'll pop through it and I'll stop talking so much Whatever you want or I can do it the seven o'clock thing, but you guys are going to have your decisions Yeah, I can't let I can't give you the extra but You know, I think what will be great is if you could provide This slide deck to the city council and so we could have it available for the public so that we can see the rest sure I can't okay. I'm sorry the idea is outreach first with people that are dressed in uniforms even if they're well intentioned is not Trauma informed Collaborating with the county because the county wants to do these services. We just got to allow them into the room Thank you. That's it. Sorry. I took so long. I hope you like the slides Thank you I'll have our first speaker come up. You'll have two minutes. Hi. I'm here. Do I have two minutes? I'm here on behalf of the um mutual aid working group of the democratic socialists of america and I just want to reiterate what sir Ches said about emphasizing outreach and having a true low barrier shelter and I think what's important here is that you Honor the spirit of the martin versus boise decision rather than finding ways to find n runs around it We I have lived here in santa cruz for 25 years and I have seen you know Waxing and waning regimes of Cracking down quote-unquote increasing criminalization of homelessness And I have seen that that approach has been completely ineffective in addressing human needs And I think that's what you need to prioritize now is Really addressing human needs of homeless people you are dealing with Years and years of neoliberal policies that have decreased the rights of workers Have seen no increase in wages. We have 41 million americans living in poverty We have to get away from the thought that there's some Personal failing that have brought people into homelessness. It is The way we have structured society and the way we have prioritized Policing and incarceration over meeting human needs that has led us to this problem and you Have taken on public service. It's a difficult problem, but you need to Meet it head on and you need to not listen to the fear mongers and those who don't Understand the complexities All right next speaker Okay, first I just want to thank the members of the cash, especially the homeless members who attended and Participated I just think that you know I'm hearing Susie come around to a place that we were advocating A long long time ago and on one level you want to say well That's just saying I told you so but In in in a certain way there's been an incredible Resistance to helping homeless people in this city. That's why I'm here Because there are also more homeless activists who work for the homeless For homeless people's rights and needs in this city than almost any other city in the united states That's why i'm here So back in my career when I was taught by some people who are advocating for our clients We're in the mental health system They taught us about a kind of dichotomy that was us and them Us and them I'm still feeling homeless people being referred to in this presentation as them Them over there not me I'm housed. I'm privileged Does that mean the cash hasn't done excellent work here? I actually feel surprised at how much Excellent work they've done and the recommendations But I have to tell you as an activist for the since 2009 who's donated Thousands of hours for free I felt snubbed at the beginning of this formulation of this committee And in fact it was said that we they didn't want to hear from the same old people So I just want to say um Specifically attorney kandadi showed up to catch meetings I went for about two and two and a half months to catch meetings He's specifically showed up to advocate a position of undermining martin versus boise And the wisdom council is not grassroots. I've heard that it cost over 300 dollars to participate There is a fierce lobbying effort made. I don't think it's a grassroots model Please do not go with the wisdom council. It's offensive to me a true grassroots activist yep Thanks speaker Okay, hi carrot philip I find the guiding principles of the cash report lacking basic perspective Welfare is a responsibility the fed and the state it's in section eight of the constitution The city's taxes are regressive. They're not based on progressive new wealth creation And incompatible with anything other than a pay-for-service model the homeless provide no service So we're not buying it all services and public property use should be designed for all residents to be able to equally use And be what all the residents people want need and are willing to pay for free from violations of endable rights Permanent public space space squatters criminals litterers drug addicts and those who otherwise constitute a threat to the public safety or moral decay I reject the catches recommendations almost entirely It does not acknowledge that the extraordinary homeless population percentage here is due to forces that have attracted and maintained this population Just here. There was no attempt to identify the reason But I think it is lenient government policy itself and the militant activists nonprofits that seem not to mind turning this city into a Greater cesspool of dependence any restraints on police Contact or unacceptable Nothing prevents you from declaring large swaths of the city off limits to camping now You should do so You should seek federal state county money to exclusively fund new homeless services And put it just outside the city where the goal of reducing the extraordinary homeless density here to state averages Just satisfy martin versus boise until homeless ratios resemble state averages Then enact and enforce full no camping in the city The nonprofits can commute if they like there's no limit to private charity But yeah, there is if it harms and denies the individual rights of others to their use of public spaces or safety Logarian campments have no time limits or expectations of transition to anything and will be very difficult to disband They do not promote responsible moral improvement Do not give up an inch of city property or money to sanction homelessness beyond martin versus boise Thank you Our next speaker Good afternoon, mayor Cummings members of the council. I'm jm brown chair of your parks and recreation commission Let me begin by thanking you for reappointing me to that commission Last month. It's a wonderful way to serve our community My request is really simple today I sent an email to you as did one of my fellow commissioners jillian greensight We're simply requesting that any of the recommendations that you consider this afternoon or in any future meetings relative to Camping activity or safe sleeping, etc. Some more activities in our parks and our open spaces in terms of sanction permitted uses that you would respectfully Have the parks and recreation commission Just review those actions to provide some recommendations to you So thank you for your time Thank you Our next speaker Hi, my name is pat powers. I live in the west side of santa cruz. Um, just a few things Um, first I went to one of these cash meetings and uh, it was a mess There was so much in fighting in between all of the members there that nothing got accomplished It was the one at the vets. I'm not sure if they all were there. Um and then just second is is Before we like go and adopt all of these these resolutions and amendments to stuff is uh, have we ever really Had a real discussion on Why we're such a magnet for for for the homeless problem? I mean just in general and it's and it's been that way for 30 something years and and and what it is about Santa Cruz is that we're doing most of the burden sharing around here, right? And um So, you know, one of the things I think is is maybe we do too much, right? You know, maybe maybe we're we're doing too much and the other you know other cities counties aren't participating as well um and then um I went to a meeting and then the police department has a lot of recommendations on enforcement I do believe enforcement works. Um And then lastly, um We have an election coming up and I don't think you guys should be passing any resolutions right now until after the election So, thank you Next speaker Mr. Mayor council members. It's great to be here. It's great to see you again. Mr. Mayor met you at a Catch meeting which I really enjoyed I'm very passionate and excited people here and I think that's great Um, I have the honor of overseeing a team of about 17 18 people who reach out to our unhoused neighbors We're called dignity on wheels and we're part of we hope we hope is an organization That's been ministering to the poor about 15 20 years here in the bay area and over that time We've been able to touch the lives of 7 000 unduplicated people, but only two In this county and I'm hoping that we can we can change that I appreciate the approach that you're taking because you're not just talking about showers and laundry Which are helpful, but case management as well. That's what we do our goal that we hope is to Help our unhoused neighbors become healthy employed and housed We've got at this point five trucks six trailers and we want to serve in more counties in the bay area And I just want to just give you a picture of some of the things that we've been able to do But you can't do anything So with with with our partners We have a brand new case manager her name's jasmine her first day in oakland She realized that the best way to help this particular client was to get him into a detox center So she researched him found a center that day that that person was in a detox center because that was the best thing for this this person particular client another one of our Case managers was trying to help a client get how he has an interesting name I can't tell it to you, but we'll say he calls himself cab Callaway Mr. Callaway probably has a sense of humor, which is good because he's been through a lot In and out of homelessness for eight years But we found him at the the case manager found him a senior facility in his community in oakland He's on the list and should be housed within the next, you know, two or three Months we're excited about that and at our staff meeting We're going to go crazy when he gets housed because that's what we do when people get housed I certainly hope that you'll adopt the recommendations of the catch team And if we get a chance to be your partners, we would be thrilled. Thank you very much. Yeah Greenwood fallen. Thank you for serving um, I've sat through all the catch meetings and One of the comments the catch member made who's had his career in government agencies said You got to understand. It's like a herd of turtles in a bucket of peanut butter. That's how things move, right? So I remain a strong advocate for the citizen's civic wisdom council Drawn by random selection It's an extraordinary model for participatory democracy and it has a track record in municipalities for quantum leaping The whole community elected officials and the population Into a whole new Oh, we could do this So I'm that voice. Thank you I did attend the cash meeting meeting the other night and you guys I can tell I've done a lot of work I really appreciate that my family's been in Santa Cruz for five generations All of which who have fished the San Lorenzo river for steel hit My family tells me now there is filth and encampments along the banks of the river But I'm too afraid to walk there and see it myself So as I drive to harvey west park, I see all the garbage. I'm kind of getting the story. They're telling me Um, when I walk main beach seabed beaches, I always find needles now. I kind of understand why when I was a kid I got to run barefoot on these beaches and now I always wear shoes I was taught that beaches rivers forests and parks are places we all shared and never ever do we leave garbage behind Um, our neighbor isn't safe a neighborhood isn't safe either We walk out to our sidewalk in front of our house feces toilet paper and needles This is in our neighborhoods on the west side I'm trusting the city council to make a decision that would protect the city as a whole And keep Santa Cruz safe for all of us, especially our children and please don't let people park in our camp in our parks I just I like the managed part you guys got that I'm very happy because that was something that You guys talked about at cash and I really appreciate that so please listen to us the ones that do pay taxes I am not a privileged person Not all my family has houses here even though we've lived here for you know for a long time And I just want to feel safe in my hometown. Thank you Yeah next speaker Good afternoon first um, I just want to read I just want to emphasize and I think most of my Peers would agree with me. We don't have anything against people without permanent housing We have problems with the behaviors associated with People who don't have housing and choose to be or live outside I mean if the home if the this broad term homeless folks If they were like boy scouts pitched their tent cleaned up after themselves left it cleaner than they left then when they first arrived We wouldn't be here we would be opening our bathrooms and kitchens and you know facilities and to these folks because They just it's just about civil behavior So I just let's emphasize that we keep using this term homelessness, which means somebody without a house Therefore they're bad. Well, that's not true But has we have to address and recognize the behaviors the nuisance behaviors that typically go along with What I think is Somewhere close to the majority of homeless folks at least in this town and Going back to look at these recommendations. It looks like that's more about where not Where you can camp As opposed to where you can't camp and I'd rather see it flipped such that we have here are Certain areas. I mean, I'm all for the encampment model properly managed, of course, but let's identify those areas for managed camping As opposed to the towns And we haven't seen the maps. I don't believe we haven't seen the you know The overlay is where what you know designated areas and non designated areas But it seems like it's more about it's it's more towards You can this is where you you can't camp as opposed to this is the few areas you can um and the other and lastly again just Oh, well next time. Thank you My name is Lee Broca and I finally got my opening Uh during the last campaign campaign cycle at one of the forums, uh woman stood up And um is now one of my heroes and she said I don't want to hear any more about needles in parks Until I hear about needles in bedrooms If you are a IV drug user Are you going to put your used needle in your trash? With your discarded mail With your name and address on it I don't think so Blaming the needle trash on the homeless is an easy out And it's wrong Let's get real the people that have houses in this community have disposable income They are the people who are investing in drugs They are the people who bring the drugs into this city and distribute them It is not the homeless people They're homeless because they don't have money I mean Is this really hard to understand? Apparently so Thank you My name is Amy Chen Mills naeem. I'm a member of the catch I was on the community outreach subcommittee And I just wanted to say a couple things because I heard for the first time at this meeting That the homeless coordinator position I'm not sure if I have the title exactly correct has not been filled And we were counting on that position to be the position that had Time allocated to do more community engagement because community engagement is really an intensive Time intensive effort, especially the kind of engagement we need now On these issues that are arising in front of this body. So That's why we also included that budget of 10 000 for something to be able to hire someone In cases coordinator didn't have the time or in case they weren't hired at this point So I just want to share that also there is an exhibit on the wisdom councils Attached to your packet a lot of us did a lot of intensive Going to a dynamic facilitation process and going through df training. We're happy to answer questions I'm happy to answer questions or come into meetings and talk to you about this process One thing I would say is that the kind of conversation that needs to happen It can't be this it can't be I have two minutes and then my alarm goes off And I don't hear anything about what the reaction was from anybody. I have no idea if anything landed So we have to have community engagement that is Dynamic back and forth allows for emotions and allows for us to come to alignment as a community I'm having said that we are going to still be doing a community listening forum As part of the catch will be putting this on and we're going to be setting a date Next week and we'll be letting you know about that and that's a way for us to start to really try to Come together and have community dialogue That is not maybe so formal as this and even as the catch because even though the catch is a subcommittee it's still sort of Stilton in a way like like this forum is and um, thank you so much. Thank you Hi there. I'm Ralfa Sonnenfeld. I'm also on the catch I just wanted to remind the council and the public that The camping ordinance is not and should not be the entire City policy regarding People experiencing homelessness. It's it's simply a tool in the much broader Toolbox of of Methods that we we have to better manage the the our homelessness system in the city I just wanted to emphasize that and Let you know that I'm advocating for us to continue to move forward with really robust specific Strategic action plans where there the city is accountable. There are individual staffers who are accountable to Moving the conversation and and the plan forward to getting more indoor shelter getting more Designating the places that people are allowed to be and I think until we have all of that it's it's going to be really challenging to Do the enforcement that we want to do but we need to we need to recognize that in the short term enforcement is important and You have a difficult job in front of you to try to balance all of that, but we need to keep our eye on the prize which is Having a comprehensive Strategic plan for for dealing with our unchiltered homelessness. Thank you So I realize that oh, I'm sorry go ahead please Hi, I'm elizia soras or alley or alley cat or whichever those three work Um, I am a member of I am on the catch committee and I just want to say There was a lot of things that um in the report at least for me personally that say further discussion I'm all for oh snap. I really like that oh snap overall homeless strategic needs action plan. Um It needs it needs to be implemented along and within building these safe sleep sites right now where people are allowed to be While bigger and longer projects are are ongoing progressive development. I have notes Um And I'm a homeless woman by the way, and I've been homeless since um 2017 um I'm currently housed in transitional housing But that's due to run out in november with no place else to go But the time for change is now because there's no longer room for personal feelings and bias Towards the demonized population that I I live in With the legal language and decisions that have recently been enacted Now is the time there's never going to be another time like right now To make a huge dramatic change in the lives of homeless people There's a bunch of heterophics out there and I get it. They don't understand it. They've probably never been there But as you move forward in making decisions and thinking about things that you are going to enact or not If that was your son or your daughter in that tent, how would you want them to be treated? because The the trauma of being homeless is one thing Most of the time we're not living up to our own standards, let alone anybody else's So and I'm not for lawlessness for homelessness. I mean Just because we're homeless. We're not outside of the law But um, let's see what else that I wanted to say Um Not only the trauma of being a becoming homeless and I'll wrap this up um people need to realize I read some of those 256 emails that got sent and um It's very disheartening to me Because that that traumatizes homeless people further which will lead them to more mental health issues and drug and alcohol abuse Thank you. Thank you All right, um, I just noticed well I'd like to ask if is there any other member of the public who would like to address us on this issue with the exception of Brent Adams Okay, saying none Brent Adams requested additional time of four minutes as a representative of the warming center and you can please approach the podium My macbook pro 2013 will not support the uh Software that will allow me to watch this online and request that the city Have a much better appropriate manner for the community to view these online I had got a text and that informed me about to be to be here right now. I thank you for for that Many many years as a citizen Uh interacting with council in the community Trying to build up a concept called transitional encampments We actually in Santa Cruz are responsible for the successes in Seattle Eugene Olympia Because of the work we've done here even though we had so much resistance. We couldn't establish them here Uh for former uh earlier councils went all the way to navigation center day services. We still haven't seen these interim shelters Plan after plan after plan council people come by it's such a quickening rate that uh, there's There's complete political amnesia. We even forgotten that this time last year. We voted unanimously for a transitional encampment Uh for all the work that it's going to just get trashed in 20 recommendations in 2017 hygiene centers electronic charging storage programs Instead we work on the bureaucratic behind the scenes stuff Letting the needs of people outside go unmet by this council by this government by the county Storage program finally we built it up 300 people on our shelves tonight Laundry 60 people recently. We just we're serving almost 200 people now total with laundry Charging stations for anybody who comes in the door Uh and and finally showers Have members of the catch the hygiene committee even looked in on us. No, they've refused And we're not quite sure why this is but when we talk about the recommendations for safe sleeping now, this is Brilliant Finally, we're going all the way to the bottom Lowest competent nominators said people are sleeping outside. We need a plan for every single person If we are the community city city council or not Engage in raising that floor of experience up from people suffering in doorways to something more dignifying clean and safe Then we're not doing our work What we as a nonprofit warming center are trying to reflect to you the council the community at large is scalability We are forcing people to sleep outside because of lack of housing because of the few numbers of shelter beds You and we all are forcing people outside salvation armly only has 50 people for the for the Untold Hundreds of thousands of dollars in the armory only has 50 people regardless that you were told 80 people Where is the accountability? So we're actually forcing people outside It's the rest of those that you have to think about with some recommendations about some clearheadedness and we advocate For transitional encampments because this is the number one most successful sheltering concept in the entire country even better than navigation centers in terms of healing the inner person Because of the engagement that the person is involved in interpersonal support So I don't know where you're going to go with this. I know that there's a big backlash No other creative responses. So here's a community group after three years ago A coordinating committee with their recommendations that seemingly have gone away an all-in 10-year plan called all in Towards the home for every resident. We don't even talk about housing first anymore. The whole thing Is kind of a sham. So what we need to do is engage as a community As a city council as a two by two as a county on what are the basic unmet needs housing first be damned We know it's a bridge to nowhere But what are we going to do to minister to the needs of the people suffering outside now and that's your charge. Thank you Looks like there's a couple more people who'd like to Address us on this topic. So you'll have two minutes Good afternoon. I'm scott graham 20 years ago there was a I don't know what they called it back then some sort of committee about homelessness and One of the suggestions that they put forward was moving the homeless garden to pogunip That was 20 years ago. It still hasn't happened I don't think anything else on the list that that group put forward has happened And I doubt anything that the that this current group puts forward had this report when it's finished Will be put on a shelf somewhere gathering dust What's important here is to do something To help the least fortunate people in this town There's elderly people Living on the sidewalks in this town and it's not just this town its towns all over america And this is you know, we're supposedly this great country and we can't even Take care of our Most needy citizens.  I mean there's children that are homeless I you don't see them a lot because Their families are smart enough to keep them out of the limelight most of the time because They might get snatched by cps and sold to some other family, which is a common practice here in santa Cruz county So it's really Up to you as a council to come up with a plan To to take some of the uh advice from this Committee and from other committees in the past and actually do something You know have have a transitional encampment somewhere, you know 20 years ago the The private campground up by Pogan up was for sale and a number of us advocated that the city by that campground as a homeless Camp encampment and it didn't happen. We'd be so much far far ahead if that had happened Yeah, hello, I'm Maggie Duncan merrill. I'm the third district representative for the county parks commission And I'm here to speak in um in defense of parks parks are places that people go to to get healthy and stay fit Parks are protected public lands. They improve water quality protect groundwater prevent flooding Improve the quality of the air we breathe provide vegetative buffers to development Produce habitat for wildlife and provide a place for children and families To connect with nature and recreate outdoors together According to studies by the center of disease control and prevention creating improving and promoting places to be physically active Can improve individual and community health parks provide gathering places for families and social groups as well as for individuals Of all ages and economic status regardless of their ability to pay for access Our public parks are not for private use. This is established clearly in california law division five parks and monuments According to the public resources code regarding the preservation of parks No city county city and county county public district or agency of the state including any division department or agency Of the state government or public utility shall acquire by purchase Exchange condemnation or otherwise any real property which property is in use as a public park at the time of such Acquisition for the purpose of utilizing any such property For any non park issue unless the acquiring entity pays or transfers the legislative body Of the entity operating the park to offer the use of our public parks Safe sleeping sites essentially makes the sleeping space provided a private space No longer usable by the public who funds these parks Sectioning off our public parks for private use is not legal and therefore not an option to remedy our homeless crisis Please stop offering our public parks for homeless camps. It's not what our community wants It's not legal and it's an abuse of power to try to force this upon our community. Thanks for your time Ask that members of the public Excuse me. I'm going to ask the members of the public. Please be respectful towards other members of our community We have to respect everyone's opinion as well as they should respect our so Bring it back to council if there's no further comments from the public on this item It seemed like maybe one of our co-chairs wanted to say something earlier or had a comment Yeah, please. I'm sorry. I just I realized that um, fred kealy who has been instrumental to our group wasn't Given a chance to speak and I was wondering if we could have just a minute or two for him to say some remarks Sure. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Mayor members of the city council city staff and uh members of th