tion 8 tenants and on the the fewer protection side They obviously spoke with the one the desire to have parity And not have section 8 tenants have fewer protections than non section 8 counterparts With respect to more protections. They saw that as a disincentive for the landlords and I'll quickly go through A bit here that was included in the staff report And that was the housing authority staff report states the number of section 8 families that could be harmed by discouraging landlords from renting section 8 Tenants is greater than the number of section 8 tenants that face default termination of their rental agreement At at any given point in time There are hundreds of families searching for a unit with a landlord who will accept a section 8 voucher And then the report goes on to state that countywide there were 64 new section 8 landlords added just in the last two months which um, I thought was very impressive number and That and I'm quoting again now that although adding additional protections for section 8 voucher holders would be well intentioned It is likely to have unintended consequences and could potentially do more harm than good by undermining our efforts to encourage landlord participation and so the That gets to their recommendation of board actually recommended an equivalent amount of protections between section 8 and non section 8 tenants and that is what our staff recommendation mirrors and They recommended that and as do staff recommend that Just cause eviction and relocation assistance protections be included but not rent control protections the the board Conversation focused around there already being a sufficient amount of rental cost increased protections for section 8 tenants um, and so staff agrees with that recommendation and that brings us to the options that the council has the council specifically directed us to evaluate these additional protections For section 8 tenants not just just cause eviction, but four months relocation assistance payment within 15 days of giving notice and first right of refusal Not including rent control and having retroactivity to september 1st of 2019 because this goes above and beyond the non section 8 protections staff is not recommending this option The second option is protections equivalent to The ab 1482 protection. So that would provide just cause eviction protections for section 8 tenants both project based and housing choice voucher recipients Um, and it would provide one month of relocation assistance no rent control and would also have Retroactivity back to september 1st of 2019. So we're recommending that a simple ordinance and in fact an urgency ordinance that I'll get to in a moment that Mirrors the Just cause eviction and relocation assistance protections from 1482 And that is consistent with the housing authority boards recommendation So urgency ordinance or not both of those two options in your agenda packet You've got four ordinance that four ordinances. That's because for each of those options You have a regular ordinance and an urgency ordinance The regular ordinance assuming council acted upon it tonight as a first reading and then Approved it on december 10th that would take effect on january 9th. It's 30 days after the regular ordinance final adoption That would mean that eviction notices made from september 1st through october 11th could be valid for section 8 tenants section 8 requires a 90 day Notification period prior to an eviction and therefore That that time gap between september 1st and october 11th Anyone receiving a notice during that time could still be valid This action would only require four votes from the council staff is actually recommending that you take the option to urgency ordinance which would take effect immediately And that would that would close that gap. So It would revert back to september 1st and Anyone who received a eviction notice on or after september 1st would have These rules apply That requires five votes from the council. And so Depending on how the council wants to go And and how many votes there are for that. There are options for you So with that staff is recommending the urgency ordinance mirroring ab 1482 with the provisions providing just cause eviction and relocation assistance Equivalent to one month's rent be adopted by the council And we're available for any questions that you may have Let me first say thank you for within the short time frame Consulting with some of our experts and community members on this topic. We want to make informed decisions and i'm really happy you were able to and And also show appreciation to the HUD board for scheduling a special meeting to take this this topic up and provide input to us So i'll go ahead and see if any of my colleagues have questions at this time And thank you Gretchen for being here as well if there's any questions or input also for you councilmember matthews Someone asked me this question which had not occurred to me in terms of the relocation assistance Is it the amount full amount of the rent or of the amount that the section 8? person receives That's a good question. I would say that it is the full amount of the rent and we could clarify that in the ordinance Yes, I think that that should be clarified Any other questions at this time? Seeing them maybe we'll go ahead and open it up to the community to see if there's any public input on this topic Please come forward and you'll have up to two minutes as somebody who has 38 section 8 tenants across three counties have been doing it for about 30 years I have quite a bit of experience with this and Um Come understand section 8 is a government program and we landlords do have a hab contract about a five six page Hab contract housing assistance payments. That is with the government HUD Which details a lot of? Guidelines and rules and protections as for the tenants and as lee said yes, they have we have to give a 90 day notice for No cause eviction right now For um A cause eviction, you know one there was a breach of lease nonpayment rent. That's just as the same as any other tenant basically But the real troubling thing here was the um Yeah, the four months relocation is Really going to spook landlords into accepting section 8 tenants Especially if it's I mean on the one hand they're A lot of it's going to pay the majority most of the time the majority is getting paid by section 8 And um, I have tenants paying two dollars a month one tenant pays two dollars a month So why are you not burning the government for that four months? Um For their share if you will it just opens all kinds of Just unintended consequences, but the key thing is um Just speaking on behalf of section 8 tenants and You know encouraging more landlords to accept it and I've had great success with the with the program Putting something like that would really just throw cold water on anybody's um any landlords uh desire to take a section 8 tenant Thank you, that's all I have I'd also support option 2 um And in in addition to this maybe you guys haven't spoken about it But the housing authority for somebody a landlord taking section 8 They have new program that somebody gets just two thousand dollars just to sign up somebody for section 8 And the twenty five hundred dollars as an extra security deposit in case they have to evict and stuff So it does cover that so their ideas Of fearing that you put extra protection and people not Choosing to take section 8 like that's a serious fear There was recently sb 329 was passed october 8th It was a state law that says you can't discriminate based on how someone's paying If you go on craigslist right now and you search for section no section 8 you'll find in santa Cruz I found 17 just now it'd be really cool if as you're trying to protect section 8 stuff Figure out who's supposed to enforce that because the state's not doing that Thanks All right next speaker Luckily the previous gentleman said the same things that I was going to say about new laws Preventing discrimination against section 8. They at least can't Actually state it out loud and they still happen So just want to say I'm in I'm in favor of doing the urgency Adopting the urgency ordinance I do worry about Creating environment where it's harder to get section 8 tenants Um Going from having the voucher to being in a place But I I don't I don't know the dynamics of that. So At the very least has support option two And i'm not against option one either Thank you Any other members okay, please come forward and you'll be our last speaker Good evening scott ram This is a real balancing act because if you put in too harsh of a penalty on the landlords Then there's going to be fewer and fewer landlords that are going to be willing to take section 8 And as it is right now People get section 8 certificates and are unable to find a landlord to take those um, I believe that the Veterans groups have been given a large number of uh section 8 vouchers just for veterans And they're not being used because they can't find places that will take it And so I would discourage you from doing anything that's going to Decrease the number of landlords that are willing to take section 8 Because it's already hard enough for people on section 8 to find a place and um It's uh You know a difficult thing if somebody's Kicked out, you know Evicted from a section 8 housing Then find another one. So I think you know like what was stated earlier that People that lose their section 8 housing end up homeless more often than not And I would encourage you to uh Go with the emergency option number two. Thank you Did you want to come forward please? Good evening council. Um, mayor wackens I wasn't going to speak tonight unless somebody had a question and I'm still available for questions if you do But what I wanted to just mention to you is that if we are correct At crla the the the new law already applies to section 8 voucher holders Then by adopting this option and not including the rent control You're actually disadvantageing the section 8 voucher holders So I've mentioned this because I'm pretty sure this is not is not something you're intending to do But it's something that could happen if If you adopt this option without the rent control as part of it And I wanted to say about section 8 That about section 8 housing choice vouchers That although when people first lease up There is a limit on how much rent can be charged But thereafter the landlord can raise the rent and if it Exceeds what the housing authority or HUD has said is the appropriate standard Then that increase is borne by the tenant. That's not something that the that the landlord Pays for or that the housing authority pays for so in fact section 8 housing choice voucher holders Are affected by rent increases So just wanted to throw that out there in case it's something you haven't considered and as I say happy to answer any questions Thank you very much We'll go ahead and return back for council action by smear commies. Yep So I actually had the opportunity to meet with jenny panetta and and share the same concerns around making sure that That we're not discouraging people from landlords in particular from taking on Um the section 8 housing voucher, so I'm prepared to um Make a motion to approve Option two the urgency ordinance to provide the same eviction protections To all section 8 tenants available to non section 8 tenants under ab 1482 and and then in addition to this Through our conversation Through the conversation I had with jenny panetta the housing board is actually going to be working with the county And the community action board to develop a relocation assistance program for no fault eviction and low-income tenants And so i'm going to add that we direct staff to work with Those same partners the county housing authority community action board To develop a relocation assistance program for no fault no fault evicted low-income tenants to return as part of the 2020 2021 budget with a progress report to council at the second meeting in january I'll second that Motion by vice mayor coming seconded by council member brown further discussion council member brown. I do have a question now As a follow-up to um miss reagan hearts Because now I am concerned that we may be doing something that is Yeah, that is Disadvantaging section 8 tenants vis-a-vis other tenants So um before we take a vote. I wanted to try to clarify this Because I if I if I read that correctly then that may be what we're doing, but then there's also the um Factor that state law supersedes local Local law so I don't know that we could actually make create a weaker 1482 We could I suppose for this short period of four months Which I don't want to do but I just want to get some clarification on that before we move ahead So I believe um, we've got some draft language that we could add to address Both your concern council member brown and your concern council member matthews So at the end of uh, 21.07.010 that speaks to Amending ab 1482 protections or excuse me extending ab 1482 protections to section 8 tenants Two sentences could be added and I can email those over in a moment They would be a full month rent shall be provided for relocation assistance Including both the tenants portion of the payment and the voucher amount That addresses council member matthews question And then to address the concern that was raised from the crla and council member brown Any rent control protections that section 8 housing choice voucher holders are afforded by ab 1482 shall also be applied to such section 8 housing choice tenants And that way if it is determined That they are in fact clickable Then um That would give them the same protections um and and not a reduced amount And our attorney's taking a quick a quick look at that and I'll email it over to bonnie to put on the screen Thank you for the creative Fixed to hopefully mitigate what could potentially be an unintended consequence from this potential action Did you have a question councillor? Uh, just on the language. Um I wonder if you would consider just uh saying to uh direct staff to uh work with the others to explore a relocation assistance program To return for consideration As part of the 2021 because we already have other housing. I mean, we just want to see where that fits in with the other stuff So if you don't mind those two Okay, is that so Yeah, but if I could make a comment about this, I'd like to just really quickly You know, I have been since during my time on the council have advocated for Uh, the city establishing some kind of relocation assistance fund and this came up initially when uh there were tenants facing evictions due to Red tags on properties and I know that that is a it's an ongoing concern And and so I I do really want to advocate for moving forward with this exploration and and providing us Uh a report back so that we can we can move ahead I think the community action board does a great job with their relocation assistance program having worked right next door to the Shelter project when I worked at cab. I know that um They're very effective and I appreciate that the housing authority is looking to Potentially use some of its resources to make a contribution I'd love to see us do that as well and the and the county. Maybe we could incentivize the county by Stepping up. So I just wanted to say that now because it won't come back to us for a while But um, I I'm okay with the language change So as long as we move forward and consider this So those will be um added to the motion as accepted by the vice mayor and the second or council member I'll also say part of accepting that is that you know, we get a report back in january That'll inform kind of the potential for this to happen. And so That's the reminders I just have a question. Do we have our do we have a relocation assistance program now? I thought we did I just wanted to make sure what yeah, I know but I'm just We do we provide funding to cab for a relocation assistance We have funding. Yeah, we have programs with cab and the housing authority and I have just a brief overview of those just for this context for cab We also we give 11,000 of red cross funding and additional 30 000 through the core funding To cab for relocation, which is the eviction prevention program basically and it provides up to three months Rent and then additionally through the housing authority. We give 110,000 Through our programs, which are the emergency security deposit program which Both is for security deposits, but also in in a situation can also Sometimes be considered and used as last most rent and then for the landlord incentive program We have 22 22,500 for that which is can be used for security deposit and sometimes also as a last month's rent And then we also have Oh, uh, then 19 19 and a half thousand to crla for tenant related counseling related to evictions and and Rental rental issues so all together we have and I think in this context we can we can work with that But we provide from the city funding Just shy of 200 000 related to tenant protections And I just have I guess for the makers of the motion is is the intent Is it a different relocation or would it be consistent with the kinds of things that we're doing right now? So just continuing the conversation and looking at potentially broadening that okay. Thank you. And then I just have a One potential change on the findings. So I'm looking at 17.16 on item l I know we've received some communication both from the planning director as well as Others there's language in here that That no fault eviction notices and threats of eviction have surged and I'm not sure that we have experienced that At least in some of the research and and calls that I've made More near if we could change that finding to read instead of having and threats of evictions have surged The language we would read have been brought to the attention of the council I just want to make sure that based on what we're adopting that we have and also just Respecting some of the information that the housing authority has put in their document I just want to make sure that we're tracking with the best practices that keep that provide the most protection for For people Mr. Gonzalez, do you want to speak to that? I I think council member mayer's Proposed language is more accurate than the finding that that's in The current draft. So I think that's a good suggestion. Okay, great Is that accepted by the makers of the motion? Okay. Great. All right. Um, any further discussion seeing none all those in favor Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That passes unanimously We have one item that was continued and that's item number 18 And that will be continued to january 28th 2020. Do we need a motion on that? No, okay. Just so you know, okay. Great. Thank you So we'll go ahead and reconvene until our evening item 7 p.m. Is oral communication 7 30 is our evening item There will be overflow available at our civic if need be So we'll adjourn for now Wow, I know I didn't know If I could get your attention, please. Thank you very much All right. Um, go ahead and ask that you uh, stop your conversations. I'll go ahead and call our meeting to order Um, good evening everybody. I want to welcome you to our 7 p.m. Session of the november 26 2019 meeting of the santa cruz city council Before we begin i'll go ahead and announce that we do have overflow available at the tony hill room At the civic center if needed. No, we don't the main hall. I'm sorry. Excuse me at the main hall if necessary Um, okay. We'll go ahead and ask our clerk to please call the roll Thank you council members crone here lover here liars here brown here Matthews is here Vice mayor Cummings and mayor Watkins here So we're on the portion where we're having oral communications I'll go ahead and remind folks that oral communications is an opportunity for members of the community to speak to us on items That are not on today's agenda Um, if I could get a sense of how many members of the community are here for oral oral communications Okay, eventually you're going to want to make your way to my left We generally allocate about a half hour for oral communications. So we'll try to wrap that up a little after 7 30 Um, and that we ask that those of you who are here in council chambers or outside of Campbell council chambers abide by our rules of decorum And ensure that your fellow citizens have an opportunity to address the council without intimidation Or any type of threat if I do see any of those types of behaviors that are Not following our rules of decorum. I will go ahead and issue a warning if it continues I will ask you to leave. I hope that you can Rise to the occasion and respect your fellow citizens so that we are able to Conduct your business and our business and our city's business In a way that's transparent for all to engage So having said that we'll go ahead and move it right into oral communications Please come forward and you'll have up to two minutes. My pleasure to be back before you I think I know mostly sitting up there. I would like to speak tonight. My name is Richard Lewis Represent a Grupo Amistad vision international when people say what you're up to Youth voice and student empowerment. It's an international human right Well, I want to speak into a sister sister In mexico with a particular place in jolisco where david mayor had six thousand the group that put on the mariachis about a year ago So i'm going to try to send emails I'd like the new mayor to kind of think about what it might look like as watson bill has a sister sister With this area of jolisco by guadalajara economic development build the bridge So i'm going to do my homework on what that might take and would like anybody on the city council to join That research There is no reason that we can't create economic development With communication i can't do it in three minutes so just introducing the idea and the future of Empowering cabrillo on uc the next mayor might Bring to the table the idea of the next generation of commission So we officially look at that 18 to 40 and bring their voice forward Most impressed with what both of you did with those fifth sixth graders at that one school next to the peace church And i don't know about how much time i took But i'm here because i'm really concerned about what's going to be on the agenda And i am homeless, but i won't be tomorrow somebody's going to be a motorhome But i'm also a homeless vet by choice So we're never going to find another santa cruz county And For a long time i've been out there with what it is But the people who aren't here are the are the homeless And by homes latinos. Thank you for letting me and look forward to getting the emails. Thank you Okay, next speaker, please Please come forward. Oh, i'm nate alex dot kennedy at gmail.com 3469 888 One thing i think we really need to do is get these council meetings broadcast on traditional am fm radio Just ideas of stations be used at ksco kzsc Pretty much any anyone that's local it would be into doing it and i'm sure there's plenty radio stations that would jump on the opportunity if we give it to them There's that and we also need to have an audio only stream On the internet if you want to listen to it live off the internet Because there's a video stream, but it is way too much bandwidth I one time i tried running it on a phone with limited bandwidth and i hit the end of my bandwidth after about 20 minutes of watching the council Another thing i've thought we should do is allow video conferencing such as google duo Microsoft skype all this all of these we should have those go to the four seven one one one three one Non-emergency number then when they're talking to the uh, i mean they can still be an emergency But uh, you're talking trying to describe them something that happens you show the car wreck the fire Whatever reason you're calling instead of just communicating that it's happening at blah blah address um also uh for a long time i've been saying we need more tandem bikes for the cops And uh, I think that would really help enforcement, but also Why don't we not only legalize skateboarding but start giving the cops e-skateboards electronic ones that are motorized where they can really go fast on them And have total control with a minimal amount of experience uh, so skateboards for the cops too Um as far as uh, oh, that's it. Thank you. Thanks name Okay next speaker, please My name is pauline seals and I represent center cruise climate action network, which is about 1500 local people um But actually first I want to say I'm really glad it's finally raining. This is about the latest and that's part of climate change I'm glad it's raining, but i'm awfully sorry for the people who don't have a warm dry place to stay Um, I'm here to present some signatures on this petition. We've been Sending zero carbon by 2030. We have now another 30 pages of signatures for this lots and lots of people are totally in favor of everything that's on here There's a letter here. I'll just read this a little bit reduce vehicle emissions limit single use plastic facilitate food waste reduction Encourage plant rich diets And take other steps as needed so There was a report today about honor the climate status and they were saying that Only china and the european union have kept their promises and reduced emissions The u.s. Is particularly bad, but and we know that but it's going to lead to disaster if we can't change things very quickly Thank you Hey carrot philip. I'd like to address the personal attacks of my character and uh, miss ill-conceived sort of a Conflation of my own views with santa cruz united of one of the recall council members already today and the Grover crone fan club also defaming the character of santa cruz united and therefore myself I'm not going to get into a contest of who's lying out of every pore on this matter Or recounting and refuting all the falsehoods because it isn't necessary Somebody is however lying big time The 10,000 or so voters who actually talked to santa cruz united over four months were actually there Are perfectly capable of judging the character of who was talking to them and claims of big outside money can be easily refuted by monetary reporting requirements You can't lie and fool people who know the truth This will be the most informed electorate in the history of santa cruz 10,000 voters have spoken and I believe they and more will speak on march 3rd There is just one element of truth to the fan club's complaints and just personally for me only And I suspect for a majority of people the recall is indeed about more than the quite legitimate complaints of santa cruz united Indeed it is partly about politics the ad hoc survey revealed the approval reading of the city council Starting with the election of the progressive majority massively dropped to a multi decade low of 20 The approval rating for the fire department was a city high a city department high of 86 I suspect this is because the people know when the bell tolls the fire department will always protect all the people's interest all the time with all they have The politics of passionately representing only a tiny fraction of the community who contribute near nothing Some were drotic addicts some are thieves The militant titled is not thought to be representing the vast majority out there Indeed the perception is the majority of the taxpaying public thinks they are considered somewhat expendable by the progressives So just a guess since you know nothing about me and brutally mischaracterize me. I will correct that I am an individual who does not have to represent all the people you do I represent myself and that's okay Next speaker, please Next speaker Thank you Good evening. I'm Jane Doyle and I actually would like to speak to something you've already finished with But I hope that what I'm saying will be passed along to the staff Um, basically what I would have said had I been able to be here I'll just I'm gonna go ahead and pause you for just a moment I'm sorry oral communications are for items that are not on today's agenda But you've done and it was this morning and that was on today's agenda So I can't talk about that today But you're welcome to email us and reach out to us directly about either item as it relates to your opinion on the item It's okay. I have Sure council member clarity that last speaker spoke on an item that was earlier on the agenda you didn't stop I will just say I'll just say that was a lot of a lot of information in that two minutes that were a lot of different topics But that said I do acknowledge that this is but if there's specifically something you wanted to address Is that that was on today's agenda? This would not be the appropriate time as it's really supposed to allow for an opportunity for members of the community who are speaking to us Not on today's agenda. That's fine. That's fine. We look forward to hear it anyway Okay, that sounds great. Okay, and we'll look forward to hearing from you If there's any any member of the community who wants to speak to us on the item That's not on today's agenda. Please come forward Mayor council brent Adams of the warming center. This is a public service announcement Although it's tangential of course Warming center is going to be open on thursday the 28th at the red church. I want the community to be aware Anybody who's outside can come in. We are completely 100 scalable means we never turn anyone away We should be open tonight because there's forecast over an inch of rain. Why are we not open tonight? It's because it takes 48 hours for us to turn around to have an all volunteer shelter to find a location and to get all the volunteers It two days out it was actually forecast to be only 0.8 inches only today did it drop into the one inch factor But it's 39 degrees forecast today. I mean Thursday today, so we're opening on thursday I want everybody to know that everybody can come in We make sure that That we're we serve soup all night long people don't even have to come in to the space. It's a hypothermia shelter They can get blankets soup hand warmers and then return out into the night. Well, we expect to serve as many as 90 95 people that night Being tangential with the other issue on that. I really want to encourage A knowledge about scalability for instance the storage program We've never turned anyone away the laundry program We've never turned anyone away and when we you don't turn anyone away Imagine if we had a population cap of a hundred people with the storage program Then we would never have discovered that 200 250 people is our plateau So I want to reflect in sheltering in general. Why don't we Insist on scalability of design because homelessness is actually a function of scarcity Uh scarcity of shelter beds. We turn people out as a city without Intending no matter how many shelter beds we have it's not scalable So if you insist on scalability, then you'll always and there are many Different types of sheltering transitional encampment safe sleep zones parking programs. Thank you. Thank you I'd like to call to your attention An article from the Sacramento Bee that appeared in the San Jose mercury news this morning Title survey shows most in-state favor mandate for city shelters Most californians are concerned about homelessness in their community And the majority support the concept of a law that would require cities to build more shelters According to a new statewide survey A poll from public policy institute of california found 85 percent of the respondents are concerned about the state's estimated 130 000 homeless people with 58 percent supporting be reporting being very concerned The majority of republicans independence at 61 percent Democrats at 59 were very concerned as were the residents of the bay area 63 percent A majority of those surveyed Regardless of parties support Gavin Newsom's right to shelter platform And a proposed state policy that would require local governments to provide enough shelter beds for any homeless person To be able to sleep indoors That policy has a support of 70 percent of likely voters 87 percent of democrats and 67 percent of independence and 50 percent of republicans When they say that 85 percent of the respondents are concerned. I can only assume 15 percent live in the city of santa cruz Next speaker I used to think of this place as um solemn place honor and stuff But like in the last meeting as it's been in the past before Our democratic rite keeps getting trampled on stepped on here by this I'll say mayor because she says well, I want to make sure people have enough time to talk So we're gonna cut your time Trampling on our democratic rite. We are we came here for the democracy process And when I saw that veteran up here crying and he called you a disgrace.  Glover you need to be our mayor right now Yesterday I know you're working on stuff. You're putting in good work. We need you now Make Santa Cruz great And get rid of the rest of them for over there So that we can do some things and handle things. Correct. I'm talking fast. It's something else I want to say but you got it so on nerve where we got to say what we got to say quick I'm not a rapper. So I can't do it like that, but I'm trying to say You're stepping on our democratic rights You up here telling people you can't talk about that. It's her right to talk about whatever she wanted to talk about whoever So we need to have create a rule where the mayor cannot tell you we're gonna cut your time All our back. Okay My name is lee mires. I'm a 42 year resident of santa cruz county half of the time spent here House lists senior citizen. I understand they have lotteries to get on the waiting list for housing Last night where I sleep A fella showed up And all he had to sleep in was cardboard Um I don't know what he's doing tonight. Maybe he'll end up where I'm at again I don't know but I do know you you people Recently had some sort of vote on a quarter million dollars for new tasers for the police department But you can't see fit to come up with money for an emergency shelter I want to thank brent adams for stating that it takes 48 hours for him to get up and running to illustrate exactly why Cities need to do this Stop outsourcing your stuff to ngo's if you can come up with a quarter million dollars for some damn tasers You can come up with the money for a warming center at least Thank you very much And I'll just remind those in the community who are interested in speaking to oral communications We do have an item on homelessness this evening that we will allow for public comment and have an opportunity for you to speak to us And address us on that item at that time. So this is for items not on today's agenda So there's a strange contradiction. Um, I intend to raise the issue of the upcoming mayoral election That's on the agenda and the reason i'm raising the reason i'm raising it here is because This is not you'll have an custom mayor. Are you going to give the public chance to speak about mayors as oral? Will you or will you not if you will that's fine, mr. Norris? I'm going to go ahead and ask you to please not interrupt me and I will acknowledge you in just a moment I will let you know and that will be a warning that this is an opportunity for people to use the time that it's not on today's agenda We have the election and the nomination of mayor and vice mayor on today's agenda You will have an opportunity as any other member of the public will as well To address the council on that at this time. I'm going to hold you to that Thank you. There you go. All right there. So I'm glad to hear that traditionally that's not been the case and if this is an exception. I commend you for that I would like to ask and make sure that the next mayor when when they win and he or When he appears and I assume it's going to be just in Cummings Do what you did not do which is make available for the public a list of your forthcoming public appearances So that if the community wishes to get together with you Either informally or simply to know where you're going to be publicly appearing And this is addressed to any council member too if you choose to do it, which I think would be a good idea You can do this. I made this request of mayor Watkins months ago and she candidly declined to do it I think you said you might think about it, but you didn't do it Secondly, I want to like to make sure that the mayor also the incoming mayor Provides a list of lobbyist meetings if you're meeting with groups They're going to have an impact on your vote It seems only fair to the community that you will make this a public record So people can know this. I again made this request of mayor Watkins. She declined to do this Finally, I'm concerned about as I always am that there be an open process around Having information on the agenda before we come to the council meetings. So it is that One aspect of the council meeting is the closed sessions claims And I've taken this up with the city administrator again and again every time I write her and she's she's been prompt In giving me information that I request But it's never on the agenda for the public that is to say If a person is asking Some of money from the city because they think the police department is acting badly We need to know what that's about so we can decide whether to come and speak about it here Or contact the person if we're a witness That needs to be done. I've requested this again and again so far. It hasn't been done I I hope the new majority will do that if there is a new majority. Thank you And we'll go ahead and let I'll let the community know that we're going to go ahead and close public Oral communications after the individual with the orange hat on so you'll be our last speaker for oral communications. Go ahead Hi there. I'm willy say so I'm nobody special.  That's what's causing america to happen What's going on in santa cruz? Exactly We're being filled with lies We are being filled with inviting on the council My vote is being threatened to be taken away right now And we're all going to be sitting around like this is normal That guy over there who said that they got 10,000 voters that just happened. That's on the agenda. He said they had 10,000 voters No, that's not right. They turned in a little bit over 11,000 Signatures over 2000 Were considered invalid. That's not over 10,000 Just mathematically speaking And we are just supposed to go with this I'm going to go ahead and pause your time again. This was on today's agenda. There was an opportunity No, that was on agenda. He just did that I responded what he just said We had this was on today. He just said that He could say that but I can't respond to him. Why don't you why don't you just finish your comments then sir? Thank you What i'm saying is We need to stop pretending like we don't see through the lies Those who are lying need to stop pretending We can't see through them because we all see through them.  Thank you. Yes, really Have people in the central i'm talking to kevin grossman who printed wrote liable In the sentinel saying that they found a pattern which no they did not I am talking About this general sentiment throughout the city where we're all each other's necks And only some of us are actually at risk This power struggle is class struggle. The stupidity needs to end. Thank you Hi, my name is michelle and i'm not here to disrespect any one of you Um, I couldn't do the job that any one of you are doing Um, i'm gonna try to say real quick. I'm homeless. I live at the loft. I have a 1984 Mercedes I do live there. I have a driver's license I have insurance. I became homeless because I had a dino car of sonoma and I had to have my adrenal gland removed I had medical problems So so i'm trying to get back on my feet. My car is all I have to survive. I have a case manager I got my voucher back But they keep giving me parking tickets on my car because they want me to park inside There's not always parking inside and now I got four parking tickets on my car And today the park yesterday when the sweeper came She said that my boyfriend was a piece of shit And that if I didn't get my car off the street in a half hour that she was going to tow my car And so I don't know who to go to or who to ask or what to do About this parking problem All right next speaker. I am james jimming whitman. I've been a resident here for 26 years in this county so Spoken here a couple times already today. This is something I wrote november 15th after listening to what alisha and keith Spoke about I'm just going to read it. Let's see how I do I became an eagle scout june of in june of 1985.  I'm going to go ahead and pause your language Our rules of decorum have it so that you aren't to use that type of language in our council chambers And I will that is there was a previous count person that spoke up that used inappropriate language I'm going to go ahead and say that will be a warning. There's no that is not appropriate There's people who are there's children in the audience and there's people who are watching at home Why don't you continue and and not use that language? Okay, I will not What the irreverence do I know about anything how to stop these? How to stop these scams ronald writes a short history of progress today is cubed to the cube to the cubed of any past civilizations downfall Indiscriminately all citizens citizens on planet earth seem to have accepted a mutual death sentence. Why? Why is 95 of the us United States population Does not realize that they are already homeless. Why is slavery at birth the status quo? Largely because our grandparents and our parents teach us to follow and not lead I guess my mother failed greatly to teach me this. I thank her for this failure And I greatly thank the voices in this video who I personally know and have greatly enjoyed helping keith and alisha They are doing the best to help many What are you doing as the gun to your head is the phone in your in my hand The laptop in your lap that has already affected permanently your and your children's dna Wi-Fi has opened the blood-brain barrier to help calcify the pineal gland Geo engineering has made everything phosphorescent and explosive Fluoride has pacified our moods and weakened our bones geophosphate is the is an agent orange 5g is a silent trigger now being installed in every street light and thousands are being deployed as satellites As for more than 75 years militaries have silently been using these frequencies to win wars your time is up. Thank you next speaker My name is jacob myberg guzman Santa Cruz resident 42 years actually here to talk about probably a different topic Is more of a safety related item? I ride my bike all over town and There's a intersection at west cliff and manor And monoray and there is a crosswalk there. It's actually far away from a street light So it's often dark. There's no reflectors there It's around a curve and cars often go quite quickly there and are looking at the ocean And so many times now Especially two or three times in the last week where it's actually like frightening my heart drops where people are almost hit there And cars are like screeching and people are screaming And i'd love for the city to do something to increase the safety at the intersection While i have a few minutes i'd love to say there's another intersection at ensignal and highway nine That's also challenging for bicyclists, especially if you're coming from the cosco area To cross there just because two lanes can curve right and you can kind of be trapped between cars Different subject, uh, I think the downtown streets Team is awesome cleaning up the garbage there I ride my bike on the river levee all the time and that makes a big impact Wonderful program. Thank you And a little bit separate, but um here and there i have i've been working in town for about 20 years At plantronics now poly um I sometimes hear people refer, you know, it's like, uh, you know Googler and you know I want to live to sit in surf city and I sometimes feel like i'm a villain when I went to public schools here You know went to junior guards and you know did parks and rec program And I feel like I should be kind of a success story You know, maybe i've had it a little easier in some but I worked hard and went to school and came back and been working um At a job here for 20 years. I rented for you know a dozen years and know those challenges and now i'm a property owner Face those challenges, but it's tough feeling like a villain at times in your own town for feeling like you're working hard next speaker Hello, my name is travis. Uh, i'm here to share a story Uh, there was a man named jerry that I found on the side of the street in front of the bank of america He had fallen down and I saw him and I yelled out to him I said are you okay? And he said help me up So I ran over to him and I Lifted him up and uh, he needed to use the the atm So I helped him I put my hip into him and held him up And let him use the atm. Thank goodness. It was somebody with a good heart um, and then I I tried to ask him, you know, where are you from and he was homeless and So I hung out with him for a couple of hours trying to get the information. Where are you staying? I wanted to make sure he could get to a safe place. He couldn't walk very well He told me that he'd been in the hospital and that they told him he was never going to walk again Then they put him on a bus and left him out and um at the end of the night I realized he wasn't going to be able to leave the taco shop The taqueria right across from the bank of america So I called the police station because I'd heard that maybe they do transports And I got a call back later from the the captain. He said no, we don't do that And then I called the only other person who I could think of it was keith mchenry And luckily we had just opened up the phoenix camp and that was the only place available For this man to go who could not go to the bathroom without peeing himself who could not walk one step There was no one in the city who could help other than the people in the homeless union who actually care and i'm just wondering I just wanted to share that because we're trying to help from our hearts and You know solutions are hard to find but We're here from our hearts and we want the best for everyone. So thank you And you're gonna be our last speaker Honorable mayor city council members my name is nicolas pace and I would like to speak on the 5g I would like no 5g in santa cruz unless there's a health and safety study Let me go ahead and pause you again This is this was on today's agenda And so we already spoke to this and heard public comment on this item. Is there anything that's not on today's agenda We welcome hearing from you if not You're welcome to email us to express your opinions that way. Thank you. Okay. Thank you All right, we're going to go ahead and close oral communications councilmember Thank you. Hey, just a quick question for the city attorney Um, is it Possible for us to restrict people's speech if they're using vulgar like profane language Is that or is that their first amendment, right? I think the question really is whether or not it it raises to a level of disrupting the meeting But just the content of the speech Um We have we would have problems enforcing a rule of that sort, right? I'm just uh, there was a concern earlier you were out of the room But there was a community member that was reciting something and they used the f word And then they were subsequently stopped and given a quote warning So I just want to emphasize that it's not our place to control what people say on the podium if they're not actively attacking someone I will say though as the The council also has adopted rules of decorum. That's right. So, um I think from a legal perspective, could you prohibit someone from uh using vulgar language? um possibly not but I certainly don't see a problem with asking someone to adhere to our respectful conduct policy Which is essentially exactly what I stated and was essentially required to do as the presiding officer to ensure that we have a Ability for the community to experience our council chambers In adherence to the rules of decorum and there are children present. So Councillor McCormick. Yeah, I just was wondering I know we can't take any action on what folks said at the podium I'd like to maybe Ask staff if they could look at what mr. Myberg said about the weft cliff manner and monoray Needing reflectors and then the ensign all highway nine for bicyclists. I'm familiar with both of those and um, he's right But I wonder if a staff person could maybe make an assessment and get back to the council. Thank you All right, we'll go ahead and move on to our first Agenda item for our evening session and that item is The shelter capacity update in ordinance amending chapter 6.36 camping of the city of santa cruz municipal code I'll just go ahead and remind those that are in the audience that are wanting to On this item how this will flow is that we'll have a presentation from our city staff We'll then have an opportunity for members of the council to ask questions We'll go ahead and open it up at that time for public comment I will allow anybody who's interested in speaking to the council briefly the opportunity to do so in one minute Then i'll acknowledge those who reached out in advance to have the group comments on behalf of your group To come forward and then we'll open it up to the two minutes for a public comment At which point we'll go ahead and return back to the council for action and deliberation I'll go ahead and remind those that are in the audience that It is my job to ensure that we have an opportunity for everybody to engage in this in a way that's going to Not be intimidating or threatening and that is going to adhere to our rules of decorum And if there is notice of not adhering to those rules of decorum I will go ahead and give you a warning if it continues I will ask you to leave especially if it's interrupting our ability to conduct the city's business the people's business So at that point we'll go ahead and turn it over to our presenters Good evening mayor and council. I was going to start by giving an update on the shelter capacity and then i'll turn it over to city attorney and the police chief who will present on the The ordinance amendment. So i've got a some slides to go over first To just give you some background relative to Shelter and what i'm referring to is the Uh emergency shelter That is available for people who are you know on the street and that is immediately available There are other types of shelter available in the county that sometimes it's called emergency shelter But i'm not referring to that like the recoup of care beds The river street shelter There's some others like that which i can provide information on but i'm really focusing on that truly emergency Shelter capacity So historically We've had On a year-round basis about 40 beds at the poly loft and then In the winter time we would add about 100 beds For many years it was up at the armory This is during the winter typically between november and either march or april sometimes it was extended if the rainy season went longer And then in subsequent years At a combination of the salvation army and the vfw So that's been basically the historic model Then in recent years we added the river street camp which added 60 year-round beds And can accommodate about 80 individuals So the current model is about 155 so okay, so moving on to the changes that have been made In recent years and particularly in the past year And with that we now have a model of 155 year-round beds. So we went from Looking at trying to create a more of a year-round model as opposed to what we used to have before And that now includes an additional 115 year-round beds over the historic number number And those are largely comprised of the river street camp and the salvation salvation army 55 beds poly loft again continues to be available County-wide When you look at all the various shelter beds that are available including in watsonville between salvation army sienna house housing matters monoc services new life community services And there's about 554 which is a larger number than last winter once you had when we had 417 in addition there's about of those about 75 new Safe parking spaces. So there has been some improvement in recent years certainly with respect to the availability of shelter And that is very much needed and appreciated a lot of this has been able to occur as a result of additional funding from the state As well and and has been coordinated through the work of the the HAP which is allocated money for this purpose as well as for a variety of other Shelter as well as homeless prevention programs um nonetheless We recognize that there is still an additional need for shelter shelter beds That it is not adequate for the level of unsheltered individuals that we have in our community and santa cruz Has about 50 of all the the homeless population in the county. So it's a particularly significant impact on our city Um, accordingly, uh, as you know Providing shelter is is really critical for a variety of reasons Including our ability to assist individuals to just provide, you know, adequate human care and services to for individuals As well as to be able to address and deal with Nuisance and complaints that occur in our community and as a result The council at your last meeting Directed that we come back with a couple of items and the two are up here first that uh, we Bring back a revision to the camping ordinance that would comply to the with the martin versus boise case And that'll be presented in a few minutes And then secondly that a request be made to the county of santa cruz to increase to assist with the An increase in shelter bed capacity as quickly as possible recognizing that winter is upon us As a result, we have had conversations with the santa cruz county staff Over at the ceo's office And met we've we've already been meeting regularly with them to look at a variety of issues that we have to deal with Including what we've put in place up to now But had additional conversations about the ability to Add additional shelter. They were certainly open to that. They understood the the need And we're willing to discuss a variety of options that are available to us in addition We sought out the board of supervisors Uh, assistance in this regard and they too have expressed an interest in assisting the city with expanding winter shelter capacity in particular and There's a letter in your packet from the two board members expressing that support So with respect to uh needs as I noted earlier, we really have a need for winter shelter And there's a couple of reasons why it's it's critical One is that compared to historic numbers Our shelter Vacancy rates are while they're not 100 every single night and they do vary they are at higher levels and they have been historically and The other thing that has sort of occurred and we've found as a result of the recent shift is that with respect to The way we provide the various services to the various populations Homeless population also can be a challenge So for example, one of the advantages of having the vfw and the lower street shelter salvation army shelter What that allows us to separate families and women and children Versus the general population and provide just the various types of facilities for the various populations And with the loss of the vfw, it's it's much harder to do that So there is a need as well to do that to provide that kind of Shelter support. Obviously the river street camp has also been a addition That has been helpful in terms of providing stability that has provides 24 hour Shelter services, which is an addition that we haven't had In many years And so There is as I noted a need for additional shelter Capacity and we need to continue to work on that and Staff certainly is ready to and has discussed a variety of options that we think are available That we can work with the county to implement fairly quickly The other need that we have is we also need a Availability of what we call on-call beds and that is a number of beds that are available on an as needed basis Particularly as situations arise Particularly in the evenings so that if there are there is an issue Somebody needs emergency shelter or there is a complaint and police is called out and they can assist somebody with First of all, they need to be able to to contact the shelter and find out what the capacity is But then also just have some availability of beds so they can help individuals Really as needed in on on time basis Or real-time basis, which is something we don't have a system like that So that is we believe is a great need and again We'd want to work with the county to to create those and then finally the other Thing that we've discussed earlier this afternoon that we have to recognize is a critical need Is that we need to relocate river street camp as a result of the water project that'll start there in march And again there too. We do have options that we've identified relative to to relocating that we are confident that that can happen But we also need the assistance of the county To work directly on doing that because again, there's opportunities there to do that in such a way that perhaps we could even increase capacity of our shelters so those are really the the critical needs and issues that we're focusing now and I'd be happy to answer any questions with respect to shelter capacity and if not i'll turn it over to City attorney Do any of the council members have questions about the shelter capacity or do you want to reserve questions until the end of this Do you have a question or would you like to reserve your question? Oh, I mean I have questions about it So thank you So it's wonderful to hear about the county's intention on more winter shelter, which is always very good Thanks for the short presentation on that just curious Knowing the historic winter shelter that we've had And loss because of the vfw and other situations Why are we only addressing this issue now as opposed to say Two and a half or three months ago knowing that we were going to be getting 10 million dollars from the state because you'll have to excuse me 137 bed increase and 10 million dollars seven million dollars for from the state because three million is allocated to other stuff Why so long and now it's raining Well, I want to point out that The level of shelter capacity that we have now is significantly more than what we've had in the past Again, I recognize that it's not adequate, but certainly it is Significantly more than we had because we went from a model where we only had 40 year round and only a hundred In the winter to a model where we have you know 160 or so year round. So that's you know That alone adds significant cost to be able to provide those services because You have again year round as opposed to just part of the year in addition the river street camp model Is also more more costly. It's a 24 hour services. It also provides for you know, connection to services so a combination of adding more capacity On a year round basis increased the cost to do that. So that's one big portion Also with respect to the funding that came from the state, there's a variety of uses for that Part of it was allocated to the acquisition of property That where we want to create a permanent navigation and shelter center. That's a seabird property So part of it went to that and part of it also went to other Shelter programs like the safe parking program as well as other homelessness prevention program So it was allocated amongst a variety of different uses And there was an improvement with respect to emergency shelter capacity However, I think we all recognize that it's not sufficient and there's an interest in doing that And also we didn't anticipate particularly like for example the issue of that we're having with the The the populations The conflicts with the women and children as as we're having now And the use has actually gotten gotten higher than in past years That's from Brad Yeah, I have two questions One is kind of a logistical question related to a recording of this discussion We received a communication about Making sure that this information from your oral report was included and the request was to have it in our minutes But I'm just wondering if we can Address that and and get this power point so that that information is available to people Yes, yes, I'll actually but afterwards who put don't necessarily can't be here tonight and don't want to sit through Absolutely and our practice is actually to attach all of our presentations to Our in the minutes. Yes, they'll be included. Yes, and then my other question is It's great to hear about the work that's happening to try to bring additional Shelter space online and I'm just wondering if you Have any if you anticipate like when you anticipate getting back to us if there are decisions. We're going to be asked to make When will we know because it's started to rain today which remind and got very cold So it reminded me certainly and probably many others that this is urgent Our hope is that we can have something for you by your next meeting or sooner You know again our conversations are ongoing and we have some vital options that we're exploring again We want to in the interest of just trying to be able to do our due diligence and to move forward on some Options, you know, we want to kind of keep them Not making public at this point again so that we can do that due diligence But then come back to you, but it will require council direction also board support. They've expressed it But I think we could move fairly quickly That's just one question Um, I know we've asked about this in the past, but is it possible and I see some statistics in our report But is it hard just to like every day? Or maybe every week just get a breakdown of how many folks have stayed at the salvation army River street camp Uh, and the laurel street. I guess. Oh, I mean vfw. Is that is that possible to do like every week? You just get that count And then maybe a fourth category like people that we couldn't house That were that needed shelter Yeah, I'm not sure. I know we've made a request uh to uh, because that was a council request I think we've made a request over at the county to see if they can provide us with more more up-to-date Shelter numbers, um Ralph is here. I think he's the one that's been working on it. I don't know if you have an update on that but we're certainly uh Obviously willing to provide you with our as many updates as we can Thank you, uh, ralph de america with the city manager's office We have reached out to the county for regular updates. Um, we also do get daily updates from the, um The shelters and we could share that with you and we do use um, um And um in our programming efforts, um So for each of the two shelters right now on the daily average vacancies about a handful And it changes from about eight to four and um, some nights it is at full capacity But that changes on a nightly basis and we'll be sure to get those updates to you on a more regular basis some of the frequently comes up as somebody is uh Illegally camping or camping in a place that it's not a good place Instead of getting ticketed It's maybe it's two o'clock in the morning Is it possible for a police officer to take that person to one of those three shelters knowing that there's a bed space available? Um, you know, I will um Leave that to our chief of police. Maybe answer All right, we'll go ahead and ask that you maybe not um provide comment from the From the chamber comments. We'll go ahead and ask our chief of police if he wants to respond I do know that's partially the recommendation that's before us this evening in regards to holding some spaces For uh officers to have available if maybe but if you want to speak to it, you're welcome Certainly, there's always that possibility that we could transport somebody to a shelter Uh Given a variety of circumstances that may Factor into that But uh, yes, we can do that Will they take them at two o'clock in the morning because I've heard people say no, they just it just wouldn't won't happen doesn't happen Yeah, I think that's part of the request that we have that we currently Don't have a good system where the police can in real time check as far as shelter capacity and then transport individuals That's the piece that we need to really work on that's an immediate need I think certainly police has the information on where shelters are available and they provide that to individuals as they confront them But we don't have a system where we can in real time Find out what the capacity is and then and then make arrangements for individuals to then be transported there Or directed there is appropriate. Thank you We'll go ahead and then shift over to the remainder of your presentation if you like at this time Mr. Kandadi. Yes. Thank you. Mayor Watkins members of the city council We have a power point as well. So I'll wait for that to So I'm going to talk about the draft ordinance that's on your agenda for consideration this evening Uh an amendment to chapter 6 36 of the municipal code Pursuant to the council's direction I'll start by talking a little bit about how we got to where we are In september of last year the ninth circuit us court of appeals decided the case of martin versus the city of boise A challenge to the city of boise's ordinance prohibiting camping out of doors on public or private property At that time we analyzed this the martin decision in the in And our municipal code in light of the martin decision and The police department in consultation with my office suspended enforcement of chapter 6 36 because we recognized right away that What the what the ninth circuit court of appeals held was The problematic aspects of boise's ordinance We we had the same issues that we had to grapple with So that um decision um In some respects gave rise to the the ross encampment that The council dealt with earlier this year And in april the city council Did a couple of things first it directed the city staff to close down the the ross encampment it also adopted a set of standard operating procedures that were Based on the martin casep and other federal district court cases that Have interpreted it since it was initially issued To address some of the due process notice And property rights questions that are raised uh when i when an encampment of that sort is dismantled So the council adopted standard operating procedures that were utilized in the closure of the um The the gateway encampment or the ross camp And it also directed or adopted as formal city council policy the chief of police's practice of suspending enforcement of chapter 6 36 pending an amendment of the municipal code to bring it into conformity with the martin case At the last meeting the city council then directed My office to work with the police department and city manager's office on bringing forward an amendment to the camping ordinance that conforms to the requirements Or to the decision of martin versus boise So that is what is before you tonight I just want to emphasize that this uh is not an Intended to well what this is intended to do is Narrowly respond to the specific direction of the city council This is a proposed approach that we believe is consistent with the martin case But the city council can make modifications To the ordinance that we propose. Uh, this is our suggested approach So the holding of martin In essence is that so long as there is a greater number of homeless individuals in a jurisdiction Than the number of available beds and shelters The jurisdiction cannot prosecute homeless individuals for involuntarily sitting lying and sleeping in public That is as long as there is no option of sleeping indoors The government cannot criminalize indigent homeless people for sleeping outdoors On the property on public property on the false premise that they had a choice in the matter So that seems like a sweeping uh ruling by the ninth circuit, but the that the court also immediately thereafter narrowed That somewhat general statement And I cannot read that It states naturally our holding does not cover Individuals who have I can pull it up on my laptop where it's very legible I just want to read it because I don't think members of the public are probably going to be able to read that either Naturally our holding does not cover individuals who do have access to adequate temporary shelter Whether because they have the means to pay for it or because it is realistically available to them for free But who choose not to avail Themselves of it or choose not to use it Or it goes on nor do we suggest that a jurisdiction with insufficient shelter can never criminalize the act of sleeping outside Even where shelter is unavailable an ordinance prohibiting sitting lying or sleeping outside at particular Times or in particular locations might well be constitutionally permissible The reason why the court didn't address that issue Head on but just made a general statement like that is that that was not The issue before it and so that we took guidance from the language of martin specifically The general holding as well as these narrowing Statements and incorporated that into the ordinance that's before you tonight So now i'm going to go over the proposed amendments and And the the format here is to provide you with the current Camping ordinance language and this is just a general Summary of the ordinance language that's in your packet And a comparison to what is proposed So the current ordinance chapter or section 6 36 0 1 0 Prohibits in the city on public or private private property Sleeping between the hours of 11 p.m. To 8 30 a.m Setting up bedding between the hours of 11 p.m. To 8 30 a.m And setting up a campsite anytime and those terms are all defined in the code New sections 6 36 0 2 0 Well, let me take a step back what we've proposed in the new ordinance is to distinguish between That occurs during daytime hours and encampments that are set up During the nighttime The sound just changed A new section section 6 36 0 2 0 daytime camping prohibits Establishing or maintaining encampments between 7 a.m. And 10 p.m And requires a warning and a reasonable opportunity to remove belongings before a citation is issued Um I will add that I've distributed and there are additional copies that are available to members of the public to review of a new revised version of section 6 36 0 2 0 that takes into account some Correspondence that the city's the city council has received Since the posting of the agenda and i'll go over that when we when we get to it Uh new section 6 36 0 3 0 prohibits sleeping or setting up an encampment between the hours of 10 p.m And 7 a.m. Um, so how does that Take into account the language of the martin versus boise decision Well the current ordinance Which was amended most recently i think in 2006 by the addition of section 6 36 0 5 5 states that If a citation is issued when the winter shelter At the national guard armory is full Then there's an exemption for violation If a person is on a current waiting list for shelter at the homeless services center or river street shelter And requires my office to dismiss citations issued and above uh in those circumstances And the way we implemented that direction was to check in with the homeless services center When we received citations for violations of the camping ordinance And if a person's name appeared on that list Then we just no filed those citations or or if we Discovered after the citations were filed we asked the court to dismiss them The new proposed ordinance with respect to nighttime camping Incorporates the language of martin versus boise in states that will not be enforced against persons experiencing homelessness If there are a greater number of homeless individuals in the city And available shelter beds and at the time a citation issued is issued The person has no actual and immediate access to shelter. So what this sets up is a process whereby If a person who is camping in violation of the nighttime encampment restriction Uh is contacted by a police officer Before a citation can issued the police officer would have to check with available shelter facilities Determine if they have space available Um refer that person to uh the available shelter and offer them the opportunity to Um to avail themselves of it and to to go to the shelter Before a citation can be issued Current ordinance also has several uh circumstances in which camping is permitted Uh specifically camping areas designated. They're designated for for camping Camping events authorized by the parks and rec recreation director pursuant to a different section of the code Camping events authorized by the city council per the same section With respect to the parks and rec director Or camping in the rear yard or enclosed side yard or for residents with the consent of the owner or occupant Camping in a church parking lot in a licensed and registered vehicle But the code limits that uh provision to three vehicles in a given parking lot Or parking lot of a private business with the permission of the owner and tenants And that provision restricts the number of vehicles to two Also, it permits camping in a residential off-street driveway But is limited to one vehicle and three days per calendar month The proposed ordinance, uh largely mirrors Section 6 36020 This is section 6 36040, but it also authorizes the city council to Allow camping events in specific locations by resolution I would also just point out that the council received a request from the association of faith communities Which um manages the Parking lot a shelter program on church parking lots and they have requested that the council consider Increasing the limit on vehicles parking in church parking lots from three to five The current ordinance permits camping in city parks With a permit from the parks and rec director And it attaches several conditions to that such as the provision of sanitary facilities liability insurance Rafi's collection that sort of thing But it limits camping events for more than three nights in any calendar year Except in conjunction with some habitat or park restoration project New section 6 36050 also largely mirrors the current language But allows the city council to authorize camping events They're not limited to three three days in any Calendar year that's a type an error in my power point up there current ordinance provides that a violation Initial violation is cited as an infraction and the ordinance specifies a 20 fine or eight hours of community service proposed ordinance Largely mirrors the current language, but reduces the community service hours to three The current ordinance also makes a As a mist declares a misdemeanor a person who is cited For a first offense and then is subsequently cited within 24 hours But it's not applicable to the sleeping portion of the ordinance only to the setting up an encampment language proposed section 6 36070 Declares a a misdemeanor a subsequent violation within 48 hours So it extends the time period which in within which a misdemeanor citation can be issued But it is not applicable to a violation of the overnight camping restrictions So that would continue to be citable as an infraction I mentioned at the outset the standard operating procedures which are intended to provide Due process to individuals who are contacted by the city and who are required to dismantle or remove An encampment that's that's made illegal under the ordinance The current language authorizes city officials to remove any encampment found An immediate threat to health and safety 4th width and for occupied encampments Also requires a warning and an opportunity to remove the campsite 4th width and that 4th width language is Potentially problematic under principles of due process The new language requires the development of Standard operating procedures similar to those adopted by resolution of the council in april To ensure that due process is provided when an encampment is removed And personal property is taken into custody and the reason why we're recommending the development of new standard operating procedures Is that those that the council considered back in april were specifically Drafted with the intent of addressing the gateway encampment Situation and we've found in the month's sense That they don't really work in all circumstances So what we envision is working with staff and the police department to Prepare a new set of standard operating procedures that looks at various different circumstances and May have different timelines for providing notice And and that sort of thing that are more tailored to different types of circumstances that might be encountered out in the field It authorizes the removal of attended and Undetended encampments, but only after providing notice and an opportunity to remove the equipment and personal belongings It requires posting of notice of removal and an opportunity to retrieve personal belongings That are not deemed health hazard a contraband or evidence of a crime or garbage And for items that are not removed by The occupants of an encampment it requires that the city's store specified personal effects essentially anything of value that isn't considered a biohazard or or Clearly is is not something that's intended to be kept And pursuant to existing state law requires the storage for at least 90 days So what would happen is the site would be posted before The the encampment is removed It would again be posted after with notice Indicating that the property has been taken into custody and instructions on how it can be retrieved The recommendation is At the council consider The ordinance that's before you for introduction With further amendments to section six thirty six oh two oh That's a typographical error on the power point also consider the AFC request to increase church parking lot vehicle limit to to five I was remiss. I did mention in the staff report in the in the report that There was a presentation made to the catch on Earlier in the week or last week and at the time the catch By consensus Asked to be provided with a draft of the sops before they're brought forward to the city council To to have an opportunity to comment and provide their input before they're adopted and implemented Uh secondly That the council receives input from the catch and the community on designated allowable sleeping areas For those unable to accept shelter available to to personal circumstances I didn't repeat that in the report because it didn't deal directly with the ordinance But is really more geared towards the city manager's portion of the presentation And that the the council received input from the catch and the community on more allowable car camping locations and uh provisions Um, I will further So here are the amendments to section six thirty six oh two oh And this these amendments are designed to address concerns that were raised about the breadth of the daytime camp encampment Prohibition So the new language states That camping Between the hours of seven a.m. And ten p.m. Shall be prohibited If it reasonably appears based on the totality of the circumstances that a person intends to remain in the location overnight And or the person has occupied the site since before six forty five a.m On the date when enforcement action is taken by the police department The other addition is That it states that nothing in Subdivision a shall be interpreted as prohibiting the use of cooking methods and cooking locations Otherwise authorized by law where the conditions described in subdivisions a1 or a2 are not fulfilled Or the use of blankets recreation equipment or similar items for daytime use in parks beaches or on private property Where the conditions described in subdivisions a1 or a2 are not fulfilled Or the use of daytime tents in the sand areas of the beach where conditions described are not fulfilled Or the act of sleeping in public places during the daytime When those conditions are not fulfilled the conditions being Evidence based on the circumstances of intent to remain overnight so again This is narrowly designed to address the issues raised by the court in the martin versus boysy decision Other cases that have interpreted that decision our own experience in litigation arising from the dismantling of the ross camp in discussions with city attorney colleagues all over california about how they're Attempting to deal with the The implications of the martin versus boysy decision I guess one last note is that there is a pending writ of certiorari before the united states supreme court By the city of boysy asking that the supreme court take up the martin case Or consideration in this coming term of the supreme court A decision on whether that will occur is expected sometime in december Happy to answer any questions Thank you for the presentation Um, so we'll go ahead and see if there's any questions From the council at this time and then we'll go ahead and open it up to public comments So now's the opportunity for the council to ask questions. Councilmember clever Thanks. Uh, thanks for the presentation tony So just with regards to you mentioned that so peas and redoing them and everything they're When we made the direction on february third november 12th, excuse me I've emphasized the importance of incorporating the conversation of the phoenix camp that was forming behind the Ross shopping center And you know was that oh, that's uh, that'll be covered But then three days later the camp was enrated and closed by the police department So I was just curious uh regarding phoenix camp where all of the so peas followed So for example, was there 72 hours given to the notice given to all of those? That were there no, um On further analysis subsequent to the city council meeting we determined that the conduct that was going on at the at the location Behind the ross was a trespass. That's a violation of state penal code And we relied upon the direction that the council gave at the Meeting in april at which time had directed that the ross encampment be closed and that Upon the closure that it not be Made available for members of the public to re-enter the site so at the time that the Encampment was re-established or attempted to be re-established What happened was that The folks who organized that encampment Broke the padlocks that the city had put on the gate and entered illegally So we looked at it as akin to someone who entered into the city's corporate yard or the police departments Closed off parking lot who are trespassing So it's not the same as a camping Uh issue that arises on property. That's accessible to members of the public And so so you're just to clarify So you're saying that uh, we're not required to give any notice or any Kind of awareness when we're moving into remove a group of people that are on a site that maybe or may not be trespassing That's right different rules apply to someone who's trespassing than to someone who's um simply camping on property That's accessible to members of the public and what are the Uh, would we need to establish new sops associated with trespassing in order to make it so that we were required because Maybe the next question will clear it up. Um, did Santa Cruz city manager staff Santa Cruz police department rangers or members of the fire department instruct people to move over to the phoenix camp subsequent Or previous to the rating and clearing I'm not sure. I don't quite understand the question Well, did any city staff or police department? Representatives instruct people to move from their current location over to the phoenix camp before it was closed I'm not aware of that. Maybe one of the other colleagues here might be able to answer I'm not aware of any instructions to do that So where do they move from to there? There's to be a question But no we did not tell anybody that they could go to the phoenix camp. Okay. That's just um There were many people that uh on the day of the closure stated that they had been told To move from the post office Over to the camp the night before it was closed So, um, I've just it's concerning for me Especially if we're not required to give notice to be sending people from one place to another and then closing it Based off of a kind of loophole in our SOPs that doesn't require us to give them Notice anyway, that's that's my question. We don't need to get into the conversation yet. That's coming after a public comment, which I look forward to Can you uh confirm or deny the Older woman identified as a miss bonnie hill that was found dead on cedar street recently I don't have any information about that Thanks chief. I'm I'm sure we investigated but I'm not aware of the details City manager I'm not familiar with the case I'm surprised it was covered by A news station citing two deaths recently of miss contero and now miss hill So that's interesting that no one knows anything about it I mean, I'm aware of that it happened. I just don't have the details. I thought that's I'll go Maybe if you could please keep your Voices down or your comments to yourself We're going to have an opportunity to hear from you many of you who have actually actually requested additional time as a group So we'll have an opportunity for now the council to ask questions I would appreciate it if you could please reserve your time and we'll hear from you when public comment is available So please continue with your just want us all to take a second and listen to that rain That's hitting the window right now So Tents sorry about tents. So, uh, the restrictions make it so you can't have a tent up In the middle of the day So what are people supposed to do in this kind of weather during the day? I'm just curious about what that logic or strategy is are they expected to Hover under doorways or under a bridge or what's our what's our recommendation for folks like that if we pass these amendments one of the um One of the reasons for the proposed revised language that was just distributed This evening was to address that concern that's been raised by members of the public in response to the draft and And so I think we've made an effort to address that circumstance And what is that? Can you reiterate it for us? Yes Does not prohibit the use of blankets recreational equipment or similar items for day use in parks beaches are on Private property where the conditions described in One a or a two are not fulfilled or the use of daytime tents sand areas of the beach where the conditions in a one or a two are not Fulfilled or the act of sleeping in public places where the conditions described in a one or a two are not fulfilled So so maybe that's why I was a little confused because it says tents on the beach But then it says recreational equipment in parks. So do tents qualify as recreational equipment? Uh, I would say so, but I think the council could clarify that further in the One you have when you discuss the item. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Um, the other question I had Had to do with oh The the misdemeanor aspect of and I realize it's already in the ordinance, but uh Is it Beneficial to add the criminal records to people if they get a citation and then Come back in the next day because they don't find another place to go or I mean, what's uh, what's beneficial to the person who's arrested for or to us or to the criminal justice system I mean we heard from the police chief about or in a correspondence that he put out about the The severe lack of attendance of people that attend also that $20 Fee that's associated with it is kind of misleading because we talked about this with the bail schedule where the $20 fee is just a City associated fee, but the court fees can be levied as over a hundred dollars. So it's just concerning To to have that incorporated in here. I'm just Wondering. Wow. Thank goodness for generators The other question. Oh was uh, did you see the message from the east? I will respond to that question. Okay. Yeah From my perspective, it's an enforcement tool that that we have available That gives us additional The additional ability to deal with circumstances where we have repeat violations of the ordinances requirements Thank you, and then are you aware great tool, but it is an additional tool. It is a tool. Yes a Yes, well, we can agree or disagree on the merits of that tool, but Um, have you seen the letter from the ACLU? Yes, I have Okay, uh, I just want to make sure that we're all aware that the ACLU the national law center on homelessness and poverty And the disabilities rights of california have all come out in opposition to These ordinance changes. So we should take that into consideration as we move forward. Thank you now just add that the modifications Just going to add that the modifications proposed this evening are also intended to address some of the issues raised by the ACLU and others Letter All right, vice mayor One quick question In the slide that was on exceptions There was a portion that said police identify and offer Shelter placement and an opportunity to relocate With specificity around offer shelter placement. Does that mean that the police would then help individuals? like Get to those shelter areas or I just wanted to get this clarification This doesn't appear on the slide, but the ordinance itself states that the police department may but are not obligated to offer transportation Um, so there are circumstances. I'm sure when It might be convenient or or feasible to provide transportation, but the ordinance itself doesn't require And I guess there's a follow-up that currently the police are not allowed or is it just It's at their own discretion. It's at their own discretion. Thank you Well, I'll give a question Going back to the $20 fine Somebody said it was 198. Does that sound right? We'll have a chance to hear from you if mr. McKenry if I could please have you keep your comments down We're going to go ahead. I've actually allowed you to have extra time on behalf of your organization We'll have a chance to hear from you again This is the time for the council to ask questions of our staff And then we'll have public comment in regards to hearing from the public on this We'll go ahead and have you answer the question at this time I I don't have a specific figure, but that doesn't sound too out of line with with the penalties In fees that are imposed by the courts. So and when you say I'm three hours of community service Is that cover the whole 179 198 or is it just the 20 dollars that we levied in fine? if the court Allowed A person to perform or or if the person Asked for community service in lieu of a fine and that would cover the whole fine Not just the not just the fees and penalties And i'm going back to the notice of removal is When you put the notice of removal, how many hours do people have to move their stuff out of the 72? The current sop states 72 hours But that's not really workable if there's an encampment set up On a sidewalk in front of a business So we plan to bring that back to the council for consideration Of a range of notice requirements depending on specific circumstances I don't know if you said or the city manager you said conflicts with women and children population I was just I caught my ear. I was wondering what what that was about Mostly what I was referring to there is that at the shelter We have currently with respect to the lower speed facility It the way the facilities are set up. It's it's really difficult to separate You know the family and in women from The men population there It'd be nice to have a facility that could be more focused on providing shelter for women and children Others with special needs, which was the the approach we had used previously So there's a need for that and I think having extra additional shelter capacity would allow for us To to be able to do poor that because occasionally there are you know situations where it's just not the best Option to have the the the populations commingled and they'd be Helpful to be able to have some separation To address a variety of different issues that that was the incident Are they commingled now at the laurel street or no? Yes. Okay. Thank you, ma'am All right, my understanding is we do have another presentation. Is that correct? All right chiefs mills You're up Go ahead and have you present as well Having trouble finding that Presentation got it Well, good evening, mayor and council members. This is an assessment of our assessment of The quality of life issues and the implementation of this policy and how it may affect behavior As we Considered this and working with the city attorney's office and the city manager Tony condadi was the what and I believe this may be the why We think feel it's important First of all, as we all know this is pretty compassionate community But at the same time there's a significant growing sense of frustration in many parts of the community And we all see that in a regular basis via Email and many other forms of communication We are very mindful as a department that our approach must be balanced Compassion with accountability constitutionality with enforcement If they get out of balance, then we that's when we wind up having difficulty Um, I just want to throw a little bit of caution in here This nor any other ordinance will solve our homeless problem I think if we need to state it up front and be pretty clear about that That uh, this ordinance may affect some of the behaviors of some of the calcitrant ones However, overall it's not going to stop a homelessness We recognize that the cause of homelessness drug addiction mental health and housing are not included That because this is not in the swim lane Of the city of santa cru of the city of santa cruz And some of the homeless that I have talked to desire a nomadic lifestyle where they don't want our help And they don't want to live by the norms of our community. So therefore This these are the laws that may become necessary A recent article in los angeles times Mentioned that 95 of los angelenos said homelessness was their biggest problem Anything that rates more than traffic in la has got to be a significant issue Santa cruz is not much different We're at 93 percent according to a recent survey Either Somewhat serious or a very serious problem Yet and santa cruz interestingly enough that crimes the concern of a crime actually reduced So santa cruzans view this as a very Significant and important issue And and we hear that on a regular basis I just do want to point out the Tension and the frustration that I hear from Staff as well as community members on a regular basis Recently two city Workers were assaulted on lot 27 in one day Numerous complaints of intimidation by some of the homeless community Photos being taken of children horns being honked in front of homes refusing to leave property Encouragement to expropriate items from corporation corporations There's also been a few cases of vigil vigilantism We need to point out Two men were shot with BB guns in one night by juveniles Two homeless men were shot by Juveniles with BB guns in one night. We are currently investigating those crimes Encouragement of violence on line From both sides of the of the equation. We see this Regularly and it's something that is not acceptable to me To the men and women of the Santa Cruz police department nor anybody should be anybody in this community Um, accountability is the issue at hand for us as a police department. I'm only talking about us as a police department SCPD has must and will continue to help those who want and need help That's part of our responsibility as human beings and as part of this community Some people don't want the help. So the question becomes how do we gain their compliance? And the compliance piece of that is we have not had anything that we can do with the enforcement side That has been a source of frustration for the men and women of the police department We understand accountability comes through the justice system and we are only the gateway To that system. It's a start. It's not the end Whether they get fined or found guilty that's a different that's not our responsibility Policing is however an important element But I just want to be clear one more time. It's a misplaced focus if we're talking about solving homelessness It's only to control the behaviors of those who Are are not Following the the norms of our society Historical efforts to solve problems have been pretty robust here in Santa Cruz You can see all the items listed on the left side and on the right side We've issued 11 000 citations in a in a pretty short period of time with 8700 of those Going to people with no addresses most of those fail to appear in those citations Those are mostly infractions were sent to collections Which the logic of that Is uh, you know escapes me Uh, the impact on police services is substantial A sample of calls for service during day watch 36 per call percent of our calls related to homeless persons That does not include reports where suspects where the suspect identity was not known A recent review of crime statistics in this Santa Cruz found that Those without an address were 14.5 times more likely to be victims and 12 Times more likely to be the suspect in violent crime These numbers do affect police availability Volumes of calls for service our response times and reduces Our effectiveness because there just aren't solutions at this point that we can point to Concerning camping uh, and narrowly on the camping topic our tool belt is empty We understand that we must rigorously protect the constitution and operate within operate within the law There has not been an ordinance that we can enforce We're bound by the night circuit of appeals as uh, as the city attorney mentioned and But however we can enact legislation to deal with some of these things in a thoughtful way For a lot to be effective. It has to be a certain swift and fair One of the things we're going to do is separate two officers to give full-time attention to deal with quality of life crimes Such as theft drugs and complaint driven camping It'll prohibit this law also Allows us prohibit camping or sit-up camp during the daytime, which is when we get most of our complaints And then demand the uh, it also demands that we offer shelter to the homeless And allow for increased leverage for those who refuse while at the same time protecting personal property We take that very serious as a department And just to close uh, the ability of santa cruz to meet the challenge Will not come from one single law For the police to enforce but from our collective efforts to collaborate with those who share a common vision Not of what santa cruz once was but what we should be now And uh, we're prepared to do our part and uh, and we'll answer certainly any questions that you might have The questions for our chief here councilmember glover Andy, you're great in a lot of ways I really appreciate you we've we've connected a few times and have some shared values, especially on Trying to Rejuvenate the concept of law enforcement and all that kind of stuff. So, uh, appreciate the the presentation Can I ask why you use the term? the homeless or homeless as a I mean, it just seems You know language matters and I noticed that in the slides, um The people were referred to as homeless to assaults by homeless on city staff, which is Always of course never okay. I just want to keep our staff as safe as possible But then when it was BB gunshots, it was two juveniles So it just seems The language associated with the way that we're talking about people that are living on house Is problematic and it's something that brought up previously with the term abatement for camps because abatement's usually used for like Rats and roaches and those kinds of nuisances. So as opposed to say closure of a camp or relocation of a camp or all that kind of stuff So, you know, I was just hoping maybe I guess the question is can we be a little more sensitive in our, uh intentional language maybe in the future just a request Council megalover, of course, we can always be more sensitive. Thank you. Oh and then one more thing um interesting term of uh terminology the quality of life crimes Um theft drugs and complaint driven camping Uh, can you explain the rationale around that language? The quality of life crimes Well, certainly theft drugs Are affect the quality of life for people in our in our community and so does Complaints where people are camping because a variety of things lack of sanitation Lack of disposable, uh, you know places to dispose things The disease that can come with it. It's not healthy for the person camping either And we clearly understand that, you know, I read your piece this morning about Sleeping out. Thank you. And I can can't imagine what it would be like for that person But at the same time there has to be some level of of um Of quality of life for not only the people who are houseless, but also the people who are living in this community Thank you for that. Appreciate it Any additional questions councilor brown? I just have a quick question. Thanks for your presentation. Thanks to everybody with respect to the requests from the association of faith communities to increase the number of spaces made available um, I'm just wondering because I think that's a great idea and I've been thinking about this and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to ask you Previously, but I'd like to get your thoughts on that and also ask you if If we did raise that Could we also suggest that exceptions could be made? pending Kind of scpd review your review where it seems like it makes sense and upon request of institutions Just wanted to get your thoughts on that Um, certainly that's uh, you know your decisions council members to to make that however um, I think it depends greatly on the location the the size of the lot the uh facilities that are present and available And also the people that might be there um And the capacity of the associated faith communities to Correctly manage that location We want to make sure that they're able to scale At a at a pace where they can manage that effectively so we don't wind up losing the great progress that we've made I guess that's why I wanted to I'm just wondering about the possibility of There being some kind of system where you can review that to make a determination if it makes sense and based upon your The police department's understanding of the particulars Yeah, we review many types of uh permits and we certainly can do this one as well Thanks, it's a possibility the other questions at this time Seeing them we'll go ahead and move to our public comment portion of this um evenings agenda I had a number of requests for group um public Sort of speaking time and I just want to remind those that have made those requests that You're speaking on behalf of your group and as um in order to ensure those that have an opportunity to speak as well That they're acknowledging that you're speaking on their behalf and you're going to encourage those members who are here part of your group To avoid any kind of duplicate duplicative language. Essentially, that's the intention of having a group presentation So those that are here um that are with the group know please know that uh, Mr. McHenry from food not bombs Mr. Norris from huff a miss cool from homeless united Miss falls and mr. Brokaw from the santa cruz chapter of the aclu Okay, thank you for the correction santa cruz homeless union and um the santa cruz chapter of the aclu of northern california As well as surge from stepping up santa cruz have all requested Additional time to speak on behalf of your group. Um, and that is a Component of the council policy in regards to having them be a united voice in that way So that said i'm going to go ahead and ask that any any individual who has young children I do see there is a young child here can come forward you'll have up to two minutes Then we'll go ahead and open it up to the one minute and then um Go ahead and have the group presentations and then return to the two minutes So please come forward if you'd like your fault if you'd like two minutes. Thank you Hi, my name is crystal santa's i'm the president of the sacramento chapter of the national homeless union I'm here for a very long far away. I'm also on the board of supervisors sacramento homeless organizing committee As well as safe ground As an elected officials it is your duty to be morally and ethically right to all of the all of your people Placing this band does not provide any type of solutions besides making temporary By maybe temporarily appeasing some complaints and criminalizing the unhoused. It is however placing One or more stress on the homeless that are facing survival We are in a homeless crisis pushing people who are already trying to survive as cruel and unusual punishment and wait and a way to Sidestep marn versus boise systemic racism. Sorry systemic racism meaning broken policies is what has caused this crisis It has caused a society to break and has caused failure pitting residents and businesses against the unhoused and each other This camping van will further pit people as people will be shoved in front of businesses and in neighborhoods and in parks They have the right to be somewhere Daily moving is not an option for many It causes further ptsd and doesn't um allow a lot of time for wraparound services Let's open up buildings parking garages. Let's work on building bridges as a whole Homelessness affects everyone. It isn't going to just go away. This needs to be a state effort community effort We need to treat this the way that we treat other crises. It's like fires Get the resources to the people and open single occupancy shelters And then as far as your guys is uh ban It doesn't say anything about anything about people that work at night So where are these people that are homeless going to go during During this time these are things that you need to take into consideration We are all over california and we are fighting this my our mayor is daryl steinberg the commissioner of your guys's task force And this is a mess. We need to do this as a state not as this community Breaking up all these ordinances. Thank you Unless there's any other individuals with children here who wanted to address us on this topic We'll go ahead and see if there's any individual who wants to briefly address us in the one-minute time frame Um, is there any individual who like to briefly address the council in one minute? Please come forward? Hello, my name is um lee lebrey And and I I I'm going to say this from my heart and I certainly don't want to offend anybody in this room at all But I was I was going to ask if perhaps we could all come to a mutual agreement about the cemeteries my my husband has recently passed away and at the cemetery My girls visiting his grave were Were catcalled and I've been yelled at and I was just hoping that perhaps we could all To make the cemeteries a little more sacred and private To someone that that wants to be there and I apologize. I don't mean to offend anybody and I'm I'm so very sorry about the trauma that Santa Cruz and everybody's under and the trauma around death in general, but I'm sorry. I was just hoping we could all work together for a solution. Thank you. Thank you All right next speaker. You'll have um also one minute I at least want to speak to the the car camping I'd like to for for private lots. I think the numbers were we're only five right now It's like two or three per lot Like if if somebody is allowing people to stay on their property I think you should allow more than however much they can they can provide they should be able to provide As worlds are they going to go and if somebody gets impounded like that's their last refuge before being on the street So so please please work on the car camping Uh, my name is fred and tacky. I'm a commercial real estate agent here in Santa Cruz I manage properties. I represent owners and I also manage the building with the Santa Cruz visitor center is And we've been dealing a lot with the uh homeless or unhoused issue for a while as it affects businesses And I know that this is a community that wants to find justice and safety for everybody But I also know that if we don't have a Place where businesses can do well, it's going to affect the The whole city and people will leave and or they will not they'll choose not to do business here That said, I hope we look at other alternatives like the The city of a solid city is done In creating housing and building housing using federal state and local money to build permanent housing where there's no Basically, you can move into the housing. You don't need to meet all these qualifications first It's it's people need housing then they can get their act together. That's the way it works So I'd be happy to support that anywhere I can so thank you very much Next speaker for the one minute time frame, please come forward Actually, I just have a question. I've been seeing other cities and other states out there Building these tiny home villages. Is that something Santa Cruz can consider? Um, and so why haven't we done that yet? Is there any other member of the community that'd like to address us briefly before we have our group presentations? Please come forward if you could please speak to the microphone. Thank you I'm Lucero Luna, and I was at the Phoenix survival camp on November 15 at 6 30 We told that We were trespassing and we had 10 minutes to leave I was I was told that there were resources and Yeah, I was called Santa Cruz a recreational facility. I stayed there five days I was the community bailed me out and I just asked The chief of police and the meals and the meals Earlier, I said, where's my bachelor to the Hyatt? You know, that would be a resource, right? Thank you Everyone thank you for your service to the city and thank you everybody for being here as part of a democracy I'm a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz and I want to speak on behalf of the students in our community Just a short story. My housemate just started his phd in neurobiology smart kid He took a really really bad fall on his bike this past weekend and he Showed up on sunday evening and his face was completely marred He said that he couldn't afford the 125 co-pay for the hospital as a student And so he waited until monday to have a professional clean his wounds and confirmed the indeed he had broken a rib By the literal skin of his face He's going to be able to pay rent to continue living with me in my house this month So there's that for him But I beg the city council to consider for other people who face other accidents and You know where they might be ending up if they can't pay rent in the city and further I invite the council to consider What houseless students are expected to do with all of their stuff when they're trying to go to class and get an education? Thank you I'll take the one minute time for him sir. Were you interested in speaking on behalf of this item in one minute at this time? Please come forward Thank you I I wanted to sort of reiterate what angel said There's a definitely a need for for people to have a way that they can integrate Or self organize I was at a meeting at for monica last night and What the elders were saying was that there is a place in hawaii that they set up that is very similar That is all centered around sacredness We wake up in the morning and there is a prayer and there is an intention And there is a definite need for some sort of sacred place that people can go to Because I've heard many stories and the extremes that people are facing in these situations really caused them to Need a healing space and the spaces that we're providing in the way that they are now I've heard from women elder women aunties grandmas that they're embarrassing that they ruin a self image And one of the elders said that our enemy is it's not you. It's not the police. It's hopelessness. So let's bring back hope When does desperate human survival become trespass? That'll be a future court case in which the city among others may be implicated um I've been looking after a homeless woman a civilly handicapped homeless woman with the permission of the owners of the place i'm residing in um She stayed at laurel street shelter There was an uproar involving some men Somebody threw a chair at her now. She's got a big wound in the back of her leg Things like that How would that woman on crutches be able to access any of these future shelters that are envisioned? That's why we need the police and other community services to take people like her to the shelter when it's available. Thank you All right, seeing no other individuals who want to briefly address the council on this item We'll move to our group presentations. Um first up is mr. McHenry from food not bombs and you'll have up to four minutes Um Well, first of all, I'd like to you know, we talk about beds, but we really should realize these are gym mats that are on floors With your shoulders touching the people to your left and right And your feet touching the feet of the people at the other end of your gym mat So beds is a bad misleading term Um, I have been in correspondence and in personal conversations with the person responsible for determining the number of available beds and total number of beds per night in in the county and in the city and she does not have any idea What those numbers are? So the numbers that are being quoted here are based on a fiction Ralph does not know the numbers because no one knows the numbers because that is the fact um I would also like to um Point out that I received correspondence and phone calls from uh, ben wood ben wood Lived on the streets for two years and received quite a number of camping tickets Ben Was relieved that after two years he moved into a vehicle and had a 40 hour a week job and now his Wages are being taken To pay for the camping tickets that he got When he was living on the streets before he was fortunate enough to live in a car Which now he is facing the loss of because of these tickets And and so it's clearer that the the the whole idea of what's going on tonight We'll just lead to more problems as a person who rents when I attempted to rent apartments the last time I was searching I would denied Rental even though I qualified in all of their means because I have a misdemeanor Um, fortunately, I didn't learn about anything else, but um, that was enough so that I was denied repeatedly Accommodations now if you're going to give misdemeanors to homeless people And you're going and they finally get to move into a car And then they're finally get a 40 hour a week job yet the city's going to take their money I mean what or and then they can't get into and they're going to have a misdemeanor conviction then they can't run any place You know, you're just you're waging a war against the people living outside It's a war My good friend and a very dedicated volunteer With food not bombs who lives outside named travis wheeler. He woke up to find our other friend Bonnie hill dead on the sidewalk less than one block from city hall two days after Camp phoenix was evicted It's unbelievable that we can have this discussion that that we can have legal ease and and uh, and I want to inform Mr. Andy mills that there is an actual definition for quality of life crimes and not one of the words that you pointed to on your Powerpoint presentation Actually fall under that definition quality of life crimes, which has been what's a Came out of the um Study the kind of a phony study called broken windows study As actually referring to people sitting outside in on pacific avenue in our case or um asking for money Or selling like eric gardener selling single cigarettes when he got killed Not paying a fair evasion. There are all these smaller crimes Most of which are crimes so-called because a person cannot afford to move inside Go ahead and have mr. Norris come up and speak on behalf of his group Does this thing work? Okay All right, I want to congratulate the community Homeless folks and the activists who created camp phoenix a little more than two weeks ago This was camp phoenix which sheltered 60 to 100 people at 50 tents at no cost to the city They established ground space rules entry regulations and a code of conduct They provided a vital space for vulnerable women and elders They brought in toilets and hand washing stations found food options and as columnist bruce bratton said that Claimed it was and I think accurately set it up on territory that was and is of no use to anyone They were drawing disabled folks into a mutual aid situation that also gave community smaritan and social service access to them Housed locals heard and came out to help leveling the ground Left in lump condition by the city months before Fire and law enforcement officials came out offered advice and most important assisted rather than arrested Or blocked this growing homeless community at first Until the morning of november 15th when police suddenly appeared and demanded everyone leave discovering after five days That the many folks taking shelter were trespassing Folks as during the early rouse at ross camp were given at best two days in a motel and that only for some Now i've spent a lot of time in the past focusing on the city's deficiencies Some would say criminal deficiencies, but the real concern is justice and services for the most disabled and vulnerable Outside and just fairness for poor people generally Set aside the millions of dollars wasted not reaching people in the homeless situation the endless studies being conducted and so forth and so on Those outside tonight and every night throughout the winter have no choice, but to shelter themselves People need to prepare how to deal with the police how to pick up their property and move now to work with local neighborhoods to Mutually respect rights and needs Because this council isn't doing it it hasn't done it and it's not going to do it in my opinion In berkeley when the community kept providing support city police finally realized it was both too expensive And too futile to go after the first they came for the homeless encampment I would hope that homeless activists and progressives of all shades and folks in our audience here hold workshops On challenging city police abuses in court and on the streets and following in different city officials to their public meetings And confronting them loudly and repeatedly in real forums where they can't be hushed By a school marm voice who can threaten them with arrest or exclusion They need our support for years activists have been pressing city council And the city manager for sanctuary villages as have had limited but real success in a number of cities Camp phoenix was formed in memory of deseret cantero the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit which campers in the earlier ross camp She died in violently windy weather in the pogonev after she and several hundred other residents were forcibly dispersed From the safer ross camp in violation of commitments from the progressive city council majority We meet on the edge of what is predicted to be a violent rainstorm Which may be the first of increasingly severe weather the mayor city council and city staff don't seem Able to provide the civic auditorium access for current agenda item tonight Even for a limited period of time even though it might have been considered of great public interest Staff under the disgraced former assistant city manager suzie o'hara has repeatedly dangled promises of homeless shelter Navigation try to stay awake, please navigation center overflow shelter space in front of our eyes But this winter there is actually less shelter in spite of the misrepresentations of city manager brunel and virtually no walk-in shelter City council will provide no winter's survival shelter tonight nor will it suspend ticketing for closed areas Trespass on private property public nuisance blocking the sidewalk or lodging laws and those are the real laws Not the camping ordinance We're talking about they'll be used through the winter and have been used through the last two years. All right your time is up We'll go ahead and invite up alicia cool to come and speak on behalf of her group at this time And you'll have up to four minutes Don't start it yet At this time i've invited our legal counsel anthony prince He would like to go over some points and i just want to say that due to the negligence of this council with or without a fancy job I'm already the homelessness response manager. Unfortunately Well, good evening Excuse me members of the council members of the public My name is anthony prince as alicia indicated i'm serve as general counsel for the california homeless union And for the santa cruz homeless union um I want to say first of all I was invited to come here tonight. Excuse me. I'm losing my voice pardon To observe the proceedings and to state put forward the position of the union with regard to the Thank you with regard to the amendments that are being proposed for the camping ordinance I wanted first of all though to Hand the clerk the copy of the letter I know each and every one of you members of the council received this letter. I believe but I want to make a part of tonight's record i'll go ahead and offer that to the clerk um I want to first of all Clarify a few things and that is that the Well, let me just back up and say the uh, mr. Kandadi Made some slight alterations in the proposal Based on some of the concerns that were raised in the letter that was co-signed by the disability rights california The national law center homelessness and poverty and the aclu If those changes were made within One day of receiving that letter So to me that suggests that the issues raised in that letter Are substantial and bear quite a bit more examination for example, the letter raises the issue of The ordinance the amended ordinance would per se declare an unattended camp as a nuisance That's a very sweeping position for the city to take Now that was not adjusted Mr. Kandadi did not make an adjustment to the amended Ordinance the proposed amended ordinance based on that concern raised by the letter There are many many concerns raised in the letter I'm not going to take my time in reiterating them But I would suggest that the members of the council Carefully review that letter Moreover, I would suggest that the members of the council Carefully read the 38 page martin versus boise decision of the ninth circuit I am concerned As to the gravity of decisions that may be made tonight or some other time that are not fully informed You've you've heard a presentation of the city attorney On what is essentially a very complex issue complex constitutional questions Without the opportunity for the council to be informed ask questions and receive additional Information from the authors of the letter for example I want to point out to the members of the city council That not only would the city council be as an entity in the city of Santa Cruz as an entity possibly be liable For harms resulting from the decisions you may make tonight But as individual members of the city council It very well may be That you might as individuals be held liable the general rule of non Of immunity for a legislative proceeding There are exceptions to it and one of them Is is if the proceeding is actually not a genuine legislative proceeding. I would Pause it that what's happening here is not a genuine legislative proceeding That is if the vote is taken to In favor of these amendments I believe it's a circumvention of the ninth the holding of the ninth circuit A form of i'm sorry Unfortunately your time's up All right. Well, let me just uh end by saying that You guys need to carefully consider the consequences here the state created danger You affirmatively put people in ross camp at risk of of harm enough to ask you and we had a Fatality let's just let me make this point. Thank you. Thank you. And um, I would I have to ask you to have to ask you to end your comment Please thank you.  We actually gave you extra time most most of the public It's two minutes. We gave you four. So I'm gonna have to ask you to end your comments at this time Okay, well, I'm just gonna say that I'm gonna have to ask you what you're doing here So what you're doing here is taking in action that we'll have to ask you excuse me to end people at risk So sir, sir, sir, you've had a warning Okay, you can silence me here Sir, but we we gave you extra time. We gave your group extra time There are other people in the audience who would like to speak I understand that I'm going to be violating their first amendment right to have their right to speak could I finish my sentence We gave you extra time. We have to ask you to please stop. We will take your comments But i'm gonna have to ask you to please hold you and I advise all the members to carefully Individually consider what's thank you for your time before the body Read the decisions read martin versus boise carefully read the letters and I would encourage You to invite the attorneys who authored those letters as well as myself to come in and have a real Discussion because you're about to do some things which will end in costly litigation protracted litigation And and will very well may add to the list of people that have died again very well may That's okay. That's all right. That's okay. Let me I'm gonna go very well may lead to additional harm or even fatalities. Okay, so i'm trying to make this for the record We're gonna be in recess And your time is up and that's the warning if there's any continued outbreaks that we're gonna Okay All right I'm gonna go ahead and call our meeting back to order if I could get you to please um Quiet your voices. We're gonna come back to order I'll just briefly remind those in the audience here that it's the responsibility of the presiding officer whoever that is whether it's Me in the seat at this time or the future mayor to ensure that we have an opportunity for civic engagement and to do the people's business Without continued disruption And if there is continued disruption then it's also the responsibility of the presiding officer officer to intervene So that we can continue to do the work of the city and I want to remind um, Mr. McHenry and Mr. Prince who I believe has stepped out that I've issued a warning and if there's continual disruption I will go ahead and ask the sergeant of arms to have you leave We had an opportunity to hear from you We want to have an opportunity to hear from other members of the community that want to address the council on this item And ask that you adhere to the rules of decorum And if I don't see you continuing to adhere to the rules of decorum, I will go ahead and ask you to leave I don't want to do that I'd like to have an opportunity to