[0:23] Recording in progress.

[0:33] Good evening. This is the time and place set for the notice meeting for the city of Watsonville. Can I get a roll call, please?

[0:40] Clarke,

[0:44] Dutra, here, Montesino,

[0:49] Gordosco,

[0:51] here, Parker, here, Gido's Carter, here, and Salcedo, here, we have Quorum, and do we have any introduction of new employees or retirees?

[1:03] I don't think so, okay, can we be under presentations of the Service with Heart Award?

[1:10] We'll be giving that today to Alvaro Mendez.

[1:32] Good afternoon, Council Mayor.

[1:35] It is with great pleasure that I want to speak this afternoon about Alvaro Mendez.

[1:42] Alvaro began as a part time employee of the City of Watsonville in 2016 and

[1:47] became a full time employee in 2017.

[1:49] Through the years, Alvaro has progressed through the series of utility worker and finally,

[1:56] and three years ago, becoming a utility crew lead for one of our crews.

[2:02] Alvaro is very conscientious as a leader with his crew, just really including his team in

[2:11] decision making, providing the team with team building activities and ensuring that each

[2:16] of them have the proper training for older duties.

[2:20] Alvaro leads the signage and striping crew of the city, one that you are all familiar

[2:25] with, right?

[2:26] Great work being done.

[2:28] These workers are constantly in contact with the public while the city is working on

[2:34] our city streets.

[2:36] The crew that works doing this work really reflects Alvaro's attitudes to providing excellent

[2:41] customer service, being a great public servant and a true professional.

[2:47] Alvaro is very committed to his duties and not only making our streets better and safer

[2:53] every single week, but also assisting with traffic control for special events.

[2:59] Setting up and taking down special event traffic control devices is done before the event and

[3:06] after the event, which means nights and early mornings.

[3:10] Alvaro manages these tasks with grace and a true collaborative spirit.

[3:16] Alvaro excels at managing his resources, ensuring his crew has the equipment and materials

[3:23] they need and definitely staying within budget, something that we all appreciate.

[3:29] One attribute that makes Alvaro the recipient of these service with heart of work is his

[3:35] disability to process work orders and be thorough and complete in his work.

[3:41] During the flood events, for example, Alvaro showed up for our community every single

[3:46] day with great disposition and the desire to help our community during an incredible time

[3:53] of needs.

[3:55] Alvaro's group is rapid to response and remove and installing traffic striping and traffic

[4:01] markings, installing street signs and providing traffic control services for city events.

[4:08] Alvaro continues to grow and take on more responsibilities. Currently, he is coordinating the city's

[4:16] right street light maintenance contract and assisting with city traffic signal maintenance contract.

[4:23] I am sure that we will see a lot more from Alvaro over the years as he continues to grow with us.

[4:29] I want to just take a moment for all of us here today to congratulate you for work well done throughout the years, and continue to serve the City of Watsonville with heart.

[4:41] Thank you, Alvaro.

[4:43] I'd like to join me in for a good picture.

[4:49] Alvaro, our engraver is out ill, but this will be engraved with your name later.

[4:54] but I want to make sure that that you had it today to hold it and be proud. Thank you.

[5:02] Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you for your service.

[5:13] Thank you.

[5:19] Good evening everyone. I just wanted to say thank you for recognizing the passion that I have for what I do.

[5:26] I want to thank God for also my parents for teaching me so many good values like

[5:35] education, integrity, and I can see here the results of those values. I want to

[5:42] thank my wife, my kids, for their support and giving the strength every day. Also,

[5:51] there's so many great people that I have made in the city, have supported me over

[5:55] the nine years that I've made with the city. I can now mention every single one,

[6:00] but they know who they are.

[6:04] I also wanna specifically recognize my crew,

[6:08] the traffic operations department.

[6:10] They're always there to support me with every project.

[6:14] Any challenges that we encounter,

[6:16] we find solutions and we get it done.

[6:18] So thank you again, just wanna

[6:20] for appreciating and recognizing everything that we do.

[6:24] Thank you.

[6:26] All

[7:00] right, thank you very much.

[7:01] Moving on to item three, City of Watsonville,

[7:03] economic development strategy.

[7:13] Do we have that people?

[7:18] Yes. Okay, great. All right. Good afternoon,

[7:23] Mayor and Council. This is going to be a little bit of a team effort. We Council have been asking

[7:31] for an update on economic development strategies and the work that the city is doing in this regard,

[7:36] So this is an opportunity to tell you all that we have been working on.

[7:42] So first of all, I can, who's going to click next?

[7:49] So first, I'd like to kind of go over who's working in economic development in the city.

[7:54] So my office and the city manager office is focuses on economic development strategy and coordination

[8:00] and all business attraction and investment initiatives that the city may pursue.

[8:08] as well as developing partnerships and economic development tools that might be used by the Council in order to attract businesses.

[8:16] The Community Development Department, as you will hear today, just really focuses on policy development, land use strategies,

[8:23] and just really supporting the conditions that allow businesses to be part of our community, or community,

[8:32] community, as well as the coordination of special development projects that we will discuss

[8:38] through this presentation.

[8:40] In addition, we have strategic partners and consultants, Cosmo company, is the company

[8:46] that helped us develop our economic development strategy and continues to serve as advisory

[8:52] for different projects that are coming to our city.

[8:56] In addition, retail strategies, most recently, like for the past 10 months, have been a

[9:02] key partner that is assisting with retail recruitment and small business support, as well

[9:08] as we have other community and business partners that help through our efforts and you

[9:14] will see that through our presentation today.

[9:16] Next,

[9:20] in our economic development plan, it was established that economic development strategy

[9:25] for the city is to building a framework that strengthens what's a more community-based,

[9:30] economic-based fiscal health and long-term resiliency for the city.

[9:37] That plan that was adopted in 2022, outlined a few challenges and opportunities that the city needed to focus on.

[9:45] One, business climate, just really allowing the city to become more business-friendly and diminishing the delays and regulatory requirements to open a business in our city.

[9:58] Then, investment and development, just really highlighting how do we attract national

[10:06] retailers to our city and you see that we have put some efforts into that.

[10:11] Downtown and commercial by Vitality, which is really focused on development in the downtown

[10:17] and we have some information about that today, as well as just really looking at fiscal sustainability.

[10:25] As you will know through our budget conversations, the city has heavy reliance on a single

[10:33] sales tax item, and we need to look at a way that we diversify that tax base for the city.

[10:40] And infrastructure is another opportunity or challenge, depending how you see it, because

[10:46] critical infrastructure needs of our city may aid or hinder development.

[10:50] So, those are some of the things that resulted from that economic development plan that was

[10:56] completed years ago.

[10:58] Next.

[11:00] So, today we want to kind of offer this conversation in M4, kind of like main pillars.

[11:06] We're going to talk about policy.

[11:08] We're going to talk about how we're supporting businesses.

[11:11] We're going to talk about incentive, tools and partnerships.

[11:14] And last, we're going to hear from our partners from retail strategies about the work that they have been doing

[11:20] in our community for the past 10 months.

[11:22] With that, I'd like to pass the mic on to community development director Matt Orbeck,

[11:29] who will walk us through some of the efforts that we've been doing towards policy.

[11:34] Good afternoon, Mayor Salsito and council members.

[11:38] As city manager Vita says, my name is Matt Orbeck, committee development director, and

[11:42] I am here tonight to present an overview of both advance planning and current planning

[11:47] efforts that support economic development.

[11:49] This is kind of not conventional economic development in the way you probably think of it, but it creates the conditions under which economic development can occur.

[12:00] So I'll start with the downtown Watsonville specific plan, which was adopted in 2023.

[12:06] As you can see here, goal number nine, specifically states that enhance commercial activity as a driver for

[12:12] downtown's economic vitality and growth explicitly stated.

[12:16] And that is supported by multiple policies within the plan related to existing businesses,

[12:20] is encouraging and makes abuses, attracting regional business entities and services,

[12:27] as well as identifying opportunity sites throughout the downtown area that include Martin Ellis,

[12:31] City Hall, Police Station, Fire Station, and the US Post Office.

[12:35] In addition, that plan also tackles some progressive issues like parking standards.

[12:41] So for commercial businesses located within the downtown parking area, there are no parking standards,

[12:46] which means that they don't have to provide on-site parking and the new business comes in.

[12:51] There's also objective design standards, so they have certainty about designing buildings in a certain way that will work within the downtown.

[12:57] We've also streamlined the administrative approvals so that many projects can come through without having to go to a public hearing.

[13:04] And in addition, conforming projects are actually exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under the down town Watsonville specific plan EIR, which I'll get into in a minute.

[13:17] In addition, right now, as you know, we're working on our 2050 general plan update.

[13:21] Similar to the downtown Watsonville specific plan, there's a goal specifically related to economic development.

[13:28] Very similar, that is also supported by multiple economic development policies, LC3.1 to LC3.1.8, so quite a few.

[13:38] In addition, the plan identifies commercial corridors, mixed use corridors, and mixed use centers.

[13:44] In those areas, each one has policies and actions related to flexible commercial designs,

[13:51] administrative review for commercial uses, and funding of street scape improvements.

[13:55] So, multiple different fronts that encourage economic development.

[13:59] In addition, there's multiple growth areas, some of which are predominantly residential that have smaller commercial components,

[14:05] and some of which which are fully commercial related, such as the highway one gateway area.

[14:10] Next slide.

[14:12] Following the adoption of the general plan, we'll also be doing a comprehensive zoning

[14:15] code update.

[14:17] The purpose of that will be to make the zoning map consistent with the 2050 general

[14:22] plan land use map.

[14:23] We'll also, at that time, update the entire zoning code, much of which has not been updated

[14:28] since 1980, and as we've mentioned in several presentations over the last couple of years,

[14:33] the outdated nature of that code has created problems, as the city has grown and changed

[14:38] over time related to everything from code enforcement to very prescriptive uses for commercials

[14:44] zoning districts.

[14:45] So that will be our opportunity to really tackle that head on on a comprehensive scale

[14:50] citywide.

[14:51] In addition, similar to the downtown Watsonville specific plan, that will be our opportunity

[14:56] to develop citywide objective design standards, which I will get into a little bit more

[15:01] As well as simplifying the permitting process for commercial uses and commercial zoning districts. That is getting at the idea of not needing conditional use permits or special use permits for commercial uses in commercial zones, making more things principally permitted. As well as making more permit, permit approvals administrative.

[15:22] So how are those things economic development? Well, developers and business owners need a couple of things when they come into our city. They want certainty related to cost and timing when deciding whether to build

[15:32] build a structure or a business in our city.

[15:35] In terms of permitting costs, permits that don't require a zoning administrator or planning commission approval are cheaper because there's less staff time involved.

[15:42] The permitting time line is also shorter because permits requiring public hearings are involved longer and more expensive process.

[15:50] Developers also want to know that if they design the buildings to certain standards, it will be approved.

[15:55] And so that's where objective design standards come in, because they can look come in from the outside.

[15:59] on day one, look at that code and say, if I do that height, with those setbacks, that

[16:03] registration articulation, boom, it will get approved, you know, rubber stamp it.

[16:09] In addition, I mentioned the environmental review.

[16:11] One of the texts we took with the Downtown Watsumil specific plan was to adopt that with

[16:16] an EIR that could cover projects afterwards, so that as long as projects were consistent

[16:23] with the EIR, they could have a cheaper faster and more certain path to approval not have

[16:28] to do their own EIRs or any kind of environmental review to that level, which adds significant

[16:32] time and cost to the process, not to mention uncertainty.

[16:36] And then in addition, just on the sort of standard day-to-day level, basically these things support

[16:42] required findings that are required for any project approval.

[16:45] So number one under a design permit finding is this consistent with your general plans.

[16:49] So if we have goals, policies, objectives in there that all speak to, yes, we want to

[16:55] encourage economic development, we have a project that comes in that's a new business

[16:58] that provides economic development, we can say yes, that's consistent.

[17:02] Next.

[17:04] On the current planning front where we've really focused this year is on staffing and process

[17:09] improvement.

[17:10] Those efforts this year have included in hiring a part-time development review technician

[17:15] to clear the backlog of emails and permit applications and improve turnaround time on active

[17:19] and future applications.

[17:20] That's been a very successful effort, that was a part-time temp for the previous fiscal year that ran between January and June.

[17:29] I think we fully maximize the hours of our part-time temp Celeste, and she did an amazing job helping us to clear that back, allowing the emails.

[17:36] It was so successful that we have been able to open a recruitment for a full-time development review technician position that is open right now.

[17:44] So hopefully we can make those improvements permanent moving forward.

[17:48] In addition, we were able to hire a part time student intern to assist with closing out

[17:52] old permits in the city's munis permitting system.

[17:55] That's an incredibly important one to me as director because until we have all the old

[17:59] permits closed out, I can't remember for showing me what's currently active in our system.

[18:03] So the work that Lupita Olvera is doing on that front is really, really valuable for our

[18:08] department.

[18:09] Additionally, I forgot to add it to the slide here, but we will be hiring a principal planner

[18:12] who starts Monday.

[18:13] I think that good news slipped my mind when I was making the slide to run our current

[18:18] planning division, which I am very happy to be able to take that hat and hand it off.

[18:22] We have an amazing person starting, and that will help just streamline the workflow within

[18:27] that division.

[18:29] We're also going to be hiring a dedicated management analyst to manage complex development projects,

[18:33] which we will bring back in the future with some more details.

[18:36] As well as connecting RFP, RFQ for both new on-call planning services, as well as architectural

[18:44] And on that front as well, I helped work with the finance director to develop a new process for handling master contracts under which we can do reimbursable agreements and task orders so that we can get projects up and running faster when they come in and require third party technical reviews.

[19:01] So

[19:04] how are those things economic development, same things, certainty related to cost and timing.

[19:09] Permitting time, that's helped by adequate staffing because the building department and

[19:14] the planning division can receive electronic permit submittals, enter them into our system,

[19:18] route them for review in a timely manner, all that shortens the review process.

[19:22] In terms of cost, reducing the amount of time to permit issuance reduces the associate overhead for

[19:29] the applicant while they're waiting to get started on construction, you know, many times

[19:32] we talk to people who, you know, sign a lease before they come in and submit their permanent

[19:36] application.

[19:37] So for every week or month that, you know, they get delayed going through our permitting

[19:42] process, they're paying rent without bringing in revenue.

[19:45] So that's really important.

[19:47] And then, obviously, also having technical, shortening the technical review time, you know,

[19:52] many projects require review by a biologist or an architectural historian.

[19:56] and the faster we can get that consultant on board,

[19:59] the more we can shorten the review process.

[20:02] So with that, I will hand it back

[20:04] to non-planning related business support.

[20:07] Sorry.

[20:10] Good evening, mayors El Sido and councilmembers.

[20:13] My name is Ronel Savala, I'm a principal management analyst

[20:15] with the City Manager's Office.

[20:18] And I'll be going through some of the currently available

[20:23] support for businesses.

[20:25] But first, I'll start by looking

[20:27] that some of the data from what we heard from our businesses.

[20:33] In 2024, the city conducted a survey with businesses within the downtown Wattenham

[20:37] specific plan area.

[20:39] While downtown represents only a small part of our overall business community, it provided

[20:44] a snapshot of some of the challenges and priorities being experienced by local businesses.

[20:50] One of the questions asked how they felt the city could provide additional support.

[20:54] marketing and funding were among the top four responses alongside crime and parking.

[21:01] Those findings provide a useful starting point as we look at how the city is responding.

[21:06] The next slides will highlight some of the partnerships and resources currently available

[21:10] to businesses as well as some of the inhuman initiatives we're pursuing to strengthen that support

[21:16] and to address these needs.

[21:21] El Pajaro CDC is one of our key partners in providing direct support

[21:25] to local businesses, their programs provide financing, technical assistance, business education

[21:31] along with bilingual support for entrepreneurs. The city also partners with El Pajaro CDC to our

[21:38] CDBG funding. For example, during fiscal year 2526, their program assisted 448 businesses,

[21:48] helped create 32 full-time jobs, 12 part-time jobs, and supported the retention of 891 jobs.

[21:55] This is in addition to them holding 19 training events, many in which we're in partnership with the City of Wadsma.

[22:02] This partnership allows the City to leverage our CDBG investment through an organization that already directly connected and providing services to our local business community.

[22:17] Another two available is our small business platform through the City's partnership with retail strategies.

[22:23] local businesses owners have access to a training platform that provides them

[22:28] with 12 months of free on-demand training and resources that cover various

[22:34] topics such as omni-channel retail strategies, restaurant resiliency, business

[22:40] modernization, property owner resources, how they transcend outlook. You may

[22:46] remember that we gave you a card with the QR code that takes you directly to the

[22:51] platform. So if you're talking to a business owner and you think this might be helpful for them,

[22:56] you can always share that card and it's an easy way for them to access that.

[23:02] Access to Capital

[23:04] is another area where we provide support to our business owners. The city's revolving loan fund

[23:09] provides gap financing to businesses that may have difficulty obtaining traditional financing

[23:15] through banks. The program is the original partnership between the cities of Santa Cruz,

[23:20] Capitola, Scots Valley, and Watson Mill along with the County of Santa Cruz.

[23:25] The program was established back in 2021 when the partnership was awarded $2.75 million to establish the fund.

[23:34] Watson Mill currently has the lending capacity of about $800,000 with the potential to leverage additional funding through Grow America, which manages the fund.

[23:45] Lones can range from under 50,000 all the way up to 500, but they can make bigger loans

[23:50] depending on the project and financing structures.

[23:54] The program was initially created as a response to the economic impacts after COVID-19, but

[24:01] it has since been updated as a broader financing resource for local businesses.

[24:09] Another two we've been actively pursuing is California's Opportunities on 2.0 Program.

[24:16] The program provides federal tax incentives to encourage private investment in businesses

[24:21] and real estate within designated census checks.

[24:24] The designation itself does not impose any additional development requirements or restrictions

[24:30] on property owners.

[24:32] And the city submitted its application on July 20, recommending seven eligible census

[24:37] We're currently in the public comment period which will run through August 28th and we've already received support from various property owners and community organizations.

[24:49] Based on the state selection process and the eligibility of the census tracks that we submitted, we're fairly confident that Watson was in a good position to receive an opportunity on this ignition.

[25:01] If approved, the signations are expected to take effect January 1, 2027, and they could

[25:08] provide another tool to help attract private investment in Wattamah.

[25:14] And with that, I'll pass it back to Tomah.

[25:17] Great.

[25:18] So, a couple of other highlights that the Council may or may not be familiar with are Wattamah

[25:25] businesses spotlight effort has continued.

[25:27] So we continue visiting local businesses,

[25:30] highlighting the hard-working business owners that we have,

[25:34] and just really lifting up those community stories

[25:37] that help make what's a more special place.

[25:41] In addition, I have been having conversations

[25:45] directly with Cover Your College

[25:47] to collaborating on efforts

[25:49] that could help us build workforce development

[25:54] and really help development of art residents to take jobs within our community as trained by Cabrillo College.

[26:04] So that's an exciting opportunity that you will be seeing more of in the future.

[26:11] Next, as always, the city has been a member of the Parabaly Chamber of Commerce,

[26:16] but most recently this year, the city also became a member of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce.

[26:21] And the reason for that is just really to continue to increase via both Chamber of Commerce

[26:26] the business visibility and the promotion efforts that are businesses in our city can

[26:32] have access to and of course increase networking and connections through our work with both

[26:39] chambers.

[26:40] Most recently I want to highlight the leadership development that we have had with a trip

[26:46] that we took with the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce Group to

[26:49] Napa Valley just really visiting businesses, collecting ideas

[26:55] that we could implement in our city. But what I'm most excited about is in

[27:00] October, Watson will be one of the stops of the

[27:04] leadership group of Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce

[27:08] bringing business and entrepreneurs to our city to learn about

[27:12] more about our efforts and what we're doing. So it's a great

[27:16] partnership, and we're very proud members of both chambers.

[27:20] Next is, I want to touch a little bit on development downtown.

[27:25] This is something that also has been an interest of the council.

[27:30] And I want to highlight that we are working with several property owners within their downtown area.

[27:35] In particular, there are six property owners that are currently actively exploring residential or

[27:42] for mixed youth development in our downtown footprint, so we're excited about that.

[27:49] These projects are at different stages of their development, but actively having conversations

[27:56] with our community development department staff as well as my office.

[28:02] We're also exploring a proposal for city-owned property redevelopment in our downtown and

[28:09] And that will be coming in more detail as we advance our work on that project.

[28:16] Next, one of the things that you all have asked also in the past is what are some economic development tools?

[28:25] What are the things that the council could consider utilizing in order to attract businesses?

[28:32] What, instead of bringing kind of like a blanket array of ideas for you to consider, what I wanted to do is just kind of like discuss this and ask it is appropriate not not all tools are appropriate for all businesses, but if

[28:48] As is appropriate, we will want to be able to come back to the Council and have the discussion

[28:53] whether you are interested in perhaps exploring revenue sharing. That means a new tax or a TOT

[29:00] tax sharing with a new business owner or a fee deferral like would the city consider differing

[29:10] eligible fees to a later time in the project milestones or a tax reimbursement,

[29:17] and reimbursing a portion of a new tax of revenue

[29:20] that is generated by those projects that qualify

[29:23] for this type of incentive.

[29:25] We also have proposals for commercial facet improvement funding,

[29:32] just helping our old properties kind of like rehab

[29:35] and public infrastructure assistance.

[29:38] That's something that I have brought up to the council

[29:41] in the past.

[29:42] There might be projects that could really benefit

[29:44] it from this type of incentive.

[29:47] And a pretty development cost assistant is one of the newest ideas that the team has

[29:53] been discussing about.

[29:54] Sometimes projects are expensive at the forefront, so how can the city...

[30:00] Perhaps cover some of those costs upfront for environmental review, et cetera, and the business

[30:07] owners ring versus later on, but just really facilitating the start of those projects. So

[30:13] that's one tool that we consider. So with that, I want to pass it on to our partners

[30:18] of retail strategies that's going to be the buff, the boys ahead of her. There are going

[30:25] going to be Brook Hill and John Mark from Retail Strategies Group will be walking us through

[30:32] their efforts in the past 10 months working with Wattamil.

[30:36] It's all yours.

[30:37] Thank you, Tamara.

[30:39] Good evening, mayor, councilmembers and city staff.

[30:42] Thank you for allowing us to kind of give an update on what we've been working on.

[30:46] I am Brook Hill and I am your senior portfolio director for the West Coast and I'm joined

[30:51] by my colleague John Mark Buuser, who is our retail development manager and he leads our recruitment

[30:58] efforts. So just going to give a quick overview, walk you through who we are, how we work, what the

[31:04] market data is telling us about this first year is very, very heavy on the data and discovery.

[31:10] But most importantly, the real tangible momentum that we are building on the city's behalf.

[31:15] So next slide please.

[31:18] So as this is our first time presenting to you guys, just wanted to do a quick overview

[31:24] about retail strategies was founded in 2011 with a single focus and that was helping municipalities

[31:30] like Watsonville attract businesses to their community.

[31:34] So we do that across four service areas, retail recruitment, which is a job market myself and

[31:39] and we also have a retail academy, downtown strategies,

[31:42] and small business support arms.

[31:45] What sets our approach apart is that we operate

[31:48] with a commercial broker's mindset,

[31:50] but with that fiduciary responsibility to the city,

[31:53] not any landlord or not any single retailer.

[31:55] So we know how those national retailers think,

[31:58] how their real estate teams make decisions

[32:00] and what it takes to keep Watsonville on their radar.

[32:04] And our partnership with the city began last year in 2025.

[32:08] So next slide, please, a little bit about our process, how does this actually work?

[32:16] So it starts with the data and demographics, and again, the first year of the partnership

[32:20] really is us coming in and looking at Watsonville from a national retail lens.

[32:25] So every year, we refresh that market data for Watsonville's custom trade area, so that

[32:31] we sit across from a retailer in these meetings at trade shows or we're talking to them.

[32:35] We're speaking their language, they're using, we're using the same numbers that they do to make these decisions

[32:40] And so we also perform what we call a boots on the ground

[32:44] Visit so we conducted this in January last year. I'm actually met with

[32:48] Tamra Matt, Renelle of the team. We drove around

[32:51] We looked at some sites

[32:53] But this is where we really come in. We updated our inventory available sites for national retail

[32:59] We cultivate those relationships with the local brokers the developers and property owners

[33:04] there's basically anybody that would be involved in getting a retail deal done in Watsonville.

[33:09] And then we also have what we call pleasant persistence.

[33:12] So retail recruitment is a very long game.

[33:15] These national retail reps receive site pitches from all over the country, hundreds of them a

[33:21] day, and it's our job to put Watsonville at the front of that line.

[33:24] So we are constantly, you know, sending an email calling, chirping at them just to make

[33:28] sure that they know that there are opportunities in Watsonville when they're looking at expansion.

[33:32] We also represent Watsonville at the ICSC trade shows, so specifically for Watsonville,

[33:39] we do ICSC Las Vegas, which is the main big national retail show.

[33:44] And then next month, we will be doing ICSC Western, which is focuses primarily on retailers

[33:50] expanding in the Western region, but attending these shows gives us that direct FaceTime with

[33:56] these decision-makers at these major brands.

[33:58] And then underneath all of that, we act as an investment multiplier and a relationship

[34:04] agent of your own economic development team.

[34:07] So we are focused, everybody's tonight, and it's a fantastic job of all the other economic

[34:12] development efforts.

[34:13] We are solely focused on specifically retail and using our industry network to open doors

[34:20] that otherwise may have taken years to open alone.

[34:23] So, next slide please, and this is what we call our retail recruitment ladder.

[34:30] So, before we get into the data numbers for Watsonville, I just wanted to kind of pause

[34:34] on this and it illustrates why cities invest in retail recruitment.

[34:38] Retail builds on retail, every new store that opens, generates new sales tax revenue, creates

[34:44] more local jobs and signals to other retailers that the market's viable and open for business.

[34:49] Also, retail enhances the quality of life, which in turn helps attract and keep the work

[34:55] course that supports your primary employers.

[34:58] So what we have here is this ladder.

[35:01] So on that first drawing is what we call our first mover retailers, and these are your

[35:05] Starbucks and McDonald's.

[35:06] They come in, they really kind of establish, they're kind of a magnet for other retailers.

[35:11] And then even on that first drawing, they're generating a million dollars in sales.

[35:17] sales, so sales tax revenue from that, and then as you go up the wrong, you will start

[35:23] attracting retailers that create more jobs at compounds and so it paves the way, you know,

[35:28] up to something like a home depot that has $40 million in annual revenue.

[35:35] And so next slide, please.

[35:39] So this is what we call our toolbox, and so when we're talking to retailers, we use these

[35:45] same industry standard tools that they use and that their brokers allow on every day.

[35:50] We designed a custom trade area that captures the true reach of Watsonville's markets,

[35:55] so that expands outside of the city limits and we pulled two retailers in the next couple

[36:01] slides that we'll walk through. But we create that custom trade area. We run gap analysis

[36:06] and leakage reports to see where is the dollar, where is the spending money and Watsonville leaking?

[36:12] is it in restaurants? Is it in soft goods? And then we also use S3 tapestry segmentation

[36:19] to profile your shoppers in terms that retailers understand and then we use mobile tracking data

[36:24] to measure the real foot traffic. A lot of these retailers want to know who's coming into my store,

[36:28] who's can get to my cash register to make a sale. So we'll use that mobile tracking data,

[36:34] which we'll, again, will stay on the next few slides. But it has become a very powerful tool

[36:39] in showing these retailers, you know, this is actually who's shopping.

[36:44] So next slide, please.

[36:48] So here is that mobile tracking data, example, and this is from the Ross on Main Street.

[36:55] So what you're looking at is a real world, the print of the consumer activity for this specific

[37:01] Ross.

[37:02] Each point reflects that device database, so when you go into a store, your cell phone

[37:08] will ping in that store and then it'll determine where you spend your at home hours.

[37:13] So anything that is more heavily shaded here is more heavily concentrated with shoppers

[37:20] from that area going to this Ross. But as you can see, it stretches far beyond just the

[37:25] standard city boundary of Watsonville. And this is what retailers pay attention to because

[37:31] they can see where they're pulling consumers from. And so on the next slide, this is where

[37:37] the data. It's really interesting. So this is a site ranking comparison for the Watsonville

[37:43] Ross measured against every other Ross location in the Monterey Salinas demographic metropolitan

[37:50] area. And so of those six stores, Watsonville is great. They rank in the middle third and

[37:57] then over that's for the current 52 weeks and it's about 230,000 visits per year.

[38:07] Same

[38:07] But the next retailer that we talk about is interesting and you can go ahead and click on that next slide.

[38:16] So this is a second example of the Starbucks on Main Street.

[38:19] And it uses the same approach where it's device-based visit data, map to show this locations reach and where its customers are coming from.

[38:28] And so if you'll click to the next slide again.

[38:31] And so last year, the Starbucks ranked 38th,

[38:36] and this year it's up to fourth.

[38:39] So, when we're talking to retailers,

[38:41] especially similar retailers to Starbucks, you know,

[38:44] cafe, it shows that people are coming to the Starbucks,

[38:50] it jumped up from, I'm sorry, 121,000 visitors

[38:55] to 360,000 visitors.

[38:57] So, ranking fourth and just one year

[39:00] that just shows the viability of Watsonville and that's something that these retailers

[39:04] have paid attention to.

[39:07] And we can run this from any national retailer in the market,

[39:12] depending on what retailers we're talking to and what comps and things they may want

[39:16] to see. So the next slide, please. And so this is, I don't think you're really quick on

[39:23] that. I think about these.

[39:27] That's a very new Starbucks. Like, I don't even know if it's,

[39:31] So I would imagine it started off at 38 because I mean how old is that Starbucks Matt a year and a half?

[39:39] Maybe a year and a half old. So it makes I mean, it's not like it was okay,

[39:46] all of a sudden a huge performance increase. It was a new business that was

[39:51] you know kind of taking off. So I mean, is that taken into consideration?

[39:57] It is, and again, that's one for this showing that with the over 38 Starbucks in the demographic area, the Watsonville one jumped up to fourth, which is very strong performance.

[40:15] Can I ask a quick question? And it may not be applicable to the second, but I'd like to know what the differences between all the Starbucks and the city of Watsonville and their performances.

[40:25] So, you know, whether one loses it, one's above it, if they're all strong contenders and we become the coffee capital of the tri-county area.

[40:34] So we can pull all of the different Starbucks and look at them.

[40:40] And that is something that retailers will look at when they are entering a market where they already have an existing location.

[40:45] They kind of have their own set of data that they look at as well because they also are not wanting to cannibalize one of their own locations.

[40:53] But John Mark and I joke coffee and chicken are kind of the two grow like there's new concepts.

[41:00] They're looking at new locations there, but we just coffee and chicken are kind of king of

[41:05] especially the QSR market. They're constantly growing. But that's definitely something we could pull

[41:10] for each Starbucks and share that with Tamer and Ronnell.

[41:15] And really quickly, if I'm right, I think that the main point we're looking at is that

[41:19] But out of all the Starbucks that went there on May, though it may be newer, the current

[41:26] 52 weeks it's ranking fourth, which is a very strong story to share with retailers,

[41:30] which is kind of a big part of what we may be communicating out for these current 52 weeks.

[41:35] So certainly understand the newer, the ramp up with it, but the fact that it's ranked fourth

[41:42] is pretty strong.

[41:43] And

[41:51] so this slide is probably one of an addition to the traffic and mobile data, important

[41:59] for our recruitment conversation.

[42:01] So this is the gap analysis or leakage report and this measures the difference between

[42:05] what the Watsonville area consumers are demanding versus what the local retailers are currently

[42:11] supplying.

[42:12] So within the trade area, the total consumer demand runs about $1.8 billion annually.

[42:18] while the local supply captures roughly one billion of that.

[42:22] So that's leaving nearly $790 million in unmet demand.

[42:27] So when we're talking to these retailers and they're looking at, you know, can the market

[42:32] absorb a store or what, we'll break it down for them as opportunities are clear.

[42:37] So, and this is all shared via base camp, the full report, but clothing and general merchandise

[42:45] And I see your account for more than $275 million in unmanned on their own health and

[42:50] personal care pharmacy and beauty is about 96 million furniture and home building materials

[42:57] and specialty retail all add more.

[43:00] So for each of these retailers deciding where to open next, this is a documented dollar for

[43:06] dollar proof that Watson Bill deserves their attention.

[43:10] And so next slide, please, it's just, this is continuing,

[43:15] the leakage report, but it continues into these categories.

[43:19] We're focusing our outreach.

[43:22] So we've been talking to some restaurants.

[43:23] This is one of the largest opportunities in the entire study,

[43:26] roughly $265 million in unmet restaurant demand

[43:32] and limited service and fast casual concepts alone.

[43:36] account for about 120 million of that, so there's still room for new concepts, and that's

[43:44] a big part of why in this next slide we'll get into, you'll see restaurants and restaurants

[43:49] we're growing in the retail sector opening up the most new locations annually.

[43:55] So on that next slide please, so with all that data in hand, this is an example of how we're

[44:02] our efforts on, for the retail types, high volume national restaurants, big box and warehouse

[44:10] retailers, fast casual restaurants, coffee, outdoor indoor entertainment, grocery and market,

[44:16] fitness and soft goods and clothing. But our vision goes, or the legal report shows that's where

[44:24] there's opportunity, but we also are looking to position market Watsonville so firmly in the minds of

[44:31] these retailers that they're proactively thinking of the city when they grow.

[44:35] So right now we're trying to capture them as they're growing but also establish the opportunities

[44:40] and wants to build for future as they're continuing to look and working with local brokers and

[44:46] developers who are already active in the market to understand what constraints these retailers

[44:51] are facing to enter the market, how to overcome them, collaborating with the city again on some of

[44:55] The incentives that have been shared and any questions that we have.

[45:00] We have a direct line to get these retailers answered faster because as we will get to on this next slide as a quick overview of a retail timeline, but time is something that can kill a real estate deal. So, John Mark is going to do a brief overview of what a standard real estate timeline looks like. Yeah, thank you, Brooke. Thank you. Council staff, I appreciate

[45:29] all of your time this evening. So this is kind of a snapshot of how I real estate deal my work.

[45:36] I can give a two hour lecture on just this one slide, but I'll be quite brief. This is in

[45:44] generalities, but it's just really helpful to understand and know how these deals can take and how.

[45:51] Though it may seem like nothing's happening on the surface, there's really many things happening

[45:56] kind of in the background. So, um, starting on the left side of the screen, you have Wall Street

[46:04] labeled, which is basically ownership of a company, whether they're publicly traded, privately held,

[46:09] they'll say we want to increase profits. How do we do that? You can either increase sales and

[46:14] existing stores, or you can open new stores. Believe it or not, it's easier to open new stores,

[46:20] reach new markets and new customers. With the decision to expand open new

[46:25] stores there will be a real estate director. Typically there will be a chief

[46:29] development officer and then under them there will be levels of real estate

[46:33] directors, real estate managers. That real estate director will start to identify

[46:39] what markets fit for them, what sizes, what regions, what states even kind of

[46:46] start to decide where they may want to expand.

[46:49] From there, they will work with local tenant representatives.

[46:52] You can consider a tenant representative of buyers agents that is a licensed real estate

[46:57] professional working with these retailers.

[47:00] The real estate director and the tenant representative will work together to figure out what submarkets,

[47:05] what areas, regions they would be interested in expanding in.

[47:10] And then from there, they will start to identify sites.

[47:13] And it can look all the way from, hey, we only want a site on a hard

[47:19] corner with left in, left out access with a red light all the way

[47:24] to, hey, we could go in line in 1,500 square feet in front of a big

[47:31] box store, for example. So they will start to identify sites, whether

[47:35] prototype fits and then where, where that prototype could go.

[47:40] But from there, the tenant representative will present sites for the real estate director.

[47:47] They will do a financial analysis of the deal, what is the asking price for purchase,

[47:51] what would a lease rate be, what would the sales projections be, what would at least term

[47:57] be, all these certain things are kind of analyzed.

[48:00] They will put together what is called a pro forma, which is basically a complicated budget

[48:05] it's showing how much it would cost to acquire space, build it out, what their self-projections

[48:10] would be, etc.

[48:12] If everything pencils out, they will draft a letter of intent.

[48:15] It's typically non-binding, a couple of pages long will lay out terms of a deal, the letter

[48:22] of intent will get negotiated upon before an actual lease or purchase and sell agreement

[48:27] will be drafted, but before we get to the lease or the purchase and sell agreement it will

[48:32] will go to a real estate committee, which is typically comprised of a group of executives,

[48:37] and they may meet every week, every other week, sometimes once a month, depending on

[48:42] the company. These real estate executives will fly through multiple sites during each meeting

[48:48] whenever that may be, and they will give it a green light yet, go for it, yellow light,

[48:53] hey, we need to renegotiate this point, or red light, hey, this doesn't fit our brand.

[48:58] this location doesn't work for us, the price is too high, whatever it may be. Once a site passes

[49:04] real estate committee a lease or a purchase and sale agreement will be drafted. That is the big

[49:09] long document where it's basically lawyers negotiating for up to, up to gosh a year. I've seen

[49:16] negotiations on one of those documents last up to a year or more. But once that finally gets

[49:23] negotiated, uh, developer will come into play if applicable, otherwise construction will start,

[49:28] and then a, uh, business will open. And so the green dots are kind of where we, uh,

[49:35] where we come in play, where we have, um, where we can have leverage to help Watsonville get businesses,

[49:44] come ahead of the curve, or where we can influence real estate directors,

[49:48] to new representatives, et cetera, with conversations about sites, about the Watsonville market, and then developers are a really key part of this as well, wherever applicable.

[49:59] But the biggest and result here is that real estate takes a very long time. It's a very drawn out process. One caveat I will say is that 36 months is just an example.

[50:10] I've seen real estate deals go from nothing to open in six months, and I have legitimately seen a

[50:19] Dutch brothers drive through coffee shop take six years. I have a collection of case studies

[50:26] of very simple deals that took a very long time, but I've also seen complex deals take a very short

[50:31] amount of time. So, 36 months is an example, but our whole goal is to stay on top of each step

[50:39] in the process that we can to help promote the city of Watsonville and and all that help get new businesses to come.

[50:47] Thanks, John Mark, and we can jump to the next slide. So with all of that data and kind of how the

[50:54] retail timeline works, we have been, we've identified over 70 retailer prospects and of those seven

[51:00] half potential interest in Watsonville. For this presentation, the actual retailer names have been

[51:07] and redacted just a lot of these retailers

[51:11] like to keep everything secretive until it is done.

[51:15] But just to give you an overview,

[51:17] three high volume national drive-through concepts

[51:20] are interested in Watsonville,

[51:22] one national fitness user,

[51:24] one specialty grocer,

[51:26] and two national coffee drive-through concepts.

[51:29] And that's just from the first 10 months

[51:31] of the partnership,

[51:32] the way that this typically works

[51:34] is the first 90 to 100 days really is data in discovery and that's when we're coming to the market,

[51:40] driving, doing all the initial stuff so a lot of momentum to have already have seven potential

[51:47] interested so we're currently working with their tenant reps with property owners to fit the real estate

[51:55] puzzle and how what sites work for them.

[51:59] What is needed on their end or is this

[52:02] This applicant is new construction and option, do they need second generation space, all just

[52:07] trying to work to get that retail timeline figured out.

[52:12] And as we're having discussions with these retailers, if you want to go to the next slide,

[52:17] we've included what we're calling blockers and enablers.

[52:21] So these are some things that as we're speaking with retailers, blockers are problems that are

[52:27] coming up where we're hearing maybe from one or more retailer, hey, this is something that

[52:31] we keep running into and then enablers are things that are helping us with the recruitment

[52:36] process. So some of the blockers are developing occupancy strictions and key corridors and

[52:43] this is a national problem, high cost of the new construction. A lot of retailers right

[52:49] now prefer second generation opportunities because it is more feasible both from an economic

[52:55] and quicker timing to move into an existing space

[52:59] and just do some tenant improvements there.

[53:01] And there's actually low viable vacancy,

[53:04] and opportunities currently available for national retail.

[53:08] So national retail has very different requirements

[53:11] than some of your regional or mom and pop retailers

[53:15] when it comes to parking and cotonancy and that type of thing.

[53:18] And then some of the things that are working

[53:20] in Watsonville's favor, the strategic location

[53:23] along the highway one corridor. So this allows the market to draw from multiple trade areas.

[53:29] And then also the trade areas that are drawn to Watsonville are all strong and continuing to grow.

[53:34] So that central post region is growing. And then also as we've been talking to these retailers,

[53:41] there is stated demand from prospects that would like to be in the market and multiple players

[53:47] looking around within the market, both from a retail side and a developer side.

[53:53] So that is kind of where we are at, but have some foundation to build on, and some

[54:01] of them.

[54:02] So next slide, that is what we have, but happy to answer any questions.

[54:11] Council Member Parker.

[54:12] I guess my first question is, could we have access to this slideshow so we can look at

[54:21] the tiny teeny print more thoroughly?

[54:24] Thanks.

[54:24] It's already in the record.

[54:25] I, because I checked on the thing and, yeah, it wasn't there under this.

[54:29] But it sounds exciting and it's interesting and publicly they don't want to share what's

[54:38] going on, but can the council members get a highlight on these folks that are interested,

[54:45] the seven plus? You don't have to answer. That's just to throw it out there.

[54:50] Right, the article question. Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you.

[54:55] Council member Dutra.

[54:57] I have a little bit of a different overtake on it. I just have concern that we've been in

[55:03] in this for a year, and in that year, a lot of other property owners have really worked

[55:12] to get bring in a lot of businesses that would fit in this diagram like Angry Chicks,

[55:18] DDs, Planet Fitness, Quick Quack, Burlington,

[55:24] and so when I hear it being said 36 months,

[55:29] I struggle with that because a lot of these places opened up within less than a year and I know those owners are working really hard from their angle with these national developers to fill those positions.

[55:43] So it leaves me questioning where exactly in Watsonville would your organization be actually trying to fill

[55:58] spots. So if you can, where are you focused? Because I know a lot of people already focused

[56:05] on their own properties, so I'm curious to see where are you focused.

[56:11] So our main focus is to help augment these property owners at first as well and basically

[56:16] providing them outreach and conversations with retailers on their behalf to help bring potentially

[56:23] conversations or retailers that may not have considered their site before. So we are doing

[56:29] similar things and basically multiplying the efforts of many of these property owners

[56:34] or brokers. Our main focus being with being focused on national retail recruitment is on

[56:41] Main Street and on Freedom. And so that is where most retail demand is and that's where the best

[56:46] use of our time goes. But I completely agree. I think it's excellent to see a lot of these deals

[56:51] take less than a year and many do, but there have also been conversations I've had with retailers that have been looking and working on various sites for multiple years that are still doing the same.

[57:04] So I think every single deal is different, every single retailer, every single property is different, every story is different.

[57:11] I had a developer say just speaking very generally that multiple offers have been made on a property over multiple years.

[57:20] and they're continuing to pursue a certain site.

[57:24] So every single deal is unique, every deal is different,

[57:27] but our main goal is to help multiply

[57:28] the efforts on these property owners

[57:29] and work alongside them.

[57:31] I know a couple of the developers,

[57:33] I've actually asked them if you've reached out to them

[57:36] and they haven't worked with you.

[57:37] So I'm trying to figure out who you're working with,

[57:41] like on freedom or downtown Main Street,

[57:44] to help fill their buildings.

[57:47] Yeah, it'd be great to hear who you've spoken with so that we can continue to learn more about the market.

[57:53] You know, our most of our engagements are on the three-year timeline.

[57:57] And so it'd be great to hear from your end who you've spoken with and who others at the city have spoken with

[58:01] so that we can continue to grow the network and meet more people who are active within the market.

[58:06] Okay, I just like, I want things to come to fruition, I think it's great that we can get excited about like oh this is, we can have economic development and then it's like it could take up to three years and then I see individual developers and landowners really working from the ground here in Watsonville to get their places filled, some of them do it really well.

[58:38] the codegas, Bill Hansen, the owners of Ayarta, I think that there are some land owners who really work to make sure that their shopping centers are being filled and not having as many vacancies.

[58:55] So I just get concerned that we're going to be kicked down the road for three years and there's going to be, we're really not going to get anything out of it.

[59:02] And I'm really struggling to think exactly where, and I still haven't been told exactly where you're working to put in these businesses.

[59:14] You said the Freedom, Corridor, and Downtown Main Street, I mean, Downtown Main Street's been pretty vacant since 1989.

[59:26] So, yeah, there's just my concerns.

[59:32] Two of the high volume quick service restaurants have both reviewed a same site for potential

[59:41] redevelopment, but it didn't fit their prototype.

[59:50] Yeah, and I see that you said you had four drive-thrues, you know, and I really don't know

[59:56] where else we're going to be putting drive-thrues, I think I can think of maybe...

[1:00:00] Who locations on the top of my head? Where there's a drive-through that I think that we could put something in there. But we are a really small city when it comes to land size. I mean, we're like six and a half by six and a half, or it's very small, so we're very limited, we have very limited space. So when I just saw, and then we had an interested fitness center crunch want to come in. And I don't

[1:00:29] I don't know if that's what the city wants any more fitness, so, you know, and it didn't, that didn't kind of fruition.

[1:00:36] So I'm, when I saw the list, I didn't, I didn't see anything where I was like, I didn't see a,

[1:00:41] Michael's or a, you know, like something that, that was going to really excite me.

[1:00:47] I saw a drive-throughs, a fitness center, and something else.

[1:00:52] And so I, I think that the residents of this community, you know, first of all,

[1:00:57] want to stay local and spend their money locally, but I think they want to be excited by the

[1:01:01] places they're going to be going and, you know, shopping. So, that's just some concerns

[1:01:07] I have.

[1:01:08] Yeah, thank you very much for sharing. We certainly have done outreach to exciting and

[1:01:13] new to market retailers that could be a really strong fit. As you know, we can't control

[1:01:18] people's interest or lack of interest. But we will continue to do outreach on that.

[1:01:22] And then additionally, we value collaboration a whole lot.

[1:01:25] So if there is a charge that you believe our value could be, you know, continue to be maximized, please inform city staff, our points of contact, we work very closely, and want to make sure that you feel good and don't have any concerns.

[1:01:38] So happy to communicate that, communicate about that further so that we can work our best.

[1:01:44] Mayor, just a quick point of order.

[1:01:47] Is there a possibility we can actually see these people that we're talking to?

[1:01:51] I know we're all new with the, I'm not sure.

[1:01:55] So, if it's not possible in the second, that's fine, but, you know, it's nice to not

[1:02:01] to talk to a disembodied voice.

[1:02:04] Councilmember Ciroz-Carter.

[1:02:06] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:02:08] Just kind of as a follow-up from Councilmember Dutra, I know that we have received a lot

[1:02:14] of requests for specific retailers, Ulta. I would love to see Ulta in and out. What else?

[1:02:22] TJ Maxx, Nordstrom Rack. If anyone else can think of them marshals. So those are some of the

[1:02:32] the requests that we've gotten consistently, Costco, Walmart. Those are just a few that we've gotten.

[1:02:40] And so my question is, are we working to kind of entice some of those specific retailers?

[1:02:46] I know clothing, particularly, is something that we hear a lot of.

[1:02:50] We do have some new clothing stores coming in, but that is one of the complaints that

[1:02:55] we hear a lot.

[1:02:56] So how are we working to entice those specific retailers?

[1:03:02] Yeah, and thank you.

[1:03:04] Thanks for the list.

[1:03:05] I think I believe I can share in this form that all of those retailers have been reached out

[1:03:10] to, and there have been conversation had with, and off the top of my head, most to all of

[1:03:17] them. So there have been conversations had, and there has been outreach to those types

[1:03:22] of retailers. As far as marketing the city to them, of course, we share demographic data,

[1:03:29] we share traffic counts, but for these people, and especially for these tenant representatives,

[1:03:33] they are only paid based on the deals that they close. So really, a lot of it is working

[1:03:39] to drum up deals that may not be public or that may be off the market. So that's a really

[1:03:45] big focus as well working with brokers, property owners. And again, if there's any that

[1:03:50] have the city or council has had conversations with, that we could have conversations with,

[1:03:56] please make sure we can maximize those conversations in our time working with you guys. But yes,

[1:04:02] those types of retailers have enough focus. Thank you very much that definitely clarifies the

[1:04:08] process for me a little bit and I want to thank you for sharing that data as well that was really

[1:04:12] super interesting. Thank you. Councilmember Roscoe.

[1:04:17] Yeah I'm wondering can we go back to this slide what you showed the different businesses

[1:04:23] on maybe interested or kinds of businesses.

[1:04:33] Complements. Thank you.

[1:04:38] I think it's great right I have to acknowledge the work that you've done this

[1:04:44] past year and also staff in the administrative, the, you know, cleaning up our processes,

[1:04:51] I think that's a huge lift and I want to acknowledge that. I think we've been asking

[1:04:55] for that for quite some time now. So thank you for taking that on. What I'm seeing here

[1:05:04] though, I'm wondering, when we think of downtown,

[1:05:11] which out of these specifically are we targeting

[1:05:15] for downtown or none because that's a concern of mine.

[1:05:19] I mean we've been talking about revitalization right

[1:05:22] of our downtown, the downtown specific plan but I don't see

[1:05:28] that there's based on just the description of these businesses.

[1:05:33] I don't see that there's been, I mean there could be a lot of effort

[1:05:38] right trying to attract businesses and offering the bacon

[1:05:41] and lots downtown, but can you speak more specifically on that?

[1:05:47] I think it goes to bacon, you know, it's just the spaces that could be available to host

[1:05:56] any type of business, whether it's those in this list or any other.

[1:06:00] And when you look at a downtown, it might not be as active as we are hoping for, as we continue

[1:06:09] to develop, but there's not a lot of vacancies in the current spaces that are in downtown.

[1:06:16] So where we have a real opportunity downtown is on that other slide that I showed, where

[1:06:21] we are working with property owners to build new spaces that will allow housing and retail

[1:06:29] to co-exist, right, and those are some real opportunities.

[1:06:33] So my hope is that as we continue to move forward with some of that development,

[1:06:38] we can connect with Brooke and Mark and say, hey, we're going to have these new spaces in downtown.

[1:06:45] Let's start doing that matchmaking that as councilmember Dutra highlighted,

[1:06:50] one of our newest shopping center has become really attractive.

[1:06:54] That's where we've seen new development.

[1:06:56] But some of those deals have taken a really long time.

[1:06:59] They seem quick because they happen right now in our lifetime.

[1:07:02] time, but the chicken place that opened up was like three and a half years in the making.

[1:07:10] So those things take time, and just as we generate new spaces, those are new opportunities

[1:07:16] we can go after, whether it's retail or restaurants.

[1:07:19] And when we think about those conversations that you're having with those developers, we're

[1:07:25] thinking that Roma and then the mansion house are what specific locations is, can I get an

[1:07:32] idea. Well you know like it's it's every we have about six deals in downtown that we're working

[1:07:40] with different property owners but we also have the specific city property that we will hope to

[1:07:46] embark in starting to master plan and we're going to have a staff member that will dedicate themselves

[1:07:52] to bringing that process forward and I see that as our best next opportunity to have retail as well as

[1:08:01] you know, city hall and housing all combined.

[1:08:04] So that is in the plans we're starting with that plan

[1:08:08] and we are staffing up to lift up that effort.

[1:08:13] Within the next, you know, like my projection right now

[1:08:16] is five to seven years to have that come to fruition.

[1:08:21] You know, so in terms of all the ring handsomers.

[1:08:24] In terms, yeah, so in terms of, you know,

[1:08:27] the road improvements, the entire design that was adopted

[1:08:30] by prior councils for downtown, when do we anticipate seeing any movement on that?

[1:08:37] That is a shop project and the Caltrans list of many projects as you may recall in previous legislative conversations that we have had with members of the state.

[1:08:52] We've been asking to accelerate that project and the best we got is seven years out.

[1:08:58] But it was 10 years now, probably six years now, you know, so they're coming, but not yet.

[1:09:07] Okay.

[1:09:08] And then, you know, in addition to the long list that Councilmember Kido's Carter mentioned,

[1:09:15] we also spoke to the fact that we need more family entertainment, right?

[1:09:19] So, bowling alley, round one, just something fun, right?

[1:09:22] That can bring people together.

[1:09:24] We tell John every day that we talk to have like, round one, come on.

[1:09:30] I'm sorry, go ahead excuse my interruption. You know I've worked with similar family entertainment

[1:09:39] concepts in the past and I think the quickest one I've seen has taken I think it was three

[1:09:46] or four years and there was another one that took four years and it ended up not happening

[1:09:56] after four years of effort and so it's it is just a case of continuous and effort and persistence

[1:10:05] part minor option. That's okay thank you. And then I have a couple of other questions. So you

[1:10:11] mentioned this the small business platform the provides training. Do we know how many businesses

[1:10:18] have utilized that platform? You know I will continue to promote that and you know if you remember

[1:10:25] like we give you a QR code card, help us be the ambassador is a great tool.

[1:10:31] Brook and John are not the team that leads these efforts with retail strategy.

[1:10:36] I believe maybe three or four businesses thus far have taken advantage of it,

[1:10:41] but we hope that more businesses can really utilize this free tool and a lot of trainings and ideas

[1:10:49] that they could benefit from. And can we go back to the

[1:10:56] incentives? Can you go back slide?

[1:11:02] And this will be the last question.

[1:11:03] We are very late to close session, so we need one more, and then we'll be closing.

[1:11:08] So I just want to highlight how supportive I am of moving forward with several of these suggestions.

[1:11:18] I think that's what we need.

[1:11:20] So an extra layer of support and a tool to attract businesses.

[1:11:24] And I guess I'll ask my other questions when we have more time.

[1:11:31] Sorry, we got to get to close session.

[1:11:33] Thank you.

[1:11:36] Thank you.

[1:11:37] Are we going to extend closed session?

[1:11:39] Maybe because we have 15 minutes to we're supposed to.

[1:11:41] Yeah.

[1:11:41] So it's likely closed session will go at least an hour.

[1:11:46] So yeah.

[1:11:48] Thank you all for your time.

[1:11:50] And if there's any other questions, please just relay those

[1:11:53] to Tamar or Nell and they can get in touch with us and we can do our best to address them.

[1:11:58] Thank you very much. Moving on to item four, closed session, public comments regarding the closed session, agenda items will be accepted by the council at this time.

[1:12:09] Seeing none, the council will recess to closed session. Thank you.

[1:12:14] Recording stopped.

[2:08:17] Recording in progress.

[2:08:44] Time is now 6.42. This is a date and time notice for the regularly scheduled city council meeting. Can I get a roll call, please?

[2:08:53] Mr.

[2:08:56] Chair.

[2:08:56] Here.

[2:08:57] Want to see them?

[2:08:58] Here.

[2:08:59] Larosco.

[2:09:00] Here.

[2:09:00] Archer.

[2:09:01] Here.

[2:09:02] Gido's Cargher.

[2:09:03] Here.

[2:09:03] And Salsido.

[2:09:04] Here.

[2:09:05] We have Cuorum.

[2:09:09] And if I could have Councilmember Montesino lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

[2:09:34] All right, there are the reports of disbursements are in our packet.

[2:09:38] There are no more miscellaneous documents to report.

[2:09:43] Any report at a closed session?

[2:09:47] Good evening. A close session was had on the two items of the agenda and no report of action was taken.

[2:09:52] Thank you. Moving on to item 9, oral communication. This time is set aside for members of the general public to address the council on any item, not on the council agenda, which is within the subject manager's jurisdiction of the City Council, no action or discussion shall be taken on any item presented, except that any City Council member may respond to statements made or questions asked or

[2:10:16] may ask questions for clarification.

[2:10:18] All matters of administrative nature will be referred to staff.

[2:10:21] All matters relating to council will be noted in the minutes

[2:10:24] and may be scheduled for discussion at a future meeting

[2:10:27] or referred to staff for clarification in report.

[2:10:30] All speakers are asked to fill out a speaker card

[2:10:33] and leave it at the podium.

[2:10:34] Speakers are asked to announce their name and district

[2:10:37] in which they live in order to obtain

[2:10:38] an accurate record for the minutes.

[2:10:41] Moving on to 9a, oral communication from the public.

[2:10:45] May I make the Spanish interpretation, thank you.

[2:10:49] To use Spanish interpretation devices,

[2:10:51] obtain one from the table by the interpreting booth.

[2:10:53] Turn it on and make sure that it is on Channel E.

[2:10:57] To use assisted listening, turn the device to Channel A.

[2:11:00] If you can't hear, check that the device is on.

[2:11:02] The volume can be adjusted using the arrow buttons.

[2:11:05] Please return that before you leave.

[2:11:29] We also have Spanish interpretation via our Zoom webinar.

[2:11:38] Thank you very much.

[2:11:42] Thank you very much.

[2:11:42] Any oral communication for the public at this time?

[2:11:48] Good evening.

[2:11:56] Sorry.

[2:11:58] You know, my name is Prakash Patel.

[2:12:01] You know, I will stay in San Jose, but we have two properties.

[2:12:05] One, the already an express on Main Street and the land on Technology Drive.

[2:12:11] And I come to talk about, you know, the process

[2:12:15] or what has been happening for an hour, two years on my project.

[2:12:19] And I think the office has sent a letter to everybody.

[2:12:25] And I thank you for an opportunity to talk about it on the hotel project,

[2:12:31] which is on technology drive.

[2:12:34] We have had that project twice approved by the city council,

[2:12:40] but we could not perform because of the financing and

[2:12:43] the cost being too high at that time. This time, we have the financing, but not the approval.

[2:12:52] And that's what I wanted to talk about, to see how the city can help us to get the project

[2:12:58] approved, you know, as soon as possible. We know the issues, or we know about with the

[2:13:06] pilot association and the appeal but you know that's where I come here to talk

[2:13:13] about to see if you can help us to do you know how you can help us to get it

[2:13:20] done faster. To that I think our attorney has written a letter to see how you

[2:13:25] can do it.

[2:13:28] You know we started this project back in 2024.

[2:13:34] We went through the

[2:13:35] approval. We cut the trees down, hoping that it will be approved just like previously,

[2:13:40] but it took over. We found out in January that we need an ER study, which we were really

[2:13:48] didn't expect it. But today we are here, the study is done, everything is done. And still

[2:13:56] I don't know when it will go to the council. So that's why I'm asking to see if you can

[2:14:00] help us.

[2:14:01] Thank you.

[2:14:07] Good evening.

[2:14:09] Good evening, Mayor Salsito and City Council members.

[2:14:12] My name is Dana Wagner, I'm the Director of Meals on Wheels for Santa Cruz County, a program of community bridges.

[2:14:18] I'm here today to share data with you from the fiscal year that ended on June 30th.

[2:14:23] I feel duty-bound to apprise you of how city dollars have been spent.

[2:14:28] For fiscal year 2026, Meals on Wheels delivered nearly 125,000 meals to homebound seniors.

[2:14:34] In the city of Watsonville, we delivered over 27,000 meals.

[2:14:38] We served nearly 1,500 Santa Cruz County older adults, including over 500 in Watsonville.

[2:14:44] We conducted over 2,000 wellness checks with our participants to ensure their well-being

[2:14:49] and coordination with services with close to 500 of these among city residents.

[2:14:54] At our four congregate dining sites, we served close to 33,000 meals to older adults.

[2:15:00] 18,000 of these at the Watsonville Senior Center. And we arranged for educational presentations on scam prevention and collaborated with Watsonville Senior Center to honor older veterans.

[2:15:13] Seniors participating in meals on wheels are overwhelmingly satisfied with the service they received. 98% of those receiving home delivered meals stated that our service helps and avoid institutional placement.

[2:15:24] and 98% of congregate diners state that the congregate meals helped them to feel

[2:15:29] less isolated.

[2:15:31] As you may be aware, meals and meals has had to implement awaiting this due to funding

[2:15:35] shortfalls.

[2:15:36] Since April 2025, we were unable to assist 117 older adults with food and connection due

[2:15:43] to lack of funding, and we continue to get 10 to 12 applications each week for service.

[2:15:49] I want to present these numbers to you today to let you know that city dollars are optimally

[2:15:54] utilized to ensure the health and well-being of our growing senior population.

[2:15:59] On behalf of the nearly 1500 seniors participating in Meals on Wheels, I am grateful for your

[2:16:04] support.

[2:16:04] Thank you for your time and attention.

[2:16:06] Thank you.

[2:16:08] Good evening.

[2:16:11] Good evening, Mayor.

[2:16:12] City Council members.

[2:16:13] My name is Patsy Gaskin.

[2:16:14] I'm the Disaster Manager for the American Red Cross.

[2:16:17] not a stranger to this city council, so I thank you for this opportunity and just coming to share with you that this Saturday from 830 to about 130, your American Red Cross is coming to help make more homes in Watsonville Safer by installing free smoke alarms in homes from second street all the way down a kerney, so if any of you are around and would like to lend a hand, you know, contact me or our organization, we're happy to help or if you have constituents in that area.

[2:16:46] We'll get the flyer to the city to help promote it as well.

[2:16:49] And we're doing this in partnership with the City of Watson O'Fart Department, who's always been an amazing partner.

[2:16:54] Thank you.

[2:16:55] Thank you.

[2:16:56] Good evening.

[2:17:00] Hi there.

[2:17:01] Good evening, Mayor, Council Members and City staff.

[2:17:05] My name is Michael Straz, and I lead development for the Western U.S. for the parent company of WRI Freedom Center LLC.

[2:17:14] I've already deposited a card here at the podium.

[2:17:18] For 25 years, our company has quietly owned and operated the Freedom Shopping Center at the corner of Freedom Boulevard and Airport Boulevard.

[2:17:26] It's a community shopping center anchored by Safeway, serving local families, businesses, and residents every day.

[2:17:33] Throughout that time, we have successfully leased and operated the property, including areas that fall within airport safety zones three and six without significant obstacles.

[2:17:44] that changed last year, late in year.

[2:17:48] Recent city staff interpretations of airport safety zone standards have raised questions regarding our ability to continue leasing and operating portions of this long established shopping center and pillar of the community.

[2:18:02] A dispute over airport safety standards that is separate and unrelated to our company now directly affects our ability to lease and operate portions of our shopping center.

[2:18:12] As property owners and long-term investors in this community, we believe there is a path forward, but

[2:18:19] meaningful progress requires engagement among all state stakeholders, the City Council and staff,

[2:18:25] the Pilots Association property owners and the airport.

[2:18:28] We respectfully ask that Freedom Center and the issues affecting us be placed on a future council agenda,

[2:18:35] or in a study session or individual meetings, so that we can present our concerns,

[2:18:39] better understand the perspectives of others and work together towards a constructive solution.

[2:18:45] Our goals do not include any expansion or change of use of our shopping center.

[2:18:50] It's simply to return the quiet to the quiet management and operation of an existing Grocery Anchored Shopping Center.

[2:18:57] Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

[2:18:59] Thank you very much for coming down tonight.

[2:19:02] Good evening.

[2:19:06] What I see over there today, I wonder why you signed any contracts with anybody, and it's

[2:19:16] not only this time.

[2:19:18] Every time it's contract and you have a man, a man, a man, a man, a man, a man, 100,000,

[2:19:24] quarter, a million dollars, what the heck you signed the contract with the contractors?

[2:19:29] If you later only let them go to the sky, it's like, if I had an electrician and he told me I'm going to fix you for $500 and then he started working and said, oh, no, $2000.

[2:19:44] When you start saying those guys, with that contract, that's it.

[2:19:51] But I know the union workers needed that.

[2:19:54] So now is the second old story, not very new, looks like we have first class citizen in

[2:20:00] this city and second class.

[2:20:04] The second class has to work so hard, save money for retirement.

[2:20:09] The first class our city employees know they have the money from the slaves because you

[2:20:18] try like modern plantation, yeah. And it's not only this. It's supposed to be 200 dollars.

[2:20:27] You know why I paid this here for hundreds of any? Then it was 200 dollars. And because

[2:20:36] of this I have another proposition. They worked so hard 11 months. Why we don't pay for their

[2:20:43] vacation like maybe how I or a real Las Vegas and give them some money to pay over there

[2:20:50] They are so poor so underpaid that they they can't afford to pay for retirement. I have

[2:21:00] My retirement and nobody pay any penny for this. Thank you. Have a good night

[2:21:06] Thank you

[2:21:07] Any other public comment seeing none turning into council any comments from council mayor

[2:21:13] Would you like me to check with Zoom?

[2:21:15] Yes.

[2:21:16] Thank you.

[2:21:17] Anyone that's joining us via Zoom, if you wish to speak, please click on the raise hand option.

[2:21:28] I see none.

[2:21:30] Oh, sorry.

[2:21:31] I do see one hand just came up for

[2:21:41] the ends in 501.

[2:21:42] You may speak.

[2:21:47] Hi there.

[2:21:48] Can you hear me?

[2:21:49] Yes, sir.

[2:21:50] Hi there.

[2:21:50] Can you hear me?

[2:21:51] Yes.

[2:21:52] Go ahead.

[2:21:54] Thank you.

[2:21:55] My name is Drew Rogers.

[2:21:56] I live in district five.

[2:22:00] this is Casey, area for 10. And I'm the HOA director here at our mobile home campus

[2:22:11] at Portola Heights. It's right off the Freedom Boulevard. We're one of nine, of course,

[2:22:16] here. And we, we are about 900 homes in the whole of Watsonville. And just outside of

[2:22:28] many of the campuses, echoing campuses you call them parks, are owned by a

[2:22:33] few people. ours is owned by one person here who has 16 other ones. I'm bringing

[2:22:39] this up because years ago before I came here I think City Council actually

[2:22:45] created some kind of charter to protect the rights of home ownership rental

[2:22:52] and being fairly new in this B-N-H-O-A director here, I wanted to make sure what the commitment was because we are now facing some steep rental hikes that have nothing to do with the CPI and have everything to do with him trying to recoup money from past either repairs and maintenance, it depends what he wants to call them.

[2:23:18] So, I don't know who we've already sent letters into tomorrow of the day, and reordering

[2:23:26] his proposed hikes at 1,600 pages, so as you know, we have to pay for that when we're

[2:23:33] being all of us to lawyers.

[2:23:35] So, we just want to make sure and also find out what's the best way for us to be updated

[2:23:41] with our rights as well as your, the City Council, you know, yeah.

[2:23:50] Thank you.

[2:23:50] That's the end of your time.

[2:23:52] Thank you so much.

[2:23:55] Any other comments on Zoom?

[2:24:03] I do have a point of order.

[2:24:08] Yes, Mayor Crote.

[2:24:10] Point of order.

[2:24:10] Yes.

[2:24:15] City clerk, whenever anybody is on Zoom, when everybody is here, they hand in a card and we can identify them.

[2:24:21] Do we have any way to identify people on Zoom, even though that gentleman gave us his name,

[2:24:27] but do we know how to contact him or anything like that?

[2:24:31] We don't have anything like that through Zoom.

[2:24:33] In fact, the chat is not available either, so there's no way for us to retrieve that information.

[2:24:38] I could check in the back end to see if we can get any data from the way that they joined,

[2:24:45] like via email or phone number.

[2:24:47] Okay.

[2:24:47] That's probably what we can do.

[2:24:49] Perfect.

[2:24:49] Thank you for that clarification.

[2:24:51] Thank you. Any oral communication from Council?

[2:24:57] None. Councilmember Dutra.

[2:25:01] Thank you. Just a few things. One is, well, we're back from summer. We had about six, seven weeks off.

[2:25:09] So it's nice to be back to finish out the year. During the summer, we did nationalite out. So I want to thank all the public safety officers, our police and fire, for making you know, going out to our community and meeting with all the residents.

[2:25:24] They really enjoy that.

[2:25:25] I want to thank all the residents and city staff and organizations that help put that on.

[2:25:29] It was a great turnout and you look forward to it every single year.

[2:25:33] Also, I attended the Chamber dinner this year.

[2:25:35] Some great recipients, congratulations to all the winners, and it was a pretty much sold out event.

[2:25:42] So nice opportunity to support our business community.

[2:25:48] And then not to call her out, but she's sitting in the audience.

[2:25:52] Congratulations to Jim Ponce, who was just awarded the Betty Rather Awards this past weekend.

[2:26:01] So yeah, so anyways, but welcome back, and we look forward to a nice fall.

[2:26:08] Halloween is going to be here real quick.

[2:26:10] Hope you're all looking forward to your costumes, and then it'll be Christmas, and then happy

[2:26:13] be 20, 27.

[2:26:19] There are Council members of Roscoe.

[2:26:21] We're thinking of a go, but I'm fine as well.

[2:26:24] I prepare my comments.

[2:26:27] So I want to start by wishing all of our students, teachers, school staff and families

[2:26:32] a great back to school season.

[2:26:34] I hope the school years off to a strong start for everyone.

[2:26:37] It's also been a couple of busy weeks for me.

[2:26:39] I was happy to join fellow and ballet elected officials, former elected officials, allies

[2:26:44] and supporters to our meeting here in Watsonville.

[2:26:47] We were joined by California State's treasurer, Fiona Ma, and our Council of Mexico and Eiffel

[2:26:52] East, Syed, Venezuela.

[2:26:54] We spoke to our treasurer briefly, and there could be some potential funding opportunities

[2:27:01] for a park.

[2:27:03] and potentially an aquatic center as we continue to explore that idea.

[2:27:12] I also had the opportunity to represent the city of the Community Health Trust Rather Award.

[2:27:17] So, recognizing individuals making a difference through healthcare, education,

[2:27:21] service, and so much more throughout the Paro Valley.

[2:27:23] Again, congratulations, June.

[2:27:26] Very well-deserved recognition.

[2:27:28] We also celebrated our young people at the PV Arts team Arthas.

[2:27:33] in mural ribbon cutting where local teams were recognized for their creativity and hard work.

[2:27:37] If you haven't had the time to look at those murals, please stop by.

[2:27:41] They are beautiful.

[2:27:44] And we attended the Skeelet corn barbecue and we want to thank

[2:27:50] folks who support the scouting programs.

[2:27:53] They make a huge difference in the lives of youth here in our community.

[2:27:58] And again, we continue highlighting local businesses.

[2:28:01] This, we had the opportunity to visit, right, mellow bread, along with Councilmember Dutra

[2:28:10] and Councilmember Ariaparker.

[2:28:14] And finally I joined our city manager in welcoming youth from Empower of Watsonville

[2:28:18] to our Council chambers for a behind the scenes look at how the city works.

[2:28:23] So thank you so much for being here.

[2:28:26] Thank you.

[2:28:27] Any other Councilmembers?

[2:28:30] Thank you very much.

[2:28:31] I also enjoyed National Night Out, I will say Assistant Chief Rodriguez makes a mean hot dog, so I really enjoyed that at the Police Activities League in District 4 and connecting with our youth and families in District 4 with our amazing officers and sous chefs.

[2:28:49] All right. We'll be moving on to our mayor's proclamations. So I see we have our pony baseball

[2:28:58] 14 and under and we'll be going. Yes, we're

[2:29:04] going to start with 10 a for breast feeding awareness

[2:29:08] month and also recognizing the like home for their catering and amazing participation in our community

[2:29:15] and then I'll be inviting the team up for some photos with council and some comments from council

[2:29:21] as well.

[2:29:51] Can you hear me now?

[2:29:52] There we go.

[2:29:56] All right.

[2:29:56] The first is recognizing breastfeeding awareness month as a new-

[2:30:00] New mom, relatively new, older now, with 18-month-old and a three-year-old. I just wanted to recognize the importance of supporting breastfeeding in our community. I have honored, you know, this proclamation every year, and it's just another year that we can really celebrate and highlight breastfeeding awareness month, so please come up.

[2:30:26] Breastfeeding is a vital public health practice that supports lifelong health, reduces obesity risks, and promotes optimal early brain development.

[2:30:35] With strong recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics,

[2:30:39] locally Watsonville Community Hospital Salud Par la Hente, and the Community Bridges WIC Program provide certified lactation support,

[2:30:48] bilingual classes, and breast feeding groups reinforced by the hospital's baby-friendly certification.

[2:30:55] An alignment with this year's World's Breastfeeding Week theme, breastfeeding for a sustainable start in life,

[2:31:01] strength in what works. The community continues to strengthen collaboration and

[2:31:06] effective support for breastfeeding families. I also just wanted to mention

[2:31:11] RC family as well. They are an amazing collaborator locally here and culturally

[2:31:18] sensitive collaborator who has amazing breastfeeding programs and they do really

[2:31:23] great work in the community. Thank you very much.

[2:31:29] Dana Wagner, Director of Community Bridges WIC program, thank you so much.

[2:31:33] Thank you Mayor Salcedo and the Council for this proclamation.

[2:31:37] WIC serves about 3,000 Santa Cruz families each month.

[2:31:41] We work very closely with Watsonville Community Hospital to help new mothers with breastfeeding.

[2:31:46] And we collaborate with the agriculture employers to provide lactation accommodation for moms working

[2:31:52] in the fields.

[2:31:53] We want all families to have equal opportunity for children to get the best start in life.

[2:31:58] And we thank this council for its ongoing support and many years of providing this proclamation.

[2:32:03] Thank you so much.

[2:32:10] All right, and next we'll be recognizing De La Comena, who is here for De La Comena.

[2:32:15] Are they here tonight?

[2:32:17] Wow, their food is amazing.

[2:32:20] We will be giving them their proclamation shortly.

[2:32:22] But moving on to our Watsonville Pony baseball 14 and under all star teams.

[2:32:29] All

[2:32:31] of you have to get up everybody.

[2:32:33] Your parents need photos.

[2:32:41] All right, I'm actually going to bring you guys up to the front with the council.

[2:32:46] So all of you guys come up, up, up, up.

[2:32:49] Council.

[2:32:49] Oh, this way, this way, this way.

[2:32:52] Yep, I'll leave this way.

[2:33:01] All right.

[2:33:06] Yes, of course.

[2:33:09] Now further ado, gentlemen, young men.

[2:33:13] Yes, nice to meet you.

[2:33:16] The Watsonville Pony Baseball, 14 and under, all-star team proudly represented the city of Watsonville throughout the 2026 postseason,

[2:33:25] demonstrating exceptional athleticism, resilience, and sportsmanship as they earned the NorCal Coast region championships

[2:33:33] and advanced to the super regional tournament.

[2:33:37] Woo,

[2:33:43] seemingly finishing among the top three teams

[2:33:45] in Northern California.

[2:33:46] Their remarkable run was driven by the dedication

[2:33:49] of players, Robin Kessier-Koumener,

[2:33:53] Andre Diaz, Aaron Garcia, Adrian Garcia, Adam Guerrero,

[2:33:58] Avery Keller, Carmelo Luna, Mateo Luna,

[2:34:01] Freddie Martinez, Mel Martinez, Julien Montez,

[2:34:04] Isaac Paz Vargas, Dante Ponce, and Andrew Ruiz.

[2:34:09] under the special leadership of manager,

[2:34:13] Moses Lenore and coaches Mel Martinez,

[2:34:16] senior and Cesar Garcia.

[2:34:19] Yes, coaches,

[2:34:24] thank you, coaches.

[2:34:25] Without you, it's not possible to do what we do

[2:34:29] with these youth, so thank you so much.

[2:34:33] Supported by committed families, volunteers

[2:34:35] and community members, the team inspired Wattsonville

[2:34:39] through their passion, perseverance, and pride.

[2:34:42] leaving a lasting legacy in Wasimil Pony baseball league history.

[2:34:47] Congratulations, all stars.

[2:34:54] We'd love to take a photo with all of you.

[2:34:56] We'll have the council in the back.

[2:34:58] And if you'd like to hold the, yeah.

[2:35:12] I should have worn my jersey.

[2:35:51] Nice work, gentlemen.

[2:35:54] Moving on to the consent agenda.

[2:35:56] All items appearing on the consent agenda

[2:35:58] are recommended actions that are considered to be routine and will be acted upon as one motion.

[2:36:04] Any items removed will be considered immediately after the motion.

[2:36:07] The mayor will allow public input prior to the approval of the consent agenda.

[2:36:13] This is now the time for public input.

[2:36:17] Is there any comments on the consent agenda?

[2:36:23] Good evening.

[2:36:23] Good

[2:36:27] afternoon, when I start this,

[2:36:29] Basbadilla with Community Action Board.

[2:36:32] On behalf of CABs Board and the agency,

[2:36:35] we want to thank those council members

[2:36:37] who have served in our board,

[2:36:40] including Jimmy Dutra and Vanessa.

[2:36:43] And today, we want to give a big welcome

[2:36:46] to celebrate Maria Roscoe's appointments.

[2:36:49] Thank you, Tamara.

[2:36:50] Thank you, Mayor Sucito,

[2:36:54] for understanding our special federal and state community action requirements in our board.

[2:37:01] And, Maria, we really look forward in working with you and continue working with all of you to make this city a better city.

[2:37:08] So thank you so much, and be a member of that.

[2:37:10] Thank you.

[2:37:11] Good evening.

[2:37:14] Good evening, Jonathan Poulch, executive director of Watsonville Wetlands Watch.

[2:37:19] I'm here to speak on behalf of the shared use agreement between Watsonville Wetlands Watch and the city.

[2:37:24] It's under consideration for adoption this evening.

[2:37:27] I want to express my strong support for this.

[2:37:29] This project has been having a new nature center that's a state of the art education center has been a really long time shared goal between the city and wetlands watch.

[2:37:41] And it's also been quite a journey.

[2:37:44] And so this is a really important milestone for all of us, as well as a shared commitment, a long term commitment to delivering on this important project for this community.

[2:37:54] Since its original construction as a small trailer over 20 years ago by the City Public Works Department at the back of Ramsey Park, the Nature Center has been a really important hub of community action, environmental conservation and education.

[2:38:09] It's been a great place for Watsonville families to come together.

[2:38:13] And so this new project stands on the shoulders of this history.

[2:38:16] It was made possible by a long time city council, I'm sorry, city staff person Nancy Lockwood, who when she passed away gave a donation that became the seed of a capital campaign from which we were able to raise over $1.5 million in grants and donations to make this center a reality.

[2:38:37] The new center is going to be a gateway to the trail system.

[2:38:39] It's going to have amazing exhibits.

[2:38:41] It's going to bring people together from throughout the Monterey Bay to Watsonville to celebrate our wetlands.

[2:38:47] It's going to be a great educational space for part of our unified school district students and

[2:38:52] families, multi-generational audience, multi-cultural bilingual.

[2:38:56] It's going to be just an amazing space.

[2:38:58] So I just want to thank you for your consideration of this, for your long time support.

[2:39:02] And to City Manager Vides, to Deputy City Manager Kalibakia, to Public Works Director Green, for their effort, all their tremendous efforts to champion this project through many challenges and get us to this point.

[2:39:17] So thanks for your consideration.

[2:39:19] Thank you.

[2:39:21] Any other public comment for the consent agenda?

[2:39:25] Seeing none, turning it to Council.

[2:39:28] Council member D.

[2:39:29] I do have someone on, anyone on Zoom?

[2:39:38] My dear, and I go ahead, and you can speak.

[2:39:40] Thank you.

[2:39:41] Good evening, City Council.

[2:39:42] It's good evening, Mayor and City Manager.

[2:39:44] This is Marielena de la Garza.

[2:39:46] I'm the CEO to the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County.

[2:39:49] I'm also a proud resident of Miss Vanessa's District.

[2:39:52] I just wanted to echo my colleagues welcome and celebration of Maria Orozco's appointment

[2:39:59] today on the cab board and also express my gratitude

[2:40:03] to Jimmy and to Ms. Vanessa for supporting the agency

[2:40:06] in that role in other years.

[2:40:10] Community action exists to eliminate poverty

[2:40:13] and we do that in partnership with the city

[2:40:16] of Watsonville and many other entities

[2:40:18] and partners and CBOs in the community.

[2:40:21] And so I wanna thank you, Maria, one,

[2:40:24] I think that you bring a really important perspective.

[2:40:27] You know the agency, you know people

[2:40:29] who receive services from the agency

[2:40:30] And it will make an incredible difference to have you on our board.

[2:40:33] So thank you so much, which I was going to ask you as I went on to it just.

[2:40:38] Thank you, Maria Lennon, congrats on your state recognition.

[2:40:44] Councillor Bumber, do you have a couple of comments, no questions.

[2:40:49] I first of all say, not that I have favorites, but a couple of my favorite organizations,

[2:40:57] Both the Watsonville Wetlands Watch and Cab are both in the audience today, and Jonathan, you've done such a great job.

[2:41:04] I mean, I've known you for a long time, and I'm I-2, I'm very excited for this new Nature Center, and I think it's gonna be just a wonderful asset to our community, so I'm here to always support you and your organization, so thank you for all the hard work that you've done, and it is a true partnership between all of us.

[2:41:23] I look at a lot of our nonprofits as, you know, this partnership that can help uplift the city and you help us do things that sometimes we can't do.

[2:41:33] So we're limited with the resources and the funding that we have, so we depend on you guys to really kind of take it that extra bit to help us out.

[2:41:41] So I really do appreciate all of that.

[2:41:44] And I wanted to say there was one more little comment I think I had, maybe I didn't.

[2:41:53] I also wanted to say, I look forward, you know, everybody in the Franich area and in the bridge street, I look forward to supporting the landscaping candy increase today that will help clean the bridge street mediums that will, that will extend it, I know we've been having a lot of concerns about the overgrowth, so I am going to be very, very supportive of that.

[2:42:20] So, thank you so much.

[2:42:22] Council member Parker and then Roscoe.

[2:42:26] Thank you.

[2:42:26] Jimmy, you got that before I could.

[2:42:30] I want to say thank you to Parks and Community Services

[2:42:34] and Nick for taking that on.

[2:42:37] Since 218, Vista, Montanya, the L-Mad there has struggled with their decision

[2:42:45] and they're doing lots of things.

[2:42:47] I want to say thank you not only for adding this to the scope of services that you're

[2:42:54] doing, but also the pickup that's happening by weekly now, I hear, on a Friday, because

[2:43:02] there's some people who are really charged in trying to do stuff, and it's nice that

[2:43:08] we can support them, but in a way the support of, and it's not a major role, and also your

[2:43:15] other conversations that you're having that are in regards to the L-MAD.

[2:43:21] So I want to say thank you.

[2:43:22] There's a lot of things going on that people don't know, but you guys are still working

[2:43:26] on things.

[2:43:27] And so greatly appreciate it, okay?

[2:43:32] Councilmember Roscoe?

[2:43:33] So in addition to everything that has been said, because I'm in support of all of that, I want

[2:43:40] And all of the boys might support for item 11, point U, the appointment of Nancy Velasco to the Personnel Commission representing District 3.

[2:43:52] Nancy brings about 16 years of human resources experience to this ruin.

[2:43:57] I believe she will be a strong addition to the commission.

[2:44:00] So I ask council for your support on this item.

[2:44:04] Thank you.

[2:44:05] Council member Parker?

[2:44:06] I was going to say are any are either one of our point to use are they in the room?

[2:44:11] Nope.

[2:44:12] Okay.

[2:44:12] All right.

[2:44:14] Any other?

[2:44:15] Have we made a motion?

[2:44:16] We did not.

[2:44:17] I would like to make a motion.

[2:44:18] The head of the head.

[2:44:20] I'll second.

[2:44:22] I'll second.

[2:44:22] We have a motion and a second.

[2:44:24] Can I get a roll call?

[2:44:27] Clark.

[2:44:28] Hi.

[2:44:29] Deutre.

[2:44:30] Hi.

[2:44:31] Want us to know?

[2:44:32] Yes.

[2:44:32] Orozco.

[2:44:33] Hi.

[2:44:34] Aye.

[2:44:34] Parker.

[2:44:35] Aye.

[2:44:35] Gatos Carter.

[2:44:36] No on 11 are.

[2:44:38] I guess on everything else.

[2:44:39] So I'll see you.

[2:44:41] Aye.

[2:44:42] The motion carries.

[2:44:49] In moving on, there's no items removed from consent.

[2:44:52] Reports to counsel.

[2:44:53] The City Manager's update.

[2:44:55] I have a very brief update today, but I wanted to kind of.

[2:45:00] Celebrate the fact that this last Monday, we started a new academy in our fire department with four new recruits that are part of that academy that will go between now and December. And hopefully they will be set to graduate and join our firefighter team. So we're excited for their journey with us. We also concluded Battalion Chief Recruitment Process

[2:45:29] of today, we are set to feel that position early in October, which is a remarkable achievement

[2:45:38] just to kind of attract and be able to hire individuals to join our team in that capacity.

[2:45:46] As an essential rank, there's basically three people that share the burden of 24-7 staffing.

[2:45:54] So, when one is absent, it's a big heavy weight on the two that remain.

[2:46:00] So, we are excited about that, and we're also very thankful to Captain Mahabirak,

[2:46:07] who up to last week just really stepped in and kind of like helped us bridge the accent

[2:46:14] of this vacancy that we had after Meet Us Shafers retirement.

[2:46:20] So I'm excited for that.

[2:46:22] I also learned today that there are three new police officers on the academy that are starting

[2:46:28] this week.

[2:46:29] So those efforts are just really exciting to be able to continue to regrow for our

[2:46:35] public safety departments.

[2:46:37] There's a kind of a short announcement with a flyer that was shared with us.

[2:46:44] This is kind of a team effort that we are part of with a group of other organizations and

[2:46:54] county agencies to do little cleanup.

[2:46:58] So the community cleanup effort is happening this Thursday, August 27th.

[2:47:03] We are going to focus on that area, on that pink around the lead road beach street area.

[2:47:12] The cleanup starts at 9 a.m. until 12 and all volunteers are welcome to be part of it.

[2:47:20] That concludes my report for now.

[2:47:22] Thank you.

[2:47:23] Any comments from council?

[2:47:26] Seeing none moving on the board.

[2:47:28] Council member.

[2:47:30] Really?

[2:47:30] It's really.

[2:47:31] Can you give us back, you know, because I know we talked about, you know, street signs,

[2:47:36] some time ago and an update on that.

[2:47:39] Yeah, they're actually, the installation is beginning at the end of October.

[2:47:47] All the sites are, you're going to start seeing some digging on the sites where the

[2:47:52] signs are going to go and the manufacturing of the signs have all started.

[2:47:56] So we're moving forward with that.

[2:47:57] I think you're talking about way, finally, not talking about street signs.

[2:48:01] That is also, I'm waiting for the street sign sample to come in and as soon as we get the

[2:48:08] example and we can greenlight it, that effort will move forward and every street sign is expected

[2:48:14] to be replaced.

[2:48:15] Thank you.

[2:48:18] And asking a question, Mary.

[2:48:22] Can Hill Street in District 7 be the first street sign that you produce?

[2:48:27] Because they've gone for three years with nothing on one side and the other side is kind

[2:48:32] of gone.

[2:48:33] So that will break my approach of going from A to Z, but yes, of course.

[2:48:38] Right on.

[2:48:38] Thank you very much.

[2:48:39] Yes, not as good for my street.

[2:48:42] All right, moving on to item 14A, actions pertaining to compliance with preemptory writ of mandate to set aside approvals for a 21 unit townhome development project located at 547 airport full of art.

[2:48:57] Thank you Madam Mayor and good evening Council.

[2:49:01] This will hopefully be a quick report because you're familiar with the facts.

[2:49:08] The purpose of tonight's items is to take the actions required by the Santa Cruz County's Superior Courts,

[2:49:16] preemptory writ of mandate.

[2:49:18] Our deadline for compliance is September 8th, 2026.

[2:49:25] The court ordered in its writ the city to set aside the approvals for the 21 unit townhome project of 547 airport boulevard.

[2:49:34] As you may or may not recall, these approvals were issued in August of 2021.

[2:49:40] The council approved a mitigated negative declaration, along with an MNRP, an amendment

[2:49:49] to the general plan, adopted the first reading of an ordinance, approving a zone change,

[2:49:57] approved a special use permit and design review

[2:50:01] and approved a tentative map.

[2:50:03] It then passed that ordinance in September of 2021.

[2:50:08] Shortly thereafter, the Watsonville Pilots Association

[2:50:12] challenged the project approvals

[2:50:14] under the California Environmental Quality Act

[2:50:17] and the State Aeronautics Act.

[2:50:19] The city litigated that lawsuit shortly after,

[2:50:25] Well, two years after that, the project permits actually expired, so the project was not built.

[2:50:31] In July of 2026, the court entered judgment granting the Watsonville Pilot Association's petition, and issued a

[2:50:40] parliamentary writ of mandate, which is essentially a direction to the city.

[2:50:45] The direction ordered the city to set aside any and all approvals related to the development.

[2:50:51] The rent was served on the city on July 9th, which started the deadline for us to comply.

[2:50:57] Again, our deadline for compliance is September 8th.

[2:51:01] And again, the action before you tonight is to adopt a resolution, rescending various

[2:51:06] resolutions.

[2:51:07] The resolution rescends all of the approvals that were issued by resolution.

[2:51:12] And then to introduce for first reading only, waiting for the reading of the text, an ordinance

[2:51:18] for sending ordinance number 1420-21.

[2:51:22] Are there any questions?

[2:51:26] Council clarifying your technical questions?

[2:51:29] Seeing none.

[2:51:31] Moving out to public comments.

[2:51:33] Are there any public comments on this issue?

[2:51:36] And seeing none, entertaining a motion.

[2:51:40] Council Mayor Brotem Clark.

[2:51:42] I'd like to make a motion.

[2:51:44] And do you need that motion read allowed?

[2:51:48] Yes, please, and if you could do two separate motions, that would be great.

[2:51:51] Oh, Joy.

[2:51:52] Do you have them?

[2:51:54] No, yes.

[2:51:55] I have them right here.

[2:51:56] Okay.

[2:51:57] I'd like to make a motion to adopt a resolution, rescinding resolution, numbers 236-21237-21238-21238-21 and 239-21.

[2:52:11] And then I'd also like to make a motion to introduce by title only and wait for the reading.

[2:52:15] Separate.

[2:52:16] Oh.

[2:52:16] No.

[2:52:16] Separate.

[2:52:17] We can't just put them together.

[2:52:18] Let's do them separately.

[2:52:19] Okay.

[2:52:20] I'll second.

[2:52:21] That first motion.

[2:52:25] On the agenda, it says, setting aside approvals for a 21-unit townhome project number, pp2018-111, do you need that as well?

[2:52:35] I do not.

[2:52:36] I just need what's on the screen.

[2:52:37] Great.

[2:52:38] Sorry.

[2:52:38] That's okay.

[2:52:39] We have a motion in a second.

[2:52:40] Can I get a roll call?

[2:52:42] Clarke.

[2:52:43] Hi.

[2:52:44] Do you try?

[2:52:45] Hi.

[2:52:45] Want to see know?

[2:52:46] Yes.

[2:52:46] Yes. Orozco?

[2:52:47] Aye.

[2:52:48] Parker?

[2:52:49] Yes.

[2:52:50] Gidoz Carter?

[2:52:50] Aye.

[2:52:51] Anzacito?

[2:52:52] Aye.

[2:52:52] The motion carries.

[2:52:55] And then I would like to make a motion to introduce by title only in a way further reading of an ordinance rescinding ordinance number 1-4-2-0-2-1.

[2:53:06] I'll second.

[2:53:08] Motion in a second.

[2:53:09] Can I get a roll call?

[2:53:11] Clark?

[2:53:12] Aye.

[2:53:13] Tietra?

[2:53:13] Aye.

[2:53:14] Montesino?

[2:53:14] Yes.

[2:53:15] Orozco?

[2:53:16] Hi.

[2:53:16] Parker?

[2:53:17] Hi.

[2:53:18] You get us, Carter?

[2:53:19] Hi.

[2:53:19] And I'll see you then.

[2:53:20] Hi.

[2:53:21] The motion carries.

[2:53:23] There are no emergency items and item 16 requests and scheduling future agenda items.

[2:53:29] Councilmember Parker.

[2:53:30] I'd like to bring back for discussion and possible action regarding to our flock cameras in the

[2:53:40] city.

[2:53:42] Anything else?

[2:53:43] Seeing none, thank you very much.

[2:53:49] We are adjourned.

[2:53:51] No, we're discussing.

[2:54:01] Recording stopped.

City Council Meeting

Transcript