Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors 11/5/19

(people murmuring softly) – All right. Good morning everybody. Hi, good morning. I'm gonna call to order
the November fifth, 2019 Board of Supervisors meeting call to order and ask the
clerk to call the role. – Supervisor Leopold.
– Here. – Friend.
– Here. – Caput.
– Here. – McPherson.
– Here. – Chair Coonerty
– Here. Now I'm gonna ask you to join me in a moment of silence and
the Pledge of Allegiance. And if you're able, during
the moment of silence, please think about all the firefighters and the folks around the state who are dealing with
wildfires and their impacts. – [All] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. – All right, Mr. Palacios, are there any late additions
or changes to the agenda? – Yes, we have two revisions on the regular agenda item number 16.

There's additional materials. There's a revised memo packet, page 399. And then on the consent agenda item 24. There's additional materials. There's a revised attachment
B packet page 662-A. Thank you.
– Great. And now I'm gonna ask my colleagues, is there anything they'd like to remove from the consent agenda? Okay, seeing none, we're now
gonna go on to public comment. This is an opportunity
for members of public to speak to us about items that are not on today's agenda but are within the purview of the board, or are on the consent agenda.

Or if you're unable to stay for one of our regular agenda items 'cause you have to get
to work or childcare. Please feel free to speak
about those items now and ask everyone to line up and it'll be two minutes please. – Two minute chair. This is Jerry Richard Arnold, I wanna congratulate the
Board of Supervisors. You know, the veterans,
grandfathers and fathers and uncles are sacrifices
of their lives their arms and leaving their families alone. Congratulate the Board of Supervisors for honoring the veterans with two plaques on the courthouse steps, of which Major General
Charles Willoughby referred to who was General Douglas
MacArthur's chief of staff. He refers to De Lacy
by name as a supporter for the Nazis when they divided up Poland. So I'm sure our veterans
should appreciate that.

Also on the same book of
Shanghai conspiracy talks on page 236, the Major
General names Hugh De Lacy has been responsible
with the number of spies for the overthrow and the takeover of Communist China killing 65 million people. So I'm sure the veterans
would appreciate that. And it was General MacArthur that had the fight the red Chinese over the Yalu Bridge and those people that were
killed during the Korean War. I'm sure the veterans would appreciate you're keeping those plaques out there. The fact is, you run a Soviet you're running a parallel government. Hugh De Lacy was honored here at the local down at the Nelson Center. It is Neil Coonerty that supports Angela
Davis here at his store. It is Neil Coonerty that Ryan Coonerty that runs a resource center whose according to their own brochure is interchangeable with
war resistors league which is a communist front.

It is a Ryan Coonerty that
went to the school in London that created the Soviets the Soviet that works here which is AMBAG and in your adoption of agenda 21 it was Khrushchev that
you quoted frequently and he says the European
Union is the new Soviet that's what you're doing here and you don't tell the people where the real action's going on at AMBAG. – Thank you, next speaker. – I am honored to be here. My name is Larry graph. I live in Live Oak I wanted to talk about the new development on Capitola Road two parts one, we'd really like a
walkway to go through it.

There's been a pedestrian walkway through that land for decades and we'd really like to be
able to walk off the busy roads of Capitola and 17th and be
able to walk have a walkway, a pedestrian path, also
wanna speak for the trees on that property. And that there's a lot
of old, beautiful trees on that property that have
been here a lot longer than we have and like to be able to keep as many as possible on that property, the big trees, they're really beautiful and a lot of habitat for a lot of animals that were here before us also.

Thank you very much.
– Thank you. – Good morning. I would like to speak on the same issue. I believe everyone has
a copy of a petition that I was able to generate
walking several days. Looking around, seeing if
I can get some local folks in my neighborhood on the
highway side of Capitola Road and also on the Harper
street side of Capitola Road to voice their opinion
and sign the petition and lots of support for
having a walk through.

People are really excited
about being able to walk around in their neighborhoods, our neighborhood is becoming very impacted with housing and whatnot. And there's a great need
for us to be out of our cars and walking, walking to the store, walking to our favorite parks and byways. So I'm just, I'm happy to
go out and do this again, if need be,
(alarm beeping) but I don't know what the beeping means. – You have a minute left.
– Okay.

So I must say people were really unaware of the project to some degree, but when I explained what was going on, they seem to sort of accept the project on some level, maybe
you'll hear from others, but they really liked the idea
of being able to access it. They liked the idea that
there might be a place for them to sit there at some point. You know, on their walk both ways. So I hope you consider that and like I said, I'd be
happy to follow up on this and broaden my petition if necessary, but I thought just getting people in that specific area
should be a good indicator of public sentiment. So please consider this
actually, thank you. – What kind of trees
were we talking about? – They're mostly oak trees.
– Oak, okay. – They're fantastic if you
haven't had a chance to see them. And then if you stay
there for a few minutes, you'll notice all kinds of
animal activity, bird life. – Thank you.
– Thank you. – Good morning, thank
you for having us here. My name is Maria Cadenas as I'm the executive director of Santa Cruz Community Ventures, and I'm here to speak on behalf and in support of the
consent item number 32, which is a creation of Santa Cruz SEEDS.

At adventures we focus
on creating equitable and compassionate economies
here in Santa Cruz County and the Monterey Bay region. And we are very cognizant
of the importance of the education and
future of our children. Santa Cruz SEEDS is following
national best standards to make sure that our children can succeed and have a college education or vocational post secondary education. The program is really one
that's been highlighted across the state. In fact, I'm presenting next week at the California affordability
college conference. to present the model that we
created here in Santa Cruz, we should be very proud of the investment that we're doing the children. Children with savings accounts are three times more
likely to go to college, four times more likely to graduate regardless of the amount in the account.

Furthermore, these accounts decrease maternal postpartum depression and increase the social
emotional well being of the child again, regardless of what
amount is in the account. This is about creating hope and making sure that kids have pathways for economic mobility in the future. And that is the future of our county. So thank you again for considering this and putting this in the consent agenda.

And again from Santa
Cruz Community Ventures we're very grateful for the commitment to the future of our county. Thank you.
– Thank you. – Hi, my name is Sherlock
Avanus and I love Santa Cruz. – Hi, I'm Erica Miranda Bartlett and I'm the co-chair of the
Mental Health Advisory Board. Sherlock is the chair. – I wanna bring up a couple things I wanna thank you for your appointment is Dr. Joanna Witkop to the board. We are currently working
on the biannual report due at the end of this year.

And in written correspondence. We have just submitted
the 2019 data notebook for Santa Cruz County and we've also submitted it to the California Behavioral
Health Planning Council, which was due at the end of the month. We received tremendous help
from Dr. Lisa Gutierrez Wang, the director of Children's
Behavioral Health and from Jane Boone-Critzva
our administrative aide. The data notebook reviews information and reports on the county's
behavioral health services with the goals of reviewing performance, educational resources to get opinions and thoughts on specific topics
and to identify unmet needs.

This year's focus was on
trauma informed principles specifically regarding
childhood, a good portion. A good portion is educational covering trauma, trauma informed care, adverse childhood experience survey known as ACE, resiliency and some examples of evidence based
practices like first five. Highlights, the County Behavioral Health under the leadership of Dr. Eric Rivera works across departments and community organizations to help expand supportive
housing like Union Street and Maple Street in Watsonville. The County Behavioral Health is committed to becoming
a trauma informed system. Also working across districts with community partners the
county office of education under the leadership of
Superintendent Faris Sabbah has a strategic plan that includes a system of care that addresses both behavioral health, substance use, and suicide.

In areas that we're
seeing for improvement. We would like to see more support of trauma informed practices in the jails, criminal justice systems, skilled nursing facilities, and independent board care,
done five seconds left. – Thank you so much
– Thank you so much. – I wanna thank you both for all the hard work you're doing. Thank you very much. And there were two of you. We should we could have
given you a few more seconds. – We appreciate your board.
– Thanks a lot. – Hi, my name is Vanessa Young. I'm a resident here in Pleasure Point. I'm here today to ask you guys to consider adding more resources to the planning department.

My husband and I recently bought
a house in Pleasure Point. We scraped together everything we could to get a pretty broken house. It's got a cracked
foundation, a leaking roof. And yesterday marked the one year mark that we've been working
with the planning department to try to repair our roof. So we're about to go
through another rainy season with buckets in our living room, because the planning
department can't do anything in less than 12 weeks. So with two submissions at 12 weeks, that's 24 weeks plus the architect's time to turn around drawings. It's pretty unacceptable that I've got a million dollar house that can't hold any insulation, no heat. And six months ago, I had a newborn. So looks like this winter, we're not even going to
be able to live there because the house is too cold. And once it starts to
rain, our roof is leaking. So I'm here today to ask
you to consider adding staff or making changes to
the planning department so that people like us
who wanna stay residents who scrape it together to buy a house can actually have a livable house, which right now our house
is through the winter are not gonna be livable.

It's been quite frustrating. I think with some resources, you could make a huge difference. To the community.
– Thank you. – That's my ask.
– Thank you. – Thank you.
– Thank you. – Good morning, everyone. Nice seeing you, Michael Saint, citizen of Santa Cruz County. I'm here mainly 'cause I'm
concerned for climate change as well as the crisis that
that presents to all of us. One question for all you, supervisors. When considering all these projects that come in front of you, do you personally use the
size of its carbon footprint? Or ask the question how
can we mitigate the size of this carbon footprint before we approve the actual project, as you probably know,
on January first 2020, California has a new solar mandate for new solar on all new
housing projects, condos and apartments up to three stories.

This also encourages more
electric use versus gas use, which happens to reduce
natural gas consumption also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. McPherson with Monterey
Bay Community power will get a chance to vote in December on their electrification plans for 19-20 and also five years into the future, they are trying to get contractors to actually stop running natural gas lines and go full electric on their homes. I'm wondering if this has been considered in the Live Oak project. I hope you all feel as I do that it's time to join the 21st century and drastically lower our carbon footprint when these projects come
in front of you, thank you. – Hi, my name is Gage Dayton and I'm a resident of Live Oak community and I wanna echo my support for the two Live Oak community members who want more open space and public access space at the development on Capitola and I'm here to
speak to that item as well. As I mentioned, I'm a
longtime Live Oak resident and I greatly appreciate
Supervisor Leopold's effort to engage our community on
that project on Capitola.

Our community came out in great numbers, multiple meetings, there's a
lot of written comment as well. And we had a lot to say about the future of this unique property and it is a unique
property for our community that we only have one opportunity to give insight into for our future. I also agree that there's a real need and a deep need for affordable housing, and the two services that
will be located at that site. However, I feel strongly that the planning process was flawed.

In that it included that adjacent parcel where the laundromat and
Live Oak supermarket is in the community planning process so that our community gave input on those two parcels where in fact that parcel it wasn't entitled and is not part of the
project going forward. If you look at the
significant community input, the current project does not appear to reflect the community consensus on what we wanted in in that parcel again, because we were speaking to two parcels, and there's only one
parcel now being developed. It lacks open space, as
was mentioned earlier, it lacks a significant mixed use. And it lacks a community area all points that I feel were voiced in the
community planning process. I request that you reject the plan and re-engage our community to discuss a project that
only includes that parcel. So that we can have a voice
in shaping our community. It is a one time opportunity for us, and a little bit more
time to get it right, I think is warranted. – Thank you.
– Thank you. – Thank you, and I just
wanna make clear for folks, so that item is gonna be
gonna be heard at 10:30.

And we're happy to have you talk now if you can't stay but the
folks who wanna speak out and when it comes up, we'll be hearing it at 10:30.
– And I'll be gone then. – Perfect. Well, I'm glad you utilized
this opportunity, thank you. – Morning supervisors. My name is Owen Thomas. I'm a resident in Santa Cruz. I'm speaking in regards
to item 14 on the agenda. So I'm in support of passing
provisions that mirror AB-1482. The sort of tenant protections
and a limited rent cap that has been passed by
the state of California that's gonna go into effect in January. I'm in support of passing an ordinance that implements those
provisions early in order to cover the gap in
between now and January so that there isn't a possibility of tenants slipping through
the cracks of those provisions during this sort of period.

I have heard of mass evictions
happening in Capitola. I've also been supportive of tenants who are getting evicted
in the lower ocean area of Santa Cruz. So I know that evictions are happening that otherwise, wouldn't it be happening if the ordinance were in effect. So yeah, as someone who's
against displacement and for keeping low income
tenants in our community, I'm very supportive of some
sort of urgent protections being implemented now as
opposed to later in January. Thank you.
– Thank you. – Hi, I'm Cynthia Burger with Santa Cruz Tenants Association. I have the hotline for tenants for the last five and a half years, I run that for free and don't throw money and no applause. And I've gotten well over, you know, probably around 2000 phone calls in the last few years have records of, and most of them are from
the county of course, because in this county, there's more population in the county then in the four cities put together unlike any other county
as I understand it, so I've been getting a lot of phone calls in the past month or two, from people who are long term
renters getting kicked out for no good reason.

And I understand that you don't
support just cause eviction, or you would have passed it. But this about the time to pass it. I think you'll find your
streets have fewer people living on them. Last night, I got a
call from a Mexican man who's been living in
Watsonville for a long time, who's now homeless now you have Mexican and Mexican American homeless people. You had many fewer before. – Good morning. My name is Virginia Apena. And I have a son which
and I am a single parent I am older, 60 plus,
and it's always the same but very serious about it. Just got the notice for being evicted from the apartment I have been living in, in the
building in this apartment for 13 years because the owner
of the building just changed.

I mean transferred from the deceased owner to the siblings. And I'm just wanna let you know, they are very cold hearted and they don't even care
I got Section 8 voucher which is not useful at all because it's giving them power, the owner's power to accept it or not. And then being low income and having a son which is disabled I'm responsible for his future life.

I don't have any other choices. And starting with November 20th. I have to live in the street. So what would you do or
what you're gonna do to help us like a vulnerable peoples we are in the situations. So that's all I can say, thank you. – Thank you. – Thank you, good morning,
Patty Steinbrunner resident of rural Aptos and I just wanna protest again, public comment has been
reduced again to two minutes.

And we do not have the ability to pull any consent agenda items. Were there any consent agenda items pulled this morning by supervisors? – No.
– Thank you. I did request that one
be pulled number 44. So I would like to
speak to that number 44. That is the county's list of projects being submitted for RSTPX funding from the resource Regional
Transportation Commission. These are pretty much a given that they will be funded perhaps not at the level that is requested but they are always funded. And I wanna protest in district two again for the third year. The request from the county for funding of a traffic
light in Aptos village. That is a traffic mitigation for the Aptos village
project pure and simple. This would give $400,000
to the traffic light at Aptos Creek Road. That is a traffic mitigation for phase two of the development and this is a pure gift
to Swenson developer and I protest it when there are roads such as Eureka Canyon
Highland that are in shambles.

We don't need to gift public
money to Barry Swenson. I also wanna say that there is no project for Lompico Road in this list. I have given you information that Lompico has been designated as
the number one Bay Area, riskiest evacuation for fires and that's not even on this list. So, that needs to be looked
at and I hope you will. I wanna also say that in short time, the CSA 48 ballot measures
are coming out in the mail this week they were printed in Sacramento.

They were not even printed locally for local business people. And I protest that there
is no proposition 172 money even being considered
or Measure G sales tax that was sold to the people for fire that will go to support
County Fire, thank you. (audience applauding) – Hi there, my name is Rafael. I wanted to bring your
attention to the item number 24 in your consent agenda, which was a resolution
adopting $1.6 million in homeless emergency aid program funding for the Salvation Army 1220 River Street program and the Laurel street program. I just wanted to let you
know in case you aren't aware that most of this funding is for a program that has already existed since July, and this is just approving the funding specifically for Laurel Street until June and for the 1220 River Street tent program until the end of March when that facility will close for a city maintenance project. This is concerning 'cause there isn't
currently a funding plan for the three months after. After that, the closing of that project, the agenda item mentions that staff may come back
to you with requests for additional funding. And I hope that if and when they do that, that you would approve such funding because there's currently
over $100,000 gap in the funding available from the HEAP emergency aid funding and the cash funding to
pay for that program.

So the county and the city
are gonna have to step up and figure out a way to fund that. Otherwise we're gonna have
the 60 people 60 plus people in that shelter back on the streets again. Thank you very much.
– Thank you. – Hello, my name is Monica McGuire. I live in Corleos. I'm coming again, very late
because of the traffic problems that for whatever unknown reasons, the greenway proposals have not been heard and understood by the
five of you well enough or the county administrators or anyone else in order
to free up the traffic in the known way and hundreds of counties across this country, having bike lanes, having the train tracks
turned into a thoroughfare is by far the best way to
get the traffic lightened and making more sense.

I also want to again call
attention to the sad, sad state of affairs, that you have so many
of us coming regularly to ask you to accept our help, since you are clearly so overworked, that you can't get everything done. We understand it's a hard job. And we really and truly, so many of us in this county are wishing you would accept our volunteerism, our help, our care, our requests that you
would have evening meetings so that more people could come to show you what the people of this county
want to do for ourselves and to help you with your jobs have apparently been on deaf ears. But I will repeat. That is a way to get the 90% of people I've been talking to
for the last few months, asking throughout this
county, at least 1000 people. Do you know who your county supervisor is? And 90% don't know who
their county supervisor is, no idea whatsoever of the
10% that say they know, it is rare, if half a percent has actually attended a
meeting of that hundred.

I mean, you are in this terrible position where people have no idea
what you're doing or why and they're cynical. They believe there's no point in coming because they think things are corrupt. I don't believe that. I believe you're doing the best you can. I believe all humans are
doing the best they can. – Thank you.
– But you need help. And we ask that you
start inviting us to come and help you and taking our offers better. – Thank you.
– Thank you. – For the offer.
– Please accept this time. – [Ryan] Thank you your time's up. – I'm so sorry that's the case again. – Hello, my name is Charles Vasquez. And I'd like to thank the board for adding item 14 emergency
renter protections, and in particular my Supervisor Coonerty for being very responsive
to my emails on this.

I've been in Santa Cruz
my entire adult life, most of that has been as a renter. And because I've been a renter, that means that I've been renting in most of your districts,
not necessarily by choice, but because I have to
move quite frequently. It doesn't have to be that way. And AB-1842 is the state saying that we will now have better ways for renters to have
security in their housing, and it's going to be coming
whether people want it or not, and we finally have a chance
to help all these people with this, but there is this loophole for two months that people
are using unfortunately to evict people from their homes.

Good landlords will not be affected by emergency protections. And short term measures like these can have great effect
for good in our county. Cities all over the state from
Los Angeles to Redwood City. Last night, San Mateo as well have passed these emergency protections. And you can be the first county to pass emergency protections like all of the cities are
doing around the state.

Thank you.
– Thank you. (audience applauding) – Good morning, county supervisors, my name is Antonio Rivas, and I would like to have the
opportunity to really thank you all of you in a way that now we're gonna have
a mental health facility in the city of Watsonville. And that's something is very important to the needs of our community
in the city of Watsonville. And also I would like to just continue to make sure that we continue
to provide those services into the city and through
others in the county because I think it's a big
need in the mental health, including seniors, including young adults, and including children.

So with that in mind, I wish
we could continue to do this. And I thank you all of you for doing this to our city of Watsonville, thank you.
– Thank you. – Marilyn Garrett I want
to give some references right away about wireless
microwave dangers. TakeBackYourPower.net Yeah, we really need that. Search online Dr. Magda
Havas YouTube videos on radiation exposure and the third one Dr. Barry Traler Could you hold the picture Monica? Okay last night (coughing) excuse me, I went to see the film Harriet, about Harriet Tubman and
the Underground Railroad during the days of slavery and the whole abolitionist movement. And it was very inspiring and disturbing. In the film you can we can
understand about slavery and the visual brutality. And I was thinking of
modern day forms of slavery. Wage slavery you could give a list. Also think of the telecom industry with their invisible, continuous assault with microwaves and harm
on us and toxic trespass, Harriet Tubman insisted she would lead slaves to freedom, even when told she couldn't.

She was determined to do what was needed and what was right. I think of you board of supervisors saying our hands are tied when it comes to putting radiation emitting cell towers
everywhere, harming people, devaluing property. Our hands are tied, I urge
you to break the chains of the telecom industry, what I feel is a toxic
military occupation, with the most recent example being the Seventh Day Adventist camp site approved.
– Thank you, Marilyn. – And I urge you to contact Annette Simm of the Nevada city council posing this and sign on
to the stop 5G on Earth and in space appeal.

– Thanks Marilyn.
– I will give that to you again
– Marilyn you're out of time. – Two minute Coonerty.
– Thank you, Sam. – We used to have three minutes, sir. – Thank you. Are there any, is there anyone else would like to speak to us today? All right, seeing none we'll now move on to our regular agenda. First, we'll start off with
item number seven this. Oh, sorry. Yes, action on the consent agenda. So, first, we're going
to go to item number six, which is action on the consent agenda. These are items 18 to 45. I'll first ask my colleagues if they have any comments
they'd like to make. Supervisor Caput. – I'll just make a comment. Someone requested item I think believe 44. And 44 I'm happy to see
that money's gonna go towards Houlihand and the College Road
intersection in District Four. And also some of the
money in district two, that's going to Park,
Pioneer and Varney road, which is just right across
the street from my district. So I'm not gonna pull the item.

This is $4.8 billion. That is for the RSTP share. It's not all the money that's gonna go to only these projects, other maintenance will be taking place, while this money is being
looked at right now, these are just it's a list of priorities. And I think it's a fair
list there is other money for other projects, but this is 4.8 million that I believe is equitably
portioned out to the county. So thanks for the comment,
but I'm not gonna pull it. I just wanted to explain
my position, thank you. – Okay, Supervisor McPherson.
– Thank you Mr Chair. There's several items of three or four that I wanted to talk about item 24. I wanna thank again the homeless
service coordination office for providing the end the Salvation Army and we're working with the Salvation Army for providing this needed sheltering for the community and a big
thank you to the Salvation Army that has done this, in
coordination with the city and the county.

This really represents
the most comprehensive emergency sheltering program we have, and that we've been able to
provide in Santa Cruz County to date. And quite often homelessness
comes to our questions about it come to our office, that we're not doing enough to address the homeless situation. And you're probably
right on the face of it, but I think we're doing
a lot with what we have and that's why I'd like I think it deserves some explanation. We are budgeted to spend $14 million this year between our sources
that we get funds from, which includes offering half of the overall half jurisdictions, funding related to this contract
with the Salvation Army. And to give folks a sense
of how much this costs for to provide emergency sheltering, the cost per bed at Laurel
street per night is $62.

The cost per tent at
the River Street shelter is $42 per night. This is to keep folks off the street, which we're doing, and we
want to continue to do that and expand on it. But there are no day services or navigation facilities either. And I think it's important for
the community to understand it is gonna be expensive
to add housing navigation, on top of the emergency
sheltering that we have. It's gonna be so important that we make the right investments and what we can do with what we have and the funding of the North
County navigation center because that will involve a
much larger funding mechanism then we have now.

But I do have a question about, I think Rainy Perez might
be able to answer this. What is, it was referred to by
one of the community members. What is the plan for replacing
the 1220 River Street shelter when it goes offline in March? At this point do we have a plan of attack? – Good morning. Yes, Rainy Perez county
Homeless Services Coordinator. And there is work underway. City and County are working together to identify an alternative
location where it's anticipated that the River Street site will probably not be available due to a water project planned there. And so a site is being identified and we anticipate that we
will be able to move people. – Okay, and I wanna explain
that the city has a long plan to put a water facility
to help the water system in the city of Santa Cruz to put a place that there is
been on their planning board, for a long time.

It's not something that just came up and we're saying, hey, you're out of here. – That's true, and in fact, the project was delayed due to permitting. So the fact that we're
able to use it right now is somewhat of a blessing because we did not think
it would be available. So they, if the project is
not ready to be worked on by May 31, then we may be
able to, or sorry, March 31, we may be able to extend, but we won't know that yet.

– Okay, thank you very much.
– You're welcome. – And I do wanna thank on item
number 33 Christine Berge, from our Clerk of the board for replying to the substance abuse disorder
Services Commission. I wanna thank my count
colleagues here on the board for reappointed me as the California State Association of Counties representative. CSAC as it's referred to
is invaluable resources and getting a coordinated effort from counties throughout California. So especially in issues
like the terrible fires that we've been experiencing, and how we can coordinate our efforts to make things as decent as possible we can for some really tough situations. But CSAC has got a great team of people up there for us. And I appreciate that very much. On item 37, the mental
health diversion funding, I'm glad we're getting these
funds as we've referenced to place those experiencing
mental health disorders in an appropriate setting before trial. But I just wanted to
find out a little more about that without pulling
it from the consent item.

What are the options
for placing these folks in a secure manner? Does anybody can anybody
answer that for me? And you know, how is public safety being taken into account on this? – Good morning supervisor
McPherson Mimi Hall with the Health Services Agency. I have Pam Rogers Wyman here as well. She's our adult behavioral
Health Services Director. First of all, to be
eligible for diversion, you have to meet certain criteria. There are three specific diagnoses and it's only those three
that make you eligible. Second of all, your mental illness has got to be connected with the crime that you're being charged with. And then third of all, you have
to be amenable to treatment. So there's no one magic bullet answer as they go to a certain place.

It's based on the assessment
of the individual. So we have a number of local
options and facilities. The idea is to not have
someone languish in jail before they go off to the state hospital. So it could be that they're deemed 5150. And they'll be put on a hold or they'll go to a
psychiatric crisis facility. It could be that they're
deemed to be conserved. It could be that they go
to a locked residential. It really depends on what the
individual is assessed with and I don't know if Pam
wants to add anything more. – Thank you. The purpose of this particular statute, the law that passed was to get people with serious mental illnesses out of jail and into treatment in a
more expedited manner.

Right now they're languishing in our jail, anywhere between three, four
and five months awaiting a state hospital bed. So the population that's
been carved out for this particular program are
actually nonviolent offenders. First of all, they have
to pose not pose a risk to the community to be
served in the community. And the community really
means as Mimi described based on their mental health needs. If someone needs to be
on an inpatient unit, that would be the level of care
that we would be providing. If they are really amenable to services, they started taking
medication in the jail. They could be released potentially to our sub-acute facility. So the grant was specific to force staff, not a facility to wrap
services around the individuals inclusive of pre-trial services. So people being released from the jail if they're going to an
open, unlocked setting would be placed on pre-trial, potentially with an ankle monitor, depending on the individual, and they have regular
reviews before the court. If these individuals are compliant, and they move through their treatment, they go back to court. The charges potentially can be diverted. If they're non-compliant
they're remanded custody.

– Okay I really appreciate
the further explanation. Thank you very much. I think it's very much needed. Thank you, Mr. Chair. – Supervisor Leopold? – Good morning chair. Just a couple items to comment on. On the item number 24. I wanna appreciate all the folks who are working on
addressing homeless care in our community. This is a good partnership with the city of Santa Cruz with the Salvation Army and with other organizations and I appreciate the work that we're doing by both ends of the county and the efforts we're trying to do to
meet immediate needs, and continue to work on
the long term strategies.

On item number 37, which
we just talked about it one thing that the people may not be aware is that the largest provider in this country of mental health
services are county jails. And it's not an appropriate place for we ask a lot of our county jail, now to also be a mental health provider. So I really appreciate the work on staff to secure these funds and find other ways to be able to hold people accountable, but have them treated in the
most appropriate location rather than behind bars. Because hopefully will that
will be a better outcome for the individual and for
the community as a whole and I just appreciate the ongoing work that our staff has to do
every day in in providing care inside of our jail. On item number 38 I wanna appreciate the parks
department for their work in securing a second
grant for the Soco Creek linear Parkway project this is
gonna be a very exciting part of the heart of SoCal
we'll be able to walk along the creek behind SoCal elementary and connect with Lions Park bridge. I'm really excited to
see this moving forward and I appreciate the efforts
that have gone into it.

Lastly on item number 44 the RSTPX funds. This was a call from our Public
Works director Matt Machado to think about these fundings
differently from the RTC. I'm glad to see the work being
done in the first district. It will make a big difference especially on North Rodeo Gulch Road , and I wanna appreciate
the work of the staff to make that happen. That's it.
– Supervisor Friend. – Thank you chair, just to
build on what Supervisor Leopold just said if it weren't
for the Public Works staff, including Director Machado, we wouldn't have been
aware of the possibility of being able to do this formula based as so many other communities do.

This board actually voted unanimously at the Regional Transportation Commission to move toward that format, even though there was a
significant amount of discussion regarding it as a result
of it is has opened up a lot of new funding for
specific types of roads, arterial roads within the
community and in my district, as Supervisor Caput noted, it opens up funding much needed funding for Coroleados that hadn't
been available before. So I appreciate the
work of Director Machado but also this board for
taking that position at the Regional Transportation Commission to make this funding available. – Great and I just have a
couple additional directions and a couple comments. So first on item number 24. This is the shelter and
Salvation Army contract. I really wanna appreciate the staff's work in providing year round shelter and I know it's a challenging process and we're gonna be looking
at having to address the River Street camp. And I look forward to the solutions that are brought forward, I do have some additional directions because we wanna make sure that when we provide these services, they also don't unduly
impact the community. So the added direction I would add is, first that we direct staff to develop a written plan with the city and the provider to reduce impacts or relocate the current
drop off site at Laurel and Front Street and
staff to provide a memo to the board by November 18 on that.

The second direction will be direct staff and HST staff to actively assist any shelter clients with minor children's within
two days of the family becoming a shelter client. We really wanna prioritize children so that they don't experience
any more unnecessary trauma then they're already already going through by experiencing homelessness. And the third one is direct
staff to provide a memo to the board. Quarterly reports the number of clients who are utilizing our
Homeward Bound program, we've come up with resources
for the Salvation Army to provide bus tickets and other resources to people who can return to communities where they will have a
better support system. And we should get just quarterly reports to see how that's going. On item number 32, the
children's savings account. I wanna appreciate Maria
and Community Ventures for bringing this to the board. I think this is a really
exciting opportunity to provide savings accounts
to families, babies, and their families in our community and the impacts that she's
cited we see around the country are really remarkable in terms of giving
people a sense of future and a possibility and hope
and that the community is investing in them in their future.

So I'm proud to be working
with Maria on that. On item number 37, I think that it's a
really important program and for all the reasons that have been stated, but I also wanna make sure
we implement this correctly. So the added direction that I would add is that before a new mental
health, non-locked modality is open or utilized. There'll be a community meeting organized by county HSA staff, notice to residents in 1000 foot radius of
the proposed location. In addition, this new non-locked modality will receive a majority
approval from the city council, or the Board of Supervisors
in the jurisdiction where it's to be located.

I think there's existing facilities and we can also work on lock facilities. But if we're gonna be
creating new locations, it's really important that
we engage the community before that happens. And item number 42 the Davenport crossing, there's a really this is a dire need to create safety in our community. And this is a very dangerous location where we have people crossing the highway oftentimes visitors who don't know that they're crossing a state highway as they move back and forth
between Davenport and the beach. And so I really wanna make
sure that we're moving forward on creating a safe crossing
as soon as possible. – I would want clarity on
the question of notification. because I agree that we need
to have good notification, we have to include people in discussion. It just a big thing to add
as part of a consent item. And so I wonder if you
could say a little bit more about that. – Sure, I mean, I think, to extent we have existing facilities. Those are existing and hopefully
we'll manage, to the extent that we have locked facilities those address the concerns.

The extent that we're gonna be adding any new non-locked modalities, I think, for this particular population, I think there should be
outreach and approval by the appropriate jurisdiction. – Yeah I mean this is a big item I feel uncomfortable voting for it without understanding what that means. And so I'm wondering if we
could either continue it to the next meeting, so I have a chance to find out
a little bit more about it. I may be in support of it, but it the idea of turning
over land use authority or something to someone else, I just think I wanna contemplate
what that exactly means. And if it can wait until next meeting. Well, so I'm not at the next meeting. So this would be moved
to the December meeting, which I don't know if that impacts the grant or acceptance. Do we have somebody from HSA? – So the impact on the
grant is, of course, until we accept the funds, we won't be able to hire
into the positions or start.

As it is right now. We have the state scheduled
to come this month to work on our performance outcomes. I would have to delay them, obviously, if we can't start the program. – I'm also wondering,
Pam, if you could clarify I don't think that the additional motion that you would like to bring back has an impact on us
making good on the grant. – Right, we are not opening a facility the funding is specific for positions using existing resources that we already have in the community. – So there'll be no new
modalities is hard to understand what an impact be all existing? – We are utilizing existing
behavioral health programs that we have in the community,
some of them are locked, some of them are unlocked. The funding is specific for staffing, very intensive staffing, case
management, a one to five, a one to 10 kind of ratio, to follow people through
their care in the community as well as the pre trial services.

So there are no facilities
attached to this funding, any new facilities
attached to this funding. – But this could be this a new population. – Truthfully, this is our same population. You know, sometimes it's a
little bit of a decision tree for law enforcement in the field to determine whether or
not they're writing a 5150 on an individual and taking them to our
crisis stabilization program, or they're gonna press a
charge and take them to jail. And so it's really for those
people in the gray area that this program is determined for, it's really for people that
are amenable to treatment. – So I mean I understand it, I can't support adding
this a new population that has committed a felony into a neighborhood without somehow notifying them if it's gonna be an unlocked facility so we can delay or we can
if the rest of the board wants to vote they can vote, but– – I'm uncomfortable with the adding a new condition on citing facilities that are hard to cite unless we have some kind of
reasonable discussion about it.

I understand the concern. I just I just think is
that consent item addition, it's a little it's a
little much to take on. And so I feel comfortable
voting for this grant I feel and listening to staff the idea that there isn't gonna
be any new facilities that are part of this,
and that these are people who are currently in our system and we're finding a better way To treat them rather than just
having the jail treat them seems like a reasonable piece. And I would welcome and
if you wanna bring an item to the board so we can have
a discussion about this and be prepared. I would look forward to that. But I just feel uncomfortable
adding that as an amendment. – We have a motion.
– You want a motion? – We're talking about 37. – What I would I would
move the consent agenda as included here with no additional. – Will you include the
additional direction on the Salvation Army contract? – Remind me what that is
– That's to develop the staff should develop a written
plan with the city to reduce impacts on the
current drop off site.

Or change the drop off site and
provide a memo to the board, direct HSA and HSA staff to actively exist any shelter clients with minor children within two days of them
becoming a shelter client and direct the staff to provide a memo of the
board a quarterly report on the number of clients
that utilize homeward bound. – It's a lot there, but I will take that. – As it is I'm in.
– I'll second. – Yes, so okay, so we have
a motion and a second. On the consent agenda
with the added direction on item number 24. I'll be voting no on item 37. But all those in favor, please say aye. – [Board] Aye. – And all passed unanimously
with me voting no on item number 37. All right, moving on to item number seven, which is a presentation
honoring Susan Rozario on her retirement as outlined
in a memorandum by me and we have the sheriff Jim Hart here to the make a presentation
with Zach Friend. – Well good morning board
Jim Hart sheriff coroner and with me is Susan Rozario, who's been a longtime county employee, and has worked for the sheriff's office, as well as the board for many, many years.

And it's been my honor and privilege to have worked with you for all this time Susan. And she has brought in
literally millions of dollars to the county and the sheriff's office to support our jails to
support our patrol teams, our investigations units,
our forensics teams, our coroner's unit. And when somebody like
this, steps out the door when it's their time to leave, it's a bittersweet moment
for me because I'm happy that she's retiring and gonna enjoy time with her family but she leaves a tremendous
void at the sheriff's office.

And so we have some big
shoes to fill Susan. But I wish you a happy
and healthy retirement. I wanna thank you for all
your years of service. (audience applauding) – I wanted to thank all the board members and the wonderful county employees that I've had the privilege to work with over my 35 years at the county. I wanna thank Kathy Sams for
drafting the proclamation since that's usually my assignment. (audience laughing) I'm very proud of everything that has been accomplished
by county government during my tenure, and I know that a great many
things will be accomplished in the future. Thank you very much.
(audience applauding) – Mr. Chair, we do have
a proclamation here and I wanted to read a
couple elements of it because it speaks to some
of the remarkable work that Susan has done. I've had the privilege
of working with Susan both in my previous capacity
with Santa Cruz police and now here, but in your 35 years, what I think something that
some of the board members may not realize is that Susan
spent the first 16 years the career with the clerk
of the boards office before she ended up at
the sheriff's office, and it says that she had
supported 13 different members of the Board of Supervisors, including two in the first district, two in the second district two in the third district
four in the fourth, Greg, a lot of turnover going on over there, and three in the fifth, as well as two different
CIOs during that time, obviously doing a
remarkable amount of work with the sheriff's office, but she has written
over 1500 board letters on behalf of the sheriff, written hundreds of grants,
including cops grants, reentry grants, the jag grants, Homeland Security grants, just to name a few bringing in literally 10s of millions
of dollars to this county for your work.

So this is after 35 years, you are not a replaceable person, and you should be acknowledged for the work you did, not just
for the Board of Supervisors, but for the 10s of millions
of dollars you brought in for this county to make it a safer place and a better place to live. This is a proclamation
signed by every board member which as you know as
a very rare occurrence and as a result, it would require a motion and so I would move to
adopt this proclamation. – Second.
– Thank you. And so we have a motion a second and a lot of gratitude for
your work for this community. – My pleasure.
– It's great public service. – So what do you plan on doing for the maybe the first
year or two of retirement? – I'm hoping to travel and not have to get up at
five o'clock in the morning. (all laughing) – All right.
– Thank you.

– You made the move from the county board to the sheriff's office. I don't know if that
was a good move or not. But boy, I know he appreciated it. So did the sheriffs. Thank you so much. It was just thorough and
everything you did all the time. Much appreciated. Boy, we have so many employees like you, but you're a star of the show. So thank you very much for
everything you've done. – And Susie I wanna appreciate your work, you know, going from the
boardroom supervisors to the sheriff office is
kind of like the frying pan into the fire. And in the years that you've worked here, you've seen a lot of changes, you probably started on
those 1500 board letters on a typewriter that there was probably a mimeograph paper in there along the way. And now to be working in a
state of the art facility that we have for the
Center for Public Safety, it just shows that we've come a long way in the years that you've been here. And in part because of your service and the efforts that you've put in, we've been able to grow and
meet the needs of our community.

And you're one of a key
part of our county family that has helped us grow over time, so thank you and great, best
of luck in your retirement. – So we have a motion and
a second on the floor. All those in favor, please say aye. – Aye.
– That passes unanimously and thank you for your service. (audience applauding) All right now we're gonna
consider final appointment of Jozett Irgang to the In Home Supportive
Services Advisory Commission as an at large consumer representative for term to expire April 1 2021.

– [John] I move the appointment. – Got a motion by Supervisor
Leopold second by McPherson. All those in favor please say aye. – [Board] Aye. – Opposed that passes unanimously. We're now gonna move on time number nine which is consider amending
the Santa Cruz County code to add chapter 5.47 regarding a charge on single use disposable
cups at businesses in the unincorporated area, consider proposing a notice of exemption from CEQA, schedule the ordinance for a second reading and final
adoption on November 9, 2019. And direct public works
to conduct outreach and education to local businesses, as outlined in a memorandum of the deputy CIO Director of
Public Works, Mr. John Trump. – Good morning, Tim
Goncharoff, with public works and with me is Kasey Kolassa,
the manager of recycling and solid waste services.

I wanted to start with just
a bit of brief background. We began this process in February when the board asked us
to study issues of litter and pollution and make recommendations for policy updates to address that. We came back on August sixth
to share a number of options, and the board directed us
to pursue two of these. The first is to prohibit the
use of plastic water bottles at county facilities and the second was to submit an ordinance requiring county businesses to charge for single use disposable cups. The prohibition on plastic water bottles at county facilities does
not require a new ordinance.

This will be included in the
annual county policy updates that will be brought back
to the board in December. So you'll have an opportunity
to consider that then. So moving on to the
ordinance on single use cups, research was guided by
three related factors. Back in 2011, the board passed a single
use bag reduction ordinance which was a number of ways
similar to the ordinance that we'll be discussing today. That ordinance was very
successful in reducing the use of disposable
bags at county businesses. Recently, the city of
Berkeley was the first to adopt an ordinance requiring a charge for single use cups. That ordinance was preceded
by extensive research, assisted by faculty from the University of
California at Berkeley, especially to determine the ideal amount for the proposed charge. And we were able to learn a great deal from the work that they did. More recently, the city of Watsonville passed a similar ordinance,
the first in our county, and we've learned that
the city of Santa Cruz is working on the same ordinance and is expected to hear
that most likely in January, so it's a timely issue.

As always, to limit
confusion among businesses and the general public. It's always helpful to have
a similar landscape of laws across county jurisdictions. So we will continue to
work with the local cities toward that end, and that
raises two specific issues for the board to consider in relation to the proposed ordinance. First is the effective date. Watsonville's ordinance
which has already passed is scheduled to take
effect July first of 2020. The draft ordinance for
the city of Santa Cruz has the same proposed effective
date, July first 2020. The draft ordinance before you includes a later effective
date of January first 2021.

The intent of that was to
allow businesses abundant time to make the necessary adjustments and for county staff to do outreach and education to those businesses. However, if you feel it's important to have a consistent, effective date, and want to accelerate that timetable, I just wanna assure you that we can adjust that is your call. Similarly, the 25 cent
charge in the draft ordinance was based on the extensive research I referenced by the city of Berkeley, which found that this
was the lowest amount likely to prompt significant
changes in consumer behavior. The draft ordinance for
the city of Santa Cruz used as the 25 cent charge. Watsonville however, chose
a lower charge of 10 cents out of concern for the impact on lower income members
of their community. So again, that decision is up to you.

The board also asked us to
look into the feasibility of directing that all or some of the funds collected through cup charges either come back to the county or to a use directed by the county. And of course there are
many issues to consider when we will be putting such
an issue before the public. This would require an election. If it is posed as a
general revenue measure then it just requires a
majority of the voters and the funds will go to
the county's general fund. I invite county counsel
to correct me at any point if I get any of this wrong, a special revenue measure would require two thirds
approval of the public and could go to whatever
specific uses the board directs.

There's some scheduling issues to consider if the board wanted to target
the March third 2020 election. The deadline for that
would be December sixth, of this year, for next fall's election the deadline would be
August seventh of 2020. The board could direct
all or part of the funds for county use for
expenses as litter cleanup or other environmental remediation
measures as you choose. Or you would have the option
of leaving some of those funds with the merchants to
offset their expenses. One option might be to
establish different tiers of revenue divisions to include to encourage greater sustainability on the part of local businesses, for example the use of
fully compostable cups which does increase their costs.

This leads to the question
of what kind of revenue might we expect from a measure like this? And that's a challenging task. Estimates on the number of
single use disposable cups dispensed each year by county businesses depend on extrapolations from county and state numbers. There are no actual figures
available for local businesses. So we take those national
and state numbers and extrapolate based on our
percentage of the population to come up with a number, but obviously, that's a
fairly crude estimate. And then returning to the comparison of the single use bag ordinance, well, that ordinance gained
popularity very quickly. It's hard to say for sure, if this measure would
elicit the same response, we really just don't know. The revenue would come from anyone who chooses not to bring a cup. That number is, of course
likely to change over time as more people become familiar
with the new ordinance, but it's difficult to accurately estimate how many people that would be or how quickly the behavior would change.

We do estimate that for
each 10% of noncompliance, that's each 10% of customers that continue to use disposable cups that could potentially
generate up to $1.2 million of annual revenue. I wanted to address just a few details in terms of outreach, enforcement, exemptions, and similar measures. The ordinance includes provision that anyone who's participating
in support programs such as SNAP or WIC would
be exempt from such charges, they just have to present their cards. In the interest of health and safety, it allows businesses to
refuse to use the cup provided by a customer
that's dirty or damaged or in any other way unsuitable for use in their judgment. And as always, with our ordinances, there's a provision for
them to request an exemption from the county if they feel
there's a need for that.

Of course, if the board approves
the ordinance Public Works will be conducting extensive outreach to effected businesses, both before the ordinance takes effect to be sure everybody's aware of it, and then afterwards to
address any problems or issues that come up and to
help with the transition and in the event that it's
needed the enforcement, the ordinance does include
provisions for enforcement, including fines if necessary. So the recommendation is that the board take the following actions,
approve the ordinance and concept, approve the
attached notice of exemption from CEQA, schedule the
ordinance for final adoption on November 19, 2019. And direct public works
to conduct outreach and education to local businesses. And we would be happy
to take any questions. Thank you. – Supervisor Caput? – Yeah, single use disposable cup, we're talking about just
about any coffee cups that might be used like a Starbucks. – That's correct, it applies
to both cold and hot beverages. – Okay and then all the
you know fast food places like Wendy's and Carl's Jr. and all those.

– That's right.
– What percentage of those, my concern is they're ending up, what percent will end up in the landfill? Even after this ordinance, how
much are we ballpark figure? Are we reducing the impact
of all the turning out and ending up in the landfill? – We are the board passed
a another measure in 2017 requiring all businesses in
the unincorporated county to use only materials that
can be recycled or composted. So that's already in effect. We are recycling and composting
a great many of those cups and other kinds of food service materials. Although of course, we
still have a problem with cups being improperly disposed of, it's one of the most
frequently littered items. So when they're improperly disposed of then they are more likely
to go into the landfill. – Right so the best scenario
would be recyclable, single use cups that end up
going actually to recycle rather than to the landfill.

– Recycling or composting. And perhaps this is a
good point to mention that the legislature
recently passed a measure that was signed by the governor that will require all
food service businesses in the state to provide recycling and where appropriate compost bins for the use of their customers. So we will be returning to the board soon with a measure to incorporate
these new requirements into the county code. And we anticipate that that
will be an additional measure that will make sure they're
going into the right part of the waste stream. – Yeah, I like the whole concept. If we have container, let's say the big one for garbage, a business will pay so much a month for that to be weekly dumped, and that goes to the landfill. And then if they have a
recycle one next to it, let's say equal size,
what's the difference? How much money are they gonna save because when they save money, they get real enthusiastic about the thing if you remember the
priest I told you about that saved $1,000 a month because instead of going in the garbage it was going into the recycle from bingo.

– There are potential savings it's hard to give you a specific figure because there are many
different service levels many different combinations
of trash, recycling, and food waste. Whenever we do sign up a new business for increased recycling or
for new food waste service, we do encourage them to consider reducing their trash service because they need less and it is a way of reducing their costs. So we have helped many
businesses reduce their costs, but it would be difficult for me to give you a dollar figure, – [Greg] Okay, kind of
dollar figure though, let's say those you
know, how the can I truck picks up the big container? – [Ryan] Supervisor Caput? Let me just say so we have
a 10:30 scheduled item.

So I wanna keep it just
to this to the cups if we don't mind.
– I understand real quick, just a ballpark figure the equal size. – Do you know, Kasey?
– One's recycle and the other's garbage – It depends on your service level. What you pay–
– Once a week. – So the size of your bin or cart determines your charge. So if you do there is for
businesses charges slightly lower charged for recyclable materials. If you can downsize or right
size your refuse container, there will be some savings. – I'll be saving hundreds
of dollars a month. – I couldn't say, you'd be saving some. – Thanks anyway, we're just
considering putting this on for November 19. Are we gonna decide on 10
cents, 15 20, 25 right now? – Yeah, yes, we're
looking at it right now. Well, hold on, first we
gotta hear from board, then we're gonna hear from the public. Then we can go. – Yeah, thank you Mr. Chair,
I support this ongoing effort to reduce plastic waste
and other litter we have.

Well, we're not first on this one that we haven't been on
most others, plastic bags, toiletry items and so forth. But I wanna reiterate, that I'd like to see a regional approach. But maybe that's past us by now, it's have some consistencies
among local jurisdictions. But here we have Watsonville, with what 25 City of
Santa Cruz is drafted 25 I just, I don't know if it's too late to try to make that work.

But, and then I just like
to the address the problem at the source of the manufacturing rather than the post consumer level. I know that that's very difficult and takes a coordinated effort to do. But the board direction in August was to draft an ordinance
in the unincorporated work, and do we try ow did we
when we wanted a common fee, was it just too late to get in the game for that I guess. For with Santa Cruz and Watsonville being on the move to? – Well, we have had
discussions with city staff and elected officials and including on the issues
of implementation dates and common charges. But of course, the various city councils make their own decisions, and they don't always go
the way we would wish. – Right, and another direction
was to provide information what it would take to implement fees as dedicated to ongoing or
addressing waste problem and environmental cleanup. And I wonder if you had
those two subject matters? Is that enough to make it,
you know, a general issue rather than a specific one? Or how do you get the general
and specific I don't know, if you could, if that if
you have just those two – [Tim] I'm deferring
to council on that one.

– Will you make it a general tax versus a specific tax you're gonna be devoting the revenue to a specific source. A general tax would be that the money just goes to the general fund
that can be spent on anything. Okay, so general fund
taxes a 50% electorate and a special tax is a two thirds. – Yeah I'd sure like to see it go for environmental protection
issues greenhouse gas emissions or sea level rise or something like that. I don't know if that's
my thoughts on it anyway. And I don't know how we could get there and make it a general tax. – Perhaps I should clarify that the measure before you today is just to approve the ordinance. The discussion about
whether to have an election directing the use of that charge was at the request of the board, a separate item that
you could act on today, or defer to a later discussion that could happen anytime, independently, of passage of the ordinance.

Okay and you'd mentioned this
just is the last question that if a retailer refuses
to fill a reusable cup, are they able to charge the
consumer for a single cup use, is that correct?
– Yes, that's correct. – Okay.
– Supervisor Leopold? – Thank you, thank you for your work in putting together this ordinance that definitely seems as though people are becoming
much more aware of this as a pollution problem. Since we started talking about this, I've started carrying around reusable cups and I have lots of
meetings in coffee shops, and I see more and more
people using those cups.

So people are becoming aware,
which I think really helps. A couple different things, one is I think this is a good first step, but it's we need to do more than this. And when we come back,
we'll talk about that. But there's a couple different questions in that presentation that you made. One is the question of fees. And outside of Berkeley and Watsonville, are there other jurisdictions
who're looking at this or who have passed this. – Those are the only two so far, we would be the third. There are a number that
are considering it.

– Great, and I know that
I've talked to a number of Santa Cruz city council members who they're pretty committed to bringing this to their council. And I've had some conversation
with Capitola council members who are also have expressed
an interest in this. And so I think there's an
opportunity to have this as a county wide effort or
almost a countywide effort. – It is being discussed
in Scotts Valley as well, what action they might take to do this. – Yeah, I guess the question, given the experience
of the plastic bag ban, the single use plastic bag ban is a July first date reasonable? I mean, could we do the outreach? I mean, has there been much communication with the industry already? – There's been a limited
amount of communication so it would create a challenge to pull our resources
together and act soon. We're struck by the fact that the city of Santa Cruz's
preliminarily scheduled to act on this in January and then have the ordinance
take effect in July. Admittedly, they've got
a smaller geographic area and it's a smaller group of businesses. But if they think they can do
the outreach in six months, we think we can do it in eight.

The January first 2021 implementation date allows abundant time
it's why that's in there. I think it's a good safe date. But I just wanted your board to be aware that the cities have
chosen a different one. So you could go in that
direction if you choose. The last part about the fees and what to do with that? Is there any other place
around the plastic bag ban or other things where the money is then come back to the jurisdiction or whatever the stated purposes.

– Some of the early plastic bag ordinances did take that form. However, they did not
survive legal challenges. There are slightly different forms of this in San Francisco and in Berkeley. They've taken the approach
of adding these charges to business license fees. It's a simpler approach. It doesn't require a public election. So it's understandable why they
might choose to go that way. Our county, of course does
not have business licenses. So that option is not
currently available to us, but it's something the
board might wish to consider in the future. – Do we have any idea of what the staffing needs would be to manage that kind of activity? I mean, I imagine with collecting quarters from I don't know how many businesses would be affected by this. But there's probably an
auditor at least one auditor, and some other staff. I mean, has there been
any thought given to that? – There has and you might imagine that if you're tracking
the collection of funds from hundreds of businesses
across the county that would then need to
be remitted to the county, either on a monthly or quarterly basis.

There would be a lot of work involved in tracking those funds,
no doubt occasional audits, we estimate that that would
be close to a full time job for somebody, most likely
the auditor's office or possibly in public works. – All right, well I look
forward to the conversation. – Thank you.
– Supervisor Friend? – Thank you, chair, I'm
actually supportive of this. I think we can also do in July and actually harmonize the dates. I'm actually really supportive
of the money coming back, though this is a big, this
is actually really important to me it makes no sense to me, if we're making a
statement that these cups that these single use items
destroy the environment, and that these businesses
are party to that, why the money would go
back to the businesses and not to the organizations involved in trying to
remediate those issues.

I mean, it sounds like
a strange issue to me that we would make those two totally contradictory statements. The reason that those early jurisdictions were found illegal is 'cause under 218, they didn't go to the voters. I mean, so that's a very
different situation, what we're proposing
this wouldn't be legal, we'd go to the voters and ask them, I think we should initiate the ordinance. And then I think in November of next year, we should go to the voters and ask them, do you want the 25 cents to continue to stay with the businesses where do you want them to come back to a wide variety of
environmental programs I think broadly enough defined to be general tax realistically the board can pass a resolution
under a general tax thing says that these are our priorities that we wanna do with that
we've got the contract with save our shores to do cleanups and they're asking for more money.

We've got another item regarding SSP where we have to do syringe cleanup and issues associated with
that we've got parks issues that are associated with
cleanup and remediation on that. I mean, I've had Public Works coming to me over the last eight years
and constantly asked for more money for
environmental based programs. And what we're saying is that this could be a significant amount of funding exactly for that.

Even if it's a full time position, and even at the bottom end of the number that we're calculating, it's still a significant infusion of money to the county that we didn't have before. And I don't know why we
wouldn't try and do that. And if we wanna make it revenue neutral to the businesses through
part of the measure that something should come back. So what I'll be seeking
when the Saturn comes back to the board today is additional direction that has that come back to us. I don't think today's the
appropriate day to do it. But I think that that'll
come back with a suite of options that will say
what it would charge, how much money you can bring how it could be the revenue
neutral or not the businesses and let the board make
the political decision of whether or not and policy decision whether we think it's the best.

But I think that the work
that you've done here is really sets the stage for
exactly that is very important. And I agree with with both my colleagues and their comments that
they should harmonize across the county. I imagine if the county
goes today, realistically, the other cities will follow pretty soon 'cause it would just make sense
for them to do exactly that. Thank you. – Yeah, real quick, who keeps the money? Like with the plastic bags, originally, it was the
business owner, I guess. So with this, let's say
it's 10 cents or whatever, who actually that money
goes us or it goes. – Under the ordinance as proposed today, all of their money would
stay with the business.

If the board chooses,
we might in the future have an election asking the public to approve a different use of that– – That would be an election.
– But that is not, exactly and that is not
included in today's ordinance. – So the business would keep the money, if we can encourage them to also recycle, I'm all for it going ahead. – Thank you.
– So, thank you. I guess the one thing
I'd say is, you know, having run a business, most
coffee shops and burrito places and you know, restaurants don't
have a point of sale system, which they can track specific items. So now you're asking
people to now implement new point of sale
systems in order to track exactly how many cups they've kept, and charge it and then presumably, they be charged tax on it. You're talking about an enormous cost on a lot of small businesses for what will hopefully be
a declining revenue stream. As more and more people use
compostable or reusing cups, then you know, it's sort
of like the tobacco tax where you start with first five, you have a lot of money.

And then by design, you're
going down over time. So before we talk about anything, we should talk to business
owners about how much mean if it's gonna be a full time position for us in the auditor's office, plus asking small coffee shops to put an entirely new computer systems, it seems way out of proportion to what the for what we're trying to do. – So I agree with you. But if we're claiming it's such
a big issue environmentally, then the board should be
banning it then right? I mean, my point is, is that
we can't on the one side say that this is a huge
environmental issue, and then say that the businesses that are causing the environmental issue, it's too much of a burden for them to be providing the funding back. I mean, it's either an
issue or it's not an issue. And if it's an issue, and we wanna discourage the behavior. We even wanna discourage the businesses that are providing this product to not be providing this
kind of product or this is a disincentive all the way around.

– And so I don't see– – With the plastic with paper bags, we've seen a dramatic decrease in the impact without
overburdening small business. So why would we not try
the same thing here? And if we wanna spend more
money on environmental programs, let's pass additional taxes and spend more money or
reallocate additional dollars for environmental programs, but to put an enormous
burden on small businesses without even talking to them,
and overhead on the county– – I'm not arguing not to talk to them. That's why we would come back with an item in the future right where
this would all be outlined. And we may differ on where we
end up voting on it eventually on that regard.

But I think that that's if we voted today, then it would be exactly that part of this is an outreach process that we're actually directing them to do. So part of that outreach
as part of the motion would be for them to also
talk about this issue. They're gonna come back
with an item that outline what the challenges or
opportunities are on that. – Now it's an opportunity
for members of the public to come speak to us about this item. – Hi there, I'm Monica McGuire. I've been a health coach for 20 years and one of my strongest
areas is simple living in order to overcome the problem that the several people
have expressed here.

The best phrase is that
reuse is infinitely better than recycling. I deeply appreciate you speaking up about the small businesses because it isn't right to burden, but it is possible to lead. And what I could imagine
this board doing easily here is to lead the reduction in greater ways by actually supporting
small local businesses while letting the large conglomerates do their own work to handle the costs. But the cost to local small businesses could be borne by this county and the long term lowering of the amount of that support that you're talking about is the most obvious thing in this county. So please consider something
really outside of the box. It's less expensive and quick.

– Made up for the time went over. Thank you. Good morning supervisors
Benjamin Cogan here, Mr. Caput thank you for that question. Because if business owners
are making the money like if you're putting this
sanction rule, levy law, whatever you wanna call
it, and the business owners have to pay, and that 10 cents 25 cents goes to the government for
the environmental programs, that's a tax, make no
mistakes that you're taxing the business owners, mom
and pops coffee shops are gonna get affected most Starbucks that won't be a big deal for them. So if you wanna keep it
local and keep it simple, make no mistake that that's a tax it goes to the business owners, at least that's humble, noble ingest, and I wanna acknowledge that you're getting the dialogue started for being a wasteless
and consumerless society. The thing that comes to
my mind, which is great that you're bringing this forward, is if you think of Burning Man, and you talk to anyone
who's been to Burning Man, everybody's got their cup.

If you don't got your cup, you're not getting a drink,
you're not getting water, everyone walks around
with a cup on their back, be great to see people carry the cups. Same with mess kits, if you had forks, stuff like that. And what you guys are doing is you're trying to create the society where people are caring for themselves and carrying the cups and the
mess kits and not wasting, but it's also using
government regulations laws and stuff which then proposes tax, which then Coonerty what you said was good 'cause that means that
we gotta hire auditors and auditors means that
we got to have people on government payroll, which
means they're gonna be pensions and all this stuff and more people and then there's less money
for the other services that we need and all that. So, you know, it's really interesting 'cause, you know, some coffee shops if you bring your own coffee mug, they'll give you 25 cents off the coffee. So now if you bring your own coffee mug, you save 25 cents, but
you pay the same price. So I acknowledge you guys
for getting it started.

How do we create less mess? And keep in mind there's
factors of biodegradable and compostable products, thank you. – Good morning supervisors and thank you for your time today. My name is Emily Palmer, and I'm an employee of Save Our Shores and a resident of Santa Cruz County. When it comes to plastics, the current reality is truly alarming. Disposable plastic products have permeated every
aspect of our daily lives and are nearly impossible to avoid. According to the Ocean Conservancy, approximately 8 million
metric tons of plastic are ending up in our
oceans, in our marine life and more recently discovered
in our own bodies. These microfibers from our
clothing and microplastics from broken down plastic debris have infiltrated our food
chains and our water supplies. Some effects of this plastic consumption are known such as cancer
or reproductive harm, what other potential effects
are yet to be understood? This is all not to mention that these products are
derived from crude oil and natural gas, making their production a horrendous greenhouse gas contributor that's ever quickening the
pace of global climate change the severity of what is
driving younger generations not to have children, for
fear that life on earth will not be suitable
in the decades to come.

I feel thankful to live in a county that takes action in these areas. And I wanna acknowledge the important work that's been done thus far, such as the ban on
disposable toiletry bottles used in hospitality industry, which was recently adopted statewide. I urge you to continue this
fight and take further action. As there's much more work to be done. I fully support a 25 cent
fee on disposable cups and urge you to address other
plastic items of concern, such as contact lenses which are in need more
effective take back programs to prevent them from being
flushed into our oceans. Single use coffee pods, balloons that are mistaken
for food by sea turtles and other marine life. Single use water bottles for which there are known alternatives such as BPA and BPS free
metal or glass containers, and the microfibers that
are entering our waterways every time we wash our clothing.

Items like these threaten
the health of our ecosystems, the availability of our resources and the health of all human beings. I thank you for listening and for continuing to act as a leader on these issues paving the
way for other counties, states and countries to follow suit. (audience applauding) – Marilyn Garrett (coughing) excuse me. It's a drop in the bucket. I like to use the word ban. And somebody talked about
the manufacturing process. It's I think recycling is actually a myth because we're helping the corporations keep producing their toxic waste. And we're good and we're
trying to recycle it. And you can't keep up the figures this young woman gave on the debris and the contamination is just huge.

And I see it as a system problem. Remember this bumper sticker that said, pollution is somebody's profit and corporations producing this all these wastes profit I
read in terms of the plastic that there's 100, no I
heard it on the radio, $180 billion a year more
in new plastic production. So when you talk about
single use or whatever, that's not getting to the source. Where is it coming from? And I think of Dr. Sander
Stein Draper's book "Living Downstream: an
Ecologist looks at Cancer "in the Environment," this is paraphrased, I recommend the book. It is intolerable to be
regulating, monitoring, permitting known and suspected carcinogens into the environment, rather than prohibiting their
generation in the first place.

So the problem is how do
we stop it at the source, the production, the corporations that are running the country, and I feel extremely sad
for children nowadays, who are brought up in this
totally toxic environment. So I'd like to see corporations
producing this prohibited or dismantled, thank you.
(audience applauding) – Good morning supervises
Rod Caborn, Save Our Shores. And I'm very encouraged with
the discussion that you had it looks like you just need
to square away the details.

Very important that we do make progress. And I just like to draw your attention to Supervisor Leopold's instincts
that we need to do more. And obviously, you've already stated that you're wanting to
eliminate water bottles from county facilities. So clearly, that's something
that you consider important. And so I would like to state again, and this is in synergy
with everyone else's speech and instinct that we need to be bigger.

We need to be bigger than this. And it's a good first
start, no doubt about it. But let's find something that really will find public attention. And I go back once again to the bottle. The bottle is emblematic
of a throwaway society. And if we make a bold statement
on that, that's crucial. I serve acknowledge the
fact that change takes place and it's a process, but it's
a process of big, bold things. There are 50 billion bottles
that are produced each year. And every American gets a
couple of hundred of them.

Now you imagined confining
that to your house. Now 200 and that with four
family members, you know, that's a sort of almost 1000 every year, and it doesn't go anywhere, it just breaks down into small
fibers, as you all well know. So you start thinking
of confining to a house, since everybody does the
bottle and the bottle is a kind of symbolic and emblematic. Everyone can relate to that. And so they realized that China is not taking our rubbish any longer. Malaysia is not taking it any longer. Singapore is burning it. So let's think about the
metaphor that's here. And let's follow up on this bottle 'cause it can be some so powerful and you guys have the ability here as a leader in California
to get it done, thank you. (audience applauding) – Good morning supervisors,
Chairman Coonerty, I'm gonna be very brief today I would just like to say
please get this one done. The cup charge is a fairly easy ask I think I choose not to
weigh in whether the fee goes back to the businesses
or is put on the ballot as some sort of measure simply because we could be one
of the organizations to benefit from that so I would choose to not
weigh in on that topic.

What I do really wanna
say though, is again, this is an easy ask to get done. What we really need action on are some of the absolutely
critical issues. Ron touched on one of those which is getting plastic bottles out of our waste stream off
our streets off our beaches. Stop being produced by
fossil fuel industry. We need action immediately
on micro fibers. We're breathing it, we're ingesting it. We're drinking it. And then we should also do
something about balloons again that is a simple ask. They are killing it wildlife. They are entangling them
they are being ingested by wildlife. They're unnecessary. Sure kids might stamp their feet and cry if they don't get one at a birthday party. But the next time is shiny item goes by they'll forget all about
the balloons and move on. It's not a trauma that
they're gonna live with for the rest of their lives. We need to stop what's happening to the destruction of
our habitats, our ocean, and everything that lives in it, as well as think about our
human health, thank you.

(audience applauding) Morning Martin Koenig district one. I'm also a sanctuary steward. And just this last Saturday I was at the 26th Avenue
Corcoran Laguna Beach cleanup, and newsflash the number one items still picked up on the
beaches are cigarette butts by a factor of 2.5 to one. So let's we do need to do more than this. We have to take action at the number one item
found at beach cleanups, and we need to ban cigarette butts. We have draft legislation from our very own Zero Waste manager. Of course, our beloved
assembly member Mark Stone has been working on this since 2014. Let's get it done right here in the county and set a precedent for
the rest of the state. Cigarette butts are
toxic to the environment. They provide no health benefits to smokers this is another one that
you can take action on if you believe in in doing more, then agendize this for a
future agenda, thank you. (audience applauding) – That concludes public comment.

And I'll bring it back to the board for deliberation action
Supervisor McPherson? Anyone, Supervisor Friend? – Well, I'll move the recommended actions with additional direction
that the ordinance take effect or the program
take effect on July 1 of 2020. The additional direction would be that that public works come back with what a ballot measure could
look like after they do that the outreach for potential
november election in well, I mean, Tim, if you could tell me what you think the in a
reasonable amount of time, that's fine in March of next year. – And what I'd like to see maybe add to that a report on how much we're gonna
eliminate to the landfill. 'Cause if this doesn't
eliminate some of that, or significantly, we're
not doing much of anything other than raising the
price of a cup of coffee.

– [Zach] That's fine for
additional direction. – [Ryan] Is there a second? – I'll second. – Okay, and I think counsel
had a point, I'm sorry. – [Dana] Yes, thank you. This will require it to
come back for first read on November 19. To change the date from
from 2020 backwards, so we won't be able to
adopt it on second read. And that's just informational only. – Yeah, so I think and what I would add is that during your outreach what I'm gonna be looking
for is that you've talked to a majority of the small businesses in the unincorporated area and understand what the
administrative burden of collecting these funds would look like. – Yeah, I support that, you know, I don't know what whether a allot measure makes a good sense or not. I know that it's important for
us to really talk to folks, when we've adopted other
ordinances affecting industries, we've worked hard to outreach to them. And I hope not only staff, but the supervisor will also
take a role in doing that, and making the case 'cause
I think that's important to get that feedback.

I also think when we
took this up in February and then had it come back,
this was only one of the items that was on that list
and we did look at items around contact lenses. And it seems from the information that you collected that
that's really not being done by local optometrists in terms
of the recycling of those the daily contacts, correct? And you know, I just think
that that's another area where this board should
also step out and work on. And I also that there was a representative of mothers group who came to see me to talk about the Mylar balloons. They're really against the Mylar balloons. And that was interesting to me because I thought that mothers groups would be the ones who
would be most in favor of the Mylar balloons as they are the ones who
use the Mylar balloons. And I think we should
do some more outreach to take a look at at
ridding the environment of those balloons as well.

And I given that we know that
the contact lens recycling isn't happening now. I'm wondering if the maker the motion would see as an additional
item that we come back with an ordinance around that as well. And that we look again at
the Mylar balloon piece to see whether that's something that we could also do
here in Santa Cruz County. – That's fine.
– Okay, so we have a motion and we have a second. All those in favor please say aye. – [Board] Aye. – Opposed that passes unanimously. We have to take. I know people are here for the 17th and Capitola that we have take a five minute break to allow translation
services to be set up. So we are gonna come back at 1055 in order to hear that item.

– [Man] And you'll skip to it first? – We're gonna go to items 15, 16 that are the scheduled item then 17. – [Woman] On the syringes? – That'll be after. All right, everybody. We're gonna be coming back to calling the meeting back to order we'll be now hearing items 15, 16 and 17. They're all related to the
17th and Capitola project. And so first we'll be
hearing number item 15 which we'll be acting as
the Board of Supervisors for the Santa Cruz
redevelopment successor agency and we'll be considering an approval of an affordable housing and
property disposition agreement by and between Santa
Cruz County redevelopment successor agency and the
MP Live Oak associates LP a partnership established
by MidPen housing authorized by the CIO to execute the
agreement and take related actions as outlined in a memorandum of the CIO.

And we have Peter Eella from
the Economic Development Agency explaining what this property disposition first item is about. – All right, good morning,
members of the board. Yeah, just to recap, we've got
three items before you today to discuss the approval
for the Capitola Road mixed use project first is the redevelopment
successor agency, you will consider approval
of the disposition of the Capitola Road site. Second in item 16, you'll consider approval of
the proposed entitlements and Luzanne will provide
that presentation. And finally as a companion to item 15, approval of item 17 will
provide five million in funding for the proposed project and Julie will present on that item.

So just briefly following
the redevelopment dissolution in 2011, the successor agency approved the long range property
management plan in 2013. That set forth the path
or disposition of the site as required by the California
Department of Finance. In April of 2017, the county
hosted a community meeting to identify a vision for the site and to guide a request
for qualifications process to select a preferred
developer for the site. The successor agency entered into an exclusive
negotiation agreement with MidPen Housing in December of 2017 for a mixed use affordable housing project as an outcome of that RFP process.

Subsequently MidPen hosted
two community meetings in April 2018 and another in October 2018, accepting public input and
refining the proposed project. Affordable housing and
property disposition agreement before you today sets forth
the terms and conditions for the sale of the property
based on the highest and best use and full appraised value as required by the California
Department of Finance, and is consistent with
the community vision for the site identified in April of 2017. Following this approval, the agreement will be subject to approval by the consolidated
oversight board in January. So, today we ask that you
approve the recommended actions. Thank you.
– Thank you. So I'll first off if
anyone has any questions about the property disposition
agreement, seeing none I'll now ask if members of
public want to speak to us about the property disposition agreement.

That's the first item this second item will
be the actual project. The third item will be
the allocation of funds for the affordable housing component. – Thank you, good morning. My name is Becky Steinbrunner
I'm a resident of rural Aptos. Because this involves
the Santa Cruz County redevelopment successor agency. I wanna know how this
ties in with the removal of the R-combining district that would provide the affordable housing that is now the site of the
current Kaiser proposed Kaiser. I understand that these
units are being transferred from the requirement of
that R-combining zone and I would like to make that very, have you make that very clear
for the public this morning. Thank you. – Are there any other comments about the property disposition? Seeing none I'll bring it back to the board for deliberation and action. – Good morning chair. There'll be a lot to
say about this project.

The thing I wanna say about this, this is an important project for Live Oak. And in order to start this process, we did hold community meetings we heard from the
community about what it is they want on this and the
other commercial parcel that is next door. We had hoped that we'd
have one joint project, but we have the project
that's in front of us, not for lack of trying on the second one, this property was bought
over 30 years ago, for a library site and for various reasons the library was built on Portola. It's a beautiful library. But this site over the years has not been that has been talked about lots of different ways,
but it was never planned. And so as part of that
long range management plan.

We went out to the community. Once we heard what people were interested. We did hold at least two
other community meetings after that were well
attended over 100 people at every meeting. And at those meetings, 'cause
we checked in everybody that 90% or more of the people who are at that meetings
were from Live Oak. So this is a community project. And since it was purchased
at the redevelopment funds, which is money that had,
always has helped Live Oak for so long, it's great to see
this project moving forward. I do think it's important to note that we are selling this project for roughly $3 1/2 million, the county gets a small portion of that, the schools get a portion of it. Fire districts library,
other taxing agencies get it so this project not only benefits the people who will live there, but it also benefits the
other community institutions. I do think it's important for us to not just casually take
the small amount of money that the county's getting, and just put it into the black hole that is the county budget. But we should have a
discussion here at the board about how to use those funds.

In my conversations with staff, there's a lot of question as to how much that will be 23%, 18%, 11%. And so I'd like to move the
recommended actions on this with one additional
direction that we come back and have a board discussion about how to use the
funds from this project. – We had a motion by Leopold
and a second by McPherson all those– – So it's been it's been suggested to me that we have a date and maybe by our last meeting in February. – One question if they okay we have a motion on the floor, but if the clinic projects go first.

Are there assurances of what happens to the affordable housing project. I think that is built in. The way that contract is structured is to protect the housing component? – Of the disposition?
– Yes. – I can take that on.
– Sure. – Yeah, the agreement anticipates it's a complicated agreement. I'm sure you had time to
read it over the weekend. It anticipates it's primarily between, it is between the
redevelopment successor agency and MidPen housing. However, it acknowledges
the very closely relation, close relationships with the county as the housing successor
agency and of course as the entitling body
and also of the clinics who were part of the overall approval. The agreement does provide for either the clinics proceeding first, or the housing project proceeding first, and in either case, there's protections around it to ensure the county's interest. – Okay, so we have a motion and a second. All those.
(man murmuring softly) – [Woman] Microphone? – I think your microphone has to be on.

– Okay, he just thanked MidPen. All right, so all those
in favor please say aye. – [Board] Aye. – Opposed that passes unanimously. We're now moving on to item number 16, which is a public hearing to
consider application 181579 MidPen Housing for mixed use development consisting of a two story
medical dental office with a retail store and a housing complex, containing 57 affordable units and requiring a vesting tentative map a commercial development
permit a zoning map amendment, a plan the unit development,
assign exception and design review,
except the determination that the project is exempt in accordance with the California
Environmental Quality Act and take related actions
as outlined in a memorandum of the planning director.

– Well, good morning, members of the board before I start my presentation, which is I'll try to go
through the project quickly. It's a fairly big project and there are a lot of moving parts. So I will expect there to
be questions at the end. And I also just wanted
to say that the applicant has prepared a presentation that would follow directly after mine and so it'd be nice if they I think they have about four minutes before we get into the public hearing? – Correct.
– All right. So with that I will begin. The project site is midway
between the cities of Santa Cruz and Capitola and between highway
one and the Monterey Bay. The four parcels that are
included in the 3.65 acre site are on the south side of
Capitola Road between 375 and 875 feet west of 17th
Avenue to the north and east.

There are commercial parcels
that are along Capitola Road and then to the west and
south there a single family and multi family
residential neighborhoods. Except for the two existing dwellings that are on site is currently vacant, mostly a grassland with
groupings of trees. The surrounding residential neighborhoods contain a wide variety of
one and two story homes. There are also multifamily developments and apartment complexes. Commercial developments include
one and two story retail, office, service, and mixed use buildings. The Live Oak Elementary
School is at the corner of 17th Avenue and the Live
Oak Community Resources Center is on 17th Avenue just
north of Capitola Road. Mixed use project consists of a two story commercial building with a central public plaza at the front here on Capitola Road, behind which there'll be four, three story multifamily
residential buildings that are built around
a private open space.

All of the structures would
be in a landscape setting that includes parking
circulation, open space and a community garden. The proposed developments
in the C-1 zone district, a designation that allows
mixed use projects. The zoning is consistent with a neighborhood commercial
general plan designation. The project's been designed in accordance with the commercial uses
chart which allows medical and dental offices in
the C-1 zone district up to 51% of the floor area and allows affordable
residential uses up to 67%. As proposed the office
uses would constitute 31.7% and the residential
apartments would be 66.9%. The maximum number of units for the site as a whole is determine using standards for the urban high density
general plan designation and applying that to the 3.6
acre net developable site area, you could have up to 62 units,
but the project includes 57. Four existing parcels will be adjusted to create two land areas one of 1.24 acres for the commercial uses
and one of 2.36 acres for the housing.

A .05 acres strip of
land along Capitola Road will also be dedicated to street purposes. So that the ownership of
the commercial building can be split, the 1.24 acre parcel will contain
two airspace condominiums, one within each wing of the building and the surrounding land
will be a common area. Because of this, this adjustment
creates condominium parcels a tentative map is required. To most accurately reflect the residential only use
on the 2.36 acre parcel a zoning map amendment is proposed to add the regional housing need or R-combining district to this portion of the mixed use development. With the rezoning the
project requires the approval of planned unit development
or PUD for the rezoned area. The PUD includes details of
all the development standards for that residential parcel. So that the project's 57 residential units will be consistent with
the density standards for the R-combining
district on that parcel a 20% density bonus has been requested for the 2.36 acre parcel, which will then allow for a
density of 24 units per acre on that rear parcel.

Some reason this, I do apologize. My presentation is putting all the layers that are supposed to come
in in phases on together it's a little confusing, I apologize. A master plan is also required, and this includes the residential and commercial developments. A public plaza, all of
the shared facilities including parking,
roadways and landscaping, there's a potential third
driveway site also included which would link the
site to the corner web, the Live Oak supermarket
and the laundromat and the vacant land south
of that is currently now, but we're allowing a potential
link to that in the future should that redevelop so that we can have a
comprehensive development.

The commercial and residential buildings have been designed with a different but complementary aesthetic. The flat roofed two story building will be compatible with
the existing developments along Capitola Road. They'll be large areas of glazing that'll link the interior of the buildings to the public street, and the main entrances will
be defined by wood detailing. The building is broken
up by a variety of colors and materials that
include wood appearance, siding, stone, stucco and natural wood.

The color palette is
comprised of warm earth tones and muted grays. Centrally located in the center of the U shaped building as a public plaza with seating a sunken lawn
and sculptural elements and this space will also contain an interpretive historical installation that honors the history of the site. A large firm pine tree is
currently on the frontage will be retained to help
screen and soften the frontage as well as to define the
character of that plaza. The three story residential
buildings include hip and gabled roofs very roof planes, covered porches and decks and will not be significantly
visible from Capitola Road. The colors for these include
light gray and dark gray, a gray beige with red brown doors and black or white trim details
would affect board siding will be mounted both horizontally and vertically to further
break up the facades. The residential buildings
surrounded private garden with two barbecue areas and
a children's playground. Other community facilities
include a community room after school services, laundry,
property management office and bicycle storage. The commercial and residential structures are all set back away from the
adjacent residential parcels and will be screened and softened in views from adjacent homes by new tree planting and also by existing mature
trees that will be retained.

Signage includes 168 square
feet of building mounted signs for the clinics and retail space and two 16 square foot
monument signs for the housing one of which will be
adjacent to Capitola Road and one adjacent to the
community building setback. What happened? (laughing) Not sure what happened there. Well I'll be there we go. I apologize. Access the site is via two driveways. Onsite parking is provided
in a shared parking lot, which is situated mostly
in the southwestern corner with additional parking
spaces throughout the site. The parking demand analysis concluded that the 190 parking spaces provided will be adequate to accommodate
projected parking demand, and to ensure that residential parking will always be available, one space will be allocated
for the exclusive use of each unit. In addition, there'll be
109 bicycle parking spaces on the site. Just finishing up on
that, the traffic report concludes that the mixed use development would result in low vehicle
miles traveled numbers and help to create a more
sustainable community.

The report also shows that trip generation by the project would not significantly impact intersections in the area. I'm gonna go back to the previous slide. A second eastbound lane
will be constructed along the project frontage
which will implement a portion of the county's Capital
Improvement Program for widening Capitola Road and that will be constructed
with this project. And then another traffic issue is that to help maintain traffic
flows along Capitola Road, the eastern driveway, marked
here with the green arrow, will operate only as a right turn in and right turn out lane. And then another item is
that the for safety reasons the Metro bus stop in
front of the property will be relocated eastwards away from the new pedestrian
crossing at 15th Avenue. The drainage system has
been designed in accordance with all of the requirements of the county design criteria for a large project and will connect to the existing storm
drain on Capitola Road. The preliminary drainage
plans are being reviewed and approved by the
Department of Public Works stormwater management division. The project will provide low cost medical and dental services for
the community together with rental units for
very low income tenants which is a much needed housing type.

And staff therefore recommends
that your board certify that the proposal qualifies
for a statutory exemption from CEQA pursuant to public
resources Code Section 21159 and adopt the ordinance rezoning the residential portion of the parcel to add the R-combining district to the existing C-1
zoning, adopt the ordinance granting a PUD to establish
development standards for the residential
portion of the project site and approve application number 181579. Based on the findings
and conditions set out in the staff report as recommended by the Planning Commission
of August 28, 2019. Thank you.
– Thank you. Thank you for that comprehensive report. We're now gonna have the
applicant presentation. – Good morning supervisors. My name is Betsy Wilson. I'm director with MidPen
Housing Corporation. I'm here with my partners. We're gonna do a joint presentation today just talk a little bit about the history of our organizations and the work that we've done
in developing this concept.

What am I doing? Other way, okay. So MidPen will be celebrating
its 50th year next year. And we've been working
in Santa Cruz County, building safe, affordable housing for low income Californians since the 90s. We have more than a dozen properties here. We most recently opened up
apartments in Watsonville, and that was a 46 unit community. And we had over 2,500 applications. So the need certainly isn't abating, it's increasing in terms
of what we're providing in the community.

And this location is a
wonderful place for us to be able to provide
affordable housing near where people work. So with that, I'm gonna
turn it over to my partners to talk a little bit about the clinics. – [Leslie] Thanks. Good morning, My name is Leslie Connor. I'm CEO of the Santa Cruz
community health centers. I'm here because we are
enthusiastically partnering with the Dientes and MidPen
to build a new health center at 1500 Capitola Road. We have been improving
health of the community for over 45 years. We opened our downtown
Women's Health Center in 1974, which we own, and in 2014, we expanded by renovating a Family
Health Center in Live Oak, which we lease.

We serve over 11,000 low income patients
40% of whom are children. We manage a budget of 15 million a year effectively offering
Comprehensive Primary Care, pediatrics, prenatal care,
integrated behavioral health and much, much more. We were designated as a health care for the homeless site. So we serve over 900 patients currently who are homeless 250 of them
are under the age of 18. And because of that, and
an eye toward prevention and addressing childhood trauma, we have invested significantly in a pediatric Center of Excellence partnering with the county on its thrive by three efforts as well. We employ physicians, nurses licensed clinical social
workers and other administrative and clinical staff. Our workforce is local and mission driven. In 2012, we keep we became an FQHC. We adhere to rigorous
compliance requirements that are monitored by the
state and federal government. As an FQHC we accept all patients regardless of their ability to pay. The healthcare landscape
is rapidly changing. And our 45 year history speaks to our effective
financial management, clinical impact and
success as an employer.

On behalf of myself and
our board of directors. We're eager to continue improving
the health of our patients and the community through
a new state of the art primary care clinic at 1500 Capitola Road. – [Woman] You went the right direction. – [Sherry] Hi, I'm Sherry Starman, I'm the chief Development Officer for Dientes community dental care. 27 years years ago, Dientes dental care began as a volunteer effort to serve the low income
people with dental care and today we operate three clinics serve over 11,000 people,
half of whom are children, provide comprehensive services and are the only provider
for specialty care for MediCal patients in the county.

With a 30 site outreach program, we reach hundreds of children every year providing care at their schools and onsite dental care to
people experiencing homelessness at housing matters. We provide oral health
services at the county clinic in Watsonville, pediatric specialty care as well as services for adults at our main clinic on Commercial Way, and we serve one of the most
economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in our
county in Beach Flats. Dientes is is an innovative leader. We've conducted a 2016 oral countywide oral
health needs assessment. The strategic plan, later developed was by
prominent community leaders resulted in a million
dollars of state funds to implement increased
access to dental care. And we're using mid level providers in our staffing model
something rarely done in public health, which saves costs and allows us to provide
care to more patients.

We also offer education loan repayment as part of a trying to become
an employer of preference and wellness programs to recruit and retain higher quality staff, a challenging endeavor
in a community this size. With the population of
approximately 17,000 people and a 14% poverty rate Live Oak is one of the most ethnically and economically diverse
communities in Santa Cruz County. The median home price
in Live Oak is $765,000, which is great if you're a property owner, but half of our residents rent homes or apartments under 800 square feet for an average of $2,200 a month, with rents increasing
at five to 6% per year.

This situation creates an environment where 26% of Live Oak
elementary school children are considered homeless. Many living in motels or
cars with multiple families. Sharing a space meant for one. This makes affordable
housing a huge priority for people in our area. And while the number of insured residents in Live Oak has increased since the implementation
of the Affordable Care Act, access to care is still a challenge with thousands of people in the community, excuse me in the county in
need of a regular source of medical care, including many who need behavioral health or other support services. In fact, the Live Oak
family health centers, which opened in 2014 was
the first doctor's office to locate in Live Oak. Finally, access Dental Care
is key to holding a job and keeping housed but only 15% of adults in Santa Cruz County on
MediCal are receiving services. And dental care is ranked as
a number one need for seniors as they do not received dental benefits and Medicare making access to affordable services a priority. – [Leslie] Both Dientes and Santa Cruz community health centers share a commitment to the
residents of Live Oak.

Aligning our unique business
models with community needs are what has driven us all these years. 1500 Capitola Road is the next step in our evolution ensuring
good health, well being, educational success,
and future opportunity. We're excited by not
only serving more people, but by serving them better, going deeper with services, integrating
dental care on site, expanding behavioral
health, adding a pharmacy which will be open to the public. Adding optometry and laying a foundation for future specialty services. Our project is an economic driver for the health center alone in 2018 a study completed by the
nonprofit Capital Link showed almost $30 million
in total economic impact from direct health center spending and associated community spending, driven by our growing staff and programs. Capital Link also estimated 1.6 million in state and local tax revenues and 20 million in savings to
the overall health system. Finally, as we all know, Santa Cruz is one of the most
expensive housing markets in the nation. Every single local
institutional strategic plan, including the county's own has prioritized increasing housing stock as a way to improve the quality
and viability of life here.

In fact, housing is healthcare as endorsed by the Health
Improvement partnership, a coalition of all the
health care providers in Santa Cruz County. This project led by three
longstanding community partners is smart it's sustainable,
and it's responsive an essential health and housing hub in the heart of Live Oak. – [Sherry] So we have a few more slides, but I'm conscious of the time and I feel like Leslie did a
great job wrapping that up. So we're gonna stop there. – All right, thank you so much. We're now gonna have an opportunity for members of public public
to speak to us about this item. If you would like to speak
please line up if you're able. We do have translation services available for those who need them Come on up. – Good morning, I'm Carol Childers. I'm a resident of Live Oak. I'm a homeowner in Live Oak.

I work in Live Oak. But at this point, I live on Lila court. I live at the far end of the cul de sac, the traffic is already hellacious. We have drainage problems, because the way our street was built back in whenever it was, you know, I know we all need housing. I'm aware of that I work a full time job and a part time job to
keep a roof over my head. But I don't see how this is
gonna benefit those of us in our neighborhood that
are near retirement age that are retired, it's
going to drive us out. I know my son when I told him, he said, "Mom, it's time to bail, come to Oregon." And you know what, I'm
seriously now considering it.

'Cause if this project goes in, my quality of life in
my little neighborhood where I've been for 18 years,
is gonna change dramatically. Thank you. – My name is Carol Fuller, and I became aware of this project as somebody who had dental work all my life a lot of it
starting in about five I had 10 to 12 cavities every year. And in about a month I go to my dentist to see if I can have my sixth implant. So I'm personally well aware. I mean, so I'm sort of here motivated I was I've been a donor to Dientes. And when I became aware of this project, I thought it was a great project and the more I learned about it, the better project it seemed. I too would like to live in Santa Cruz of about 30 years ago where
Live Oak was largely rural and green and the boardwalk
was still kind of derelict in the winter. I like that Santa Cruz. I lived here as a kid for a while I lived in Watsonville for three years.

But I think we have to face reality. We need housing, the clinic
work and the dentistry for low income families I had no idea that 85% of the kids at the school next door were
eligible for free lunch. But anyway, so I'm here
to support the project. – [Ryan] Thank you. – Hi, good morning, my
name is Sally Contreras. I am the family engagement coordinator for Live Oaks cradle to career initiative. I am here with a group of parents from our parent Leadership Committee who are in support of the project and have been since the very beginning. I am also here in support of the project. The presentations were great. There's a high need in our
community in our county for a project like this, and it will be great for our community, our county and our youth, thank you. – [Ryan] Thank you. (woman speaking foreign language) – [Ryan] Thank you, gracias. – Hold on, we're gonna get a translation.

– [Interpreter] Yes good morning
my name is Dolores Lopez. I am one of the mothers of
the community of Live Oak. Well, I'm in favor of the clinic and low affordable housing
because we need them. We need them for the people
of low income like we are. The rents are very high but we are happy that they
are in favor I'm in favor. For it, think it's good for the community. Thank you.
– Thank you. (woman speaking foreign language) – [Interpreter] My name is Taya Vallez, I am a mother and leader
of cradle from cradle for four years. I am here because I'm in
support of the new building and clinic in Capitola and Seventh Avenue. The clinic has helped
me a lot with my health if my family when I go to my meetings, I have to go walking about 30, 40 minutes because I don't drive
now with a new clinic, I would only walk for
five to eight minutes.

I know there's difficulties
for people who are elderly, to have access to go to the clinic. I also wanna add as a mother and a leader I hear a lot of people saying that they suffer to have
an affordable housing and this is also a good
possibility for the people that need them. And for reality there's a lot of families that are living in situations
that are very difficult. Let's remember that the children
need to live in an ambien that is happy and secure, thank you. – Thank you. (woman speaking foreign language) – [Interpreter] Good
morning, I'm Judy Farhado I am a mother of Live Oak. I am here in favor of the
proposal that you are making. I would like to because it will be closer and maybe because that is
coming closer to the school and there will be more
benefits for all of us Thank you.
– Thank you.

(woman speaking foreign language) – [Interpreter] Hi, good morning, my name is Sandra Hernandez. I am a mother of the school of Live Oak. I come here, because I'm
in favor of the proposal of the new building in our clinic of East cliff, my children, I have them in the clinic of East cliff and I also have them in the
clinic of dental clinic, for me would be much
easier and more accessible to have to be able to
take my children to school and taken to their meeting times. Then I had to drive, all of
this will be closer for me. And also that there will be housing for other people that need it. There's a lot of people that need housing, in our community of Live Oak. Thank you to all of you. – Good morning, my name is Jiria Canasel And I'm here as a mother
from the elementary school and I'm here to support the housing especially because it's a
lot of need in our community. And also the dental and the clinic because for me, I am a mother of four kids so I can arrange my
kids in one appointment or everyone the same day I
could take all from school, and it's less time that
they lost from school to get to the clinic and I
can arrange all in one day, possibly.

The most important thing I'm here is to support the affordable housing because it's really a need
in our community, thank you. – [Ryan] Thank you. – Hello supervisors, it's rare
that we get an opportunity for 100% affordable project
in a walkable neighborhood, with rigorous community
inputs with health amenities that will decrease the
number of vehicle miles traveled in the county. It is inspiring to see these plans. I urge you to approve this project today. Any delay means more
displacement of people that this project can help and any delay can mean
that a project falls apart due to funding issues. If for some reason this project
is not ready to be approved today I urge you to add both
funding and zoning waivers to increase the number of units
to make up for those people that have been displaced due to delay. Thank you.
– Thank you. – Good morning, my name is
Carolyn O'Donnell Shimmick and I've been living in Santa
Cruz for more than 30 years. And I'm also a longtime client of the Santa Cruz Women's Health Center. I'm not sure I've fallen
that low income bucket, but I still go there.

I'm really glad that I wasn't too busy to meet with Dr. Katherine Webb when she showed up at my
office in the early 1990s. Because what resulted was a grant from Catholic health care West that met that funded the first study and the first work to develop Dientes
community dental clinic, I'm proud to be part of that village that birthed this clinic
that started these services that were so desperately needed and continue to be needed
within this community. I wrote that first grant proposal and worked with Dr. Webb. We went to Sacramento,
we went to all the folks that set up here at the time and really worked towards get that open, but it took a whole village and there are many more
people in this community that made Dientes be where it is today. We usually don't think about dental care unless we're in pain. But there are hidden costs
for people who are in pain, have appearance issues
and are otherwise unable to seek a job because of
dental, lack of dental care.

I support that this development on 1500 Capitola Road continue
only for the dental care of the medical care and the housing that's desperately needed and generating 60 professional positions and providing almost
double the amount of care that Dientes is able to deliver right now. In one of the most unmet unseen
needs in Santa Cruz County. Thank you.
– Thank you. – Good morning Board of Supervisors.

My name is David Brody, Executive Director for First Five Santa Cruz County. I'm here on behalf of First
Five Santa Cruz county to voice our strong
support for this project. The goals of increasing
affordable housing, access to primary medical care and access to oral health
care are consistent wholly with our strategic plan. And of course many of the plans that many of you are
part of with the county including but not limited
to the thrive by three plan, and of course, our innovative
Oral Health Access plan led by Dientes, so I wanna again voice First Five Santa Cruz
county's strong support for this project. On a slightly more personal note, I've been empowered by my
colleague at the office, Barbara Dana, to mention that her mother Joan Rodsuck is patient of Dientes, 103 year old woman blind, who lives just off in Capitola Road. And they both wanted me to stand here and voice their support
for Dientes in particular for the services that she's received. And for this project and
the access that will provide for her in particular,
thank you very much. – Good morning supervisors,
my name is Robert Singleton.

I'm the executive director of the Santa Cruz County Business Council, which represents the 85
or so largest employers here in our county. And I just wanna say
this is community is 100% behind this project and
support the development of this site. We desperately need affordable
housing, especially housing, that's gonna be 100% affordable
for our low income residents right now who are being forced to commute from further and further
away to our service jobs and our primary sectors of our economy. We care about our employees,
we care about their families and the quality of life they have. And honestly, you couldn't
get a better coalition of community partners here to meet some of our most pressing needs. Looking at our health metrics, I mean, I had never heard
that 26% of Live Oak children are technically homeless,
I mean, that's crazy.

We absolutely need to build the housing. We need to work with
these community partners to increase access to
health care of all types. So there's essentially no reason why you shouldn't have this project. It's a it's 100% slam dunk,
please approve it today. Thank you. – Hola, buenos dias. My name is Alan Fisher and my wife and I we worked almost 50 years and we saved money carefully and we were fortunate
enough to buy a small home at the end of Lila Court, opposite the proposed
construction project. Now, one of the reasons we chose our home at the end of Lila Court was because it was a very quiet street and a quiet neighborhood. Now, my commitment to social justice means that I do support this project 'cause I know that affordable housing is absolutely essential as well as those other programs mentioned.

However, there's a few
things that we want, we the residents of Lila Court will need to mitigate the negative
effects on our quality of life. And that includes a very good sound wall, and also a no left turn
on the first entrance, because cars and trucks are gonna go up the parking
lot that's proposed. And when they don't find a parking space, they're gonna turn around and we're gonna hear the beep beep beep of the trucks backing up to turn around and we're gonna have our quiet disturbed so we, I would like you
to have a no left turn on the first entrance into the project. Another thing is we would
like a strip, a small strip of green all the way
down the fence or wall because our bedrooms are so close to the proposed parking lot. And also, under no circumstances should a through way be created to allow people to enter
Lila Court from the back end, so that we would have a
constant flow of traffic.

And also good, my time's up and I'm
happy to leave, thank you. (audience laughing) – Thank you My name is Becky Steinbrunner. I live in rural Aptos but I have attended the
Planning Commission meetings regarding this project. And I wanna speak for the trees. They have no voice here. There are over 150 trees on this lot. And over 120 of them will be slaughtered. Even at the recommendation
that they be preserved by the arborist who surveyed the site. At the Planning Commission meeting, there were residents that showed up with pictures of the wildlife, they've seen hawks nesting
in these trees, herons. Those have no voices here. So I agree that we need
affordable housing here. But we also need to preserve the character of our neighborhoods, we need to preserve what little scraps of wildlife corridor we have. I think that including the huge medical and dental is just too much for this area.

What's also not being
included in the staff report is the nuts and bolts,
the traffic mitigation will be handled by
Capitola Road being widened at some point in the future. That's not right. We also have heard nothing
about the service of Metro for all these people and all of the people who will be visiting the clinics. Is it sufficient? Does Metro need to be
here talking with you too? What about the Merriman house, the historic Merriman
house that is the subject of the "For Whom the Bell Tolls?" And it's Mr. Hemingway's book. That man grew up there,
Mr. Merriman grew up there. And it is not even discussed here. It used to be on the
county historic registry, it got taken off. And there's no nod at all
to the historic significance and the cultural
significance of this person. And that this piece of property was the beginning of the
Live Oak ranchette model that is the character of Live Oak. What I wanna ask is that
you put in the housing but not the medical and the dental.

Make it a big community garden,
keep the Merriman House, use that as an educational
site for gardening and bring a real sense of
community to this area. Thank you.
(audience applauding) – Members of the Board,
thank you very much. My name is Benjamin Iker, I'm the director of a local
nonprofit organization called Green Power. We're part of the Romero Institute.

And we focus on mitigating
the effects of climate change. And I'm here today to say that, you probably know there's
a strong correlation and a strong link between the availability of affordable housing, and
our greenhouse gas emissions for transportation. And so from that perspective, we absolutely support this project. But I also wanna ask you to go further. We made a you know, we
achieved a great victory a few years ago in launching
Monterey Bay Community power, we now receive carbon free electric energy for all of our residents and businesses. And so now we have an
opportunity to electrify and decarbonize our buildings. And there's a lot of
important reasons to do that.

First of all, there are more
and more studies coming out that show that natural gas,
which is primarily methane, is an incredibly dangerous
gas for our environment, its global warming potential
is about 100 times more than CO2 and additionally,
it's a combustible fuel, which is dangerous to have in the home. The particulate matter that
comes from burning natural gas in the home can cause a
range of health effects, particularly in young children who are still in the development stages. And so I wanna ask you to
encourage the applicants to make every effort
that they can to ensure that this project, and this
development is carbon free, and that they make every effort to decarbonize the buildings and use all electric appliances. Thanks very much.
– Thank you. – Hi, good morning, my name is Bob Bailey. I'm a donor. My wife Sharon and I
are longtime supporters of Dientes both annually and with the capital programs to increase the number of
patients that can be served.

We do this because of the
great need in the community for affordable dental care, and the importance of dental care. Dientes has been committed
to meeting that need and teaching children the
value of dental hygiene. We support the mixed use
project at 1500 Capitola Road as a very significant
addition to the community. We are delighted to see
three groups team up to address the needs of
increased access to health care and housing for the low income community. We know it took a great vision and thought to coordinate
this mixed use development to provide for these needs.

We know this project
will have a big impact on the community, serving 10,000 patients, including 6000 dental patients, providing 57 units of affordable housing, which is such a critical need,
and generating 16 new jobs. We ask for your approval
of the sale of the land and the entitlements to
develop 1500 Capitola Road. Thank you. – Good morning supervisors. My name is Kelsey Hill. I'm the social media
specialist and interim director for the Romero Institute. And I'm here to comment on item 16, regarding condition of permit. Earlier this year this board
declared a climate emergency but progress has been often
slower than the crisis demands. In a time of necessary
development in Santa Cruz County, we have to ensure that this
growth is in accordance with our principles of
environment and climate change. We have a unique
opportunity at this moment in the county right now to
expand building decarbonization, as my colleague mentioned before me, and we can follow the
example of other states and municipalities by
requiring all new developments in the county to be carbon free in the city of Santa Cruz
residential buildings make up 28% of all carbon emissions, commercial and industrial 31%.

That's nearly 60% of all
greenhouse gas emissions if the county required new
developments to be carbon free, our community could
massively lower its emissions and also make great strides
in our climate goals, all while developing services and housing that's desperately
needed in the county. That's why we should take
this leap and take bold action to ensure that this
development is carbon free. Decarbonized buildings
can often be cheaper, they can often be safer. But the big picture here is
the health of our planet. We are in the beginning of
a massive extinction event. And we have 11 years
left to take big strides in the climate crisis. We have the technology
and we have the need. A seaside county like Santa Cruz has no time to deliberate on the ifs and buts of climate actions. We have to make moves to lower emissions and we have to do it now. I'm asking as a county
resident, as a young person and as a climate advocate,
we can make bold decisions and we can make them now thank you.

(audience applauding) – That's a good one to follow. Basically, I'm Michael Sain, I'm here representing campaign for sustainable transportation. I sent off this project to
my friends there at CFST, and they had a few concerns. In general, we like the project, we appreciate the housing aspect that it's on a transit road
and that kind of stuff. That's all good stuff. The first concern is removing too many century old oak trees. To accommodate new building locations, we are hoping that the developer would attempt to save more of these best established oak trees. Also, another concern about
taking so many large trees was the loss of carbon sequestering and also their emotional
value and identity for the community.

After all, it is the Live Oak community. Another concern was the
replanting of the trees along the south side on Capitola Road would interfere with the
south facing buildings and shading problems. This would limit passive solar heating. The other thing concerned
by one of our engineers in our group is that there is no proposal for the taller building solar photovoltaic panel installation design. I've heard nothing about
solar in this development and also nothing about
an EV charging structure, you can have 192 parking spaces, I would hope there'd be some charging. Also, the architectural
elevations in building designs do not have any of this involved.

As a suggestion though,
I looked at the plans, the largest amount of parking
is on the southwest side of the building area. That project could be used for solar covered parking structures, which would decrease your having to put it on the roofs, basically. So basically, you think
this might be too expensive for affordable housing. But don't forget the federal credit is 22% on any commercial projects through 2020. Thank you. – Tim Willoughby speaking
for Affordable Housing Now, we submitted our comments to you in writing outlining
the many great reasons why this is such a good
project for you to approve. I would just like to remind you that this kind of project with
this level of affordability and the number of units is quite rare. And it's been your help
in making this happen because it doesn't happen without
public land being involved in it, that kind of subsidy.

And so we would like to
thank you for your vote. This is a great project, thank you. – Good morning, Mr. Chair
and fellow supervisors. My name is Cindy Valdez. I am a COPA leader at the Live
Oak Family Resource Center, which is a nonprofit
that provides services to low income families. I would like to share a story about the Vasquez family. There are two parents,
their two sons and spouses, and a five year old
grandson in the family. They all share a three
bedroom one bathroom house for which they pay 3,500 in rent. In short, there are three small families in a very small space at a very high cost and there are space and privacy issues with a highly energetic child and they struggled to meet the rent.

This is very upsetting to me. I am very moved by the stressful situation that this family finds itself in. This is why I'm here today in support of the MidPen housing project. I believe it will be an
affordable housing solution. With the added benefit of
providing health services, please support this project
and COPA members please stand. Thank you. – Good morning Chair Coonerty
and members of the Board. My name is Ken Thomas. I'm a COPA leader at Peace
United Church in Santa Cruz. I'm also Live Oak resident. COPA is in support of the project, both of the housing component and providing health centers. What is COPA? COPA is an acronym for communities organized for
relational power and action.

We're a organization
of civic organizations within the Santa Cruz
County of San Benito county and Monterey County,
there's 28 institutions. They're made up of nonprofits,
schools, labor organizations, health providers, and faith communities. The stories that we hear such
as Cindy's that she just told are how we go about selecting actions and areas of issues that with COPA. The stories that we
hear time and time again have to do with the lack
of affordable housing. As you know, there is a linkage between the lack of that
kind of affordable housing and social employment, schools, education and health impacts on families. As you know, vacant land
within the urban service lines that is designated for housing
that are great opportunities to have in this county.

And we urge the board
to approve this project with the upper end of the high density that the zoning allows, and also the health
providers that are on site. Thank you. – I think it just
switched over to afternoon So good afternoon supervisors. My name is Kim Madsen. I'm a COPA leader from St.
Stephen's Lutheran Church located in Live Oak.

I specifically, I speak
in favor of the project, but I specifically wanna talk
about the excellent experience we had with MidPen Housing, all from planning all the way through to their ongoing management of
St. Stephen's senior housing, our small solution to the
housing issue on property that we made available to them. So thank you. – Hello, my name is Brooke Nielsen. I'm a parent and resident of Live Oak we love the Live Oak community. After hearing this meeting, my best approach is to
describe my morning to you I got up I got my kids ready for school. Crossing 17th Avenue is
a very dangerous thing to do with kids.

There's a group of five of us and people don't stop at
the crosswalk on Harper going around to the crosswalk
at Capitola Road and 17th. The switch to engage the
cross setting is broken. Living in a place where
there is no sidewalks, I hope some of the funds that
are allocated to this project maybe could go to resources of safety for kids getting to school. And lastly, the environmental
part of this discussion. Walking back I saw a blue
heron right in the middle of the field. And I thought that was emblematic
of just keeping the idea that high density is one thing. Natural preservation is another.

Thank you. – Good afternoon the board of supervisors. My name is Maria Galenas. I represent Santa Cruz Community Ventures we work to create local economies. And I'm here in support of the project not only for the economic
impact of the jobs that will be created through the clinic. But also the stability that it
will provide those families. About 60% of Live Oak families are paying more than 30% rent, on average, that's about 60% of their income. That leaves very little
for food, medical care and other things that they
need in order to thrive. Families are overcrowded
conditions right now, their families I live there right now, this is about giving them
housing that is livable and respectful for their families so kids can do their homework, and they can have, you know,
viability in their futures. Furthermore, we've been
partners as Community Ventures with all of the partners been
presented here in his effort, and they are all excellent partners not only for the services
that they provide, but the approach and care
that they give the community.

The future of this county
is about working together and leveraging all resources together. And this is what this project provides not only limiting the impact on climate by allowing for walking communities and having services nearby, but also ensuring that
families have everything they have to thrive and
move forward, thank you. – Good afternoon, Chair
Coonerty, supervisors. My name is Rafael Hernandez I'm with the housing program association of Monterey Bay economic partnership, I'm here to speak in support
of MidPen's 1500 Capitola Road mixed use development, which features 57 units
of affordable apartments, a community center, a public plaza in addition to dental
services office and is 100%, it's 100% all electric carbon free.

And that consists of 87 public, private and civic entities in the
counties of Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito. Our housing initiative
advocates for more housing of all types, at different
income levels, higher density, and appropriate locations
near transit and jobs. Services which maximize public
investment in infrastructure. Project is perfectly aligned with them, that housing initiative. As it is 100%, affordable mixed use along the commercial
corridor, walkable to schools and services as well as
having onsite health care.

Being all electric and carbon free it is a high quality project
with a high threshold for energy efficiency. This carbon free approach
is climate action planning that is in line with our regional goals and with Santa Cruz county's local goals. For all these reasons
we support this project and ask that you do as well. Thank you, thank you for your service. – Good afternoon supervisors
Martin Koenig first district. This is a good project
provides a lot of the things that our community so desperately
needs, affordable housing, medical facilities, it's
not a perfect project. But we can't let the perfect
be the enemy of the good and I fundamentally support moving forward with this project.

Some things that I would
do if I were in your shoes. We've heard from neighbors that they're concerned
about traffic impacts. And we know that traffic and parking will become a problem we know because all you have to do
is go talk to the neighbors over in the Winkle Park neighborhood about how the Emerald Bay apartments there impact parking in their neighborhood, we know that housing is
in such desperate need that people will probably double and triple up in some of
these affordable units. And that'll mean more cars
than the site can support and that'll lead to cars parking
in adjacent neighborhoods. So we need more permit parking. And we we know that's expensive, but we can use technology
and citizen reported and enforced permit parking programs just like they're doing in
New York and Malibu today to provide more services with less money. So we need to do things like that. And we need to update our design standards because you heard today from the community how important it is that we preserve the natural environment that we ensure bird species continue to be able to call this at home as well and to protect some of the historic trees.

So, going forward, we need
to think about projects that are win win win,
win for current residents win for future residents
and win for the environment. And I hope that you'll take those elements into consideration and establish
policies moving forward that will do just that, thank you. – Good afternoon, my name is
Dr. Allen Bueno del Bosque, district one, I'm a local physician. I work at the Santa Cruz health community centers occasionally. I'm also a board member of the
Monterey Bay Community power. I'm here because I believe
in data and for me, the oceans are 30% more acidic. There's 50% sea Arctic
ice in the summertime less than there used to be, half The Great Barrier
Reef no longer exists. Hurricanes are more frequent and fierce to our colleagues
down in the Gulf Coast. We know that we have more
frequent and powerful fires here in California, affecting
now 4 million residents with the PSPSs.

The reason I speak to this is because I'm very
supportive of the project, except I would love it for
it to be carbon neutral 100% electrified, creating
its own energy through solar creating its own storage through battery and creating resilience through distributed energy resources for instance, micro grids. I think that would set the tone
for the future development. Part of the problem we have
today is carbon in the air.

And as a physician when
I speak to patients and I talk about climate change, the cancer in the air is carbon and we need to mitigate that and minus a carbon negative movement through carbon negative future
through carbon sequestration. The best thing that we can do
is mitigate carbon in the air. And I hope that we can create
a carbon neutral clinic here. Thank you.
(audience applauding) – Good afternoon, my name is Joseph Chavez and I lead live on Lila Court and I'm one of the residents who's going to be highly
effected about what's going on over there. First of all, I wanna
thank you for your time and thank you for the
service to this community. Appreciate it. I'm concerned at the residents and they asked me to
speak for some of them because they have to work
they can't be here all day is the parking Health Center has said they have 141 employees.

The dental clinic says
they have 75 employees. Health Clinic says they have
a potential of 60 more jobs to be done. That's 276 employees
being affected this area and these two businessess. The residential has 57 residences and one parking spot
for each some residents are three bedrooms, one parking spot, some are two bedrooms, one parking spot, some are one bedroom one parking spot. They health centers as they
get 11,000 patients a year. The dental clinic they get almost 42,000 you think about how many people
are gonna be parking there in one day. That's quite a few. Oh, by the way, they only have 190 spots that they wanna give us. The sound wall that's
gonna be affecting us is well I'm grateful for MidPen is working with us on that
and that's appreciated.

But I do wanna cover that the bus that they wanna put into but
is at the corner of our street, which would be sticking out it's also 10 feet from a residential house and that's bedroom of two young children. I think that's that needs to be addressed. And there's quite a few issues
that need to be addressed besides the parking, the bus stop the size three stories, there's just too many questions that need to be still worked on.

There is no question in my
mind how affordable housing and health care for employees and people will Santa
Cruz County is important. But I don't want you to
forget about the neighborhood and the people who live
there are just as important as they are, thank you for your time. – Hello again, Monica McGuire. It's so wonderful always
to hear the people who stand here and tell you everything that we wish you had the
time to do yourselves. Apparently you don't 'cause as much as there's so much good about what is being talked about here. The lack of design to take into account all of these very known factors
in this very small county is pretty shocking.

The lack of forward thinking, to make sure that every person who comes up already has
what they're bringing up somewhat addressed so that
we don't have to take time out of our days in the
middle of a business day to come and talk to you about this. Not to mention, it isn't
coming to us in a way that we get to look at it and see it and understand why
decisions are being made, that you have to break certain laws in order to put something
like this forward. Again, it is not rocket science, it is just can you please
slow yourself down enough to listen to we the people
who are doing our best to bring you our ideas
long before we come to you and say now, will you just
do your supervisor work of making sure that you don't let go all of these important factors.

It's not that hard to account
for all of these factors in the beginning stages and you really have the authority and ability to make that happen. And we don't understand
why it's not happening. We don't understand what
it is in our offers to you to help that you're not taking. And when we come and then hear this many
brilliant things said, and then you vote in
the supermajority over and over to just go
forward with something. Disregarding everything
that we all come up to say. It's so disheartening. It's understandable why most people say, "There's no reason to go
to any of those meetings. "They don't listen anyway." That has been my opinion, often, but I come back over and over 'cause I care so deeply. Most of us in this county are being pushed out of living here. Most of us live with this horrible sense. We're gonna be gone in five or 10 years and all these things that we have done to make it a great place
will not be for us.

– [Ryan] Thank you, Monica. – Please take our help more.
– Thank you. – Good afternoon, I'm Burt Walen, I'm a resident of Lila Court. And I'd like to thank the
supervisors for listening to me especially John Leopold and Zach Friend, who we had the opportunity to meet with and discuss some of the issues. I'd also like to thank Henry Ranchi from Ranchi and Post and also Cole Gunz from BKF engineering and
Luzanna Jeff's who helped and also Elisa Tom from public works, we had some drainage issue things that we talked with Zach and John and unfortunately didn't
have the opportunity to talk to Mr. Coonerty, McPherson and Mr. Caput, it's a time thing, you know,
and these projects go on. And there are some issues
I think with parking that everybody realizes
they'll work themselves out.

We have an issue as a
residents about the bus and I think that can be worked out too. I did submit a written proposal that maybe we should have the bus stop in front of the Santa Cruz
Community Health Center, primarily because the west
bound traffic is across and you could put an electronic device like they have on Jose Avenue, which would slow the traffic down so people could commute
and walk back and forth, 'cause it's got a lot of people
that are gonna take by bus, hopefully, you know, and
those are some of the issues that Joe Shereez covered
some of the other issues and a lot of the residents
of Lila Court are in favor.

We're not against the project whatsoever. We had help, both from
John in that meeting, and I think those issues
would resolve themselves. It needs to go forward. It's a good project, you
know, the other issues, they'll work themselves
out, they usually do. People find a way to resolve problems. And thank you very much. I appreciate listening to me today. – [Ryan] Thank you. – Hi, I'm Cynthia Berger with Santa Cruz Tenants Association. I'd like to express my support for any 100% affordable unit development that comes before you and I
hope that it's truly affordable. Just like to remind everyone that renters are working really hard too but we don't all get to buy our house even though we saved a lot of money.

And we also are working so
hard to pay 60% of our money that we can't come to
supervisor's meeting. So when I come here, I come here representing
the thousands of people that I've talked to over
the past five years. I'm sure they would really like to see more affordable housing in the county area where you have so much more
space than than the cities. Thank you.
– Thank you. I think that concludes public comment. I will close it and bring
it back to the board for deliberation and action. Supervisor Leopold. – Thank you chair and thank for
the testimony we heard today this has been a long process, the conversations that
we started really in 2012 in talking about the sustainable
Santa Cruz County plan.

And in that plan, which involved hundreds of local residents, we talked
about increasing densities along our transit corridors to try to look for mixed use development. And there was broad support for that. And in 2017, when we began the process of trying to think what
would happen at this site, this site that the county has
not used for over 30 years. We started off by talking a little bit about the history of the site, and beginning a conversation
with the community about what could happen at this site. And when we received two
qualified applications, we chose this one to enter
into exclusive negotiation. We held more meetings that were well attended over 100 people, most of them from Live Oak. And we, I felt as though
the organizations here MidPen Housing and the
clinics were listening to the community. People raised concerns about
the location of buildings and what would happen on the site, and I know MidPen met with
residents of Lila Court to address some of those concerns.

And in the final meeting
we have at the community, the project was actually
changed the orientation of the buildings, the
location of the buildings, moved to respond to the concerns that were identified in those meetings. And there has been a lot of work to trying to meet the needs
the many needs of people in Live Oak, as we heard pretty clearly that there is a need for
affordable housing in Live Oak and at the original meeting in April 2017 people were in favor
of affordable housing. And the testimony we heard from renters, from mothers talking about
the importance of this is powerful and it's hard to say no, to just the simple request to have a place to live in the community that they live in.

And so as we've moved
forward with this project, we've also tried to take into concerns I have met with Lila Court residents, I have talked with folks about some of the issues. When I met with Lila Court residents, they were concerned about noise
impacts on their property. And I've talked with the developers, and there seemed to be an agreement that a precast concrete wall would actually do the
job of meeting the needs of their concerns. And I think we should include
that as part of the project. I think that there was
concerns about the location of the bus stop, and I've initiated additional conversation with our public works
department and the metro to see whether that's the best spot or whether there could
be another spot for that. We have tried to work on this question about a gate in the back of the project. Because people walk
through this project now, I mean, this property now onto
another undeveloped parcels on Harper Street and they
wanna continue to do that.

We have tried with the folks on the Lenea Court a different street to try to get access there
including even offering to take their private road
they have been unwilling, and we're trying to work
with the property owner of the site that is undeveloped, but has permitted plans to
see if we can work there. And I appreciate the
willingness of MidPen housing to think about the fencing and the trees and to make sure that if that's possible that we can actually do that. You know, the other thing that we talked about a lot here and was brought up today is just the environmental impact.

Now, there's no getting around that this has been an undeveloped plot of roughly just under four
acres for a long time, and trees were gonna be cut down in order to provide this
other social benefit. There will also be new trees planted and the tree which residents
identified as critical, the large tree at the
front of the property, we're gonna maintain that tree. It's part of the
identification of the site. And it's the most significant
tree on the property. And I'm glad that they found
a way to design this project in a way that would include that.

But we also care about
sustainability in terms of energy, carbon emissions,
thinking about other ways to create housing and businesses that have less of an impact
on on our carbon footprint. And so you heard a speaker from a group called Green Power who and a doctor who's on the Monterey Bay
Community power advisory board, and we've engaged in a conversation with the three organizations
to try to see if we can make this the first carbon neutral
project in Santa Cruz County. And maybe additionally build
resilience for this property by energy storage and energy creation, that would really make a difference. Because what we've seen
is even in urban areas now power goes off. And what we used to think was standard that we could count on flipping the switch and it being on is not really necessarily what it's gonna be like in the future.

So trying to think of whether this project we could create all those
pieces of micro grid at this location, we've
begun those discussions and I appreciate the
willingness of everyone to continue to work on that. It should be noted that
there are 18 spaces for electric vehicles on this site. And because it's on a transit corridor, it was really helpful. I appreciate that we
shared the information about the vehicle miles
traveled and the reduction that we would see in a project like this, this is what we should
expect in the future projects along our transit corridors where we have the available to do that.

The people should know also
that the height standards here are the exact same one that was in our general plan 20 years ago. So we are finally accessing those heights we haven't created a new height standard. You know, the last thing that I'll say is that the historical
part of this project, and what we talked about
at that first meeting is that there was an individual
named Robert Merriman who lived on one of the
houses in this location. And you know, so often
when we talk about history in Live Oak, we talk about chicken farms and Live Oak is way
more than chicken farm. And so I thought it was important that we recognize Robert Merriman, because he was a local
guy who went to college and earned a degree in economics. And he came out of school
during the Great Depression. And he was so concerned about what was happening with people in this country, that he
went to look for other ways, other economic systems
and ended up in Moscow in the early 30s. It was there he was studying collectivism and a lot of other ways to try to think about how
we take care of people.

He ended up going to Spain,
as part of a large group of Americans that fought
in the Spanish Civil War. When our government and when other Western
European governments chose not to get involved,
but the Spanish government was fighting fascism. And because he had had
ROTC training in college, he became the commander of
the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, eventually was captured and
killed by Franco's forces. But before that he met Ernest Hemingway and included him as a
character in one of his books. And so I'm glad that
we're gonna be recognizing that history in Santa
Cruz because in Live Oak, because it's a lot better story than just chicken farming, that we care about others to fight for what you believe in to fight fascism.

That story hasn't gone
out of style in anyway. So I'm looking forward to this project I look forward to continuing
to work with MidPen, and both our clinics, clinics
that have been partners in our effort around the
cradle to career initiative, which has made a demonstrable
impact on our community. I'm glad that this is gonna
be family affordable housing, because it's in walking distance to three elementary
schools, a middle school, a Boys and Girls Club, a swim center. This is where family needs to
be and we can't forget that. So I would like to move the
all the recommended actions. And I would like to add two pieces to it, which is prior to the issuance
of the building permits in section five that we add under B which is submitting the
final architectural plans that we add one more condition that the developers shall
make the building's energy self sufficient by generating storing and transmitting energy
from renewable sources to the extent that is feasible
based on the availability of grant funding and
other revenue sources, design constraints including
building code requirements that point to limited use of gas where it might be more
efficient than electricity for some equipment, and
construction timeline constraints.

And don't worry Susan, I have
this written down for you. I'd also like to add
an additional direction that the owners of the
property work on creating a precast concrete fence on a portion of the Lila court side,
I've talked with residents, and I think there's design and location where that would work out. That's the motion.
– I'll second. – And I just wanna finish that this is a change in use. This is a change in what we've
expected at this location. But we've done it with a
lot of community input. We've been thoughtful
in addressing the needs that have been identified
by the community. We've come up with a
design that I think is good and if we have this
additional energy, efficiency and sustainability, we will
be setting a new standard for projects in Santa Cruz County.

And we can be a leader in our community continue to be a leader in our community. So thank you for everyone being here. Supervisor Friend. – First off, I'd like
to I would like to thank the amount of input. This was remarkable to have
this many people come forward. And I appreciated the opportunity to meet with the neighbors last week. And one thing that I appreciate it was they brought forward a set of issues that they were looking to be addressed and your motion fundamentally
addressed most of them and I appreciate that comes
also from MidPen's work. I've worked with red pen on
projects within my own district where we've had similar concerns and they've been more than receptive and open to improving
projects as a result of that. This is a very unique
way to look at a project especially with the health side of it. We can't understate the
importance for these communities, providing those health
services moving forward, especially being able to have it within walking distance of where so many people
need these services. I gotta say too that there
were some individuals that had come for that that usually start with we need affordable housing.

I support affordable housing but and then there's always
this long list of reasons why you cannot support
the affordable housing at this or any other location. And you have to ask
yourself, if not here, where? And if not now, when? And I don't know what
the answers to that are, I feel like for a progressive community, we're sometimes really
good at finding ways to say no to affordable housing projects, as opposed to finding ways
to make things happen. I think that this is actually
a remarkable project, and that it found a very
unique way to serve many needs that are needed in the mid county region. And I applaud my colleague
for all of his work behind the scenes on this project. But we have to do a little
bit of self reflection on these kinds of projects. We need affordable
housing in some respects more than we need anything
else in Santa Cruz County, we have some of the highest poverty rates for the highest homeless rates, and it's directly connected to our lack of affordable housing.

And we need to build more
projects just like this moving throughout the county, I would hope that more
are able to come through and I think that's part of
the point of what we're doing on sustainable Santa Cruz
plan to do exactly this. And as opposed to just trying to find the individual issues that are unique to everything about, you
know, traffic and noise and stuff we'll hear that on everything. We've gotta do this for the
future of this community. We've got to be able to
build these kinds of projects and I appreciate that
this one's coming forward. – Yeah Mr. Chair very briefly, this meets a tremendous
need in affordable housing, especially rental housing, and it states in the
report from the staff. The project is consistent
with all applicable codes and policies of the zoning
ordinances the general plan, especially interested that
it meets the significant, it would result not result
any significant impacts on air quality greenhouse gas emissions or water quality and I appreciate Supervisor
Leopold's efforts to be consistent, be outgoing, as he does always reaches
out to the community to find out what it wants.

And adding this condition on trying to get to energy self sufficiency. I think that's a very important aspect of what we're gonna do
from this day forward. I would encourage any
developer that's gonna come in the future is to have that in mind when they come before
the board of supervisors. MidPen has been a great
partner in the future. And I look forward to
being a great partner in this project as well. – Just make a quick comment, it's good to see the rest of the county building affordable housing. In the past, it seemed
like the biggest burden was always on South County. And I think this project is
good for the whole county. So district two I know and
then also the Live Oak area and building affordable housing. And so in South County with MidPen. I'd like to see the other
districts participate also in the future to spread it out rather than have a
centralized all in one spot. thank you.
– Thank you. And I just wanna say
this is a great project, and it's been made better by
the input from the community.

And then I also like to say, you know, very often during these hearings, we only hear from one
part of the community. I thought today's testimony really represented a broad
spectrum of the community. And I wanna appreciate the tone and tenor of everyone's remarks. It really made me proud to be to get to represent this community and to get to support a project like this. So thank you very much. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor please say aye. – [Board] Aye. – Opposed that passes unanimously.

The final piece of this.
(audience applauding) The final piece of this project is a mere $5 million from the low and moderate income housing asset fund to MP Live Oak Associates LP a partnership established by MidPen housing for an affordable housing project and to approve the assumption by the county of the
rights and obligations of the Santa Cruz County
redevelopment successor agency under an affordable housing and property disposition agreement and take related actions
as outlined in a memorandum of the planning Director, Miss Conway to bring us up to speed on
this item, item number 17. – Great, good afternoon
board members Julie Conway housing manager. This third and final item
regarding the project at 17th and Capitola Road
recommends expenditure of $5 million from low and moderate income housing asset fund.

Local dollars are an essential part of building affordable housing. Without them it is very difficult to get these badly needed projects built. They play a direct role in
funding of course, is $5 million but they also play an
absolutely vital role in leveraging the rest of the money that's needed for the project. Local funds also ensure that the community has
a long term interest in the management of the community. Part of today's recommended action is the assumption of
responsibilities for oversight of the property. This role is consistent with
all of the MidPen projects that have happened over the last 25 years. And they have proven
to be a very responsive and responsible project
manager in the long term. And we could go on the staff
report provides information overall about project and
financing and the legalities. And of course, I'm happy
to answer any questions. But I thought it's worth
noting that the rents for the proposed project
will remain over time. And this is just an
example most of the units target very low income, the
rest of them target low income with the exception of the managers unit.

If you take a look at the rents
in this community recently they are staggering. This week have been
reported to be an average of $2,350 for a one bedroom and 2,975 for a two bedroom apartment. So this is a significant
project for the county. It concludes the disposition of property owned by the former Redevelopment Agency and a long community
process defining the vision for Live Oak. It centers health care
in the heart of Live Oak and provides affordable
housing and this project brings the county 16% closer
to meeting are assigned very low income, very regional
housing need allocation. And getting to this point
has been a complex process. Obviously since your board had to act as three different
entities to accomplish it.

I wanna take a moment to
thank Supervisor Leopold for his years long
determination to use this site for the benefit of Live Oak community and also to recognize the
community for its commitment to making this project the
very best that it can be. Finally, this community is
fortunate to have MidPen housing. The Santa Cruz community health clinics and Dientes community dental care, helping to build a better Live
Oak and to serve us so well.

And a special thank you to MidPen for working and reworking and maybe again, reworking that vision in
response to community needs and also for the work to
come to accomplish it. – Thank you, and I'm gonna ask if there's any public
comments on this item. Seeing none I'll bring
it back to the board for deliberation action. – I move approval of
the recommended action. – Motion by Leopold, second by Friend, all those
in favor, please say aye. – [Board] Aye. – And that passes unanimously. Quick update for folks. We have some folks here who
have been patiently waiting for the no fault evictions
which is item number 14.

We will then take a break and do item S at the SSP advisory item and the legislative priorities
items after the lunch break and we will continue recommend that we continue the ordinance cleanup and the performance issues to our next performance management
item to our next agenda. Going down the road so let
me get to item number 14 which is to consider
an emergency ordinance adding chapter 8.47 to the Santa Cruz County
code to temporarily prohibit no fault evictions. If folks could move out of the room, please that would be great. Prevent no fault eviction
through December 31 2019. For properties that will be covered by Assembly Bill 1482 the Tenant Protection
Act of 2019 as outlined in a memorandum for myself
and Supervisor Friend. Very briefly, I think we all
know the state took action to provide more protection and to prevent large rent increases for tenants in California.

The problem is, is that
bill doesn't go into effect until January first 2020. And this leads this time
this gap in coverage. And we've heard news reports about some unscrupulous landlords using this as an
opportunity to evict tenants before they would be covered by this law. And so Supervisor Friend and I worked with county
counsel's office modeled on a number of other local agencies that are taking this action
to protect the tenants in this gap between before the state law goes into effect. You wanna add? – I'll just briefly add that
this is happening right here in our community right now. In fact, the woman who
spoke to us earlier during public comment lives in my
district and shared that story. We've heard a number of other
stories about this going on. And these are people
that are being evicted out of their homes for
they're paying their rent.

They're not causing any issues. But there's an incentive now
in the next 60 or so days, to push someone out in advance of them. So they can raise the rent and not have to pay them one month's rent and they can raise it more
than 5% plus inflation. So this would protect people. This is during the holidays, we have to think about
what we're doing here. I mean, there are people in their homes that deserve to be in their homes. We just had an entire item
dedicated to affordable housing, sending people out onto the streets in this kind of housing market is not a solution for addressing anything that's to the interest of the county. And this just adds 60 days
and accelerates that process of the state's already codified locally. – And finally, I guess
I'd say we are asking this is the passes and urgency ordinance which requires a purpose vote in order that it goes into effect today. And not require the readings and the 30 day implementation period. – Just a quick question maybe for counsel is if someone's has been
given an eviction notice and we pass this will this cover them? – Yes, it goes backwards.

If you look at the applicability section of the ordinance if you're
still in your notice period, and you're still living in the unit, and it hasn't passed yet, this covers you. – Okay, thank you.
– Great Now it's an opportunity
for members of the public to speak to us. So is there anyone who would like to speak to us on this item? – Yes thank you, my name
is Gretchen Reagan Hart. I'm with California
Rural Legal Assistance. We provide free legal
services for low income people in our community. And our primary focus here is housing because it has to be. I'm so thankful that you've
brought this measure forward and I really wanna send out
initially my appreciation for that. Since AB 1482 passed, we've seen clients initially coming in with notices of huge rent increases. And then I think once
the state law passed, and landlords realized that they wouldn't be able
to continue those increases after the first of the year, now they're terminating those tenancies.

We have people coming in
who've lived in their units for 24 years, 19 years,
people with disabilities, people with kids, people
with high risk pregnancies, where their entire complex
everyone in the complex is being evicted. So that the landlord can
raise the rent in January, which the landlord would not be able to do because the rents would
otherwise roll back to March 2019 levels. So passing this ordinance today will help countless people
who don't deserve this. So thank you very much.
– Thank you. – Tom Willoughby, Affordable Housing Now, this is a sensible
solution to a real problem. And we're glad that you can get it done and get it done today. Thank you. – Is there anyone else
who'd like to speak to us? Seeing no one I'll close public comment
right back to the board. – [Zach] I'm move the recommended action.

– So a motion by Friend
second by McPherson. All those in favor please say aye. – [Board] Aye. – That passes unanimously
per the urgency requirements. So we will now take a
let's come back at 1:45 and we will hear items 10 and 13. And continue items 11 and 12 to the next regular scheduled
board of supervisors meeting. (upbeat music) All right, we're gonna
reconvene for item number 15. The first item we have
up is item number 10, which is to consider an
ordinance adding chapter 2.125 to Santa Cruz County code to create a syringe services
program advisory commission, as amended for
administrative clarification on October 22, 2019. And schedule the ordinance
for a second reading and final adoption on November 19, 2019. as outlined in a
memorandum of the director of health services, Saul? – Good afternoon Chair
Coonerty honorable members of the board, I also have with me here our relatively new health
officer Dr. Gail Newell. And as our health officer she also has statutory authority
over public health matters as well as the Public Health Department. So for background on
this item we came to you on October 22, with
draft ordinance language regarding forming a syringe
services commission. And this was a result of a biannual report that the department had
provided to the board in June of 2019.

As a result of that biannual report, the board provided some
direction for the department to return with a number of items. And the formation of this
commission was one of them. As many of you may know,
until this time we've had because the county took over this program that was formerly one that was
run by community nonprofit. At the time that the county transitioned into these services we developed
an informal advisory board and when the board formally
adopts this ordinance we'll make the transition of transitioning out of the advisory board
into a formal commission that is Brown acted On October 22, we provide a
draft language to the board and the board had one minor
change to clarify language, and you can see the strikeout version in your board backup documentation.

And at this time we we
present to you the changes that were recommended and
directed on October 22. For the board's consideration, if the board should approve
the ordinance language today, we will come back with a final ordinance and for the board approval of adoption. – Great are there any questions? Are there any comments
from members of the public? Seeing none, I'll bring it you'll go back to the board for action. – Yeah, I would move
the recommended action. And I'm glad we're setting up the syringe services commission. I just wanted to restate my belief and I really appreciate every this is a very complicated,
very controversial subject in some circles, but I just
wanna restate my belief that reducing harm to the
community by mitigating the needle litter is as important as reducing the harm and the spread of communicable diseases. They're not mutually exclusive goals. And I know the Health Services Department has really been working hard at this, and I appreciate their efforts. But I look forward to the
recommend coming on December 10.

– Great, so did you move
the recommended action? – [Bruce] Yes I move
the recommended action. – Second.
– Motion by McPherson, second by Friend, Supervisor Leopold? – So yes, I'm supportive of the action that we're taking here. And I would point out that just this week, The Washington Post did a
story about a new HIV cluster in West Virginia, within a community that has been dealing with some of the same issues that
we're dealing with here, and they chose to reduce services, and what they received in response was a great new HIV infection cluster. So it was a cautionary tale. This has happened and lots of other places in West Virginia, and Ohio,
and New York, in Vermont. And so we wanna make sure that we have a strong enough program that we don't see that
happen here in our community. – All right, we have a
motion and we have a second. All those in favor, please say aye. – [Board] Aye. – Opposed that passes unanimously, thank you very much.
– Thank you for your support.

– We could do item number 11. But I've been advised by counsel that since I announced
that we have to put it off to the next meeting, we'll be putting off item 11 and 12. And we'll go with item number
13 as our final item today, which is to consider the
2020 legislative priorities for Santa Cruz County
and take Related Actions as outlined in a memorandum of the CIO. – So good afternoon, Chair Coonerty and members of the board. I'm assistant CIO Nicole Coberd and I'm here with Jason Hoppen. As you know, he serves as our accounting communications manager and he also manages our
legislative program. So he is gonna be walking
you through this item which addresses our 2020
legislative priorities. – Good afternoon members of the board. Each year the county like other counties throughout California, puts
together a legislative program. Each county does this differently and in Santa Cruz County staff
have traditionally prepared a legislative agenda based
on feedback from departments and their professional associations on matters of legislative importance in the upcoming state and
federal legislative years.

Today we will be presenting
our legislative program and asking for a specific
direction on two items. While we have made changes to how we handled this
program over the years, we've always presented the board and our legislative delegation
with a legislative packet of items that departments have flagged. Collectively this represents
a statement of our values as a community. This year we present the 2020 version of the packet with more than
100 specific items to monitor, including specific bills
and general topic areas.

This prospectus is being
submitted for your information. And if our advocates in Sacramento or staff requests a specific
support or opposition, we would return to you
for action at that time. New this year is the list
of legislative priorities. We are presenting four state
and four federal priorities and a mix of topic areas. Some of those are issues
you and the public are quite familiar with. Some are new. Should you adopt these eight priorities, we would ask that you
schedule a December second public meeting with our
legislative delegation to discuss them.

These are matters on which the county
expects to be proactive in seeking either administrative
or legislative remedies. And we would expect to work
with our delegation advocates and professional associations
in order to accomplish them. I will briefly run through these items now which are included in your packet. So the four state legislative priorities. What you see on your screen is shorthand but I will read them the
full item for your benefit. So the first item has to
do with the opioid crisis which impacts communities across the US including Santa Cruz County, and it is that the county supports funding for drug MediCal services and access to substance
use disorder services, including medication
for addiction treatment, and withdrawal management.

The second item has to do with an area that we are a leader in
solid waste and recycling. And it is the county
supports new legislation to address growing plastic pollution, declining global markets for recycled materials
compliance standards, CRV and other issues including funding mandated local organics diversion facilities through
cap and trade revenues. We believe there's some extra revenues because the governor's with Johnson port for a couple items that
cap and trade revenues were being used for previously. The next item is that the
county supports reimbursement for counties and other local governments associated with the costs of
public safety power shut offs, including but not limited to preparation, outreach services for
medically vulnerable adults, shelters and more, as well as increased
local government input on investor owned utilities,
wildfire management plans and practices. And obviously, we have some
recent experience with that. The county the fourth item is that the county supports legislation, making state armories available
to address homelessness throughout California, including making them
available year round, reducing or eliminating fees standardizing security processes to minimize cost to local
jurisdictions and more. We will now turn to the
federal legislative priorities.

Several of these you will
be familiar with as well. The first has to do with our road repairs. And that's that the county
supports restoring flexibility and funding either through administrative or legislative action of local governments to complete emergency repairs funded by a Federal
Highway Administration, FEMA or other agencies,
through time extensions or legislation, expanding
project windows projects using Federal Emergency Relief funds. The next item has to do with a project that we've been working
on for quite some time. And it is that the county supports the US Army Corps of Engineers and the White House Office
of Management and Budget reestablishing funding
formulas to more equitably determine the costs and benefits of flood control projects in communities such as the Pajaro Valley, which has inadequate
flood control protections due to project analysis
favoring wealthy communities. The next item has to do
with housing actually, and we believe that housing is a big hole in a lot of our programs,
including whole person care, and various services offered
through our health services and other agencies.

And it's the county
supports future changes to the California Medicaid
state plan amendment or new federal waivers to allow housing to be included in the
reversible scope of services for beneficiaries with
complex health challenges. And the last item has to do with parks. And it's that the county
supports permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, including SB 1081, and HR 3195. And that the county also
supports federal funding for active transportation, particularly for hiking and biking trails. And with that, we would ask that you
adopt the recommendations in the packet, including scheduling the December second board meeting so that we can discuss these items in depth with our delegation.

Are there any questions? – [Ryan] Great, any questions? I have a brief comment but go ahead. – There was one item on
the more detailed list that I just wanted to the wording seemed a little strange to me. It was in the health services
access to healthcare. It was the last bullet and it says actions by
the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Congress and legislature to deny, reduce cap or
eliminate MATCM reimbursement or to make claiming more
administratively burdensome it seems like it's missing, what we we don't want that to happen? Or, you know, it's it just seemed like it could use a few more words, right? We don't want them to
deny reduce eliminate.

And it's it's not clear
from the way that's written – [Jason] We can take a look at that correct the language. – When I read it. I was like, no, we don't wanna cut off funding. – [Jason] No we don't for sure, thank you. – And so, great work on this. I think it's both focused
and then also well structured to make clear to our what our
legislative priorities are. I guess the one, two
changes I'd suggest making is on the actual legislative priorities for the one about power safety shut offs.

I would in the last sentence as well as increase local government input on investor owned utilities,
wildfire management and practices. I'd also include governance and structure. Because I think we're seeing some fundamental problems
with an investor run utility. And the other change I'd like, if my colleagues agree, is on the bottom of page seven of the longer list. We have a goal that policies and actions to limit
University limit enrollment at UCSC to match community resources and to fully mitigate community impacts of any future growth, including
providing infrastructure needed for that growth and support. It would be great to move that up to our legislative priority list because it's such a fundamental
issue to this county and we will need our legislators support to add that to the state list.

– I support it even if
it ruins the symmetry of the state of the federal. – Yeah, this is I really wanna say how much I appreciate your efforts and getting these priorities as you said, there's more than 100 of them. And we have now maybe maybe the nine top, not even the top 10. But we really gotta focus
on what's most important and particularly of interest to me is the recycling situation and fixing that and making sure that
our local jurisdictions are reimbursed on the power shut offs and fixing the federal
transportation fund. But there's one though
that I'd like to get, making the state armories
available year round for emergency shelter. I think I would like to see how we can make that
little more additional and just strengthen that language.

It says to improve our access to it, to allow access to our
armories to strengthen it, so it gives us a little
more oomph trying to do that it might be changing
the legislative process, but I'd like to just
say instead of improved because they don't know how
much they would improve it, just allow it and let it happen. That's just a suggestion, or some language of that type to put more
emphasis on the need, because we've seen that
we've have an armory here that's been closed.

And this past week, this
one was empty last winter. And we don't have an agreement with the state to use it this winter and the rains are approaching. So I just like to see us kind
of press the envelope on that. – [John] It's been I
think, at least three years since we've been able
to use that, maybe four. – And that item is
actually based on a bill that was introduced last
year in the legislature and did not move forward that would make armories
available year round for homeless shelters. It has previously been available
during the winter months. So hat's where we get the language about expanding access. The last few winters it
has not been available because of a project that
the armory is working on. But we expect that will be returned soon. And we would just like to open
that up for the whole year, but we can definitely look at the language – I'll just add just one
last thing that the piece where we're talking about climate change and infrastructure and acknowledging that we need help from both our state and federal partners to help pay for the infrastructure necessary to adapt to the climate changes that are happening is
gonna become critical.

And other states have this and I hope when we have our
legislative delegation here that will be able to
talk with them about it. Because when we have
things like cap and trade, and it should be used not to you know, basically support the polluters, but figure out a way
to help the communities who are dealing with the impact of these carbon emissions,
to be able to respond and we're gonna need a lot of support as we get this climate action manager that will look at adaptation strategies. We're gonna identify a lot of needs, so I appreciate you putting it in there. – Thank you.
– Anything else? Okay is there any member of the public who'd like to speak to
us about these items? Seeing none, I'll bring
back to the board for. – I'll make the motion.
– Second. – As amended? Okay the motion by
McPherson second by Leopold, all those in favor say aye.

– [Board] Aye. – Opposed, thank you for
your good work on this and hopefully our legislators listen. – [Jason] Thank you. – So we will now conclude our meeting and adjourn to the next
regularly scheduled board of supervisors meeting
which is November 19th, here at 9:00 a.m. here in board chambers..

As found on YouTube

PEOPLE – SERVICES – IMPACT