Homelessness, council discord, bus passes

Learn more about a homelessness proposal that would lift a ban on overnight parking on Delaware Avenue in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz City Council is set to consider the proposal at its next meeting on Feb. 26. Also, we discuss the discord we saw among council members at the last meeting and how it can get in the way of good governance. Lastly, we share more details about city spending on bus passes for anyone who works downtown. Some say it will help alleviate downtown traffic. Others say it’s irresponsible spending. We’ve posted the homelessness proposal, as well as the city report on the bus pass program, below.  We’ve also posted a transcript of this episode, at the bottom.

Kara Meyberg Guzman: Welcome to Santa Cruz Local, where we watch our public institutions and hold power to account. I’m Kara Meyberg Guzman.
In this episode: We discuss a proposal to address homelessness that Santa Cruz City Council will consider at its meeting on Feb. 26. One part about lifting a ban on overnight parking on Delaware Avenue already has some Westside residents riled up.
Secondly, we talk about the discord that we saw among council members at the last meeting. Mayor Watkins says she’s being bullied by Council members Drew Glover and Chris Krohn. We’ll play you some tape and let you decide for yourself.

Lastly we tell you more about city spending on a bus pass program for downtown workers. Some say it will increase bus ridership and reduce traffic. Others call it irresponsible spending.
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Let’s start by introducing Councilmember Drew Glover, for those of you who may not know him. He calls himself a community organizer. He works at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, a bastion of Santa Cruz progressive activism. There, he works on things like engaging youth and dismantling white supremacy.

Glover is in his early 30s. He’s one of the first black men to serve on Santa Cruz City Council. He’s charismatic. When he speaks at council, he often talks moral terms, quoting Martin Luther King Jr, sometimes garnering applause from the audience.
Here he is at the last council meeting, after introducing a far-ranging proposal to address homelessness. We trimmed down his quote from King at the end, for brevity’s sake.

GLOVER: So that we can not only move forward with this but also start really taking tangible action on making sure we are solving the problems, so that we can address the concerns of neighbors that are inundated by the impact of a camp structure like the one at Gateway Plaza. And also working toward a sense of compassion, justice and equity. I’ll close my motion really quick with a quote from Dr. King to try and encourage my council member colleagues, which is “We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” [Applause.]

KMG: Glover worked on the proposal with Council members Sandy Brown and Chris Krohn and a staff of interns. As you can hear, it brought applause from some. But it’s drawn criticism from Westside residents, who call it irresponsible and infuriating.
So, let’s get into what it entails. Among other things, the proposal would declare a local homeless state of emergency, and open the door to the establishment of a city-sanctioned homeless camp.  
An example of this type of camp is Dignity Village, a community of about 60 homeless people in Portland. They live in a few dozen small, eclectic sheds. Each shed comes with a bed and propane heater, but no running water or utility hookups. The village is meant to be transitional housing – residents can stay two years maximum, with some exceptions. 
Glover’s proposal would identify potential spots for city-sanctioned homeless camps and possibly create a permit process for these camps.
It would also allow overnight RV parking on Delaware Avenue near Natural Bridges, and possibly allow around 20 people who live in their cars to park in a UCSC lot on Delaware, should UCSC agree. This part of the proposal is especially contentious for Westside residents, who say that neighborhood already has public safety issues from homeless people parking there.
Also among the 10 items in the proposal is an order for the city to look into its laws on sleeping in public, trespassing, and urinating and defecating in public. Glover wants to see if they are in fact still legal since last year, a federal appeals court ruled that cities can’t outlaw sleeping in public if people have nowhere else to go, because that would be cruel and unusual punishment.
Council will consider enacting a homeless state of emergency and lifting a ban on overnight parking on Delaware Avenue at its next meeting February 26. 
Glover says the state of emergency would speed the bureaucratic process and allow the city to circumvent zoning to open up places for the city-sanctioned homeless camp. 
For a copy of the motion, visit the Santa Cruz Local website, at santacruzlocal.org/episodes.

So now, I think it’s worth briefly visiting the conflict we saw at last week’s meeting, which arose in part because of Glover’s homelessness proposal. 
The bigger picture though, is that the council’s dynamics are tense, with many decisions going to a 4-3 vote, due to a new progressive majority made up of Council members Brown, Krohn, Glover and Vice Mayor Justin Cummings. 
Things came to a head at the last meeting, when Mayor Martine Watkins opened the night session by calling Glover and Krohn sexist, though somewhat indirectly.

WATKINS: I also understand that there are perceptions that my colleagues, both Glover and Krohn, are intentionally bullying me because I’m a woman. That if not for my gender, if I were a man, there would not be this question of my integrity. There would not be this question of my character. I say this out loud, not to validate its truth, but rather to stand by my fellow council members, staff and community members who may feel pushed around or bullied.

KMG: So, here’s the context for this. The previous week, Glover had spread word on social media that Watkins had refused to place his homelessness proposal on the meeting agenda. He said that her refusal illustrates a lack of urgency around the issue. He said that the council’s original plan – the closure of the makeshift homeless camp behind Gateway Plaza and planned opening of city-sanctioned temporary shelter sites – did not represent any progress on homelessness.
Watkins said that Glover only presented her his proposal on the same day she had to plan the agenda, and there was not enough time to dedicate to Glover’s proposal.
So, back to last week’s meeting, and Watkins’ prepared remarks. Here she is, closing up, when Krohn interjects.

WATKINS: …that we as colleagues can do the same and work together with each other as we begin our conversation tonight. And with all this in mind I’d like to turn it over to our staff tonight for our presentation. Go ahead.
KROHN: Point of order, mayor. We’re not done with oral communications yet. Generally matters presented as oral communication –
WATKINS: You were not recognized, and I appreciate your respect to address me –

KMG: At this point Krohn asks the city attorney to look up the rules on points of order, which is when council members flag when the meeting is not following its rules.

KROHN: While he’s looking, I’m profoundly saddened, and I apologize if there was ever anything I ever that did. And I don’t know. David was the mayor before and I did lots of points of order and many –
WATKINS: We’ll go ahead and pause your comments for a moment and allow our city attorney to respond to the question before you.

KMG: OK. So all of this drama may be a little “inside baseball,” but we think it’s important for you to know because this tension can get in the way of good governance. It came close, last Tuesday.
I’ll play you a clip from the end of the meeting. It’s a little complicated, so let me explain. Glover was about to put forth his homelessness proposal as a “substitute motion,” which means it would replace the council’s original plan – the closure of the homeless camp at Gateway Plaza and opening of other temporary shelter sites, including the River Street Camp.
That means that Glover was trying to shoehorn in his proposal, and erase the original plan.
Here’s an exchange between Councilmember Cynthia Mathews, and Glover.

MATTHEWS: My impression is that you want to move to agendize these to a future meeting, is that correct?
GLOVER: Well, that’s part of it, but that’s not all of it.
So why don’t you wait to hear the motion first and then you can pick it apart.

MATHEWS: And if I could just finish my thought. It may be that some members would want to support the motion at hand, and some additional items.

KMG: And it’s at about this point Sandy Brown chimes in. Brown says that she’s familiar with Glover’s proposal, and she’d like to support it, but she wants to support the original plan too. She says she wishes Glover’s proposal wasn’t a substitute motion.
Back to Watkins.

WATKINS: So, if I’m hearing what may be a pathway out, where you’ll be able to have  your motion come forward, is if you are able to withdraw your substitute motion at the time, we could potentially move the motion on the floor, and then you could make your motion. After.
GLOVER: No. (audience laughter) I’m going to make the motion.

KMG: At this point, Watkins turns to City Attorney Tony Condotti for advice. That’s his voice you’ll hear in a second, after Glover’s.

GLOVER: Well, can I say the motion first?
CONDOTTI: Well, yeah, by all means.
GLOVER: Thank you. I will say I find it interesting that knowing that I was going to make a motion to do some certain things you chose to call on Councilmember Meyers, where if we didn’t have this clarity, would have blocked certain things. But, that’s OK. I move, that….

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KMG: Watkins eventually found a solution – she pulled rank as mayor and split the motion, so that the council could advance the original plan, and discuss Glover’s proposal at its next meeting.
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And so with that, we’ll switch gears. You may remember last week we shared with you the city council’s final decision to spend $318,000 on bus passes for everyone who works in downtown Santa Cruz. Councilmembers Chris Krohn, Sandy Brown, Drew Glover, and Vice Mayor Justin Cummings voted for the plan, which was adopted 4 to 3. Downtown workers can expect the bus passes in about three months.
During the debate, council member Cynthia Mathews said the passes should just be for people who request them, rather than handing them out to every downtown worker.

MATHEWS: To spend $300,000 on EcoPasses for everyone not knowing if they want them or not, I just can’t understand that. It does seem to me like an irresponsible approach.

KMG: Mayor Watkins and Councilmembers Donna Meyers and Cynthia Mathews voted against the program, favoring a scaled-down version that would only give bus passes to workers who requested one. That program would cost $94,000.
The plan is meant to decrease car trips downtown, which has been a goal of the city for years. Giving bus passes to every downtown worker puts the broader transportation program over budget by $285,000.
Councilmember Krohn said that he hoped more money into the METRO bus system would benefit it.

KROHN: I think the infusion of this capital too, into the METRO system is a really positive thing, and it helps the whole system, and it helps maybe then, adding routes.

KMG: However, we talked with Santa Cruz METRO officials, who said that the additional $318,000 for the full EcoPass program won’t allow them add any routes. But if there was significantly more use downtown, they would consider adding a bus to an existing line.
We’ve posted the city staff report detailing the EcoPass program on our website, santacruzlocal.org.
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Before we go, we want to reiterate: The next city council meeting is Tuesday Feb. 26. If you have comments on Glover’s homelessness proposal, be sure to email the council at citycouncil@cityofsantacruz.com by Monday. Or, show up to the meeting to make sure your voice is heard.
That’s it for this episode. Thanks for listening to Santa Cruz Local. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @theSCLocal, and visit our website at santacruzlocal.org. Thanks to Podington Bear, at soundofpicture.com, for the music.
See you next time.