All right, one, two, three. We're almost ready.
All right, we are a little bit late out of closed session coming back, anything to report out of closed session.
Nothing to report, okay. And can I get a roll call?
Clerk, present, do you try?
Modestina?
What else go?
Present.
Parker. Here.
Here. Here.
And so see you. Here.
We have quorum.
And Mayor Protem, clerk, could you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance?
Just my job now.
Please stand and join us.
But I'd have a minute to disagree.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
And to the Republic for which it stands.
One nation under God and the people with liberty and justice for all.
All right, we don't have any report for disbursements or miscellaneous documents report.
No report out of closed session.
We will move on to item seven, oral communications.
This is the time 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 banner jurisdiction of the city council.
No action or discussion shall be taken on any item presented.
Except that any council member may respond to statements made or questions asked or may ask questions for clarification.
All matters of an administrative nature will be referred to staff.
All matters relating to council will be noted in the minute.
And maybe scheduled for discussion at a future meeting or referred to staff for clarification and report.
All speakers are asked to fill out a speaker card and leave it at the podium.
Speakers are asked to announce their name and district in which they live in order to obtain an accurate record for the minutes.
And moving on to seven eight oral communications from the public.
Do we have any public oral communication at this time.
Mayor may I do the Spanish interpretation.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
To use the Spanish interpretation device is obtained from the table by the interpretation booth.
Turn it on and make sure it's on channel E.
To use the assisted listening, turn the device to channel A.
If you can't hear, check that the device is on.
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Please return it before you leave.
Thank you.
of lectures.
Now, what I'm going to say, I'm going to say thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening.
I placed my card in there earlier.
I thought you guys would call me up.
Thank you for this opportunity to introduce myself.
My name is Michelle McCarty.
I actually live in Salinas, but I work here in Watsonville.
So I wanted to come and introduce myself.
I work for brighter bites, and what brighter bites is is a nutrition, education,
and food, um, disbursement distribution program.
So we got a grant to come to the Barrow Valley, and we started working with Radcliffe and
MSD elementary schools with our program.
And, um, we had such a wonderful relationship with second harvest food bank here, and
it was such a successful program that we actually were able to expand it.
And so now I'm working with MSD, Alonie, and H.A.
I'm working with MSD elementary schools.
Um, I just sent them two of those are doing summer programming this summer.
So I just sent them, um, some information on how to apply for summer programming as well.
And I've already had reached out to the migrant head starts that are adjacent to those schools
to see about them joining our programming.
So what we do is we create bags of produce.
It's 100% fruits and vegetables in case you're not aware.
And we partnered with schools.
We pay for everything.
We have no charge to the school or to the families that participate.
The, um, teachers are required as part of our contract with the school to teach eight
20 minute nutrition lessons from the catch curriculum, which is the Accordinated
Approach to Child Health.
And, um, in this area here, thank goodness.
We still get to our budget was cut.
So we actually changed a lot in Monterey County.
Um, but, but we got to do here.
The teachers get a bag also as a thank you for mass for teaching those lessons.
And one of your awesome teachers at a loan.
He actually cooks with the children because she can't eat all of the.
It's, it's about 20 pounds of produce every two weeks that we do.
We come every other week to do our distribution.
So she does cooking with the kids and it's fabulous.
She sends me pictures all the time I love it.
Anyway, thank you for this opportunity.
Brighter bites.org if you have any questions.
Thank you so much.
I certainly will look up that organization.
It's a pleasure to meet you.
Any other comments from the public?
Good evening.
Um, Marissa Cio.
esteem members of the council.
My name is Nancy Billissich.
I'm the director of Watsonville, aptile Santa Cruz Adult Education.
Located at the district office 294 Green Valley Road.
I'm here today to address.
An urgent safety concern regarding the crosswalk directly in front of our school.
The crosswalk serves not only our adult learners, but school students from PVL of eight.
And also the families, staff, and other community members who pass through this area daily.
During the day and at night.
Currently this crosswalk.
Lax efficient visibility.
Or safety.
Making it difficult for drivers to notice pedestrians.
Especially during low visibility conditions like dust or night.
Our school operates throughout the day, including the evening hours for adult
learners.
Additionally, PVL of eight program, which serves students at the district office.
Operates at the same location.
We have a steady flow of pedestrians.
From adult learners to families.
Staff without proper lighting or warning signals.
The safety of everyone who uses the crosswalk is a serious risk.
Which can no longer be ignored.
To show how deeply this issue affects our community.
I presented.
A petition of over 200 individuals.
Including students, parents, staff, and community.
And that was just a quick.
Please sign this petition if you agree.
You all express their strong support for addressing this dangerous crosswalk.
Dr. Heather Contreras is also in strong support.
We are seeking the installation of proper lighting.
Flashing pedestrian signals.
An island in the middle at this crosswalk is a very wide street.
We urge the City Council to take action to protect everyone who walks, drives,
or relies on this busy pedestrian area.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Thank you, Dr.
Any other comments from the public?
Moving on to oral communications from the council.
Any oral or public communications at this time.
Council or mayor.
Clark.
Thank you, Mayor Salcedo.
I just want to take a few moments to recognize a staff member with the City of Watsonville,
who is unfortunately going to be leaving us this Friday.
Our public works director, Courtney Lindberg.
It has been a pleasure having you with us.
In the few short years you have been here.
You have done a lot.
And we thank you.
I thank you all.
Everyone else speak for themselves.
I thank you so much for everything that you've done.
You will be missed.
And darn that other city that I'm not going to name right now.
Because I'm at it for taking you from us.
Good luck with your future.
Thanks.
Thank you, Mayor.
Any other comments from council at this time?
Council member Orozco.
Thank you, Mayor.
I'll like to begin this evening by congratulating one of our district three residents on an extraordinary
milestone through a hundredth birthday.
On February 26th, how do you say?
Ishi Bashi will celebrate a century of life in leadership.
As a long time member of the Westview Poverstair in Church and the Watsonville Sanctuary's
chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, she has made lasting contributions to our community.
At a time when women were always aware, how do you as a leader in the strawberry industry here in the
Parallel Valley?
Well, raising six children, 14 grandchildren, and 11 great grandchildren.
With thank her for her resilience leadership and decades of service to Watsonville and the Parallel Valley.
On another note, it was also great to welcome planet fitness other ribbon cutting,
continuing investment in health and wellness strength and support.
Continuing investment in health and wellness strength is our local economy and supports a higher
quality of life for our residents.
So welcome planet fitness to our beautiful Watsonville community.
I also want to thank council member Orozco.
For bringing us together, what Congress will miss a lot for for a productive conversation about
Watsonville's priorities, including infrastructure investment, economic development,
and the impacts, federal institutions are having on health care access in our community.
I also stood with registered nurses from across our region to support
safe access to health care in a community like ours where many families
already face barriers.
No one should be, no one should delay seeking care because of fear or uncertainty.
Finally, just a reminder that the Friends of Watsonville Parks and Community
Services will host the 24th Annual Sister Chavez Community Awards on March 26th at 530 p.m. in
the Community Room. Council members, you are all invited.
We are also currently accepting nominations, so please submit them through our website at
Friends of Watsonville, PCS.org.
Thank you.
Thank you, council member Orozco, council member Dutra.
Thank you, thank you.
My first thing is I'd like, I know Dr. Billissich, the crosswalk that you're talking about,
as always, the question of this area is like, who does it belong to?
Does it belong to the city or does it belong to the county?
And I believe we stop at the bridge, right?
And once you pass the bridge, it becomes county.
But I think she's being told by the county that it's not theirs, right?
So we definitely need to have this clarified in the county.
And hopefully step up and work with the school district to get that to take care of.
I also wanted to say, I was able to attend the 50th anniversary for meals on
wheels.
At we just had, it was really awesome.
You know, especially during a time when we have a president who's got a lot of the funding for
meals and wheels, just to see the community come together.
The keynote speaker was Secretary Penetta.
He gave an awesome keynote.
And he basically said that it is times like this that the strongest people to make the
the biggest impact are the community members itself.
And because meals and wheels is based off of community and organization built from local people,
making sure it happens means we're the ones that have the actual power making sure people are getting fed.
So I also attended the planet fitness.
Oh, grand opening.
It is packed.
I mean, this is people who are waiting for this.
They told me yesterday that at the height, there's about 200 people.
In there, working out and socializing.
I saw a lot of socializing.
I think we created a great space for people to go and socialize.
I hear laughing out there because people know that's true.
There was, I drove by once.
I hear a lot.
A lot of socializing.
But, you know, what we need spaces like that, especially if it's for young people who are, you know,
define a space that can work out and socialize.
It's a two-for-one.
And my last thing, I just, you know, we just finished watching the Olympics.
And I really just have to say that, you know, these young people, just could get 10 more seconds.
These young people, these Olympians, they work really hard at their craft.
And I just really saw some hope in America.
I saw young people who are really working hard at what they want.
And I just encouraged that, you know, for all people I know we're facing, you know,
and in crazy times, but, you know, we stay focused and we work hard.
Maybe one day, one of us can be Olympians.
Thank you.
Councilmember Parker.
Yes, like that.
And I just, like, remind everybody that plan of fitness is also for old people.
Or older people.
And where they can socialize and meet others too.
I'm not plugging myself in any way.
Okay.
So, when we talk about this, thank you, Councilwoman Odasco for what you updated,
and all of it was, all of it was wonderful.
And we did meet with our, our Congresswoman, and it was very productive.
Because she has done so much for Watsonville and advocating at the federal level.
And going back over there and fighting the battle with a Trump administration and bringing money.
More money than Watsonville's ever seen from the federal government in, I can't tell you how long.
So, our, our toilets will still flush and the water will still run.
And that is due to federal money's coming in.
And our fabulous staff, which leads me to our public works person who,
I've given her some grief along the way, Courtney.
Sorry about that.
But she is extraordinary.
And she has done more in the time she's been here.
In my memory.
And so effective and so responsive to the community.
And not just our whining that we, you know, we do appear, but community.
And greatly appreciated across the board.
And we're losing you to, well, Casey won't say it by Marina.
But slightly different.
Job, right? You're changing the course of what you've learned and you're moving on to higher the
higher spaces in the world. And I just want to congratulate you and say, we will miss the
heck out of you. And you helped Watsonville in so many ways. And if we can get anybody who's
even, I think we're going to need three or four people to replace you. And I'm not even sure
that's going to happen. So congratulations.
Yeah.
Yeah, I couldn't pass the opportunity. Yeah, you know, to say, you know, thank you and thank you
for Miss Courtney, you know, done a great job, you know, even though with our wine, yeah, we
wine a lot. But we're working together. We were a very
effect that as a group and we build a lot of projects and your tenetures. So thank you.
Thank you, you know, council members. I just have a few things. One, I wanted to take a moment to
genuinely thank every single council member up here in my initial remarks for going to all
the events that you are able to attend. I am very grateful. I cannot go to everything as I
have a real, you know, other job. And I know that the fellow council members that are here have my
back can make sacrifices, can attend. I am greatly appreciative of all the events that our council
members go to. I was unable to go to the Czech ceremony that Zolafgren was there. But many of our
council members were able to attend and I really appreciate of that. Similar with the ribbon cutting
ceremony for planet fitness that council member Orozco and council member Dutra were able to attend.
So I just wanted to start with a thank you. I said it in November when I was elected. I am really
thankful for the working relationship that we, the seven of us have on the diet and off the diet and
all the work that all of you do for Watsonville. I am really looking forward, eventually, to the retreat.
It's been something we've been sort of percolating for three years since my appointment. I think it'll be
a wonderful opportunity for us to work together, learn about a little bit more about decision-making
elective bodies and so I'm really looking forward to that. In terms of what we've been doing in February,
I had an opportunity to attend the City Select Committee. I appointed council member Montesino
on the laugh for the Lafco appointment. I had opportunities to speak extensively with Poco Estrada,
former mayor and district four representative from Lafco. I had an opportunity to have extensive meeting
with the CEO of Watsonville Community Hospital Steve Gray. I had opportunities to have coffee
with our new chief chief chef. I had opportunities to speak with June Ponce. Lots of meetings. I just also
wanted to shout out the Watsonville Rotary Club. I was able to judge their speech and debate team.
They had a contest of Watsonville High School students and the principal from Watsonville High also attended
and they were remarkable. I think they're going to do the student that was ultimately selected. It's
going to do amazing in the national competition that she'll end up being at. So we have a lot on the
horizon. The retreat is coming. Many of us will be in DC the 15th through the 18th to continue to advocate.
Money is being shook and loose from the federal tree and we are going to do our best to advocate for
our projects here in Watsonville. So this group, the seven of us, are working very hard for you
and I'm very proud of the work that is being done. So thank you.
Okay moving on. We have presentations and I will come down for that.
Thank you.
This presentation is evening and this goes with the theme that I'm going to be using for text
which is a free excellence from the individual.
So it's a great pride that I'm going to be up to in the end tonight.
So let me tell you a little bit about Jeanine.
Jeanine often is a dedicated volunteer at the youth center.
Care for plants both inside and outside of the patio.
Her expertise and enthusiasm benefit not only depends on also youth program participants and staff.
As she shares her knowledge generously.
Jeanine regularly visits on Mondays and other days as visits to maintain the plants.
She also contributes to making treats herself and her efforts clearly reflect her love for the community.
Where did you get your green thumb Jeanine?
It was just cultured by my love for plants.
It's basically hit and missed.
Well, we really appreciate everything that you've done for our centers.
And we want to give you this proclamation and this appreciation for all.
Thank you so much for your individual excellence.
We really appreciate you.
Thank you.
I just see someone in the background taking pictures who's that.
I always like to call out friends or family.
Is that your family?
No.
Thank you.
And that's I'm going to be honoring Planned Parenthood this evening.
Can I have a representative please?
Yeah.
Hi.
I do know exactly who was coming from Planned Parenthood.
Crystal.
Nice to meet you.
Desiree.
Nice to meet you.
So this is the first time in over 10 years that we had an opportunity to recognize Planned Parenthood.
And before I read the prepared remarks I have.
I have worked with central salt survivors for six years.
I have worked with victims of crime who have directly used your services.
And I am extremely grateful for all the things you do in our community.
Both for survivors and for the people of our community that just need help care.
There are so many aspects of the spectrum of.
Provider ship that you have.
And at the moments where so many of your clinics are closing.
I am so grateful that you were able to stay in Watsonville.
And recognizing you tonight is really part of the bigger picture that I had for civic health,
which incorporates public health.
I'm grateful that you stayed in Watsonville that you were able to keep your doors open.
And I wholeheartedly support Planned Parenthood and everything that you do.
So with that, I'll read the prepared remarks.
But thank you very much.
The Planned Parenthood Marmante was in the Health Clinic opened in 1995.
And we located to a large facility in May 2011 at 398 South Green Valley Road.
The new clinic offers eight exam rooms five more than before updated equipment at eight consultation rooms.
Since the closer closure of the West Side Health Center, patient visits from Santa Cruz of Codes have increased by 85%.
The Watsonville Clinic serves over 10,000 patients annually and is on track to exceed the previous year's visits.
Planned Parenthood remains committed to providing high quality health care, education and advocacy to help patients make informed decision-making for their well-being.
I'm sure you have a few prepared remarks.
Before I move forward, you seek I just wanted to give you a round of applause.
Thank you very much.
Good evening, Mayor and members of the CD Council.
I want to sincerely thank you for this incredible recognition.
It truly means so much to be acknowledged by the community we are proud to serve.
For more than 30 years here in Watsonville, we have had the privilege of caring for community by providing culturally competent, scientifically accurate,
given free health care that centers each patient's needs, dignity, and voice.
That commitment has never wavered.
At times, the importance of a work has been debated, but has never been debated inside our health center is our dedication to our patients.
What defines us is not the obstacles we face, it is our resilience.
We remain steadfast in keeping our doors open, continuing to provide essential care and showing up every single day as a trusted partner in Watsonville.
This recognition is a powerful reminder that the work we do matters.
For our dedicated staff, and on behalf of the patients who placed their trust in us, thank you for your support and standing with us,
because as a community, we are in this together.
Thank you.
Yeah, would you mind, could you leave us please?
No!
Oh, you're all that brought in your mind!
I didn't owe it!
Thank you so much ladies for coming today.
Thank you for honoring us.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
You bring anything.
Maran?
Yeah.
May I make a comment?
All right, thank you, Planned Parenthood.
You have served the women in my family throughout the years.
And thank you for being in Watsonville.
It is, I've been a teacher for 40 years
and let me tell you many, many, many, many students
and their families have gone to Planned Parenthood
and have found health, safety, and all your services
are greatly appreciated.
So I just want to say thank you very much
and thank the mayor for having given you this resolution
and recognized you.
So, you know, I wish we could do more.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Council Member Deutron.
Deutron.
Sorry.
That's okay.
So I drove by today and you guys had some protesters
out front and I was very surprised because, you know,
people are not surprised.
But you know what I'm saying is that people don't,
they think that it's an abortion clinic
when you guys offer, I think, 90% of it is healthcare.
And that just is really, as much as if we try to educate
the community, they still get in their head.
They think that Planned Parenthood just serves abortions.
When, in fact, it not only serves women,
it also serves men.
And so I know that you are, you know, here in our community,
working hard to make sure that you can provide service
to people of all ages and I appreciate that.
And I just wanted to get out to those people today
and be like, what are you guys doing?
This is like such a good, and the times we live in,
this is offering service to people who may not have it,
who are maybe afraid to speak to their parents about what's happening.
And it gives them an opportunity.
So thank you, keep up the good work.
I support you guys.
Thank you, Councilmember.
And there are many other locations you could work
where maybe you don't have to deal with that.
And thank you, each and every one of you for your bravery,
for saying yes, and for showing up for your patients.
It's extraordinary.
And you know, you could be somewhere else,
but you were choosing our community,
our extended community because of the closures.
I am just so grateful for the choices that you've made
and the impacts, and so many of them are silent impacts,
but huge.
I really recognize you, and thank you.
So thank you.
Moving on to the consent agenda.
All items appearing on the consent agenda are recommended actions
that are considered to be routine,
and will be opted upon as one motion.
Any items removed will be considered immediately after the motion.
The mayor will allow for public input,
prior to the approval of the consent agenda.
Do we have any public input on items on the consent agenda?
Seeing none.
And any comments from Council on the consent agenda?
May your pretend clerk?
I have no comments, but I'd like to make a motion to accept.
I'll second that, but I'd like to provide a comment.
Comment.
Council member Montesino.
Yeah, I just want to congratulate staff on the great work,
nine G. I'm not took a good look at a while, so great work.
So thank you.
Council member Roscoe.
Yeah, I would like to echo that remark
for both the IU representatives and the City of Watsonville.
I know you have to sub-work very hard on securing the contract.
Thank you.
Any other comments from Council?
I say I have a motion in a second, and I get a roll call.
Mark?
Aye.
Do you try?
Aye.
Montesino?
Yes.
Otosco?
Aye.
Marker?
Yes.
Gido's Carter?
Aye.
The motion carries unanimously.
And moving on to reports for Council.
We have 11.
May the 225-227 strategic plan update.
Good evening. Good evening, Mayor. Members of the Council, make call of occupity city manager.
It is my pleasure to be here tonight to present to you your update on your city council strategic plan for 25 through 27.
As you recall, there are seven priorities that the Council has identified for this two year budget period.
Community engagement and well-being, economic development, efficient and well-performing government, fiscal health, housing, infrastructure and environment, and public safety.
Here's your beautiful executive team as it stands tonight.
Thank you.
Just a quick progress check. So this gives you an overall snapshot of where we are in all of the goals we've identified through the strategic plan to support the priorities that you as the Council have identified.
Again, there are seven goals and 161 initiatives, projects or activities that our departments have outlined and are working towards that support those seven goals.
Fifteen percent of those initiatives, two date and remember this is just for this first half of this fiscal year, 2526.
Fifteen percent of those 161 initiatives have been completed.
40 percent of them are considered ongoing.
So they're kind of like projects that are continual and have a new year or week after week after week after day after day.
62 percent, or sorry, 62 of them are in progress and have begun and are working towards completion and then we have 11 that are delayed that we will be picking up in the next several months or year.
For the first priority, community engagement and well-being, you can see on each of these kind of interest slides for the seven priorities, you'll see the little bar at the bottom.
It gives you kind of a snapshot again of where we are in terms of the goals or the work plan areas for that specific priority area.
As the council developed this strategic plan for this two year period, the council also identified specific strategies under each of the categories.
So the strategies for community engagement and well-being are to creatively increase community involvement, expand programming for all and expand city communications and outreach efforts.
And there's a few highlights that I'd like to point out to the council that our departments have worked on in the past six months or so.
The first is that the library adopted and not reached plan that will be reviewed on an annual basis.
The plan helps to connect the library with underserved communities and shares resources reaching those who might not otherwise engage.
And this plan strengthens partnerships while increasing awareness of services and support in the library's role as an inclusive community hub.
Our police department uses social media as a platform to educate and increase safety with campaigns such as national speeding awareness in national pedestrian safety month.
The police department also has many efforts that include our reaching the neighborhoods and those are which resulted in 14 neighborhoods participating in national let out this past year, which is a great feat.
Finally we wanted to highlight Watsonville Academy and do a quick commercial plug for this program as many of you know.
Watsonville residents and business owners participated in the 2025 Academy.
This is a free nine week program that offers a unique opportunity to take a deeper look at how city government works through hands-on experiences.
It really kind of highlights our emphasis on community involvement and applications for the 2026 cohort open in March of this year.
In terms of economic development the strategies that the council identified here were to support local businesses attract new and diversified businesses.
Engaged with property owners and investors to utilize the downtown specific plan as a catalyst for development.
Some of the highlights here are that just in the past six months the city's process 255 new business licenses.
The city managers office and the community development department are also working actively with a consultant to promote opportunities in Watsonville to national retailers and restaurants at trade shows.
Our consultants retail strategies is conducting a comprehensive analysis of our demographics our consumer behavior and market conditions and engaging with our property owners to pair them with national brands.
Our airport is also currently conducting an economic benefit analysis.
The study is meant to identify, quantify, qualify and communicate with local economic and social and community impacts derived from the activities and operations at the airport.
The city is currently underway and is planned to be completed by the end of this fiscal year.
The next priority is efficient in high performing government strategies here are to modernize and streamline city services develop effective advocacy to ensure local control and improve customer service.
A couple items here to highlight especially under developing effective advocacy to ensure local control first we have the traffic advisory committee.
The work to improve traffic safety in all of our neighborhoods.
Otherwise known as the tack it offers community members the opportunity to collaborate with city staff to develop citywide traffic improvements.
They meet on a quarterly basis to discuss current and upcoming traffic projects and a brainstorm other potential improvements for conductors, bikers and pedestrians.
The residents have ever disfaded in the tack in several meetings over this past year and it's been quite fruitful as far as conversations go and in determining next steps.
Our IT department has also made significant progress this past year in modernizing city services and strengthening our digital infrastructure.
They've successfully led coordination with our finance airport and community development departments to launch an online portal that allows residents and businesses to initiate permits and make payments for fees.
24 seven from their homes reducing weight times and improving convenience for everyone.
On the cybersecurity front, they've also achieved some major milestones with the substantial completion of multi factor authentication deployment across many of our city systems.
Next in fiscal health, our strategies here are to ensure long-term fiscal stability maintain a balanced budget and explore innovative ways to generate new revenue.
Highlights here include multi-year labor agreements, one of which was just past this evening.
And the implementation of our our compensation study.
We answered into three-year contracts with most bargaining units and those MOUs reflect incorporating the results of the compensation study that we completed, which is a great fee for HR.
In terms of our budget and long-term financial sustainability, the finance department prepared a balanced 2527 budget.
You'll get an update on this evening.
And the plan and strategies prioritize and achieve government finance officers association of the United States and Canada certified achievement for excellence in financial reporting.
For the 20 second consecutive year in a row, so our finance team is very, very proud of that.
Under housing, there's been great strides in this arena also over the past six months.
The strategies here are to encourage thoughtful, mixed youth development, increase housing options and encourage the development of ADUs.
First up, our our housing team has been super busy and continues to make great strides towards the goal of providing and supporting additional housing for all sectors of our community.
In addition to managing the ongoing grant programs that they have some of the notable achievements include assisting through the entitlement and building permit processes for new housing developments like the Hillcrest of states.
Bringing a variety of housing options for the community.
The CDD team also helped place seven new homeowners into brand new homes, including three city employees in these new developments.
The city's affordable housing ordinance was updated to include a local preference rule, giving priority for affordable units to those who live and work in Watsonville.
And a number of zoning code amendments were approved in support of implementing the first phase of our housing element.
Finally, our CDD team assisted with the application of affordable affordable housing and sustainable communities grant, which awarded $39 million for a mix housing.
And use development and downtown Watsonville and partnership with Metro and midband housing.
So lots and lots of movement there.
Secondly, as you all know, the council in September adopted the city's first homeless homelessness strategic plan.
The plan focuses on forced strategic areas housing policy and funding prevention and resources and management and enforcement.
And the work plan that stems from this this action plan is outlined in the report and includes multiyear timelines, milestones and performance metrics.
Since the adoption in September of this plan, city departments have met monthly for the past four months to report on and track progress.
Under infrastructure and environments, now the strategies here are to address aging infrastructure, ensure sidewalk and road improvements are equitably implemented and to promote environmental sustainability.
A couple highlights here, many of you know, we opened up our our cattle hand pickle ball courts and the newly renovated basketball courts this past summer and they've been very highly utilized since then, so we're super excited about that.
There's also been significant progress on some of our water infrastructure projects design is underway for the replacement of the city's headworks and influence pump station.
As many of you know, headworks is the first process of the wastewater treatment plant that receives up all raw sewage.
The project consists of replacing an influence pump station preliminary screening facilities grid removal and the associated electrical and controls at an estimated cost of $35 million.
The city was just recently awarded over a million dollars through Congresswoman Zo Loffering for this project.
And then design is also underway for the replacement of the treatment plants co-generation engine and with new energy recovery technology and upgrades to six of the city's wells.
Last but not least, under public safety, our strategies that are attracting routine public safety employees coordinate with partners for emergency preparation and develop innovative safety programs.
First up here is a fire department training as many of you know, the city of Watsonville is the home of our our our counties training facility for all of our fire departments.
And our training facility hosted a week long training regarding emergency incident command fire agencies from across the county gathered in Watsonville to conduct a live scenario training and incident management.
At the airport, we also hosted an FAA table top exercise.
The FAA's safety stand-down events are designed to enhance safety awareness and reduce risks in aviation.
At Watsonville Municipal, the 2025 event focused on specific areas that address first responder action to accidents on and adjacent to the airfield.
And include partners from our police department, Watsonville Fire, Cal Fire, County Sheriff's Highway Patrol and our regional 911 Center.
And finally, last highlight from the police departments, this is regarding their their work in building trust through community feedback.
The police department continues to use my 90, an automated tool built to capture the voice and of the community by automatically sending 911 college short surveys about their interaction with the Watsonville police departments.
Based on some of the surveys, it was also that they've received as of recently 83% of people report having a positive view of the agency and 88% of people report they were treated with respect by police officers and by the department.
So that brings me to kind of looking ahead and thinking about what's happening in the next half of this fiscal year.
We've got many, many things planned under capital projects and infrastructure.
We've got the Ramsey Park Project coming to an end this calendar year.
The groundbreaking of the city Plaza Robotization Project will wrap up the library rooftop project that is currently underway.
The Harkens loop pedestrian bridge wastewater networks project and city citywide facility access that has to deal with upgrading our ID cards and security systems.
Under library and community programs, Watsonville reads 2026 will focus on indigenous voices.
There's going to be a lot of super exciting activities that come on to the library all around that.
Our new chief is going to continue the chief's advisory board through the police departments, which encourages ongoing community dialogue.
Then we have a number of you think community programs, including our cadet program, some of you think Academy and many more.
Under public safety, our child passenger safety education program continues to be well used.
We will continue to focus on fire department recruitment and bring as many new recruits as we can to our department.
Under technology operations and workforce, we've got our airport auto-pac system employee access.
Access model, which gives our employees better self service for time cards and so forth.
IT mutual aid agreements across the county and really looking into kind of how we manage AI in city operations.
Finally, with human resources, we're working on implementing the new job classifications and descriptions that we've worked on the past few years and updating our personal rules and regulations.
That brings me to the end of my presentation.
I just want to thank all of our department heads for all of their work on helping to put this report together along with recognizing studio vases who helps make our reports look good and readable as well.
If you have any questions and our department heads are behind me also who can help me dive into the technicalities.
Council member Montesino.
Where are we in way finding I think I missed it, you know.
Thank you.
We are currently working with call trends. So we have our contract with the fabricator. They are already working on it.
Our screens, our electronics screens have already been ordered. We had a little bit of a delay because we had to redesign the back of those screens to be able to not void our warranty.
So there was a little bit of redesign. You know, things that take time, you don't, you don't know these until you go into it into the project.
But at the current moment, our biggest hurdle to kind of finalize is, is call trends.
Most of our pilots, which are those kind of like toll structures at entry points, are in call trends right away.
And we're waiting for call trends, go ahead to be able to manufacture those and install them. So what you're going to see in the next few weeks is actually we're going to decommission our current science.
So you're going to see some of those older science being taken away and then soon after you're going to start noticing the new ones coming in and in two, three months.
We need, we need permission from call trends. We can't do it without it. So the one.
We cannot replace them with the pilots because it's not apples for apples. It's, you know, it's a, it's a little bit of a different infrastructure and we need their permits.
Yeah.
And do we, um, participate any, you know, time frame for that perimeter?
Well, they said it could take up to six months. We hope it will be less.
Is there a way we can push for this?
I'm pushing for that permit to come before Fabian retired.
Yeah.
That is the honest answer.
And one of the things, you know, I didn't see was, you know, and we're loved to see in the, in the future, it's like, how do we connect with the community more?
You know, because we do the same thing as any other agency, you know, Facebook, you know,
Twitter, whatever, whatever we use.
But we're not connecting to, you know, the, the people that, you know, Spanish-speaking community that we service.
And we're not connecting to a new visioner that a mundo with things that we're doing unless they're asking us, we're not reaching out.
I mean, I don't, I don't understand why it's so difficult.
You know, we should be, you know, you know, and the phone all the time with them and say, hey, you know, because now there's, you can even zoom in an interview or, you know,
a project that you're dealing, because I mean, we're doing so many things.
And like, maybe there's a no.
Like, you know, they don't know about the, there were changing the lights.
You know, they see in Raspberry Park, it's, you know, it'd be unless you're blind, you know.
But, you know, all the other stuff, they're not seeing, they're not, you know, we're not, you know,
we're not, you know, being recognized as a city for all these, all these things that we should, they shouldn't know.
I mean, you know, we should be able to just walk to the place and say, hey, you know, that way, but see, I'll tell you, I'll go over there.
And they're no clue.
You know, so, you know, how do we, you know, reach out, you know, to just local media, Spanish local media,
or, or, you know, or tap into, you know, the nonprofit, you know, you know, you know,
like they have their Facebook, are we tapping into, like, some of those resources to connect with their sites,
so their, you know, our sites can connect to theirs, so they get, you know, feedback on some of this stuff,
because, like I said, we're just not connecting, and it's not unfortunate, right?
Thank you, Water, Councilmember Montesino, we are on our way to way of finding.
Thank you.
I'll be here all night.
Councilmember Parker, and then Councilmember Deeter.
Okay.
Yeah, I was going to ask that because that question, and we still send our notice out that everybody gets,
you tell these wise, and it's in Spanish and English, and it kind of highlights.
But are you thinking more in terms of, like, delimundo, you know?
So, like, like, KSPW, if we, do we do, do we do that?
Yes.
We do that proactively.
We send press releases.
Our PIO is always available to you, interviews.
We make it ourselves available every time we do have a big initiative or something.
You make it happening in our city, and we make a point to reach out to all media outlets.
And Michelle is pretty great to make herself available for interviews, or have any of us that are subject matter experts be available.
Well, that's, that's good.
You're going to continue.
Some of it's not sexy.
It's just the way it is, and some of they want to cover something.
But I do like the idea of reaching out to our partners in the nonprofit community,
to add, because we do have great relationship with them to add in for me.
I mean, maybe we do that.
We do do that.
Okay.
I just wanted to say the city manager, Calo Baku, is actually our rap to, in the PV leaders group.
And we meet every Wednesday morning, tomorrow morning, before I say good morning to him.
He's already going to be on a Zoom call with all our community partners.
And I don't know if you want to speak a bit more about that.
Yeah, would you?
Yeah.
I'm happy to.
Yeah.
So as part of the PV collaborative, so this is a large group representing probably about 30 or so community organizations.
We meet every Wednesday morning.
Three times a month, virtually, and then one time a month in person.
As part of the agenda, there's always a point in time where there's an opportunity for the different governmental agencies to give an update.
So I usually spend our two minutes going through updates of, you know, items that are going to hit the council agenda that
I think, you know, many of our groups would be interested in along with making any announcements for special events that we have coming up, you know, things like our new chief swearing in and so forth.
So try to do that as much as possible.
Every time I get a chance to, if there's kind of bigger things that come up on the agenda, or things that we really want them to, you know, hammer home and pass on to their constituents, then I'll send email updates as well to all of those groups.
Kind of, I think, inspect what you expect kind of thing, and even though they're doing it voluntarily, right, because that's our, that's the group.
Everybody's allied. Okay, so one of the questions that I know I think our city manager had updated us on, but since you're talking about a whole plan.
For the public, how far are we on our lights?
On our lights?
We need answer. Go ahead.
Well, like, what's in my update, you read my update as well. So, well, as I said in my latest update, the lights, happy or there.
We got half of our shipment already. It's on hand, and we're waiting for the other one.
It will arrive sometime this week.
I believe our team is ready to dispatch our contractors on the week of March 9.
So, I believe I said that they will be coming from the north of the city to the south, but they will be able to get through the entire city in about two week period.
So you should see a little bit over 1,800 lights, light bulbs change, and our city become brighter overnight in the next two weeks.
So we're very, very excited about that.
As soon as we get that rest of the shipment, we will start installing.
That's great. That's great. We've been looking forward.
And our every single resident in the city is probably been looking forward to this for a long time.
I have another quick question. Over there on Green Valley Road by the school district.
Any lights up until, like the Hula-Han, where does the county start?
Over there.
Right before the crosswalk.
The good answer. Okay. So right before the crosswalk at Hula-Han and, right, and Green Valley.
So I heard Nancy Billisich talk about brightness of lights.
Are we going to light up the Green Valley up to where we are?
It's our responsibility.
And then I know that our supervisor will probably take the, you know, and keep on going with it in a positive way.
No, because it's, it's people and families and everything else.
So is that, is that something we have planned?
So we are, uh, replacing all our street lights.
Yeah.
The ones that we own that are ours that are some that are PG&E and some areas that don't have poles neither cities or PG&E.
And that will be face to of the project.
So once we finish this up, we're going to do a, uh, reassess.
Are there areas of the city that are still dark?
And what we can add new lights.
Okay.
So we're not done when we are done, but we will see us.
I mean, we don't know what that area is like.
We don't know what that area is like, until we do the project.
So, um, you know, we'll have to wait until like, and a margin, we assess.
Thank you, Nick, for your overview.
I have, I could have other questions.
But at this point, no, you gave me an ice overview.
I like the percentages.
I like the ongoing.
I would like to know about generically and maybe you can send this out on email or something.
All the ones that got stalled.
And, and the reasons why.
I mean, we could say it now.
But, you know, if they're stalled, I'm sure there's a good reason.
It's either a funding reason or it's a.
Um, Cal Trans reason or, you know, whatever it may be.
So thank you very much, though.
Councilmember Dutre.
Thanks.
I just have one question and one comment.
My comment is, um, I'll run guard to the lighting.
You got that, huh?
Um, um, uh, the comment is that I was just speaking to some constituency other day.
And, um, they had been gone for a while and they got home to their house.
And then they looked down their street towards the other end.
And there was like a bright light shining down there.
And they were very confused, like, well, what is that?
And then they looked further and they're like, oh, that was a street light.
And so I explained it that we've already been replacing the old, the ones that broke down.
So they must have broken down one in their street.
And they were like, what is that big, what's that bright light down there?
And then they, he like investigated.
And I said, the whole city is going to look like that very soon.
So there are 900 lights that have already been replacing our city.
So there are areas that are brighter.
And there are some that were there that now that have already been replaced because we're prioritizing that.
Yeah.
As a response to our community.
Well, I'm looking forward to, especially like the Martnelli area, that's really dark.
And then, uh, my question is, you, you, you've said in your, your presentation that there were 255 new business licenses given out.
That's a lot.
So I'm kind of curious because I can't.
I mean, to me and to maybe like someone who's just on the public.
They're like, where are these 255 new businesses?
They're just not what we think about, right?
Like it's not a retail store or a new restaurant necessarily.
Those business licenses are, could be service businesses that are in, in our community.
Could be a daycare center.
It could be an accountant, a new attorney office, people operating businesses from their homes.
But in reality, that is the commercial vitality of our city.
It's kind of like people entrepreneurial spirits.
It might not be businesses as we know them.
Yeah.
By the way that you guys were just like doing that.
I mean, I know you're doing this.
But like, the public doesn't see that.
We see complaints all day long where we're not bringing businesses into the community.
So, you know, I think that I was just curious what these 255 were.
And you're telling me their lawyers offices and daycares.
Okay.
Where else are you?
There you go.
And yes.
And thank you.
And to answer your question council member, Dutra, perhaps you can highlight one of those 255 businesses.
During the Watsonville business highlight opportunities that we will have this year.
We will be rotating through districts.
Starting with district one in numerical order.
And every council member and the rest of the council will be able to highlight businesses from their district.
Or anywhere else they would like to highlight.
So you will be six out of seven.
I know.
We're chomping at the bit to get it done.
But hopefully we'll be able to pick one of those new 255.
Yes.
Council member.
Roscoe.
Yeah.
I went up piggyback on the comment.
Council member Montesino said.
It's not about accessible government, right?
When we have our town hall meetings or any city function.
I feel he's always the same people that we expect to see in that type of environment.
So I'm going to I guess bring back the comment that I did a while back is we really need to go to the people.
Maybe having ice cream with a city and then right down the Plaza and then just sharing everything that we are doing because we are doing a lot.
So just I guess changing how we communicate in a way that it's more approachable.
And in different languages.
So I think that will be kind of exciting.
PVU as he also holds their delac meetings on a monthly basis.
And those representatives that show up to those meetings then take the information that they learn from that meeting and then share it across our schools.
So I would suggest reaching out to them and having the city be present.
At one of those meetings and sharing what we are doing.
They also have a parent conference coming up.
They're always looking for folks to provide a workshop or provide updates.
I'm sure we can come up with a creative way to present the information that we're doing through the city.
So I would like to see more of that kind of communication.
I also had a question in regards to technology.
We're going to be working on.
We're doing our website pretty soon.
That is in the work plan. We're working on rebuilding our website.
To make it more accessible and as clutter and easy to access information.
That's good to hear.
That's part of our compliance with new ADA.
We're doing anticipate when we could get further update on what we anticipate seeing.
The team is working on it or IT team and communications team are working on it.
I think I could have an update by the end of March on our work plan and kind of like more dates, specific dates.
Our contract with our current vendor goes through April.
So it's great time to kind of create that timeline and make progress in it.
Thank you.
Any other questions from Council? Council member Deutron?
I just want to comment.
I'm on regard to the website.
I just went to a city's website when I was a city council meeting.
I'm had a bit of a PDF statement.
And the meeting actually popped up under the website when you pulled it up.
So all you had to do is just click on the meeting.
You didn't have to go searching for it.
So that may be something that people need to easily accessible to them.
So I literally pulled up the website and the meeting was playing.
I just clicked on it.
One of our goals is to be able to reduce the number of clicking that has required to access information.
Because that will make it more accessible.
Yes.
Here here.
Let's clicking.
Any other comments?
All right. Moving on to 12A consideration of ordinance.
Amending Title VII chapter one of the Watsonville Municipal Code Street excavations.
Good evening.
Principal engineer.
Lizagara.
I pronounce that.
Lizagata.
Yeah.
There we go.
All right.
Can you hear me? Okay.
Yes.
All right.
Good evening.
Mayor Salcedo and council members.
My name is Miguel Lizaraga.
Principal engineer with the Public Works Department.
And tonight I'll be presenting.
For introduction and first reading in ordinance.
Mending Title VII chapter one of the municipal code.
Related to street excavations.
The purpose of this update is straightforward to better protect the city's
pavement investment and modernize how we manage,
trenching and utility work within the public right of way.
This update is coming forward now because Watsonville has been investing
significant public funds into his pavement program.
At the same time repeated trenching and newly improved streets
is reducing the life of those investments.
Our current code does not provide adequate protection for nearly
resurface or reconstructed streets and it does not require the level of
coordination that modern asset management practices call for it.
This ordinance brings us in line with best practices and already adopted
neighboring and statewide policies.
Street excavations are necessary.
Utilities need to install, repair and upgrade infrastructure and homeowners need
services.
The issue is not whether trenching happens.
It is often in the house soon after we've invested in
resurfacing a street.
Engineering research and regional experience show that even when
trench is restored to standard specifications.
The surrounding pavement is structurally weakened.
Repeated cuts accelerate deterioration.
The result is shorter pavement life and higher long-term reconstruction
costs.
In short, we risk eroding our own infrastructure investments.
As you can see from the graph here.
The pavement condition condition index of a street is negatively impacted
throughout the life of that street.
So what is this ordinance do?
This ordinance modernizes and strengthens our poor primary areas.
First, it clarifies permit requirements and oversight.
Second, it strengthens restoration standards and inspection
authority.
Third, it establishes to find more Victorian
periods on newly improved streets.
And fourth, it requires better coordination from utilities
operating within the city right of way.
The focus here is long-term pavement protection and fiscal stewardship.
Showing here is a little bit of avenue which we just
wrapped up paving this last fall.
As you can tell, it looks very nice when it's recently paved.
This ordinance establishes two clear protection periods.
For streets that receive lighter surface treatments such as
slurry seals or cap seals.
There would be a three year excavation moratorium.
For newly constructed or reconstructed streets with deeper structural
improvements, there would be a five year moratorium.
These timeframes are consistent with what other California agencies
have adopted.
Importantly, this does not prohibit all work.
It creates a strong presumption against cutting into
newly improved streets unless absolutely necessary.
If excavation must occur during a moratorium period,
whether due to emergency work or other unavoidable circumstances,
enhanced restoration requirements apply.
Instead of simply patching the trail,
restoration may include a full lane resurfacing,
surface grinding, base repairs, and striping replacement.
The goal is to return the street to a condition as close as
practical to what existed before the excavation.
This ensures that the project creating the impact bears the cost
of restoring the broader pavement integrity.
Another key element of this ordinance is improved coordination.
Public and private utilities would be required to submit annual
two year work plans to the city.
This allows public works to better align resurfacing schedules
with planned utility work and reduced repeated trenching.
Rather than reacting to cuts after resurfacing,
the project will be actively coordinated before improvements are made.
This is a significant improvement in long-term planning.
Although public work staff has been proactive and successfully coordinating future work
with all utilities, both public and private, within the public
right away, there's currently no requirement in our code for utilities to
participate in this coordination effort.
Watsonville has limited annual pavement funding, as I'm sure you're all
very aware of.
If streets fail early due to trenching, those dollars go less far.
This ordinance supports maintaining pavement condition targets,
improving our six year planning accuracy,
extending the service life of improvements,
protecting capital efficiency.
It shifts costs forward to the project that creates the
pavement impact, instead of distributing hidden costs
the entire community later through premature reconstruction cycles.
The city has invested close to $10 million in pavement restoration
projects since 2022.
These investments should be protected as much as practically possible.
Watsonville is not alone addressing this issue.
Sanctuary County has implemented a three year moratorium
and a lifetime trench failure warranty.
The city of Santa Cruz expanded restoration requirements on the high
PCI streets, aka newly paved streets.
There are examples of municipalities implementing investment protections
like this one all over the country.
In California, cities of all sizes have adopted similar protections.
These agencies reach the same conclusion.
Even when well restored trenches,
short and pavement life,
and newly paved streets, excuse me.
Even when well restored trenches, short and pavement life,
newly paved streets deserve protection.
This ordinance aligns Watsonville with established best practices
across the state and across the nation.
If this ordinance is not adopted,
newly improved streets remain vulnerable to repeated
trenching without enhanced restoration requirements.
The likely consequences include reduced pavement life,
earlier reconstruction cycles, increased long-term capital costs,
less effective use of limited pavement funding,
and more resident complaints about deteriorating streets.
This is ultimately a policy decision about protecting
public investment and practicing responsible asset management.
There are trade-offs to this.
In the short term, projects that require trenching and newly improved streets
may see higher restoration costs.
Utility companies, homeowners, and contractors may experience
increased project costs in those situations
when streets are freshly paid.
However, the long-term benefits include extended
pavement life, reduced maintenance costs,
and stronger infrastructure stewardship.
The choices between visible projects specific costs
now, or hidden system-wide costs later.
In closing, this ordinance is about protecting
Watsonville's infrastructure investments
and improving long-term fiscal responsibility.
The staff recommends introducing the ordinance for first reading.
I'm happy to answer any of your questions.
Councilmember Deutra.
Thank you.
I guess welcome.
I don't think I've ever met you before.
But welcome to Watsonville.
And this is something that I've been really...
I've been wanting for a while.
I hate when we redo our roads,
and then all of a sudden someone's cutting into them again.
We saw that on Freedom Boulevard with in front of Starbucks.
And we just see it all over.
And right now, I'm seeing it on Stanford,
which we just repaved last year, I think it was.
And it is, they're tearing the whole street up.
I mean, we just paid.
It was probably over a million dollars.
I'm sure Stanford costs to redo.
And now, PG&E has gone in there and tore it all up.
I guess my question is, I mean,
so can you pull up the Maritime the three-year five-year?
So the three-year Maritime is for streets,
resurface, it's receiving surface treatments.
So there's only if it's three years
if only it received a surface treatment, right?
It's going to be five years if they had it actually re-build it.
Correct.
So if it's any reconstruction of the pavement,
whether that's we're installing new asphalt over the existing asphalt
or removing what's already there and putting in new
a new section of road.
Okay.
I mean, I don't know how to pronounce fields,
but I mean, can we make it both five years?
I mean, even if it's resurfaced,
I feel like that should have the same amount of years
as if they're messing up our streets.
They're messing up our streets.
And a resurfaced street after three years
is going to look pretty good condition still.
So is it possible to make them both five years?
I mean, that's a policy decision.
Yeah.
I mean, I just think that I know I probably a lot of us here
from our constituents like you just read these streets
and even though it's just resurfacing,
they still look nice, you know?
And then they get torn up.
So I would like to see it be five years all the way around.
Even if it's just if the street was just resurfaced
or if it had a bigger job to it.
So this is, sorry.
This recommendation is based on the amount of investment
that each of these treatments get a surface seal
investment is significantly lower than a whole reconstruction
over road.
I understand that.
So these are just basically our recommendations.
Yeah.
I understand that.
And you went off of cost of like what project
one was more expensive than the other.
So you're doing three to five.
I'm going off of visual.
So to me, I into a regular person.
No one's going to know.
They're not going to know the difference in price, you know?
Well, let me add just a little bit to that.
The three to five is pretty standard because when we do to three
the slurry only lasts like two to three years.
So that's when it would kind of be in the cycle to repair it anyway.
I mean, the five might be a bit too aggressive for that kind of treatment.
I get what you're saying.
But it doesn't last that long.
Whereas if it was something like freedom, it makes sense.
Because we're like, that's brand new construction.
But a slurry seal doesn't last that.
But we don't get to our roads within three years.
I mean, we're getting to our roads.
I mean, 10, 15, 20 years.
So we were.
We were.
But I mean, we are.
I mean, we really aren't.
There's no way we're going to circle back in three years
and research slurry a word a row that was slurry three years before.
It's just the way it's just going to be pushed down.
So this way it biases a couple years that like, okay, if it does happen,
then we.
Well, it doesn't it doesn't because just just us we have to.
The the other utilities also have to access the infrastructure that's on their ground,
right.
So what we will be seeing then Miguel places pick out if I.
I'm not understanding this correctly.
But we will have to issue kind of like permits for work that needs to be done
underground.
If we're if we're too restricted, we will we will find ourselves.
Having to permit it anyways.
And you know, it's just not it's just not for bidding.
It's not like that yet you can not.
I don't think we're going to talk about two different things. I'm just saying if they cut into the road between zero and five years,
five years, five years is a long time when there's only like, you know, just kind of like the outer layer of the road.
We're not going to have a trust.
I'm more than saying that this is the cycle by which we will repair our payment. That's not what we're saying at all.
I mean, that's the thing is don't. I mean, I mean, I see streets around me that probably have been slurried in years.
I'm deaf. I'm going to go right.
So if we're supposed to restore them every three years, that's just not happening.
So I don't, I mean, we're moving forward on something that we're acting like we're restoring it every three years.
I'm just asking, put in two more years and because what happens if they do it your four, then it's covered.
You know what I'm saying? And then you don't have to worry about the three years story that we're never going to get to in three years.
I don't understand. Maybe I can, I can chime in here.
So there are as part of our standard details that we'll be presenting to the council next council meeting March 10.
We do have restoration requirements that tie into this, this moratorium.
For example, if you're cutting into the street within that three year period, five year period, your restoration requirements increase significantly on your street.
And I can show that here.
So as you can see, you're cutting into the, into the street with a trench, but your restoration limits are significantly larger than what that trench is.
This is for arterial streets, so I think freedom, green valley, parking slew.
So those requirements are lock stricter, much more area that needs to be replaced for streets that usually get surface yield, which are local streets.
The requirements are not as strict as this because they don't just, they don't get the traffic that these streets do.
So the limits of restoration are lower.
And the, by the time we get back out there to perform work on these streets.
Depending on how deteriorated those streets are, they might not even warrant a surface yield anymore.
It's, by the time we get to these streets, it might, it could be a reconstruction situation.
So is this only for arterial streets and not surface streets?
It's for all streets. This is just an example for arterial streets.
Okay, I guess, maybe I'm speaking, like, my brain and maybe what I'm saying is not being clear, but what I'm basically was I was trying to say is that adding two more years by this two more years of time,
because we're not could do have gone to the streets to resurface them in those two years.
So someone else would have picked up the cost rather than us.
I don't know how that's not being.
Yeah, and I, I hear what you're saying, what I'm trying to say is that we have, for example, this is just one detail of the ones that we're going to present next council meeting.
There are multiple details about restoration limits and what people need or contractors companies need to restore on our streets,
based on the current condition of that street.
If the streets already, two messed up, the PCI is very low, the, the trenching restoration requirements aren't as robust as a freshly paid street.
So there is some.
I guess I would call it a parachute for those streets that are in in.
There are being there trench through and are being surfaced yield to not deteriorate too far from where they are based on the new restoration requirements that will be presenting to council.
The goal of these ordinance is to really ensure the long term maintenance of our streets, not necessarily have somebody else repay the street.
Right, like, and the standards, as Miguel is saying, the standards are coming for your next council meetings.
So you will adopt those standards.
That will be another policy opportunity that they counsel will have to discuss about how do we restore the conditions of our streets.
What today's about is it's just like we will protect our investment for a period of time.
Again, I, as for you all to discuss.
What you want to see, we, what we see in the street standard, what other cities are doing.
This is pretty standard because it is commensurate with the investment that you're putting on the street.
You're trying to protect, right? Like, when your resurface of our new street is a lot of money, we want to have five years.
What I'm trying to get out is though.
We're, we are not, and we have not gotten back to a street to restore it after three years.
The thing that they need to, maybe like, some out of is like, this is not about the frequency in which a streets get repaid.
I know, but it means that that damage that street is going to be there longer without being addressed.
Yes, but this is protecting for remember that your next item and your agenda is payment management plan year two and year three.
So we are making an investment and those are the three.
I mean, I'm going to interrupt you. Sorry. I really think that there's a real disconnect with what I'm trying to say.
And I don't know.
Can I, can I, can I step in, maybe?
Someone, like, can I cancel the year or us go?
Please.
So let's say that we move forward with the three year.
And then a utility agency comes in and the, micro-trenching.
And then the rail still looks pretty good.
Are there any penalties that we can impose on, on that entity to ensure that we're able to continue.
Make it look the same as it was before.
Because I've seen, for example, on home road, just happened recently.
It's not the best looking road.
But even with the micro-trenching going right straight in the middle.
It looks very patchy.
So I think that's what you're trying to avoid.
It doesn't.
Yeah.
Yes.
There are.
Yeah.
It's like I said something representing for the next council meeting.
But depending on the current condition of the street.
If it's, if the street already doesn't look great.
If the PCI is low, the restoration isn't going to be as robust as a good looking street.
Right.
So the idea there is that since that PCI is so low that the city is going to repave or treat that street soon.
So there's no point in having a contractor come out and repave the whole street for one trench.
When it's already on the list for the street to be, to be resurfaced or repaved.
So again, it's a difference between a more term with three to five years versus what standard we're going to hold utility companies to or anyone that's trenching in the street to when they cut into those streets.
She just asked if the street was, let's say, four years old and it's just outside of that three years.
And then they cut it what you're talking about an old street.
We're talking about something that's newer.
Exactly.
So if the same thing, it's all based on the PCI, the condition of the street.
If this, after four years, that street is still going to be in fairly good condition.
Right.
So those restoration limits are going to be significantly bigger than a street that was a very low PCI, a very damaged street.
So a lot more of it will be restored if someone goes in and cuts that street four years in.
Yeah.
So there's two things.
The frequency which it gets restored.
Right.
The frequency which it gets restored and the standards that we request for utilities to restore our street.
So if there's, so I can understand, I'm trying to understand and I think I'm over supportive of what's before us.
So when there's Michael trenching, who does the repair?
Who does the patching?
If does that happen through us or does AT&T or PG&E do their own?
The contractor does restoration.
What we dictate is the limits of that restoration based on the condition of the street when it was cut into.
Okay.
That's what I mean.
I'm just trying to understand when you say the conditions.
The conditions.
It length width depth of.
No, how deteriorated the street is.
Right.
So the.
Yeah.
Okay.
So let me add.
And then there's an inspection after that.
Yes.
We have.
After every street pet project, there's we have inspectors out there looking at that.
So.
Oh, Rose, go let me just add on to that.
So what we don't want to do is set ourselves too far out that we are, you know, far beyond.
So this aligns with other cities and the county and what they're doing.
We want PG&E and AT&T to come in and do upgrades.
We want, you know, five robotics.
We want all the things that they're doing.
We don't want it at the cost of chewing up our streets.
So there has to be a balance with it, which is why we do that three to five.
I think if we do five, we might start seeing major delays of some of these, you know, technology upgrades in our city, which we don't want that.
And so we want to stay in balance with our utility companies.
But we just want to make sure that we're putting Watsonville first.
But not so far ahead that we are now kind of pricing ourselves out of getting these upgrades.
So it's a balance.
And then the three to five is what came to us from our consultants that helped us write our pavement management plan.
And also aligning with our neighbors that have done similar things.
Okay.
Thank you.
Council member Parker and then Council member Montesino.
Thank you, Mayor.
Okay.
So.
It's a balance that doesn't have because I hear what Councilman Deutra is saying because we've had some terrible patches in the past.
And we've just reached a little bit of a bridge, which looks so pretty now and it's, you know, it was a big project.
But it took years, you know, for us to get it down.
But it looks amazing, right?
And I've been hearing that from constituents.
Oh my gosh, this is great.
But the patching portion and I've also been hearing and I hear you.
And I know we're about complaints about we don't have technology out in our section.
But it entails digging up the road.
You know, and we've had a couple new stuff signs and cross swags and all that beauty on bridge street might get torn up again.
So whenever these things come up.
So you're trying to say that there's a balance based on what we're looking at here of how much we can do.
Right?
How we make it look?
How what standards we are requiring those entities that come in to do that trenching and then to replace it and to not only keep the integrity of the road.
Right?
But also make it not such an isor.
Is that correct?
It is correct.
And I think one of the really important parts that Miguel hit earlier in his presentation was a two year look ahead.
You know, if you give an example, you guys have seen our water crews for the last several months going down Riverside doing that because we know cow trans is about to come in and do a what was that awarded that 11 million dollar premium project.
So we're getting all of our underground work done so that we are out of there by the time they pay it and we can just have my asking for it.
That's great.
It is not slice into it.
So part of it is not being reactionary to what are they doing in town?
Why are they on Bruin to and we didn't know they were coming to town?
So again, it's the balance of being able to prepare two years in ahead.
If we know what PG&E is doing, we know what AT&T is doing, spectrum, data data, our own water lines.
We can't control when a main break happens, but we can control when we're doing our preventative things.
So that with this moratorium on cutting with the standards that you will see at the next council meeting that determine when he's saying how big how wide is it going curb to curb or we just do in the slab.
Does it need to just blend in all of those things.
You know, is it going to be perfect every single time and look like freedom the first day?
No.
But can we protect the integrity of the degradation, have a little bit more management control over it?
Yeah.
Well, I think you're hearing from us as a little bit of reaction from what freedom Boulevard was for so long.
I've got hurt all the time.
And businesses and people and travel because it's such a big main artery that we're all thinking, oh my God, please don't let it be like that.
And that's not the intention.
Correct.
The intention we learned from that.
And now we're moving forward for all our non-artorial streets.
Is that correct?
Correct.
Yeah.
So when freedom was paved, I think, right when I started, which is when we started this pavement management conversation.
And it was swear, we all felt that first slice into freedom right in front of Starbucks, right?
And our consultants saying why don't you have a trench cut ordinance, and it was like the record screeching, right?
But why don't we?
If we're going to present to Council and spend years putting together this plan, we need to have a protection mechanism.
Okay.
So I know we're all excited about this, and these are very valid questions.
And we want to make sure that we're answering all of them.
Well, yeah, because we're going to be asked with our constituents, so we have to be prepared.
Exactly.
Because we're going to be asked.
Because we're going to be asked with our constituents, so we have to be prepared.
Exactly.
Because we're going to be asked with our constituents, so we have to be prepared.
Exactly.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
Both of you.
Councilmember Montesino.
Yeah.
I think, you know, because we're talking about today's agenda.
I mean, we're talking next time.
You should have had those side of us both at the same day.
So we can talk more thoroughly, because I think the next component.
And next in the next agenda, in the future, the council meeting would have helped, you know.
This down there's no, I've understood what those things together. But one of my questions, because I know, you know, be
straight from, in my district, and currently, like, you know, it looks like Mexico, you know, you know, after.
But currently, you know, like some of those pictures that you showed, is there anything that we could do?
Because like I said, they're leaving holes, they're leaving, you know, equipment, they're, you know, it's, you know, ugly in those two streets.
You know, I understand, I understand what we're doing tonight, but is there anything we can do?
Like, for right now, the price that already, you know, running in there, just like, you know, throwing dirt at it and leaving.
So, the right now is this ordinance, but moving forward, we are trying to go out. We're, we're actually wrapping up some, some funding, grant funding applications,
or ATP cycle applications to do work on B Street to, to make sure that comes up to the standards that we would like to see out there.
So we are working towards that.
Yeah, because, like I said, I see, like, Bernie Street, like, through all the way, that's, you know, and I was just going to leave it like that, because I've seen them,
we were leaving just equipment, just thrown there, where there's valuable parking spaces for, you know, community members and like I said, that should not be, you know.
So, you know, anything that we do, like, you know, being a standard, I'm forward. So thank you.
Councilmember, do you travel. Thank you. So I guess these are what you're going to bring back to us at the next meeting. These surface grinding space repair, stripping replacement correct correct.
I mean, I like things looking nice, so I think if you're going to do one, if it depends on like how big the project is, I'm going to go back to Stanford, it's terrible.
They should be doing pre-paving both sides of the street. Like, it just, it'll look weird, which is one weird stripe of new street and then one not new, I mean, I don't like, I'm all about aesthetics, like, maybe it's just who I am.
But we will make sure the presentation of all standards is coming next council meeting.
We will look into that because that's a standard that we are applying to ourselves, right? Like when we talked about road maintenance years ago, we talked about not fixing one side by going curve to curve and that wanting to be the standard we have.
So we heard that that's the standard we're applying for ourselves, that's the standard that we should invite others to uphold for us and that we're hearing that very loud and clear.
So Miguel, you and I, not Courtney, we'll talk before we, we come back next week to make sure that the presentation on the standards meets that expectation.
We talked about curve, we've talked from what side to side, that's how we want it. Well, we did one point and when I see full lane resurfacing, I'm only picturing a lane, you know, not both lanes in some cases for lanes.
So, but, and then my other question is, what happens if it's a sewer lateral issue?
How, what happens in that situation?
Yeah, so that's because if you sell a house, you have to, okay.
So depending on, for example, there's a sewer lateral issue on a street that was just paved, there would be whole to the same standards.
Oh, they would be. Yes, because it's the owner of the house.
Yes, again, that's what we're talking about the up for a cost of digging into the street that was just paved.
That's going to be, that's interesting. I mean, that's going to be costly for someone trying to sell their home.
But again, it is only for streets that have just been paved.
Every other street after this, this moratorium doesn't, it isn't held to the same standards.
Within three to five years, right? So if, so if this street gets paved, you can't do that lateral within three years,
or you're responsible. Correct, please understand that right now, we don't have the funding to pave as many streets as we would like.
So we're not doing hundreds of streets every year, pricing people out.
We're doing as many streets as we can, but we're not doing nearly enough that multiple, I mean, that the whole city would be in a moratorium for five years.
I'm not a single city. I'm just, I'm just talking about my district.
And I, you know, like, I'm going to bring Stanford back up again.
They had two sewer laterals on that street.
Recently, post, we just did Stanford.
They've done two sewer laterals on that street. So those people, they sold the houses recently,
but they would have been responsible for, you know, correct.
That was an issue. So I'm, I come from the city of Santa Cruz where I, I helped implement this, this moratorium there.
And the, the, how we got the public to buy into this was having them before every paving project, we was sent out a letter.
Hey, this paving project is coming.
If you need to do any type of utility work, do it now because it will be way more expensive afterwards.
Okay, thanks for saying that as well. We should do that.
I mean, to the owners of homes because that's a big, that's going to be a big check.
I mean, they got to write if they do a sewer lateral within three years.
And they want us, you know, it's okay. Thank you.
Yeah, so there's something that for paving projects.
Thank you.
Start implementing moving forward to send those letters out and letting people know that.
Councilmember Parker.
Okay, so I'm aligned completely with what Jimmy just said because in my district, we have, you know, medium high to seniors and all the senior houses have to have
a few, you know, if they sell them.
And when seniors have to sell, it's usually not because they have the time to sell, you know, that they can take time.
Or they have a big budget.
So as far as I'm concerned, if is what we're doing tonight going to affect what we just, what we were just talking about.
Sewer laterals having to, and within one year, okay, wait, I should stop.
How long from the paving?
Can somebody do it without having to have it, you know, at the highest standard?
Can somebody fix it like a sewer lateral?
How long is there a time period?
Yeah, three years for service treatment, five years for full rehabilitation.
Okay.
That's what I thought.
So that puts it because when seniors sell, it's because they, they gotta go.
And there's a reason for it, you know, they have to sell.
And then we're going to stick in with a huge bill.
So how much does it cost?
To read, I mean, we're not going to be stuck with the exact cost, but, you know, give me an approximation.
How much does it cost for a sewer lateral replant?
Because they'll have to do it when they sell their home.
And in our senior villages, yeah, do you have any idea?
To read you, not the sewer lateral itself, but the cost to repair.
No, I can't, I don't have that information with me.
What I can't tell you is that it'll, what's the cost increase is a restoration.
So the actual trenching installation of laterals, removal of existing laterals, all of that stays the same.
The only thing that's increasing in cost is the pavement that's going to go on top.
Right, and that's what it's trying to get an idea of what that cost.
It really isn't even here.
It's that there's no simple answer, right?
Because it depends on how far the lateral went, how deep the lateral went.
Great, give me a range.
I, I, I, I can just find.
I couldn't give you one, I'm sorry.
Courtney?
No, we have the nail.
Oh, there she comes.
Daniel.
Super early.
Thank you.
I don't need to be super specific.
I just kind of want to get an idea.
Sure.
Yes.
Daniel, green.
This is in Director Palmequix.
Typically a sewer lateral repair in the road.
It can be quite expensive.
They're at least five feet deep.
It's probably going to run you between five to 10,000 just without this.
I would say this maybe my add a thousand or two, but I did want to note that with our
lateral inspection program, we do have the opportunity for the seller to transfer responsibility
to the buyer if they both agree.
So that kind of could be an option.
That's a good option within the process deal.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Well, thank you.
That's, that's valuable.
Now we, now we all kind of go.
Sure.
Oh, idea.
I would advocate absolutely sending out information to everyone if you're thinking of selling
your house in the next five to 10 years.
You know, and even if we're not going to be going back, or if we do have it say,
your, your street was freshly done in 2000, whatever, and so that they can kid us
sense that within three years or five years, it's going to get done again.
And the rates are going to go up.
I'm sure it could be explained so much better than my lack of articulation just now.
So, so our plan to make this information available to the public is to have a list of
of streets that are in moratorium currently.
After this is passed, obviously, and how long in that moratorium of the streets are.
So the public can easily go and and look and see if the street is in a moratorium and how long.
Yeah.
They need to, that, that, that is in place.
Appreciate that.
Once again, I have a huge senior contingent, the largest in the three county area.
They're not going to go online and go look at that.
So in some fashion, we need to be able to communicate whether it's in your utilities.
We could do that, you know, we need to send.
We could do mailers.
I mean, when we do year one year two, year three, we're doing them at least two years out.
Yeah.
So when you, you know, your, our next presentation is going to be finalizing year two and then year three.
Your three work isn't, you know, even going even start until twenty seven.
So now, it gives us time to say, hey, you're on the list for so,
slurry seal, that kind of starts the clock on this.
So that gives plenty of time for us to make sure that we're touching base.
And we can communicate with the HOA's to the thick and say, be on the lookout for this pay attention to this.
And not have to knock on doors or do anything else.
So we should do a mailer.
Yeah.
That would, that would be extraordinarily helpful for the communication.
And just a quick example for year three that we're going to be presenting here soon.
That construction won't happen until twenty twenty seven.
But we need to have a decision made because we need to start design this year twenty twenty six.
As soon as that decisions made, we know what streets we're going to hit.
And that's one of those mayors can go out.
So we will have about a little more than a year of leeway to give homeowners property owners an understanding of hey, this is coming.
Yeah.
And then it'll just be on a rotational.
You have two neighborhoods.
I think in your three.
Yeah.
It's just, I mean, your district.
Yeah.
And my district.
No, that's, this is scary.
I'm just sorry.
I know now.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Is this effective immediately?
So if we pass this tonight.
The work that's already being because they're out pitching is out there ripping up the street now on Stanford.
Will they, this be, hold them to repair it?
No.
We just spent.
I mean, I'd like to know how much we just spent on Stanford.
I mean, that is such so irresponsible on someone's part.
So these is an ordinance.
So today's the first reading.
It will come back to you next.
Okay.
After the next meeting.
Will.
Okay.
The project's supposed to go on for a year.
Whatever.
Right.
Are they going to be held to this since they started the project already before?
Yeah.
The contracts have been signed.
This is, I mean, this is why the public gets mad at us.
I'm just going to be honest with you.
Like, what permits have an issue for that job on their the current rules.
Right?
So if the rules change, the rules change going forward.
But those permits have an issue.
And those permits are already in their gone.
And, you know, like, there are conditions for that job to happen.
And, and they will abide by those.
And we will make sure they do that.
I'd like to know when that when PG&E applied to to start this job.
We can look that up.
I have.
I have it.
Okay.
Seeing no other comments if we can throw it out to the public.
Any public comment on this issue.
Seeing none.
I'd like to entertain a motion at this time.
I'll make the motion.
I can.
I can't remember.
Montecino made the motion.
Mayor Brote.
Clark made the second.
With the motion in a second.
May I get a roll call?
Yes, Mayor.
The motion is to introduce for first reading by title only.
Waving full reading of the text.
In order to amend section 7-1.01.
7-1.06.
And 7-1.10.
Chapter 1.
Street excavations of title 7.
Public works.
At Watsonville Municipal Code to amend.
Existing definitions.
Specifications and bond or deposit requirements.
And adding section 7-1.13.
Through 7-1.17.
Chapter 1.
Street excavations of title 7.
Public works.
Of the Watsonville Municipal Code to establish safety precautions
and inability and transfer requirements.
More to target against extreme excavations on nearly improved streets.
More to target requirements.
More to target backfill and resurfacing requirements.
And coordinating.
Coordination of public utility excavations.
The motion was by council member Montecino.
Seconded by council member Clark.
I will now take a roll.
Clark.
Aye.
Do you try?
Aye.
Want to see now?
Yes.
What else go?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Get us Carter?
Aye.
So see you then.
Aye.
The motion carries unanimously.
And moving on to item 12.
Be.
Thank you.
Consideration of Comprehensive Financial Report for fiscal year 2024-25, midyear budget report for fiscal year 2025-2526.
About to us by Director Durin. Good evening.
Good evening, Mayor members of the City Council, Marissa Durin, city finance director.
Here to talk to you about our annual Comprehensive Financial Report for fiscal year 2024-25,
or midyear financial report for our current budget year fiscal year 2025-26.
So tonight, the recommended actions are that you accept by motion or annual comprehensive financial report for fiscal year 2024-25,
also to accept by motion or midyear financial report for fiscal year 2025-26,
accept by motion or annual measure, why audit report? This is a requirement of this funding source
to approve a resolution, appropriate in about $6.4 million, including one additional position.
The first couple of slides will focus on our annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
I wanted to make sure that you know where to find it. This is on the Finance Department webpage,
and this is what it looks like exactly like our budget book, but it does say annual Comprehensive Financial Report on it.
I wanted to go into a little bit of a background. We do use an independent external auditor.
We use mace in associates. The audit has resulted in an unqualified opinion, which means we followed all general accounting principles.
We're free of material errors and our financial statements are presented fairly.
Additionally, we want to highlight that we have received the Excellence in Award and Financial Reporting for 28 years in a row.
This is the city's balance sheet, and if you look all the way to the right, you can see our,
yet all the way to the right, you can see 2024 fund balance, and this is across all of our city funds.
We did have $302 million, but if you look at 2025, our fund balance has increased to $337 million.
This does include the $12 million bond issuance that we were able to issue on June 28.
But additionally, our biggest increase is in investment in capital assets.
This is the use of fund balance. This is only general fund. What this shows is that we are almost able to fully fund our emergency and cash flow reserve,
that we do have the set aside for our hospital reserve and a CalPERS reserve,
that our measure our fund balance is protected, that our capital carry forward is reflected in our fund balance,
and also that $12 million in the bond that we issue.
This is our measure. Why audit report for fiscal year 2425? What it shows is that we collect a 5.3 million.
We were able to spend $5.5 million. We did spend about $300,000.
This is the fire department working on their restroom restoration.
They are completely done, and in this fiscal year, they used about $300,000 or so.
So they began, measure why began, it's fund balance at 2.8 in the Zendine, the fiscal year at 2.5.
That was it on the annual financial comprehensive report.
I'm going to talk to you about our current budget cycle.
So our current budget cycle, we did have revised budget revenues, and that first screen line there is our total revenues that we estimated for our taxes.
We estimated $47 million. We are projecting to come in at 50 million.
The biggest increases expected in sales tax.
At 1.2 million, we have property taxes coming in 583,000 over budget.
This is due to higher assess value, due to transfer of properties.
Then on hotel room taxes, this is a one-time payment from one hotel.
Utility users tax is an additional 574,000.
On our departmental revenues, we are projecting to come in under budget for police,
police currently has 10 vacancies.
SRO officers are being filled with part-time officers, but we budgeted full-time on the revenue,
and then also their parking revenues are down as they are a parking enforcement officer down.
On our fire, they are down also on fire inspection revenues, but they're over on their mutual aid response.
So you'll see a correction in our appropriations list.
Public works. This is both offset in expenses and revenues with the net wash.
And then our bond, we did budget. This budget was completed at the end of May.
We weren't certain these $12 million would come in in time.
So they did. They came in June 28th.
Some project were asking to bring that down.
This is a picture of our general fund revenues.
What it does show is that 71% of our revenues are taxes.
And our highest coming in is sales tax.
This is our general fund expenditures.
We are looking at our city attorney needing to ask for an appropriation to end the year correctly on here.
This is all the general fund departments combined.
Our community development department.
We will be asking for some contract dollars for contract services for planning and engineering services.
On our fire and police departments is the majority of this overage is due to overtime.
And we will be asking for a correction on that as well.
This is a trend from or an analysis that shows our 2022 to the current projected overtime for police.
Again, there are 10 current vacancies on the police officer rank.
Our fire overtime is projected to come in a little bit under what it was last year.
But that we are also receiving about $700,000 less in mutual aid response.
So it's an offset on that.
Our measure are we wanted to highlight that this revenue.
This revenue source is coming in under budget.
We're going to see the same thing with measure why and also with the library.
So we projected budget at 5.5 million dollars is projected to come in at 5.271.
That's 300,000 less.
What we're also finding is that it came in under last fiscal year as well.
So we're projecting that we're 600,000 or so over budget.
Now we're not asking to correct it at mid year as we know that most of these projects are capital and they won't be completed in time for the budget.
Year to end, so we'll we'll have this correction at the next year budget cycle.
These are the projects that are currently being that are currently funded in our current budget.
That our highest project here is our second floor atrium.
This was a dream for over a decade of the library without a funding source and measure are made that possible.
So in May we will be able to open that second floor atrium.
We have the street lights that were mentioned earlier also funded funder from the measure are has well as the nature center at 1.8 million dollars.
This represents the general fund appropriation request.
So we're asking for 212 in legal.
Then city clerk has a 1,500 host of services ask community development has an 89,000 or so ask for reimbursement.
Consulting services this is backed by revenue.
However, the planning contract services which includes planning and engineering in the amount of 330,000 is an additional ask.
Police is coming in at almost 500,000 over on overtime.
They are also asking for some consultation services 38,000 dollars.
It does cost a $7,000 to send a new police officer through backgrounds.
So we are needing some more money to fund that.
We have a mental health liaison that we have to share the cost with the county at 102,000.
Then we're also asking for some hiring bonuses money.
This is for laterals 150,000.
This thing station is a grant.
So it's coming in and coming out at $28,000.
Then in fire we have an opportunity as we have an over recruitment for battalion fire chief.
We also have a retirement notice.
So we're looking to overfill for four months if we're able to successfully hire two battalion chiefs.
They would be able to succession plan as a exiting battalion chief is our inspection battalion chief.
And then also they're asking for overtime for 426.
But we do have $68,000 coming in above and beyond what we budget it and strike team revenue.
In our price division is $38,000 for that additional restroom cleaning.
It was a pilot but it's really working out well so we're hoping to continue that.
So on land all we're asking for 1.9 million in the general fund backed by 184,000 in revenue.
And we also have that excess revenue that we talked about in our projection.
Our price funds.
Their report is coming in at 1.1 million at the beginning of the fiscal year.
They're projected to end the year at 1.2 million.
Voice water is coming in at 15 million.
They're working a lot of a lot of capital projects.
Some of these some of the money that are projected in here in revenue are grants.
That's the reason they're they'll only drop a little bit on their fund balance to 11 million.
Solid waste is beginning the year at 12 million.
They're projected to end the year at 11.3.
Our water division is beginning the year at 31.6 million.
They're projected to end the fiscal year with also 12 million dollars.
They also have a lot of capital needs that there's spending their fund balance.
Our internal service funds.
We have IT starting the year with 2.5 million.
They're also working on some capital projects that should end the year at 688.
Our fleet shop began the year at 642.
Should end at about 740.000.
We have some of our other funds.
Wanted to highlight that library and measure why are we're leaning into the same issue as measure R where they are coming in over budget.
So the library began their year at 2.4 million.
They are protecting to spend around 300,000 or so on capital dollars.
This is the overage on the rooftop project.
Measure R was over extended.
And offered that anymore.
But they have enough fund balance and should be able to cover that.
It should end the year at 1.9.
Measure why is it's beginning fund balance is 2.5 million.
Fire does have most of their capital already budget it.
So we should end the year at 660.000.
Gas tax, SB 1, measure D.
These are our street project funds.
Gas tax does fund personnel and also electricity.
SB 1 and measure D are probably project funding.
There's no staff or operations on these.
So gas tax started the year at 1.2 million.
Should end the year at about a half a million.
SB 1 started the year at 5.1.
They should be able to spend almost of their fund balance and end the year at 1.7.
Measure D started the year at 5 million.
And they're protected to end the fiscal year at about 900,000.
This is the ask for the other funds that are not included in the general fund.
So we do have a one time insurance payment of 3.5 million backed by Stobloss revenue.
Also coming back to us.
So that's a net wash.
Then in the carbon fund, this is a budget correction.
We fell to budget for this.
And then community development.
This is money that came in after we had already completed the budget.
This is for them to be able to do their programming in their home funds.
Public safety.
This is coming out of the grants fund.
We have a $91,000 grant to fund some rifles.
Also for the fire department, we have $69,000 to fund turnout gear.
And then the 38,000, the reason it's here is we're asking for these funds out of measure why.
So it's $38,000 for capital to be for police to be able to do a radio upgrade.
And our airport department, they were waiting to have that.
$1 million fund balance to be able to address some of their different maintenance.
So they're asking for about 100,000 to to do some repairs that they've been hoping to do.
And then also some corrections on some other utilities.
And then parks.
This is a $200,000 ask.
This is in the Almed.
Babies for a repaired detention on a base in Bay.
So all in all, we're asking for 4.4 million covered with 3.7 million in revenue.
Then we want to end the presentation talking about our questions that we see entering our budget year.
We know we're in the high, high peaking years on our purse on funded liability.
We saw 9.7 million last year.
We're projecting 10.3 million in our upcoming budget.
We have economic uncertainty in our revenues due to sales tax being our top top revenue source in the general fund.
We continue to see labor and contract negotiation inflation pressures.
We have health insurance with double digits in the last year.
We have JPA agreement such as the animal shelter already coming in at 10% increase over last year.
Then we have this new new funding request for next gen funding.
This is the county wide radio system.
This hasn't been in our budget before and we need to make room.
And then it's next year budget.
It will be $82,000 ask.
But for the remainder 12 years it ranges from 200,000 to 500,000 per year.
We currently are working on a feast study though.
So we do see the opportunity coming into the budget that we will be able to bring in more revenue on some of our departmental revenue sites.
So want to remind you again, the action items for tonight are to accept our comprehensive annual report for last fiscal year or
May the report for this fiscal year.
Also our measure why for last fiscal year and to approve a resolution.
Appropriating 6.398 million dollars.
Including one additional position. And that's it for the presentation. Open for questions.
Councilmember Clark.
Yes, thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you for all of your hard work and stewardship to keep us on a positive trend.
So precarious at times, because of outside forces around us. And thank you to the city manager as well because you have a lot of influence on our budget.
Um, one question. There's a word that you said wrapping up that made me go home.
Um, the L-Mad Babies. What's going on with that? What's that project? Just curious. And Nick's getting up behind you.
Yeah, I know it.
Is it that pump station that's over off the pathway behind the houses or is it something different?
Um, the description there makes it sound way more exciting than it really is. It really is perimeter,
Fencing around the backside.
Oh, the subdivision and then around the detention basins that are in between the subdivision and the slew.
Okay, perfect. Awesome. And that 400,000 or 200,000. Okay. Thank you.
Councilmember Parker.
Hi.
Okay.
Um, I'm looking at expenditure city council, city manager, city clerk, city attorney, right?
Okay.
Am I reading this wrong? Or is the city council the only one that ended in the,
that used all their money?
It's project and not to spend all of its money yet. Thank you. I just wanted to point that out to the public. Thank you.
Any other, other council member?
All right.
Throwing it out to the public any public comment on the four items before us this evening.
Seeing none, I will entertain these four motion.
Yeah.
I was going to say am I allowed to do these all at once or do I have to read them out every single individual one.
I just say all you can, you can encompass all four of these in one motion.
Okay.
I'd like to make a motion to accept annual comprehensive financial report for fiscal year 2425.
Maybe your financial report for 2526 fiscal year annual measure why audit report for fiscal year 2425.
Action on resolution.
1526 budget to authorize six thousand six million.
Six million. Sorry.
I'm tired.
Six million 389,880,810 dollar budget appropriation into various funds and to authorize one additional position.
Second.
I have a motion and a second from council member Parker. She got it in.
And I have a hand raised question.
You know, so we're talking about, you know, this fiscal year ending with all these, you know, variances.
When are we going to start talking about next, you know, the next and the next fiscal year and, you know,
and talking about, you know, a potential, you know, number number two assistant city manager.
And if we want to increase our, our, you know, our,
think that we don't spend enough, I guess we're city council.
We're starting budget talks in March.
And we'll, when would do we have an opportunity?
We will create an opportunity.
We are working on that schedule is right after tonight.
We'll start working on the schedule for next fiscal year, but it will come to you for first hearing
and June, the first meeting in June and another option hearing at the end of June.
But by that time, you're almost kind of kind of laying, we have a more input, you know.
No, no, we, we are planning to have an opportunity for input prior to finalizing the budget number.
So, much more or April.
Thank you.
Okay, I have a motion and the second we did public comment roll call.
Clark.
Hi.
Do you try?
Hi.
What does he know?
Yes.
Hi.
Parker.
Hi.
Peter's Carter.
Hi.
The motion carries unanimously.
Hey, moving on to new business reviewing projects in pavement management program.
Here's two, three.
Pleasures to see you again.
You're ending out a bang.
Director Lumberd.
Good evening.
Hello again.
So, tonight we're asking council to select a three year investment strategy for a pavement management program.
Council direction is needed to select the three year strategy in that 1.5 to 1.7 funding range that we have for year three.
This presentation reviews work completed so far upcoming projects.
An strategic approach for year three options for council to decide on.
The decisions tonight.
Centers on how best to deploy the limited paving funds that we have for year three through measure D and SB one.
So for brief summary here year one construction total approximately 2.5 million dollars.
It was focused on light rehabilitation and preventative maintenance as well as preventative maintenance.
The light rehabilitation projects which consisted of minor repaving were completed in the fall of 2025.
Prevented maintenance, which is the surface treatments.
Are expected to be completed in the spring of this year.
These projects focused on addressing early deterioration and preserving good pavement.
Staff feels that these projects demonstrate our commitment to proactive asset management.
Year two will focus more heavily on rehabilitation, repaving and reconstruction of key corridors.
Estimated construction costs is $8.3 million.
Major corridors include Clifford and Freedom Boulevard.
Construction will span summer 2026 through summer 2027.
These projects address structurally failed pavement requiring deeper investment.
Year two balances preservation from year one with necessary reconstruction.
Again, our strategy is to go from maintenance to rehabilitation, maintenance for rehabilitation to prevent a backlog in these streets.
This slide shows what projects public or staff was able to move forward with based on the funding we were able to secure.
The limited SB one measure D and measure our funds that would only cover the fraction of the proposed projects.
As you can see from the slide here.
However, through successful grant funding applications to both the California Air Resource Board and the RTC's Regional Transportation Improvement Program.
Public work staff were able to secure additional $4 million to move forward as many of these projects as possible.
Note that of the 60 million dollar pot of the grant funding available from the RTC public work staff were able to secure almost 20% of that with their successful applications.
There were competitive applications submitted from nine different groups, including the county, its four cities, Metro and UCSC, its name of view.
Through staff's efforts we were able to cover most, but not all of the proposed project costs.
Unfunded projects highlighted in yellow hair will roll forward to future years.
The three unfunded projects shown on the slide options are options two three and four in year three as you will see in upcoming slides.
So the right treatment at the right time maximizes public investment.
Over time the payment condition index, the PCI, trends down about one point per year in the top end of the graph and as much as five points per year as it nears the bottom of the graph.
Conversely as PCI decreases project cost increase significantly.
Applying preventative maintenance at PCI 70 costs cost roughly one eighth the cost of rehabilitation at PCI of 40.
If preventative maintenance is delayed, roads decline into rehab category cost increase three to five times and there's a larger future capital burden.
If rehabilitation is deferred, structural failure continues, safety and liability risk increase and full reconstruction may be required.
Again alternating treatment types balances system preservation with targeted reconstruction preventing backlog growth.
So we're going to go over the options for year three.
Option one is preventative maintenance.
This work includes multiple streets.
Fifty six, fifty six streets sections as shown here estimated cost for this work is $1.7 million.
These streets were selected based on their payment condition index or PCI and geographic geographic proximity to each other.
It is cheaper to work on streets that are closer together than it is to go all around the city doing different different different streets.
Again a lot of the contract costs for that requires mobilization of equipment and materials.
So again the closer they are together the cheaper overall the project will cost.
Option two rehabilitation.
Again this is part of what was deferred from year two first one being Pennsylvania driver pair from Clifford Avenue to winding way.
This is going to be we're estimating a $1.7 million project focused in one corridor.
Address is structural deterioration of the street and the adjacent slope that's causing the bike lane to fall in.
This is a significantly higher cost per lane mile and overall fewer streets will be improved.
Option three rehabilitation.
Again another roll over from year two.
This is Clifford drive phase two.
$1.5 million estimated project to complete the corridor that we are already doing the phase one of in year two.
This will be from Pennsylvania to freedom in year two we are paving Maine to Pennsylvania.
This concentrates all the funding that we have available in one area and it's limited network wide benefit.
Option four is preventative maintenance.
This option includes work in four separate street segments including low district, harvest drive, march on street and pex street.
This is targeted preventative maintenance in key neighborhoods.
It has overall lower pre project cost part project cost excuse me and preserve streets before they decline into a more costly repair.
This is a broader geographic benefit than the options two and three but not as much as option one.
Real quickly these are the locations for locust and harvest drive between beach and riverside.
You can see the costs there. I'll summarize it here in a minute.
March on street from east beach to riverside.
Pex street for Maine to union.
And just to add to this if you recall the last time Murray and I brought this year two to council when we didn't know how much money we were getting from RTC.
These four streets were listed as a contingency that we could possibly do if we had more money on top of what we needed to do the full reconstruction.
So if this looks list looks familiar that's why.
So again, the total estimated cost for option number four comes out to 1.1 million dollars.
So funding overview for year three.
Before we discuss the recommendation, this slide summarizes our funding reality for year three and what it means for how many projects we can deliver this year.
No competitive grant funding identified for year three, the RTC's regional transportation improvement program is not expected to issue a call for projects until fall of 2027.
As you can see with only 1.7 million dollars allocated this year we have the capacity to deliver only one option.
And any additional work required new funding or we will need to roll forward to a future cycle.
As you can see from this comparison table, provided maintenance options treat more lane miles option one trees 14.72 lane miles compare to 1.14 for option two 1.34 for option three and 2.14 option four.
While rehabilitation options focus on structural restoration of fewer corridors.
Provend of maintenance.
Provend of maintenance so lower cost per mile extends pavement life and reduces long-term liability.
Rehabilitation addresses visible deterioration.
There's a higher per mile investment.
These repairs are necessary.
Secondary, footer more capital intensive. Year 3 projects need to be identified at this time to allow for design to take place in 2026 and then constructed in 2027.
The decision here will reflect the council's priorities, preservation versus concentrated restoration.
So staff recognizes that certain corridors require future rehabilitation investment.
However, given current funding levels in the overall condition of the network,
preserving a larger portion of the system now delivers the greatest community-wide benefit
and chills the city from significantly higher costs in the future.
Applying the right treatment at the right time is how we maximize public investment,
preventative maintenance at a PCF-70, like I said, cost roughly 1-8th rehabilitation cost of PCF-40.
Delane action increases costs, 3-5 times, and creates a much larger future capital burden.
Our alternating treatment strategy and stress structural failures are addressed in scheduled rehabilitation years,
preventing backlog growth while maintaining system stability.
For these reasons, staff recommends proceeding with preventative maintenance this year,
this approach protects more roads, benefits, more neighbourhoods, and supports long-term fiscal sustainability.
We respectfully request the council's support of option number 1.
Any questions?
Council member Montesino.
Go back to that slide where option 1 was, so we can look at it.
This is option 1.
Or did you want the comparison?
Yeah, the comparison.
This slide?
Yeah.
Thank you.
No, I mean, I'm supportive of option 1 or like 4, but it's just 1 and 2.
No, you'd be greedy.
But it looks like an option was a better option.
It gives us more lane miles treated, so it would be helpful for all of us.
It does.
And I know I wish that we could touch every district, every time.
And this was part of what we presented with the overall plan and how we had the equity applied to it.
That when we do the rehab, our money goes less far because it costs more for reconstruction.
But when we're doing the preventative, we can do less with more.
You know also know 1.7 sounds like a lot of money.
It is not when you start applying it to streets.
And so while we would love to be able to touch all seven districts every year,
what Miguel said, what we talked about before, the cost of mobilization and moving that these crews around would destroy our budget.
So the first year we really concentrated on districts 1, 2, 3.
So now we're seeing 4, 5, 6, 7 get some attention.
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Thank you.
Councilmember Deutra.
Thank you.
I appreciate.
And being fair about it because.
I think we're all appreciative of that.
So.
Just for clarification, the.
The the Clifford from from Pennsylvania to freedom is when.
What year.
That could be your two.
You're too.
Because it's such a long.
Is that the year three.
Oh, I have a flip.
Yeah, so that's that's option number two here.
Oh, good.
So if it's not.
So Clifford was split into two projects.
The first portion of it that we're doing in year two was funded by RTC.
It leaves the second portion unfunded.
So it's kind of TBD when we do it.
Oh, that one's not going to be.
So from Pennsylvania to freedom is not scheduled.
Yeah.
I mean, it's.
If it's not chosen today.
It will be rolled over to like year four.
It's yeah.
It is scheduled in part of the six year plan.
It's not funded yet.
And so, you know, if we did do this,
we wouldn't be able to do anything else.
And then the.
The RTC did fund though freedom boulevard, which is district three.
And then also district five's.
Pennsylvania path.
The trail correct.
That will be going when does that start.
So that's.
So that's those are designers underway for all of those projects.
For both those projects.
Exactly.
Three of those projects.
Three.
Yeah.
So freedom from Green Valley to airport.
Clifford from Maine to Pennsylvania.
And also being a dry track.
There's like, yeah.
That one.
So I'll three of those projects are being designed right now.
Construction should start in this the summer actually for.
Clifford Avenue.
And keep going to summer 2027.
When do you guys.
I'm.
anticipate freedom of art to be to start spring 27.
Spring 27.
So any year.
Correct.
We do have a water man.
Like our street.
We've got a more touring.
Oh, we have a water man that we need to fix before we start repaying that street.
So just when when would that start?
Like the when would the actual headache for people to be like.
Streets closed, you know, summer fall this year.
Okay.
So we're going to start the water man this year then correct.
Oh, okay.
So construction is going to start soon then.
Construction will start on the underground work.
And then once we're finished with that while we're doing the design.
And then once we're finished with all of that, right?
So we don't want to cut into it.
Then we'll do the painting.
So, okay.
So just like the other part of Freedom Boulevard.
All the underground work happened in the top.
Correct.
And then that underground starts this summer.
Correct.
Okay.
Yeah.
Summer or fall of this year.
Summer or fall.
I'll say fall because, you know.
If you say summer, then we like why isn't it.
You know.
It's like the lights.
February.
Windland.
Council member clerk.
Okay.
Thank you for all this information.
It's wonderful.
Pennsylvania Trail.
Is it the one above the road or below the road?
Above the road?
That's what I thought.
Okay.
What about that section of Pennsylvania between Clifford and Green Valley?
I thought I saw it on this.
On one of these options.
But now I'm questioning myself.
I'm talking about the road that's slipping out.
The section of Pennsylvania between Clifford and Green Valley.
It was on one of these options.
Wasn't it?
Yes.
It was an option.
Option two.
Yes.
That's what I thought.
Okay.
So have we had.
I'm assuming we've had engineers out there and do we know some sort of a timeline of how much
longer that section of road we're hoping will last?
Because that's kind of a bigger one.
I understand that option two.
It's it's a one and done, right?
But if that slips out, we lose a kind of a not a main artery, but an artery.
It becomes an emergency project.
Yeah.
And if it becomes an emergency project, I mean, do we have emergency funds for something like that?
Because I'm all about option one.
But I'm looking at option two, which isn't even in my district.
You know, but I drive it often.
And I mean, I see the road slipping out from under us.
It's it's just something that I'm concerned about and I just want to kind of hear.
Yeah, I mean, that that really depends on on the existing conditions.
I mean, if it gets saturated with water, there's there's a possibility that it could a road quicker.
But it's hard to say give you a timeline of erosion.
No, no, no, I get that.
But are we watching it?
Like are there people out there?
Yeah.
Check in the the land that's moving and all that's okay.
So it's not just like, oh, if it happens, it happens if it doesn't.
We're actually actively keeping an eye on it, right?
We are, but just to clarify.
I mean, depending on how much water is out there.
Oh, yeah.
We're in earthquake.
You could happen the next day or could happen a year from now or even longer than that.
Okay.
Because like, I get option one is equitable.
I like it.
It benefits my district as well.
But I just kind of want to put that out there to everyone that like,
There's a ticking time bomb.
Yeah.
And it helps to mitigate that.
But yeah.
Yeah.
That's a very small strip of roads.
Yeah.
That's the reason why this, that street section is we're presenting on that.
It was deferred last year because we couldn't get the funding for it.
But it's going to keep getting pushed off.
Pushed off until the council decides, hey, this is the priority.
We need to do this one.
So theoretically, given if that stretch of road fails and the, you know,
There's a slide.
That is probably going to affect the walking trail that we're now investing in as well.
Correct.
Not necessarily, there's, there's a potential for that sure.
Yeah.
Just like anywhere else.
But we're pretty far away from the failure.
If you know, the failure that's happening on Pennsylvania drive trail is on the, on the, on the downhill side.
No, no, I, I, I get that that everything goes downhill and the, you know, trail about,
No, I get it.
I drive it every day.
I know where the failure is.
The, the failure is happening in the bike lane as you can see it's separating.
It's creating a, a crevice in the bike lane.
It's not creating a, it's not shifting the whole thing down it in one section.
Yeah.
It's kind of ripping into different sections.
Okay.
Yeah.
So we don't, I don't expect there's going to be any danger of, of the trail being, in danger.
Okay.
Thank you for that.
Just want to kind of put that out there for everyone who is not familiar with it.
Thank you.
That's a good point to say that though, because this isn't to say,
we don't have any other opportunities for funding.
You know, that with the threat as we saw with the Main Street sidewalk, which we're very excited about.
You know, as you see things start to fail, it can open other doors for other funding.
So we're looking at resiliency funding and things that we could.
We're don't have to just wait for RTC or wait to do this.
You know, we can continue pursuing funding for that road.
Knowing that we have to make a decision on this part of money.
But that's a really good point because we do watch it.
And that is a area that we've all aware of.
Council member Parker.
Thank you.
I was noticing that.
I mean, I'm fully aware of that whole area.
And it's.
Yeah, it's problematic.
And I know that option one does include my district, none of the other options do.
But I do, you know, it's good to hear that that there is a possibility of other funding.
If an emergency situation occurs on that to not just have it all collapsed.
Right.
And I looked at all the streets that are covered in seven.
There's a, there's a ton.
So that makes it very valuable to the city in the end.
And I think in six as well, you know, I mean, looking at how much it would cost if they all failed.
Or if they all got worse, you know, how much.
So yeah, I'm in favor of option one.
I just.
I'm glad to hear that you're still pursuing other.
Grants and other, you know, money's to look at option two because.
That's the role of the diocese as far as I'm concerned.
And, you know, expertise as an engineer.
You guys are looking at it and and determining, you know, which one's going to super fail.
So thank you for this presentation.
How can, how can we get the RTC to give us more money for South County?
And as you notice, I'm looking over at you Eduardo.
I'm just saying, because when I was on the RTC, we had huge amount of money going to Santa Cruz every single year.
Oh, wait, were you at Santa Cruz then? So you know.
Yeah.
So, and, and then, you know, oh, we can't do that over there in South County.
It's too much or this.
So is there any way we can help you advocate, you know, for more funding or our share of that in South County,
so that we can, you know.
Well, I mean, I won't speak for council member of Montecita, but we were thrilled about this year.
You know, 20% of the total pot, when everybody is aggressively going after it,
coming to South County and seeing out their top three projects, Watsonville was two.
I mean, we just absolutely ace it.
And Miguel put together the applications, I think, like two days after he started.
So I mean, it was such a celebratory time.
So I do want to like hold a little space for how proud we are of how much money we did.
Very good.
Thank you very much.
Yeah.
It is a two year funding cycle.
We continue to have an excellent relationship with RTC.
You know, we work with, well, I, you know, work closely with all the other public work structures in the county and the cities and the county and kind of understanding.
Look, you know, we're all trying to grab at the same amount of money and, you know, what's equitable, what's reasonable.
So I am thrilled with how much came to us.
So they'll do we want more of course, you know, but my, my figuring that it was at least two more funding cycles.
Yeah.
But again, that's it.
We have, because I've been away the other words.
I just saw the money going north all the time.
So I think we do pretty much the same thing that we did this time.
Obviously, we can, we can ask for more, but I think our requests were extremely well thought out.
Yeah.
They were articulate.
We were, you know, he was meticulous with looking at the evaluation criteria.
We weren't very closely with the planet RTC.
Like we just left no box unticked with this.
So I don't see, you know, kind of as we look back on it, hindsight.
I don't see any areas where we made a mistake.
Of course, there could be more advocacy.
And you can always ask for more.
But we didn't want to ask ourselves right out of consideration.
So I think the, the point of what we could look at is continuing to diversify.
We've got measure are.
I got measure D, what S, we won.
We've got gas tags.
We've got, you know, RTC.
What else can we get?
We have that carb grant that gave us a million dollars for the sidewalk, which allowed us to get freedom.
You know, listed as their number one or number two projects.
So I think that we just continue to be kind of scrappy with our funding and trying to pull from different places.
This is the best way to continue to feed Watsonville.
Okay.
Hi.
I'm going to miss you.
Girl.
Thank you, Miguel.
They like you over there in North County.
Do they?
That is much as South County.
Tell you what.
Well, I'm not saying you like it.
But it's nice that he can speak the language over there.
That's great.
Thank you.
Council member Ourska.
Yeah.
So I just want to say that.
And a lot of it has to do also with the partnership, right? Keeping those communications open. I know in the past, we haven't really collaborated with the RTC staff. That is as much as we did this past year. And so I think that had a lot to do with it. I know that Sarah speaks volumes of you, Courtney. So I'm hoping that that relationship continues because it really matters. And of course, the advocacy that we do.
And our council member here on the RTC is equally important.
I'm so glad you said that. And I'll just give Sarah a quick plug, because when we were trying to elevate and escalate the Main Street sidewalk slippage, Sarah was absolutely instrumental in helping us with our conversations with CalTrans and making the argument for why this should be, you know, recategorized from a shop to an emergency and really helping us kind of navigate some of the narrative to do that.
So it's really gone both ways. So I appreciate you saying that. And it's not just RTC toward Watsonville. It is absolutely back at them too.
Yeah, we're thankful for that. Well, that's definitely something that as we go through our hiring process.
We need to really emphasize. Make sure that.
Sure.
Yeah.
So critical.
But I did have a question and somewhat of a comment. So as we move into your three.
And as we are exploring other funding opportunities, can we also explore allocating maintenance funds equitably across all districts.
I feel like we've made significant investments in reconstructing our roads.
And I want to ensure that we don't create a two year maintenance backlog and risk losing our investment.
So as we explore those options, I want to ask council and stuff to consider to keep that maintenance piece.
On the back of your head as you explore other options.
They're striping there's, you know, petitions that may come about and I know that that's not part of this one point seven million.
So absolutely. Thank you.
That's a member.
Sorry, quick question.
So let's say if one does get chosen tonight, hypothetically.
Could we get that letter to those homeowners by the end of the sometime this year.
Letting them know that we're going to be redoing their giving them a heads up.
So if they do do a sewer lateral line that they're not going to get like they're not going to be surprised, you know.
Yeah, definitely.
What's going to happen here if option one is chosen is we're going to have the list of streets that we know are going to be.
In contention right for for for reconstruction rehabilitation or maintenance whatever it is.
Out of those streets we now go into the design phase.
We make sure that that whole process we get engineers estimates and the closer we get to 100% design the more finalized those estimates are.
And at that point we know that you know if if those estimates are over the funding that we have we have to cut back on some streets kind of cut back the scope of the project to make sure we we hit that funding that we have.
So what we can do is we can send a letter out now with all of those streets.
But if we do get to that funding period and we find that the estimate is higher than what was funded.
Some of those streets might not get.
Yeah, so it's it's letting them the either we let them know now that potentially your street could be repaved or letting them know we know exactly what streets we're going to repay and letting them know exactly like how much time is up between then and then actually didn't work.
Yeah, the design phase typically six to nine months from start design to start construction that's over a year typically.
So it cuts into that that that window.
So what do you think.
I mean we can do it before but then you're going to have people that that are told hey this is going to happen and then it ends up not happening in their street.
But one like before usually break ground how many what when do you actually get the finalization like whether or not fits in our budget.
It's a it's a it's a whole process through the whole design phase at 30% design 65% design 90% and then bid ready documents throughout that whole process we start refining more and more.
That's we start if if the budget if the estimate starts getting closer to what we have is a budget funded and we have to start looking at to at cutting down streets.
So it's not I can't tell you like it's right at 100% design because that's not it happens throughout the whole process of the design phase we start cutting back if we start getting closer.
To getting past that funded but you just said earlier like we'll either you sent a letter out now saying potentially or we sent it out once we figure out it's it's been funded correct.
So my question is the moment it's been funded till when they you break ground how many how long is that.
So you trying to figure out how much notice we could give yeah it's not very long it's it's.
So once we have 100% designs we go out to bid come to council and present and get that confirmation from from all you all typically two months.
That's that's that's that's that's that's that won't be enough time I because correct and that's a trade off because either we let people a lot of people know hey this is happening.
Yeah with potentially some of them.
Not happening or we wait to we get two months notice and we know exactly.
Then they're rushing which in those two months to get it done so that's that's a trade off yeah.
I would hope before you make that decision and maybe.
There's city managers listening this as well that if there are roads that are going to be taken off that list they comes to council.
Because what we're privy tonight I'm an expect gets done I don't know about everybody else but if I have streets on here that I'm expecting done I'm an expect them done so if you're going to cut them up I'll be knowing them.
I mean I feel like we should come back to council to see if you know maybe if there is a funding issue if we can solve that problem.
I think we do come back to council to ask if we can go out to bid.
So.
Okay.
Thank you.
And I think you know knowing that this is also affected by our previous presentation about the trench cut we could have a bit more of a proactive communication to those streets.
To give more than too much notice like say if somebody was planning to sell their house right is out.
I don't know if anybody would work for anybody.
I was I think we could probably do it you know knowing that it's expensive but also knowing that it's going to a handful of streets we could do multiple mayors for those homes you know mayors are expensive city wide but mayors to.
And you know that's going to be a lot of the streets as the thing when are winter when are chicken dinner yeah okay because council member Parker.
Thank you.
Well I just don't want.
So.
My it was an exact same space as Jimmy's was on this because if you put a heads up you guys are out there look.
You could be having all the sense of you intend to sell.
And then there's a great you know there's a 80% possibility that you're going to pay a lot more if you don't get your laterals done before that.
This is the date that will actually know if you're street for sure is going to be doing it and we will communicate with you then and so if somebody knows they're selling.
I want to take their time that gives them an opportunity to get into it but if they don't know then you know then the two month mark or whatever it may be.
And it has recommended.
Experts right that do this lateral that's on they we have a list of them the city finds acceptable okay and maybe that can go out to because you know people.
A lot of people who came from other places and bought their houses outright cash in our senior area.
Which means if that lateral didn't happen then because there was a time period when they did this.
I don't know they might want to do it ahead of time and.
You know it's crazy it's all different but the communication would be huge and I would say two of them yes.
Okay so it sounds like.
What I'm hearing is sending a letter when we have a preliminary list of streets and then sending a second letter when we have a final list of streets.
Okay.
But a clear communication in people language of what we're actually communicating to them.
Yeah.
You know that legally stands up to that communication but yeah we have that I know plenty of examples that we used in the city's anchors to do exactly that so something that we can.
Okay thank you very much.
Council member Montesino.
Yeah I just wanted to add like you know one of them but to add to all the the stuff that you talked about the funding.
It was you know and I want to thank Courtney and city manager because like I said it took you know us you know meeting and saying the same thing together.
And that was I think that was missing in previous years because you know because I've been out to see for a while is like I will say one thing stop was saying another thing.
So we were never aligned you know so a lot of miss opportunities.
You know that and this time around that I said that was you know we that was you know the winning formula for forgetting us what we needed this time around so.
So just thank you.
Thank you.
Any other council questions or comments.
I just also want to take a minute to work on the RTC and thank council member Montesino for advocacy for being all on the same page.
The application took a lot of work.
I am incredibly impressed with your presentations tonight and so glad we got to steal you from that unknown northern county city that I will not say again.
But tremendous job and what a wonderful way to end Courtney at this time I'd like to entertain public comment.
Seeing none I'd like to entertain them.
I knew the motion on second.
But which one do you have to say yes or option one option number one option number one option one.
I heard a motion by Jimmy council member Jimmy due Trevor option one seconded by council member Maria Larosco.
Can I get a roll call.
Clark.
Hi.
Montesino.
Yes.
Larosco.
Hi.
Parker.
Hi.
Carlos Carter.
Hi.
The motion carries.
All right.
Moving on to item 13b.
This is going to be from council member Montesino today for a consideration of amendment of the city charter section 402 for terms of office.
I'm going to begin with council council member Montesino please take it away.
All right.
What I think for you know I'm putting this you know agenda item and place because like I said for me.
I've been thinking this really thoroughly so when I read a statement.
So Watson was a receiving a hard working community with deep agriculture roots and strong cultural identity.
Serving on the Watson was city council has been an honor and then every city leadership.
We were a result in responsible governance for a residence.
I've worked to strengthen but safety proof infrastructure support local business and address house and challenges this.
These efforts don't happen overnight.
A potential third term ensures that work already underway continues with that disruption.
They growing city like Watson best ability on the city council helps to complete long term infrastructure improvements secure state and federal funding support mark housing development straight and public safety.
Early in long term initiatives major city priorities whether related to housing economic development downtown vitality.
Float protection or infrastructure required consistent leadership to bring them across the finish line.
I'll tell you you know my first council run in 2010 my advocacy was centered on Bramsey Park that was 2010.
We're at 2026 and it's barely getting done.
It took a long time.
I mean one of the first efforts in my first council turns was selling you know a piece of land that the city had over at Buena Vista in order to you know a piece.
You know some funding for Ramsey Park and that was used to do the skate park.
That was one of the first improvements.
So experience matters in city government.
Let me be clear.
Third term is not a automatic.
It is not a guaranteed.
It is not owed.
It is our democracy.
Nothing is given everything is earned at the battle box.
If the committee believes my experience the leadership and record has secured Watson well then the voters will approve another term.
If not it will believe it is time for new leaders then it is a right.
That's how democracy works.
If a potential third term gets approved by voters running again.
It's not about entitlement.
It's not about offering.
It's about offering experience and knowledge to the community and letting people decide.
And eventually we should let the people vote.
You know.
So that's you know my statement and I ran the you know put a motion.
It to.
I move that we direct staff to repair and return counsel with the ballot measure.
I'm ending section four or two of the charter to a lab council.
Mr. Surfer three turns.
And council member.
You know has made a motion is there a second.
Yeah.
He can make a motion at any time in the discussion.
So.
Is there a second.
I'll make a second.
So at this point I'm going to enter.
Move on to council member Parker for discussion?
Sure. My first inquiry is for our city manager, because we had a conversation about this, to clarify this, because when I was looking at it, I thought it was ambiguous and what this meant.
And in our conversation it was clarified, and I just want to make sure it was clarified that this is purely a discussion, whether we start the process, and that's where this is.
So I'll ask that of our city manager.
I think it would be the city attorney.
Or both.
Thank you so much.
I ask the pop-in.
Absolutely, putting a, amending the charter is involved process, it requires two public hearings, one public meeting, a ballot measure, a vote, so absolutely.
But our discussion, and maybe you can clarify this, that this is not any of those meetings at this time.
That is correct.
Okay.
Okay, and since you mentioned, let the people vote of which I was very involved in.
H.I. and J. and there was three measures, and that was what 2014.
And it didn't come from the city council.
In fact, many city council were against it.
It came from the people of Watsonville.
We're sent out signatures were gathered.
And of those three measures, they all passed with over 60% of the vote for each individual one.
So there's power in the people that it came from them.
I feel like if we're going to extend our, this is, how I feel?
If we're going to extend our term limits, I feel like it's very self-serving of us for us to do it.
If they want to do it, and you feel, you know, you know, I'm totally on top of that.
Yes, if they bring that petition in, it goes on the bounce, I think that's great.
Let the people vote about it.
But for us to put it on there, I feel like it's extremely self-serving.
I like you have been on, I think H.I. and J. for me was all about bringing voices that were otherwise smothered.
Back into our city government at the time.
And that's how it passed at 60% for each one, because everybody really felt that way.
They felt like the same old people were doing it all the time.
And there was no way they were going to get in or get past it.
And they weren't going to be able to win.
So why worry about running for office?
Because it wasn't going to happen.
And that became the powerful statement for, by the people of Watsonville.
Because everybody votes on it once it's on the ballot.
That they wanted change.
They wanted people to have opportunities.
And I'm not that old, even though I make jokes that I'm that old.
You wait till you get here.
You guys, 63's not that old, but I'm just saying it.
There's a lot of younger people in their 30's and 40's.
And that's what we started the Watsonville Academy for.
You know, to help people get on board, to help people understand
what city governments about, what each of our different departments do.
So as they're moving forward, you know, otherwise we become a little bit stagnant or
lot stagnant for who lives here.
Because when people feel disenfranchised, you know, they check out.
They don't vote for things.
They don't like it.
They, you know, they do.
They just don't, I want people involved.
And to get people involved, you have to give them opportunity.
Eight years is different than 12 years.
I mean, four years is each one, right?
So you can lose that second, right, election as well.
But 12 years is a long time.
12 years, a child goes from 12 to 24.
You know.
And so I feel like for us to do it, that's extremely self-serving.
You could put it out there to the people, and if they want to get involved in it,
and they can see our city clerk and how to do the petition, and get their signatures,
and what their timeframe is, and get it in.
And if they vote to extend it, and it could be all sorts of things, right?
They could pick anything, not just what we say.
They could do unlimited, right?
When it comes to it.
So I'm all for that, because we'll hear from the people of Watsonville.
But for us to do it, I don't agree with that at this time.
I think we are good at too.
Maybe in the future, because, you know, we talk about having a merit large as well.
You know, and you'd have to change your districts.
We're moving towards that.
But you got to get, you know, more people involved still, and the young people of our city.
I think it's just, you know, really important.
I don't always agree with them.
But the fact is, they're the ones that are going to be the caretakers of,
you know, the future of Watsonville.
So, the sooner they get on board, I think that's really important.
Thank you for giving me the time.
I appreciate it.
Councilmember Ducha.
Thank you.
As someone who's in their third term, year 10, with my second largest win, this, you know, the fall before last.
I think that there is something nice seeing products being completed.
Ramsey Park being one of them.
The bridge for PV high being another.
When I came here in 2014, the bridge was had just been approved.
You're my friend, but incumbents can be beaten, because I beat you.
And you were the incumbent.
And.
No, no, but this is, it's up to the people to decide who they want at the end of the day.
So, I understand your argument.
I do get it.
I mean, I have no opinion where I stand on this position.
I've listened, I'm tired after three terms.
But we just put something on recently on the on the ballot to see whether or not.
People who are non registered voters could participate.
Government.
So we do as a board.
Put things out to the public to make decisions on.
And not everybody on this.
I agree with that, right?
So it's not necessarily unanimous.
The things we put out to the people to vote on.
So for me.
I'm always about letting people vote and decide what it is.
What they want to do.
Since this is brought up, I did a little bit of research.
There's only three other cities in the tri-county that have.
Termants.
The Monterey County.
Only Marina has has terminates.
Everybody else.
There's not any city has terminates.
It's only Santa Cruz capital in us.
And then it makes me think like, we're following Santa Cruz.
We're getting pressured by saying, I don't know how I don't know.
I was asking when did we incorporate this?
Because we are only one of four cities out of all the cities in the tri-county that have this.
So I'm curious, like, how did it get implemented?
You know?
We look at the back of the charter where it talks about when it was amended.
And as I mentioned, I believe it might have been put in place when the redistricting lawsuit happened in 89.
And that coincides with a revision of section 402 of the charter.
There's a subsequent revision of the charter of this section, like two years later in 1991.
Yeah.
We could have been, you know, I don't know.
I don't have the, I don't believe we found the answer to that.
But we believe that those are the two times in which section 402 has been amended that we can.
Yeah.
I'm a little surprised because I just, until I did this research, I saved every city was like us.
And then I realized, no, we're one of four cities in three counties that does this.
And I was just kind of curious and like, well, why did we put ourselves in this position?
So I mean, I'm, you know, I'm okay with people voting on this to be honest with you.
If someone feels comfortable in their representation, I think they should have the voice and the right to
put forth the representative that they feel is going to do the most work for them.
I mean, I've been sitting on here for 10 years.
There are people that sit on this council that don't do anything.
There are others that work very, very hard.
And so, over the last 10 years, there have been.
Okay.
One at a time.
Council member do try.
There have been, there have been people who don't do any work.
And so, if you're going to be, you know, placed onto the city council as a, you know, because no one's,
they're not competitive seats and you're out on, you're termed out.
And your district loses that voice.
That's going to, you know, and they get somebody who's not going to be putting 100%.
You know, effort into their, into their district.
You know, that could, that should be a decision that the people make, you know, because, you know, you're forcing someone on, then that's not going to do any work versus someone who's going to do a lot of work.
You know, again, like I think that at the end of the day, the people should have the right to make the decision they want.
We have a council member who brought this forward.
And after doing research, I mean, he's not asking anything out of the ordinary.
Actually, he's only asking for three terms.
Almost every other jurisdiction has no terms.
No, so, um, yeah, that's kind of where I am.
Thank you.
Council member, Kira's Carter.
Thank you, Mayor.
I'm not going to be nice about this.
This presentation was lacking.
I didn't hear anything about how this benefits Watsonville, how this benefits constituents.
All I heard was me, me, me, me, me, me.
I want to be around to see it get done.
Well, sorry, sometimes that's not going to happen.
I find it really interesting that people on council aren't aware of the history.
Like, literally you are on this body.
You should know the history.
You should know Cruz versus the city of Watsonville, 1988.
We had a letter about it.
Someone wrote it to us.
So even if you didn't know, you should have read that correspondence.
So talking about not doing anything, that's you're supposed to read that.
There's a reason that there's term limits.
There's a reason that we're set up the way that we are.
And that is because representation was unfair.
We have term limits to ensure that people get a chance to run 12 years.
I'm really confused Eduardo, because you said that you're all about you want to give health benefits.
You want to give stipends you want to do all this for the youth.
Okay, but if you're here for 12 years, how is the youth going to get a chance?
How are they going to get a chance if you're sitting here for 12 years?
I don't understand that makes no sense to me.
We have these things for a reason because there was a lack of diversity and there was a lack of representation.
And that's a problem.
And several of us sitting here are a direct result of this case right here.
We would not be here.
We're not for the trailblazers.
And if you don't know the sister, you should probably go talk to Adelio.
You should probably go talk to Adelio.
You should probably go talk to crews because they'll tell you about how it was.
They'll tell you about how people used to break in to their cars and they would steal their posters
and they would steal their flyers and they would evangelize their homes and they would threaten them.
Right?
All of this happened because there was a certain set of people who had money, power and influence.
And they were the ones that were running the city constantly.
And if we're here for 12 years, that's just going to be a consolidating power for ourselves.
And I'm not okay with that.
If someone wants to bring this, I agree with Ari.
I think this is something that should be brought by the people and not by council members.
It's just not a good look at self-serving.
And frankly, it's in poor taste and embarrassing to say that we want people to have a chance.
And then to say here and say, well, actually, I want to be here indefinitely.
That's not okay.
And I'm just, this is, for me, this is coming out of nowhere.
Like I said, I didn't see, I didn't hear anything about how this would benefit anybody other than council members.
And that's not what we're here to do.
We're here for people.
We're here to give people a chance.
And sometimes you need to shake up the representation because sometimes the representation isn't working.
And if it is working, well, guess what?
Take a break.
Come back.
That's all I have to say.
Thank you.
Council member, Arisco.
Thank you.
Man, this one's going to be hard.
I'm on the edge here.
But, you know, I did, I did get a chance to talk to several different folks who approach me regarding this item, primarily in opposition.
Because of the, some of the statements just made by.
And I was also reflecting on my own personal experience.
So I had, I was blessed to be able to run for office at a very young age.
But it was really hard.
It was really hard to go against someone who had been a two year,
a mayor at the time and had all this experience.
And it was not easy.
So I'm kind of torn.
I'm kind of torn because I can see where you're coming from.
But I don't quite feel that this is a solution.
On based on my own personal experience, based on the feedback that I received from constituents.
Conversations that I had this morning with different people.
It did change my perspective a bit.
So I don't know. I'm just being reflecting on everything that I've heard from you from people that have communicated with me, my own personal experience.
I don't know. Thank you. So I did want to speak briefly as to this issue and bring up a couple of points that haven't been mentioned yet. I am aware of the seminal constitutional case from 89.
I also served on the redistricting committee and I did in depth analysis of our districts.
And what happened in 89, why we were a seminal constitutional case, was the process that we put in place decades ago that some cities still have not done from 1989 till today.
Our districts are equitably placed. They are representative of our population and the maps, the time frame that I took in the committee took in to make these maps.
We hired an expert. We looked at so many important data points and our maps are some of the best in the entire state because of that seminal case coming out.
So I'm sure that these safeguards in 89 were there also as we were going through the redistricting growing pains.
Our districts now, there were small tweaks that were made in the maps, but the numbers that checking the redistricting committees, the systems that are in place that I participated in, I think we have a really equitable redistricting group.
The other issue that I saw that was persuasive to me was in our own elections, right? District 4, 5 and 3 had no one running against them. All of us were a single constituent.
Not saying to elect someone forever. We are not saying get rid of term limits, but by allowing people to come back who can serve, who have competency.
Someone like Eduardo serving on RTC for an additional four years benefits everyone in this community and so we're not saying let's just stop term limits overall.
We are saying the competent people that are here, they still have to run for reelection, but we're going to allow a little bit more time considering what our redistricting currently looks like.
And having served on that committee, I'm happy with our districts. I think we have done a great job increasing equity in our population, looking at all the correct metrics, making sure that our districts for the last, you know, several decades have been appropriately made and complying with all those constitutional rules because we were the seminal city.
So I would not be in for this if it was get rid of term limits, it is not just keeping the same old, but it is a balance between new blood and also retaining people who can be of service after they have run for election.
And so looking at balancing those two things in light of the last round of elections, there were no opponents for three districts.
We desperately need people to serve in our community that are competent and if more people run than we have better elections, but ultimately it's up to the voter.
If the voters say, you know what, eight years is a great way to keep us to keep this new blood running, that's wonderful.
If the voters say, you know, an additional four for the council member that I know that I've worked with or a new council member in the future, that works for that constituent.
It's up to the people and we do pose questions, you know, ballot questions to the people, we just did it.
And the people answered us very, very clearly on what their preference was and that was not a uniform decision by any means.
So for those reasons, that's why I supported and I second this motion, considering the lack of candidates that we've had for the last several elections and considering where we are with redistricting in my knowledge of that having served on that committee.
Council, a mayor for a time, Clark.
Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. City clerk, can you clarify the, I don't know why the microphones are action up tonight.
City clerk, can you clarify the motion please, because I'm unclear of what exactly was motion.
I'm going to defer to our city attorney who can better advise.
Sure, my recollection of the motion is that it was to give direction to staff to prepare and bring back to council.
A ballot measure and extending term limits to three terms under section 402 of the city charter.
Okay, that's that's a lot more words than I remember being stated, but okay thing maybe different order.
I can read it to you, you know, I move that we direct staff to repair and return to council with ballot measure and ending section 402 of the charter to a lot council members to serve for three terms.
Reconsecute of terms, because clearly you can serve three terms in it.
Council member, Deutra.
I just, Maria, when down memory lanes, I kind of want to, but down memory lane, a little bit too.
You know, when I, when I decided to run originally, I, I was young, I was 39 years old, that's young in my eyes, and I wanted to see a city in a town kind of reflect where I was in that place and where I wanted to be, you know,
be living, I mean, I've, throughout generation here, I, and when I moved away, went to college, when I came back, everything was the same.
So it was really concerning to me, I, you know, Watsonville really looked the same.
So I wanted to move forward and it was really hard to get into this business, because it is a business and I remember, you know, a council member at the time.
I looked at me and said, why are you running? Like, you were not asked to run. He told me that, and I'll never forget that.
And, and that's when I realized, oh, we have grouped, I didn't realize that like, oh, there's groups in this town, I, you know, there were there are two specific groups of people.
And, and that's when I started learning the lessons, because this is hard, this is not easy, you have to have really thick skin to be in our positions.
I mean, we, and it's not only, you know, being at, sometimes attacked by the public, but we're attacked by each other, you know, and that's politics.
And, you know, I call it a, it's a full, it's a full on, it's a sport, a full context sport, that's what I call it.
So, I understand how hard it is to get into this business, and I'm not that naive, young guy anymore, and, and I know what it takes to be successful, and there have been some pretty crappy members that I've had to work with who don't get anything done.
And if the constituents want to elect somebody else to go three terms to make sure that they're getting what they need, I don't see what the problem is.
It's not, I mean, there is, I'm going to be supporting this as well, because the people should be deciding on that, not us.
I think, you know, it's kind of, you know, to me, I understand the history of, you know, the case that was making sure that there was diversity on our council.
But you look at a place like Salinas, they're, they are majority Latino on that council, and they don't have trim limits, so there are a lot of cities that are able to elect Latinos to positions.
I think that that was a time during in Watsonville when there wasn't, you know, maybe the diversity at the number, you know, as it is now.
In, in the community, I grew up in the 90s when I went to, I went to Watsonville High School, I think I'm the only one on the board here at Watsonville High School.
And at that time, there were, there was, yes, population Latino was majority, but we also had Japanese Americans, we had Croatian Americans, we had Portuguese Americans, it was a lot more diverse than it is today.
So I, I don't buy into the argument that saying that we, if, you know, we have to continue to abide by these stringent rules, because otherwise Latinos won't be elected.
No, I think if you are smart enough, if you have the capacity to, to work with others and to make sure that you're going to be able to get the stuff needed for your district, people are going to elect you no matter you're Latino, why Portuguese American, Croatian American.
Well, they want someone who's going to be able to, you know, get the things that they need done.
And so, and I, I look at us up here, I mean, it's, it's a pretty diverse group of people on this council.
So, but at the end of the day, I think it's up to the people to decide not us and if we, we put things on the ballot all the time and, you know, I, for me, I think that, let the people vote on this.
Thank you.
I have, I, I wonder you.
You also remember Montesino?
Like I said, I'm not going to go into a person that I thought, you know, the memory lane, you know, because when I first ran, I was 36.
You know, I had recently been a citizen, you know, and the United States, and I didn't know anybody.
Because I moved to Watsonville, you know, at a young age, growing up my kids, you know.
But I saw the need when I was like, you know, a Ramsey Park.
I saw the need because we were like trying to get the kids playing and we're like flashlights because there was no, no lighting.
And, you know, that was not my big effort, you know, because, you know, about, you know, a community.
So, like I said, I'm putting a third term, it's an idea.
Like I said, if it passes tonight, we'll get another opportunity now with all the relevant information and attachment, how much is going to cost.
You know, at that time, you know, we're going to be able to discuss it even further.
So, like I said, you know, it's just an idea.
It's just, you know, changing parameters.
You know, even, you know, personally, if I ran, if somebody else, somebody could beat me.
It's the people people are going to have, you know, about, about to say.
But like I said, big endeavors and the community needs big endeavors with the future holds.
And we just need, you know, good leadership and good, you know, good foresight and and consistently advocating for a community.
And I appreciate it. Council Member Tuchers comment of is this.
And I think disenfranchisement is a little excessive of a word, but you have a group of people that would like to vote for a potential council person, right?
And they are not permitted to vote for them because of arbitrary rule.
Someone who's been very effective for their community, someone with lots of experience.
And they are simply not allowed to participate because they've served for eight years.
So I appreciate that comment.
I didn't think of it that way.
Council Mayor Protem Clark.
Yes.
This is another question I have for staff, whoever wants to answer.
Are there any other issues with our charter right now that we're looking to amend or would this be a one and done?
We have the perfect timing right now to be able to hold the public hearings if we wanted to consider any charter amendments.
Currently the request was by Council Member Montesino to consider a section 402.
At this point, based on the direction that we're given the next time we come back, we'll be in about a month to have our first hearing on that topic alone.
As far as the rest of the charter, as policy makers, you all have authority to correct staff to prepare content.
But I don't think that it's appropriate for us to unless the city manager has anything that she would like to recommend.
Well, yeah, no, I'm not asking if you guys want to make changes.
I'm asking if there's anything that needs to be changed if there's language like the last clean up that we did, right?
So, you know, two things come to mind, why wasn't this put in the last time we put this on the ballot?
Because this takes time. This takes staff time, this takes a lot of money, you know, there's a whole election for this.
So I'm just trying to be like, you know, see if there's a way to attach this to other things and get things done more efficiently.
And so, are there still more clean-ups that need to happen on the charter or would this be a standalone ballot item sort of a thing?
Currently, this would be a standalone item on the ballot, the way it stands.
I can speak a little bit to the process for the previous charter amendments.
The council selected a subcommittee which reviewed the entire charter line by line. We did that on multiple locations.
And the committee considered all of the different outdated data that was in the charter and made recommendations to the council as a whole.
The council met for two separate public hearings which granted us an opportunity to make additional changes and then finally coming up with a question on the ballot.
The council did make a change and it was a kind of a significant change which.
I'm going to one of the charter sections to separate all of the general cleanup from the participation on commissions for just general residents versus, you know, registered voters.
So in that case, that question was split.
All right, so you had the general cleanup, and then you had the commission participation measure.
Really, it was up to the council and what the deemed should be cleaned up at the time.
There's always opportunity to do that on any election, so you can always kind of ring it back and create new ballot questions.
But at that time, the committee made recommendations and the council approved certain recommendations.
You know, came up with the ballot questions.
I was on the committee, can I comment to them?
How did you get?
Was, please.
Are you on the committee?
I was also on the committee.
So there were, we were advised by our then city manager, not to do a complete cleanup,
because he was afraid of like, if we cleaned up the tax sections that it was going to confuse people
and really make them think that like we were changing taxes on them.
So if you remember, I remember this completely.
So we didn't clean it up, how we should have completed it up.
Because we were told we were advised by our then city manager that this might really confuse the voters thinking that we were doing something with their taxing.
Yeah.
So there needs to be a lot of work done to it.
So may I.
So that was one of the questions with thanks for bringing it up.
Council member Clark.
I really enjoyed that process.
I mean, it was a lot of work.
I was a lot of pulling here.
And some frustration, but that was more transparent.
You know, like when you have multiple people on a committee to discuss this item and other items that may need to be updated.
I think that's a better process.
So I would be, I would support something like that, because it's more inclusive.
Right, it's not coming from one council member.
Multiple council members can make those recommendations.
If we're going to take something out to the voters, then might as well clean it up.
Right.
It could be multiple questions within the ballot measure, just like what we did in the past.
But I think in order to just have it be more of a transparent process.
I would be more inclined to support a forming a committee to take a second look at that charter and make recommendations.
On one is to be updated and changed.
Great.
And point of order asking off of council member Roscoe's question.
If we did a subcommittee, if we met quickly, could we still get that to council relatively soon within the time frame we need.
I was just looking up the date.
I'm asking the court.
Do you know the deadline of when we need to submit a ballot measure to the county?
It would be cutting it close.
I was looking at the staff report from last year the last time we did this.
And our first public hearing was, and so we have to have two public hearings in the third public meeting.
Our first public hearing that last time was February 13th, 2024.
The first public hearing right, so the committee had was done well sort of had been meeting before that.
So when's the deadline?
It would land mid August.
So our last like regular meeting to put something on the ballot would be the July meeting.
Otherwise we'd have to hold a special meeting to add the ballot measure.
I think that's a play of talk.
Yes.
Have some time.
Can I have a question, Mayor?
Yes.
So if we did do a committee, then I mean, would we be able to talk about the possibility of like.
The mayor, you know, the mayor issue that already brought up earlier.
Sure.
And I don't know if that's something that you feel that you want to, would want the voters to vote on.
Councilmember Parker.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I'm going to throw this out.
You know, San let the people vote.
It's a motto that H&J came to.
It's not let the people vote on something that the council put on.
Let the people vote was about power of the people.
And it was about the people bringing this to.
But I'm perfectly fine if the people want to bring.
Uh, what you were just talking about.
To us with a petition.
That means they're interested.
They're motivated.
They'd like that model.
And it could be that we help educate them on the models that, you know, that we have.
We do it.
But for us to do it.
Once again.
And I'm going to go back to, I think.
Councilwoman Kitter's Carter reattached on it.
You know.
And I was here.
And I did not graduate from Watsonville High, but I've been here all my life.
In this part of Ovali.
And I taught here for 40 years.
So yeah.
And I've participated in in all sorts of things.
So when I speak to it.
I speak to letting the people vote.
Not on what we want.
Seven of us.
Unless it's to an up, you know, our cake language.
And you know, our charter.
I speak to what they are motivated for.
And I think that's so important.
And I listen to the redistricting information.
But then I still know that to get elected.
I have to get a lot more votes than a lot of you guys do.
We have the same amount of people, but we don't have the same amount of participation.
So are we as council members getting out there and getting participation going in
our district.
You hear a mine.
I've got, you know, they're on site A.
They're on site B.
It's the same subject.
It's constant district seven.
And it's changing.
My district is even changing.
I mean, by the time I first ran to now, the demographics are changing.
The city is changing.
I think that I don't want us to be the deciders of what the people of Watsonville
should have as a model for this.
They should be the deciders.
If we want to open it up for public hearings, so that they can come in.
And they can talk or we want to hold these meetings in our districts.
And say, look, these are possibilities, right?
You know, we could do this.
We could change it.
But the last time we had a mayor that was, what is it called?
You know, for the whole city, right?
And we'd have to go to six districts and a mayor at large.
We, and I don't want to, there were all men, and they were white.
And that's what pushed us into putting district districts in place.
And the Supreme Court was very clear about it.
And yeah, and we didn't follow Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz has followed us.
And for those of us who've seen this from day one, you know,
I was here when we were like 12,000 to 20,000 people.
And now we're like almost 60,000 or more.
No.
This has to come from the people and educating the people and getting.
And yeah, I hear a mayor which you said about, you know, not having three different districts,
not have opposition, right?
I think that's more economics than wanting to be involved.
At that time, we made like what 500 bucks a month.
And for people who are raising the family and having to take that time,
that's difficult for them.
So we don't make millions, but we make more now.
We make about what $1,200 a month.
And maybe that's enough.
Because that's what I always heard from the younger folks.
They said, you know, I can't afford to do it.
I can't afford to take the time away from whatever I'm working with.
And, and having that.
So I'm all for education.
I'm all for letting people know what the charter is.
I'm all for this coming from the people, not for us thinking, we know better than they do.
And we're going to place it on there.
And then we're going to let the people vote.
No, this should be from the people of the city of Watsonville.
And if they're not ready for it yet, then they're not ready for it yet.
And that's fine.
Because that's the one thing that I've always been really weary of is the fact that when I ran,
there were the machine kind of a thing.
That's what we used to call it.
Nice people.
But they, you know, they're like on these guys hung out together.
And these guys hung out together.
So Jimmy, similar to what you said, you know, people voted in their clicks.
Right?
And so that's something I've whole close to my heart.
And I know a lot of people do.
At least more than 60% of the people who voted last time on HIV and Jay, that it is about the people.
And it is about us making it attractive for younger people who are raising their families and wanting to be involved in this and being educated.
And I really thought that's what our Watsonville Academy was doing.
We were making them educated.
So for us to put that on the ballot, and for those of you who've never been involved in the process of getting hundreds of thousands of signatures knocking on doors and having to come to your city clerk and have them have to verify everything.
That is a grassroots, amazing feeling and knowing how involved everybody is across the whole city.
So if you want to do that, I'd be happy to volunteer and be a part of that education.
But other than that, we want to change anything.
The seven of us are going to do it.
And because the state of the whole world today, especially the federal government, people tend to check out.
And so I don't think it's the time to do something like this.
And I would be voting no to further this.
Councilmember D. Trash.
I understand what you're saying, Councilmember Parker.
But if we had that mentality when we recently went out to add non-voters to participate in our process to give because we're struggling to get people to participate.
Which having only one person run in each district for three to four districts that were up.
I mean we're having a struggle to get people to participate in politics.
I mean the public wouldn't have gathered signatures to allow that to happen.
It took us to do it.
So I mean I think that I know some people were not supportive of it up here, but it took a non-consensus of a group to put it on the ballot in order for the people to make that decision.
And that's all that that's all that Eduardo's asking for.
With that said, I would be supportive of putting a committee together because I do think that we should once and for all clean the charter and not be afraid to clean it.
You know like last time when you know we were told to not clean it up too much because people would be afraid.
And I think that we should we should put a committee together and clean the entire charter and have this as part of a conversation.
It will come back. People get a vote. People there's going to be more meetings about this. So people are going to have the opportunity to come and speak about it.
And and then go from there. So I'm supportive of that.
So our next meeting is March 10th in the interim.
We can create a subcommittee.
We can table. I know we have a motion a second, but we can table this question until March 10th in the interim. The subcommittee can meet.
And we can have any other additional conversations that we need about the charter at that point.
That would be my thought. Yes.
I think that's that's a right deal because by you know my biggest effort like I said, I want to run the broad the charter amendments and create the committee because that was my you know and I thought you know because I wasn't part of the subcommittee that I wasn't aware that they you guys were told not to.
But my intention was clear up you know until you know last year in this year I've been noticed you know asking more questions that it didn't get cleaner.
I'm like well that makes no sense.
So I'm so I'm really supportive you know of that we will table it and and and and move on to bigger changes like I said bigger changes are what the community need to know.
So I'm going to go ahead and table this until March 10th meeting and I will create and select a subcommittee in the interim to meet before March 10th.
Okay.
I think that's it. Mayor, I want to volunteer for the subcommittee.
I appreciate your volunteerism.
I can any emergency items added to agenda.
Any requests for scheduling of future agenda items.
Seeing none that time is now 19 we are adjourned.
Earlier.
Yeah.
Okay.