Page 311 – Good Times

Watsonville’s Longtime City Clerk Retires

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March 11, 2022

Watsonville’s Longtime City Clerk Retires

Watsonville leaders past and present showered longtime Watsonville City Clerk Beatriz Vasquez Flores with praise at Tuesday night’s Watsonville City Council meeting, honoring the outgoing official for her 42 years of service to the municipality.

Along with kind words from active city council members and City employees, former mayors Manuel Bersamin, Antonio Rivas and Nancy Bilicich and retired city attorney Alan Smith also took to the podium to celebrate the long-standing public servant.

“I never saw her have a bad day at the office. I’m sure she did, but it never seemed to interfere with her work,” said Smith, who worked hand-in-hand with Vasquez Flores for the majority of his quarter-century as the City’s legal counsel. “We’d argue with each other sometimes and we’d laugh together, even in the most exasperating circumstances.”

Vasquez Flores started her career with the City as an intern with Watsonville Police Department at 18 and worked her way up to the executive team. She has served as the Watsonville City Clerk for the past 14 years, handling the City elections and supporting the city council in various capacities. She attended college while working for the city and raising three sons, earning her bachelor’s degree in 2015.

In an emotional speech, Vasquez Flores thanked dozens of co-workers, city council members, friends and family for helping her throughout her four-decade career. She gave a special thanks to her son, Kristian Flores, who attended college courses with her and helped her with homework.

“I love this community and I love serving the community that I grew up in,” she said. “I’m going to miss everyone.”

Many who spoke Tuesday said that Vasquez Flores was inspirational for the way she balanced work, school and her family. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Vasquez Flores to answer phone calls and text messages from city council members on the weekends or while she was on vacation—even when she was across the globe in Paris.

“You always answered,” Mayor Ari Parker said.

Bersamin and Rivas said that Vasquez Flores, as one of the few Latinos in Watsonville’s executive team when they were in office, was also an inspirational figure for Watsonville’s rising Latino and Chicano leaders. Smith lauded Vasquez Flores for her commitment to transparency, public access to government proceedings and free and fair elections.

“No one has done more for the city than you have,” Bersamin said.

Friday is Vasquez Flores’ final day with the City.

The city council will appoint her replacement in the coming weeks.

In retirement, she says she wants to continue traveling with her husband, Ramon, to scenic hiking locations around the globe. This year, they are planning to go to Japan and Korea when those countries lift Covid-19 restrictions and also do a section of the famed Camino de Santiago in Europe.

Ukrainians in Santa Cruz Mountains Worry for Home Under Siege

Drew Penner

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March 11, 2022

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Ukrainians in Santa Cruz Mountains Worry for Home Under Siege

Helen Bieliaieva, 65, normally lives near the railway station in the center of Kyiv.

But she’s been in Santa Cruz County visiting her Ukrainian friend Julia, 49, since October.

“She cannot go back,” said Julia, who asked we don’t use her last name, out of fear of reprisals from people who are supportive of Vladimir Putin.

“I don’t know what happened with my house now,” Bieliaieva said, explaining that one bomb already landed 800 meters away from her house, and another about a kilometer away.

On Tuesday, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the “unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.”

“The situation in Ukraine is heartbreaking and a real threat to democracy and human rights around the world,” said 3rd District Supervisor Ryan Coonerty, who represents the North Coast and Bonny Doon. “We needed to raise our voice.”

In the interview, on March 4 Bieliaieva said it felt strange to hear news reports that Russia was planning an invasion.

“They say the date there will be an attack on Ukraine,” she said. “I didn’t believe it.”

While she feels lucky to be in the United States, she also finds it frustrating to be stuck here when there’s so much going on over there.

“I would like to go to my town and to help my people, you see. But I can’t,” she said. “I want to help territorial defense. I can make food.”

Julia describes the feeling as more akin to guilt than relief.

Bieliaieva agrees.

“I can’t eat; I can’t sleep; because every minute we are waiting for new bombs, you see?” she said. “But we do what we can do.”

And on March 3, with the invasion in its second week, Bieliaieva got an idea. While in Julia’s workshop, looking at her friend’s assortment of fine linen, she wondered, Why not make scarves in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and sell them? Julia loved the plan and suggested they send the proceeds to Bieliaieva’s Prague-based daughter, who volunteers for an organization that helps Ukraine’s territorial defense forces.

Even if NATO ships Ukraine weaponry, they’ll still need plenty of tourniquets, bandages, thermal covers and decompression kits, Bieliaieva’s daughter texted.

Julia said she boils the scarves in order to create a bunched-up texture that looks quite trendy.

According to the Santa Cruz Mountains resident, there are at least seven Ukrainian families in the Bonny Doon area alone.

Anna Usatenko, 31, accounts for one of those households.

Her sister was in Kyiv but managed to evacuate to a safer part of the country the day after the invasion began on Feb. 24. But she still has friends in the capital.

“I got a lot of texts from them recently,” she said. “If Putin will occupy Ukrainian part, it will be like whole Ukraine under Auschwitz.”

On March 1, one of these texts arrived from a friend in Kyiv, whose dad lives in the Zaporizhzhia area, reporting he came under Russian gunfire.

“They shooting on his vehicle, and his friend passed away in the vehicle—but her father is alive,” Usatenko said. “She was angry, and I was angry.”

Usatenko did what she could to provide emotional support to her friend, but is all too aware of just how tenuous the situation is.

“You never know what can happen any day there,” she said. “The sky is not under control; we don’t have the weapons that can stop the bombing.”

She was disappointed NATO has declined to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Bieliaieva says the spirit of her fellow citizens won’t be extinguished by a few bombs.

“Ukrainian people think it’s better to die than live in a concentration camp,” she said. “Because Ukrainians will never be slaves.”

She smiles as she thinks back to the Euromaidan movement, the winter 2013-14 wave of civil unrest where demonstrators pushed for closer relations with the European Union. It started just down the street from her house.

“I was very active,” she said. “Scary, but I have my temper. And I’m free. And I don’t want to be slave—and I help all people in Maidan.”

During the protests, people would sleep outside in the public square, even though it was around negative-5 degrees Fahrenheit out.

“And for what they need—some blankets, food—I help them,” she said. “Every day I was in Maidan.”

She is trying to get her U.S. visa extended, hoping she won’t have to seek refugee status. Her burning desire to return is evident.

After all, Bieliaieva’s 71-year-old sister and her 77-year-old husband are still in Kyiv.

“Now they hide in subway station,” she said.

Julia’s parents live just 30 minutes outside of Kyiv.

“They are sitting in the basement,” she said, showing a photo they sent of a makeshift barricade made of assorted materials like cardboard, sticks, a pole and a pallet. “They are trying to protect their windows.”

Along the North Coast in Davenport, Joel Sorto, 42, directed his brother Noe Sorto, 40, and Jose Reyes, 28, a co-worker, as they affixed hearts made out of corrugated metal—and other symbols—to a fence.

They’re from Central America, not Eastern Europe, Joel points out. But even though they don’t know any Ukrainians, themselves, they felt it was important to do something creative to show solidarity with the people over there, Joel explained.

“We’re just trying to be creative and to support,” he said. “We spent all week making them.”

They got the reclaimed metal from a woodshop in the Santa Cruz Mountains. And they used redwood cut from Bonny Doon trees to fashion petals for some of the sunflowers, a symbol of peace and Ukraine’s official flower. Installing the wooden ones proved a welcome addition, since cardboard flowers they’d put up the previous day showed signs of “wilting” from overnight rain.

The crew even painted a large Ukrainian flag with a dove at the center.

It now hangs from a picturesque dilapidated building, the site of some of the most visible messages to first responders during the aftermath of the CZU Lightning Complex fire.

“This is pretty much all you can do,” he said, considering the plight of those trapped in war’s clutches on the other side of the globe. “It’s really sad.”

Watsonville Turns to Bonds to Meet Steep Pension Costs

Tony Nuñez

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March 11, 2022

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Watsonville Turns to Bonds to Meet Steep Pension Costs

The Watsonville City Council gave staff the green light to begin the process of issuing taxable bonds in hopes of paying off steep unfunded pension obligations over the next three decades.

According to a 2020 California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) report, the City of Watsonville is facing roughly $98 million in unfunded pension obligations that it hopes it can pay off over the next 23 years. Issuing $40 million of the so-called “refunding” bonds is one tool the City will use to try to slowly dig itself out of debt, and free up general fund dollars for other day-to-day uses.

Refunding bonds are generally considered a low-risk option for municipalities to refinance existing debt at a lower interest rate.

Consultant Urban Futures, Inc. projects that, thanks to current low interest rates, the City will pay roughly $59 million in total on the bonds that it hopes to issue sometime this spring. But projections also show the City could save anywhere between $1.1 million and $1.76 million annually over the next four fiscal years if they do issue the bonds.

The taxable bonds differ from traditional pension obligation bonds—which many cities in California have reluctantly turned to in addressing debilitating retirement costs—in that the latter is typically repaid with general fund dollars and is more volatile. A taxable bond, meanwhile, is repaid by funds generated by a local tax. In Watsonville’s case, the City will use the funds generated annually by a property tax measure approved by voters several years ago that addressed pension costs, also known as the Pension Tax Override.

There will be no new tax associated with this series of bonds, staff said.

Staff will return to the city council for final approval on this year’s bonds and any other bonds it might issue in the future.

County’s Juvenile Hall Set for Needed Upgrades

Todd Guild

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March 10, 2022

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County’s Juvenile Hall Set for Needed Upgrades

The Santa Cruz County Probation Department is in the final stages of securing state funding for a major upgrade to the Juvenile Hall, a project county officials say will help better secure the facility, give youth offenders recreational activities and offer job skills for their eventual release.

Plans include a brand new 6,800-square-foot indoor multi-purpose recreation area. They also include upgrades to the kitchen and greenhouse for a “seed-to-table” program that will teach the inmates culinary skills, says Juvenile Hall Superintendent Sara Ryan.

“It will give the kids usable skills they can put on a resume,” Ryan says.

The facility will also get seismic and security upgrades.

According to Nicole Steel, a project manager with Santa Cruz County Public Works’ Capital Projects Division, the job will help the Juvenile Hall align with Title 15, a rule that sets minimum standards for detention facilities.

The funds have already been secured through Senate Bill 81—known as the Juvenile Justice Realignment bill—a 2007 law that sets standards for detention facilities.

The price tag for the gym is just over $2.3 million, with Prop. 81 funds covering $1.3 million. Prop 81 will cover all but $14,000 of the $9.5 million kitchen upgrade.

The State Fire Marshall still needs to approve the work, and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will approve the bidding process for the work at an upcoming meeting, Steel says.

Ryan says that an average of 14 young people are housed in the Juvenile Hall at any time. That is an improvement from two decades ago, when that number was closer to 60.

That progress, she says, comes thanks to a focus on alternatives to incarceration such as electronic monitoring, house arrest, mediation, rehabilitation and family counseling.

The department has done a lot of work with detaining youth only when necessary, Ryan says.

“It’s a lower population, and that’s because anyone who can receive appropriate services is released,” Ryan added.

In making the changes, county officials are also adhering to Senate Bill 823, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2020. The law will shut down the state’s youth prisons by July 2023, and shift the responsibility for their incarceration to the counties. According to EdSource, some 10,000 young people were jailed in 1996, a number that has since decreased by 93%,

The County’s efforts have made Santa Cruz County a model nationwide for the way it addresses youth offenders, says attorney Ben Rice, who chairs the county’s Juvenile Justice and Dependency Commission.

“The County has done extraordinary work in the past in reducing the number of kids and youth going into the Juvenile Hall by coming up with smart programming, diverting kids out, having programs out there that parents and youth can be referred to,” Rice says.

But many jurisdictions—Santa Cruz County included—lack proper facilities to house offenders who commit violent crimes such as assault, robbery or homicide.

“The unintended consequence is that we are not prepared to take the youth we were required to take,” Rice says.

Santa Cruz County is now sending some of its violent offenders to Sonoma County, where officials have built the necessary infrastructure. Currently, one youth from Santa Cruz County is housed there, but with that coming to an end soon, and those types of inmates set to be housed locally, the upgrades are a necessary step, Rice says.

County officials say that from 2010 to 2020, Santa Cruz County sent 25 offenders between the ages of 16 and 18 to the Department of Juvenile Justice. All were male, with average confinement of 2.7 years.

“The rationale of [Senate Bill 823] was to keep kids closer to home,” he says. “That just wasn’t happening with our youth going out to Stockton. It just makes it a pipeline to prison … This is exactly the kind of thing that our county, and every county, should provide.”

Voters Will Determine Future of County’s Rail Line

Todd Guild

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March 10, 2022

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Voters Will Determine Future of County’s Rail Line

The fate of Santa Cruz County’s rail line is now in the hands of the voters.

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 4-0 to place on the June 7 ballot an initiative which, if successful, would amend Santa Cruz County’s general plan to prioritize development of a bike and pedestrian trail along the rail line running from Watsonville to Santa Cruz, while “railbanking” the tracks for possible future development.

Supervisor Zach Friend recused himself from the vote, explaining that he has property near the rail line and therefore has a conflict of interest.

The supervisors also accepted a report detailing the estimated influence of the initiative, outlining the initiative’s financial impact, and how it affects the county’s general plans, its housing element and land use, among other things.

One of the most controversial and divisive issues to face county residents in years, the future of the rail line—and longtime efforts to either bring passenger rail to the 32-mile stretch or convert it to a trail—hangs in the balance.

In February, the nonprofit Santa Cruz County Greenway submitted more than 12,000 signatures to bring the issue before voters. The group envisions a future in which commuters use a two-lane paved path for “active transportation” such as bicycles, wheelchairs and skateboards, with a divider and a separate path for pedestrians.

They say the path would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle traffic.

Opponents call the initiative misleading and say that the removal of the tracks will almost certainly be permanent and therefore would be the end of any plans for countywide commuter rail.

Board Chair Manu Koenig, the former executive director of Greenway, centered his 2020 supervisorial campaign around the issue—he unseated longtime Supervisor John Leopold in that election.

Koenig has long said that a passenger rail service here would be unworkable, expensive and an ungainly addition to the relatively small county of 270,000 or so residents.

He pointed out that, in some places, it would be less expensive to build a trail alongside the track. The report also says that maintaining the rail for freight could cost $60 million, Koenig said.

County staff estimates that repairing the line for freight service could run from $48.7 to $63.7 million.

“Really we need to be budgeting in how we’re going to maintain this facility once it’s constructed,” he said. “I think our community is going to have to have a very real consideration about what we can afford and what we can get done, and I’m glad the report provides some clear information on that.”

In railbanking, jurisdictions save their rail lines and associated infrastructure for future use, while focusing on other development until rail is deemed feasible.

While Greenway has said the move allows for the possibility of future rail service, Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) Executive Director Guy Preston has said that passage of the initiative will likely mean the removal of the tracks.

Most of the 12-member commission has indicated that they favor keeping the tracks in place and some said they would reject both abandonment and railbanking, should the issue come as an action item.

The discussion included more than a dozen members of the public, which were evenly divided in their opinions, but all of whom supported placing the issue on the ballot.

Greenway counts thousands of supporters countywide, including hundreds of individual endorsements.

But while Greenway has garnered significant support for the initiative, it remains unclear how the vote will go.

The group No Way Greenway—formed in opposition—calls the initiative misleading.

That group has picked up endorsements from the Santa Cruz County Democratic Party, the Democratic Club of North Santa Cruz County, the Mid County Democratic Club and the College Democrats at UC Santa Cruz.

Four Watsonville City Council members also oppose it, along with two from the Santa Cruz City Council. Supervisor Greg Caput, who said he “strongly opposes” the initiative, said it is still important to let voters decide.

“I strongly believe that we (should) put it on the ballot,” he said.

While the outcome of the vote could change county code to bring a focus to the development of a trail-only model, it will not mean that railbanking will happen immediately, since the U.S. Surface Transportation Board has jurisdiction over such matters.

Either way, the RTC, which owns the line, will soon consider what to do with the line in the short-term, with the commission this spring set to mull an interim plan.

Further complicating the matter is that RTC bought the Santa Cruz Branch Line from Union Pacific in 2012, but not the freight easement, which is now held by Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad.

Council Places Future of Watsonville’s Growth in Voters’ Hands

Tony Nuñez

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March 10, 2022

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Council Places Future of Watsonville’s Growth in Voters’ Hands

Should Watsonville expand outward in an effort to meet mounting housing and economic needs? Or will it continue to restrict its growth, and increase its housing density in favor of protecting every inch of the rich surrounding agricultural land?

These are the questions Watsonville voters will have to answer come November.

The Watsonville City Council at its Tuesday meeting placed the extension of Measure U, a landmark ballot measure approved by voters in 2002, on the Nov. 8 election.

In doing so, the elected leaders will give the city’s voters an opportunity to determine if the restrictions on where, when and how the city could expand have had a positive impact on the community over the last 20 years.

A report presented to the city council on Tuesday painted a largely negative picture of the measure’s effect on everyday life, stating that, among other things, it has hamstrung the city’s economic growth and will likely make state-mandated housing goals all but impossible to achieve if it is renewed through 2040.

But the Committee for Planned Growth and Farmland Protection—the group spearheaded by environmentalist and agricultural representatives that gathered some 2,400 signatures to bring the item to the council—in a letter to the City filed by their attorney says that the report is flawed, illegal and one-sided.

They say that it only focuses on the negatives of the measure, and omits or understates several housing initiatives and documents that lay out a way for Watsonville to meet its state-mandated goals through infill development.

Watsonville City Attorney Samantha Zutler at Tuesday night’s meeting pushed back on that assertion.

“I don’t think there’s any indication that this presentation, which simply provided facts, was unbiased,” Zutler said.

The council had three choices at Tuesday’s meeting: accept the extension of the measure as a city ordinance, place it on the upcoming June primary or send it to voters in November.

Several city council members said they supported placing it on the November ballot because it would give the committee and City time to meet and resume talks that have stalled for various reasons over the last three years.

The More Things Change

Measure U is an amendment to the City’s general plan that established a so-called “urban limit line” that nixed any development of agricultural land surrounding the city—save for a few exceptions.

Its roots can be traced back to ugly annexation battles for properties west of Highway 1 in the 1990s that pitted Watsonville against environmentalists, farmers and other county jurisdictions and agencies. As it is today, the city was in the midst of housing affordability and unemployment crises after roughly 3,000 jobs, mostly middle-class gigs in the canning industry, were shipped out of the country as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement’s implementation in 1994. Trying to spark economic growth, the City sought to expand its footprint in the hopes of luring other large employers to replace the blue-collared professions that had fled.

But county officials scrapped those plans because they believed Watsonville’s expansion would negatively impact the agricultural industry, which serves as a major revenue and job generator for the area.

From that defeat, however, arose Action Pajaro Valley, a nonprofit that brought together the community to help create a long-term plan of how Watsonville would grow and meet the challenges the city then faced.

The end result was Measure U, and in 2002 Watsonville voters approved it with 60% of the vote.

Watsonville would give up most of its annexation plans to the east and west, and would instead focus its efforts to the north in the Buena Vista area. In addition, the City would also develop the Manabe-Ow property (then Manabe-Burgstrom) for industrial use, provide more senior housing on the southeast side of the city and eventually annex property off Atkinson Lane to build needed affordable housing.

The first round of protections baked into the measure expire in November and the rest will phase out in 2027.

Measuring Progress

Much of Measure U’s planned growth has not been realized, according to the report from consultant Economic & Planning Systems presented Tuesday.

Development in the growth areas included in Measure U has yielded just 207 housing units, the report stated.

In addition, the Manabe-Ow property has only fulfilled about 194,000 square feet of commercial development (the FedEx distribution center), compared to the 1 million square feet proposed in the area’s specific plan. On top of that, the job creation projected in Measure U has also lagged—only about 200 of the 2,390 employment opportunities have been realized, according to the report.

But the committee says that those shortcomings are not the direct result of Measure U. They say the failure to develop those areas falls on the shoulders of the City and is more directly connected to litigation against the municipality brought forth by special interests such as environmentalists, agriculture and the local pilots’ association.

The committee also says the City is misrepresenting the number of potential sites within city limits that can be redeveloped into housing. It cites numbers in the City’s 2015-2023 Housing Element that state the municipality has 201 sites, or roughly 105 acres, that are either vacant or “underutilized.”

In addition, the committee says that the passing of recent state housing laws that allow single-family homes to be upzoned into four-plex properties will help the city meet its increasing mandates. The City’s Downtown Specific Plan that is expected to be approved in the coming months will also open up more sites for residential development, the committee says.

During public comment, one person from the committee suggested the City should invoke eminent domain to take over vacant sites in which property owners have not pursued redevelopment.

But the report presented Tuesday included an analysis of the properties identified in the housing element that found that there are now 147 vacant properties within the urban limit line. Of those properties, 40 would not face significant challenges—such as airport safety zones, existing entitlements and proximity to wetlands—that prohibit residential development. And only 10 are currently ready to be redeveloped into housing without a zoning change or additional analysis.

Those 40 parcels, according to the report, would produce just 281 housing units.

Projections from the upcoming Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) determined by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments show that Watsonville will likely need to approve some 2,100 housing units over the next eight years—that’s on top of the 300 or so units that it will carry over from its current RHNA allocation. As such, Measure U’s extension, the report states, would create a “significant barrier” to meet housing goals.

The report also took a look ahead to see what sites near the urban limit line would make sense to redevelop should voters rebuke the extension in November, and all protections end in 2027.

For residential development, the study identified 77 acres adjacent to Wagner and East Lake avenues as a “strategic growth” area that could produce around 860 housing units.

For commercial development, the historic 13.6-acre Redman House parcel across the street from the new Hampton Inn & Suites hotel would likely “have a strong positive impact on the City’s General Fund” if turned into a business complex with shopping, dining and lodging, the report found.

What was said?

There was little discussion from the council on the item, though some councilmembers referenced Watsonville’s limited developable space throughout the night during staff presentations on the City’s housing element and park fees.

About a dozen people spoke during public comment, all of them in favor of extending the measure. This included a handful of members of the Watsonville Wetlands Watch’s Board of Directors and Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau President Arnett Young.

All of them said that the extension of the measure would mean the preservation of the Pajaro Valley’s role as an agricultural power and halt urban sprawl.

Committee member Sam Earnshaw in an email following the meeting said that he was disappointed that the City’s presentation was tilted toward the negative impacts of the measure. He also said that he felt the city council did not acknowledge the committee’s 32-page impact report it prepared for the elected leaders.

That report highlighted the positive impact Measure U has had on agriculture preservation and infill development but did not address its impact on the issues that the city faces, including rising housing costs and increased demand for services needed to help low-income residents that make up a bulk of the jobs in the agriculture industry.

The report also largely shrugged off the costs and difficulties associated with rezoning and redeveloping sites that have set back several housing projects in Watsonville, including at least three large developments that are either in litigation or facing environmental challenges.

Councilman Lowell Hurst, who was previously on the council around the same time as the inception of Measure U, said that much of Tuesday’s conversation ran parallel to the conversations from the 1990s during the previous annexation battles.

“I feel like I’m having a Déjà vu moment, back into the time,” he said. “We’ve had these discussions previously, and I think we’re going to have more discussions because there are a lot of things that are ambiguous and maybe misunderstood about the constraints on the City. Hopefully, those will come out in some dialogue and we need more time for that dialogue.”

Sales Tax Measure Approved For June Ballot

Aiyana Moya

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March 10, 2022

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Sales Tax Measure Approved For June Ballot

Santa Cruz residents will weigh in on whether to implement a half-cent sales tax, following Tuesday night’s city council decision to approve the measure for the June ballot.

The sales tax, if voters approve it, would generate an estimated $6 million in additional revenue for the City at a time when it faces a looming budget deficit.

This is the second time in less than a year that the council has discussed a sales tax increase. In June of last year, it failed to unanimously approve a similar tax measure, missing the deadline to place the proposal on the November ballot. The council needed unanimous support so it could declare a fiscal emergency, but Councilwoman Sandy Brown declined to support the measure. Until the council discussed including City workers in its living wage ordinance, Brown said she could not support the measure.

This time around, Brown was on the Ad Hoc Committee in charge of drawing up the details for the measure, along with Mayor Sonja Brunner and Vice Mayor Martine Watkins.

Being a part of the process, Brown told GT, helped shift her opinion on supporting the measure. More importantly, she sees the City making a greater commitment to ending homelessness and supporting City workers in a way that she didn’t before.

The City is also in dire need of new revenue sources, Brown acknowledged during Tuesday’s meeting. According to the staff report, the city took a $21 million hit to its General Fund in the past two years, and even with around $14 million in federal aid, the City’s long term expenses—infrastructure maintenance and the expansion of services for the growing coastal community—will drain cash reserves by 2028 if no additional funding sources are identified or costs are cut.

Covid-19 and the CZU Lightning Complex fires are to blame for most of the City’s losses, according to the city. Transient Occupancy Tax revenue, the tax that visitors pay on hotels and vacation rentals, dropped by 33% over the pandemic, and Admission Tax revenue from recreational events plunged 97%. To address these shortfalls, the City froze hiring, encouraged early retirements and cut most City staff pay by 10%.

Still, even as budget projections estimate that revenues will begin to recover as the pandemic begins to loosen its grip on everyday life, the City is approximately $6 million short of a full bounce back.

In a random public poll at the beginning of the year, 61% of people supported the measure, down around 9% from when the City conducted the poll in April 2021. Respondents said that the City’s most pressing issues are the lack of affordable housing, homelessness, wildfires and the City’s water supply.

These are all possible areas that the revenue collected from the tax could be spent toward, but the City has yet to determine exactly how the money will be distributed. In April, the council will deliberate how it would spend the funds should voters approve the increase.

Items that will be exempt from the tax include groceries, prescription medicine, diapers and feminine hygiene products.

“We all know that we may need an additional revenue source in the near term,” said Councilwoman Donna Meyers. “Otherwise, we’ll be looking at some very, very difficult decisions very, very soon.”

Santa Cruz’s Homelessness Response Action Plan Prioritizes Shelter Creation

Todd Guild

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March 10, 2022

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Santa Cruz’s Homelessness Response Action Plan Prioritizes Shelter Creation

The Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday adopted a three-year Homelessness Response Action Plan, which focuses on establishing permanent housing and expanding existing shelter services while closing temporary and unsanctioned camps within the city such as the Benchlands.

The report was the first of what will be a quarterly homelessness response programming update to the council.

The plan combines mental health and other services and encourages non-law enforcement response when possible, for an around-the-clock alternative emergency crisis response program.

“The action plan represents a shift, really moving to a more integrated and holistic approach to the city’s homelessness response, moving from being reactive and looking at temporary fixes to be more proactive and working toward permanent and sustainable solutions,” said Santa Cruz Homelessness Response Manager Larry Imwalle. “It balances individual needs with managing community impacts—that’s the overarching frame that’s really guiding this.”

In addition, city officials plan to work with other jurisdictions and nonprofits to identify 20 new locations for sheltering.

“To be successful and impact this issue really takes the entire community,” Imwalle said.

A large part of Tuesday’s discussion was how the City will spend $14 million it received recently from the State Legislature to help address its growing problem with homelessness.

The approved plan proposes the following spending:

$3 million for funding a shelter at 125 Coral St., including acquiring an existing business at that address
$1.9 million for repairs to a shower facility at the Housing Matters shelter at 117 Coral St.
$500,000 for pre-development work for a navigation center and other improvements on the Coral Street campus
$1.09 million for pallet shelters, which are small, portable, easy-to-assemble single-story units
$1.04 million to fund safe parking services
$1.3 million for increased sheltering
$2.4 million to increase services at the Armory

The money will also go toward funding new positions such as mental health specialists and resource and land management that will cost upwards of $1 million. That is a significant shift from the previous homelessness response, which is described as “an amalgamation of decentralized work spanning 12 City departments.”

Also included in the plan is the protection and restoration of natural areas that have been impacted by unsanctioned encampments, to enforce existing environmental protection regulations and pursue new regulations that would further protect habitats.

Already, Santa Cruz-based Housing Matters is working with the City and the County of Santa Cruz to provide an additional 120 shelter beds in the form of Pallet Shelters.

The plan also seeks to establish safe parking programs, including parking restrictions on City streets between midnight and 5am, a new residential permit program and the restriction of discharging sewage or gray water on streets or in storm drains.

It will also create a waste disposal program for people who live in recreational vehicles and provide storage spaces for people experiencing homelessness.

Homelessness nationwide grew exponentially during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Santa Cruz County, the number of emergency shelter and transitional housing beds reached a peak of 1,008 beds, more than doubling the pre-Covid shelter capacity.

And without a solution, the problem stands to get worse, as state and federal funding for Covid-19 responses expires or runs out.

The one-time allocation from the state will cover the bulk of the first-year costs with implementing the Action Plan—estimated at $14.5 million—with the remainder being drawn from Community Development Block Grants, American Rescue Plan Act funds and the City’s General Fund.

Because the one-time funding will pay for one year of the new positions, city officials will have to seek new revenue sources to keep them, Imwalle said.

“This is probably the most challenging issue in our community, and one of our biggest responsibilities,” he said. “So it’s going to require ongoing investment.”

The issue will return to the council in May, when they will further hammer out details of the plan.

Things To Do in Santa Cruz: March 9-15

GT Staff

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March 9, 2022

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A weekly guide to what’s happening.

ARTS AND MUSIC

THE GHOST OF PAUL REVERE WITH EARLY JAMES Since 2011, the Maine trio has shared stages with Jason Isbell, Bela Fleck, The Avett Brothers and other like-minded musicians who embrace an Americana salad tossed with bluegrass, folk and rock. Meanwhile, after watching two seconds of Early James perform, the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach decided he needed to produce the singer-songwriter’s debut, Singing For My Supper. $20/$25. Proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test required. Wednesday, March 9, 8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. moesalley.com.

TOUBAB KREWE WITH REED MATHIS & ELECTRIC BEETHOVEN The instrumental Asheville, North Carolina jam band’s music is primarily informed by some of Africa’s most extraordinary talents, including Ali Farka Toure, Orchestra Baobab and Salif Kei. As an extended member of the Grateful Dead family, bassist Reed Mathis has toured with Billy & the Kids, The Rhythm Devils and the Mickey Hart Band throughout the years. Inspired by the Dead’s uninhibited risk-taking, Mathis’ new project fuses two very different musical styles: Beethoven with, well, everything else. $17-27. Proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test required. Friday, March 11, 8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. moesalley.com.

CORB LUND WITH LAUREN MORROW Cowboys, stories of unruly frontier saloons and subdued realities of modern family ranches fading away, Corb Lund’s 2020 record Agricultural Tragic embraces the roots of his rural Albertan upbringing and the rich content that unfolded near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. No Depression readers voted the LP one of the “50 Favorite Roots Music Albums of 2020.” $15/$19. Proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test required. Saturday, March 12, 8pm. Felton Music Hall, 6275 CA-9, Felton. feltonmusichall.com.

MARTY O’REILLY & THE OLD SOUL ORCHESTRA WITH ZELMA STONE “It’s not about where a [blues song] goes, it’s about the headspace and drive,” Marty O’Reilly says. “People like Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker could play the same chord for five minutes and not have it sound repetitive because their heart is in it.” It’s that sensibility that drives O’Reilly’s third record, Signal Fires, with the Old Soul Orchestra, made during the pandemic. $20/$25. Proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test required. Saturday, March 12, 9pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. moesalley.com.

GRATEFUL SUNDAYS On Sundays after 5:30pm, you can count on hearing Grateful Dead classics like “Tennessee Jed” and “Wharf Rat” resonate on the section of Main Street adjacent to Michael’s on Main. It’s comforting in a way. Longtime local musician and Deadhead Matt Hartle is the man behind the weekly tribute. Joined by musicians with matching reverence for the San Francisco band that’s been embedded in the fabric of life for so many folks around the world, Hartle simply plays back the tunes that guided so many on long strange trips. $15/$20. Sunday, March 13, 5:30pm. Michael’s on Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. michaelsonmainmusic.com.

ISRAEL VIBRATION AND KAVAH JAH “Legendary” isn’t something ascribed to just any group, but Israel Vibration deserves it. Rising to become one of the most dynamic Jamaican roots reggae outfits wasn’t as easy as using the natural vocal abilities that Skeley Spence and Apple Gabriel are blessed with. It took endurance. Poverty, polio and several years of singing on the streets in exchange for dinner eventually led to opportunities opening for Bob Marley, then came a record deal. Since 2012, fellow Jamaican Kavah Jah has honed his style as he shared the stage with everyone from Junior Reid to Steel Pulse. A decade into his career, his forthcoming full-length LP is highly anticipated. $35/$40. Proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test required. Saturday, March 13, 9pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. moesalley.com.

SEVENDUST, ETRARCH & DEAD POET SOCIETY It didn’t take long for Atlanta-based hard rockers Sevendust to crash the mainstream. Following the release of their 1997 self-titled debut, the outfit sold millions of records worldwide, scored a Grammy nod and earned a trio of gold-certified albums. Not shabby. $27.50-$35. Sunday, March 13, 7pm. The Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz.

THE HOT SARDINES On Welcome Home Bon Voyage, the jazz collective delivers a hot plate of covers and originals as they “effortlessly channel New York speakeasies, Parisian cabarets and New Orleans jazz halls.” $47.25. Monday, March 14, 7pm. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. kuumbwajazz.org.

COMMUNITY

BOOKSHOP SANTA CRUZ PRESENTS: DARA HORN The King Lecture Series promotes and explores the dialogue between faiths. Award-winning author Dara Horn will discuss her recent release, People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present. $23. Proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test required. Wednesday, March 9, 5:30pm. UCSC Merrill Cultural Center, 641 Merrill Road, Santa Cruz. bookshopsantacruz.com.

DOWNTOWN SANTA CRUZ ANTIQUE FAIRE On the hunt for a unique item? Rather not go online to get it? Find everything from vintage clothing to Bakelite to “Crazy Daisy” Pyrex mixing bowls. Looking for an out-of-print Johnny Thunders vinyl? How about a mid-century American lamp for your nightstand? You never know what you’ll find! Sunday, March 13, 8am-5pm. Lincoln St., Downtown Santa Cruz. 831-476-6940.

GROUPS

BEGINNER YOGA FOR QUEER BODIES (REMOTE) This beginner yoga class is taught by certified practitioner Silas Littlefield (he/him) and designed especially for queer and trans bodies. Registration required. Free. Thursday, March 10, 6-7:15pm. is****@uc**.edu.

GANJA YOGA SANTA CRUZ Cannabis, yoga and community come together to relax and elevate your soul. Javi’s classes blend slow vinyasa flow, chill vibes, grounded spirituality and a touch of Latino spice. All levels welcome, weed welcome (vapes only), masks optional. Free (first class). Thursday, March 10, 6pm. Green Magic Yoga, 738 Chestnut St., Santa Cruz. greenmagicyoga.com/ganja-yoga-santa-cruz.

WOMENCARE ARM-IN-ARM This cancer support group is for women with advanced, recurrent or metastatic cancer. Meets every Monday on Zoom. Free. Registration required. Monday, March 14, 12:30pm. 831-457-2273. womencaresantacruz.org.

OUTDOORS

WEST CLIFF FOOD TRUCK SERIES A favorite for locals and tourists. Beautiful views and tasty eats! It doesn’t get better. Get outside and soak in the sunshine. The parking lot is close to many excellent picnic areas to relax and enjoy the scenery. Free. Friday, March 11, 4-8pm. Lighthouse Point, 701 West Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz. in**@br****************.com.

GRAY WHALE COVE TRAIL WALK State Park Docents lead a two-hour hike along the scenic Gray Whale Cove Trail at McNee Ranch at Montara. Get your blood pumping alongside the spectacular California Coast. Pre-registration required. Saturday, March 12, 10am-noon. Rio Del Mar State Beach, 110 Aptos Beach Drive, Aptos. santacruzstateparks.as.me.

SANTA CRUZ POLAR PLUNGE Make a splash with costumed friends. Plungers can dive into the water all the way, take a quick dip or stay completely dry. Whatever your preference, the scene is fun and it all benefits the Special Olympics, Northern California. Plungers must raise a minimum of $125 to participate, but everyone is invited to watch on. Saturday, March 12, 10am-1pm. Rio Del Mar State Beach, 110 Aptos Beach Drive, Aptos. p2p.onecause.com/santacruzplunge.

Osees Bring a Gumbo of Psychedelic Jams, Jazz Fusion and Stoner Rock to Cocoanut Grove

Adam Joseph

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March 9, 2022

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Osees Bring a Gumbo of Psychedelic Jams, Jazz Fusion and Stoner Rock to Cocoanut Grove

“The more fucked up the world is, the better it is for art,” John Dwyer says. “There’s always plenty of fodder, especially right now—just look at what’s going on in [Ukraine]. A million songs can be written based on the last week alone. Art comes from struggle.”

But Dwyer doesn’t need a fucked-up world to inspire content; he teems with music, so much so that he’s had to form more than a dozen different bands throughout the last 25 years to contain the hundreds of songs that sweat out of him.

Osees is the original, and the center of Dwyer’s musical universe, even with the band’s actual name perpetually in flux. The earliest known iteration of Osees, OCS, is an acronym for either Orinoka Crash Suite or Orange County Sound, depending on Dwyer’s mood. OCS became the Oh Sees, sometimes billed as the Ohsees, and then the Thee Oh Sees moniker was left unchanged for about a decade before the ants in Dwyer’s pants led to the 2020 alteration Osees, which is where it stands—for now.

Osees is a trip inside Dwyer’s head, an extension of influences like Fangoria and Heavy Metal magazines (Dwyer is still a proud subscriber of the latter), and the sonic soup forever in motion. From lo-fi garage rock and psychedelic long-form jams to proto-metal, jazz fusion and straightforward punk, it’s just as hard to classify the Osees as it is for Dwyer to focus on one project at a time. During our conversation, he’s simultaneously overseeing a locksmith, plumber and painter working on what will be the new studio for his longtime label, Castle Face Records, located in Los Angeles’ Eagle Rock area.

The studio, just like most projects that the multi-talented, high-energy musician tackles, has a lot of moving parts—the undertaking is admittingly costly and largescale. Still, Dwyer subscribes to an “If we build it, they will come” philosophy.

“Hopefully, a bunch of people will use this joint at some point,” he says. “My brain is a little scattered.”

Anyone whose mind and body move with the velocity of a cheetah is bound to feel scattered now and again, but the 47-year-old knows no other reality. Over 25 studio albums, a library of self-crafted music videos and the growing roster of musicians on Castle Face Records equate to many 18-hour days. And that doesn’t include Osees’ touring schedule. Even when touring was on hold during the pandemic, the Providence, Rhode Island native says he was more productive than ever. At the top of the list of his accomplishments: Castle Face’s release of Australian post-punk outfit Exek’s new record.

“I was working on so much stuff that my head was up my ass,” Dwyer says. “I read a lot, a lot of YouTube tutorials—learning how to animate—lots of shit like that. Lots of weed smoking. Probably more dope than I ever had [smoked] in my whole life—just bananas. That probably kept me from ending up in a McDonald’s and flipping out.”

The lifetime DIYer didn’t need Covid lockdown as an excuse to do everything he’s always wanted to do. Dwyer’s the kind of dude who doesn’t wait around for someone to show him the way. He just teaches himself.

Dwyer built the Osees’ “Anthemic Aggressor” music video using clay and wood. The result: the cockpit of a spaceship that cruises from galaxy to galaxy as a pair of alien pilots get stoned as they take in the otherworldly wonders of deep space. It’s an ideal aesthetic for a 10-minute psychedelic jam that sounds like Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew making love to Pink Floyd’s Pipers at the Gates of Dawn as early Rush watches in the corner.

The miniature set that Dwyer constructed was auctioned off for $1,000, which went to the nonprofit Elizabeth House, a haven for homeless pregnant women.

“Some lucky kid in Iowa or Ohio has that fucking travesty in his house now!” Dwyer says.

Much of Osees’ more recent work is informed by pioneers of early jazz fusion alongside Miles Davis, including guitarist John Mclaughlin. On Osees’ “Face Stabber,” Dwyer emulates Davis’ extended trumpet riffs from records like The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions. Ironically, Davis approached trumpet like an electric guitar in that era.

Dwyer also used the last couple of years to flex his improvisational muscles and feed that jazz fusion adoration. He released five different improvisational records, under five different band names—Witch Egg and Endless Garbage, to name a couple—featuring tons of talent, including electric pianist Ben Boye, saxophonist Joce Soubrian and, most notably, TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone, who was in Dwyer’s bands Bent Arcana and Moon Drenched. Again, all these groups came together between 2020 and 2021, except for Bent Arcana.

But does Dwyer ever find time to sleep?

“I sleep like a baby,” he says. “I work mostly during the day; it used to be always at night—probably different choices of drugs. This is my job. So, I’m pretty fortunate. I have a pretty insane work ethic, too—that’s my natural high.”

Osees play Friday, March 18, at Cocoanut Grove, 400 Beach St., Santa Cruz. 8pm; $35 plus fees. Covid vaccine or proof of negative test required. folkyeah.com.

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