Last October, after an amazing experience performing on The Voice for three rounds, local singer-songwriter Anthony Arya returned home and performed at the Food Lounge. A packed crowd was excited to see Arya—only 15 at the time—strum some tunes on his home turf.
“A bunch of people I never met before came and packed the Food Lounge out,” says Arya. “All that Santa Cruz support was incredible.”
He had started writing music just a year earlier, steeping his sound in blues, jazz and folk, and playing wherever he could. But after his post-Voice success, he reached out to Tom Miller at Michael’s on Main and started playing as much as humanly possible. In 2019, he’s played shows with his band, as a duo with girlfriend Emily Hough (also a Voice contestant), and with his Grateful Dead tribute band Chasing Ophelia. Right after The Voice, he also recorded his debut album Going To California, which featured 11 of his pre-Voice tunes.
“The Voice was a launching pad,” Arya says. “Now I’m getting to play a lot of amazing venues that I grew up going to, like Michael’s on Main.”
He may be doing a lot, but he prioritizes writing and performing original material above all else. Arya’s got a new album in the works of songs he’s written since his Voice experience. Like his first record, it’ll be diverse, but he also came back from The Voice having learned a few things.
“The Voice band is very dynamic. I really got it in my songwriting that I wanted to make music that had dynamics, that had a flow, but also energy that built up,” Arya says. “These new tunes, you’ll hear that there’s a lot of energy to them.”
INFO: 2 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 8. Michael’s On Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $10. 479-9777.
Find those and more at The Hour unfolding at Soif each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5-6 p.m. A sophisticated happy hour without sawdust on the floor, this hour offers a special menu with special prices that will appeal to those who crave some action before the dinner hour officially gets underway.
Clever marketing to be sure, The Hour lets Soifists sample cocktails for $9, selected wines for $7, and nibble a Caesar salad for $8 while catching up on downtown gossip.
So Katya and I swung ‘round to see what Chef Tom McNary’s kitchen had going on last week. Priced between $7-15, The Hour’s menu tempted us with 21st-century bar food in the form of Vietnamese-style grilled quail ($11) accompanied by rosy leaf lettuce, pickled onions and slices of the best ripe tomatoes I’ve had all season.
The glazed quail was tender-chewy and wonderful, especially dipped in a tart and fiery “mignonette” sauce laced with chilis and shallots. Another choice combo we inhaled was an order of slender-cut french fries ($5), along with a substantial bowl of mussels in a broth of white wine, cream and shallots ($15). The fries were great dipped Belgian-style into the shellfish broth.
The Hour’s menu is not written in stone, so expect it to morph along with the seasons. I was impressed with one of the special cocktails dreamed up for The Hour by bar manager Matt Barron. The Ambrosia is a tall, complex cooler of gin, grapefruit liqueur, orgeat almond liqueur (think liquid marzipan), lemon, and soda. Seriously fine, thanks to mixologist Jon Bates, and faintly creamy-tasting (that’s the orgeat), the impressive cocktail was topped with a slice of preserved lemon ($9).
Katya enjoyed a $7 glass of mineral-intensive French Domaine de Menard Colombard, Ugni Blanc blend. The citrusy white wine was from a rotating list of wines—a sparkler, a red and a white—selected by retail manager Alexis Carr.
My favorite on the new menu was a trio of plump arancini ($7) filled with melting, oozing Gruyere and floating in a killer tomato sauce. Perfect Italianate rice balls, somehow made to go with a gin cocktail. Another highlight is an oyster shooter with tobiko ($5). Tastes like a 60-minute warm-up for whatever comes next. Terrific idea.
Soif, 105 Walnut Ave., Santa Cruz. 423-2020, soifwine.com.
Bank It
The annual Santa Cruz Chef’s Dinner will be held Sept. 12 from 6-9 p.m. at 126 High St., near downtown. Always an unforgettable chance to dine well with friends and community to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank’s award-winning Food For Children program. After the 6 p.m. champagne reception and silent auction, this year’s six-course meal starts at 7:15. The menu, paired with local wines, will be prepared by chefs Peter Henry from The Cremer House, Ella King from Ella’s at the Airport, Steve Wilson of Cafe Cruz, Brad Briske from Home, Jeffrey Wall of Alderwood, and Anthony Kresge of Chef Anthony. For prices, go to thefoodbank.org.
Staff Does Wine
Here’s a chance to sample wines and meet the winemakers at Staff of Life Natural Foods’ “Taste the Best Fest” on Sunday, Sept. 8, from 3-6 p.m. on the patio at 1266 Soquel Ave. Pouring at the event will be winemakers Ian Brand, Marty Mathis of Kathryn Kennedy Winery, John Richey of Bottle Jack Winery, and Brandon Armitage of Armitage Winery. Robby Honda will pour samples of his artisanal Tanuki Cider. All to benefit Habitat for Humanities Monterey Bay. $10 advance on Eventbrite/$18 door.
When watching a rape-revenge film, which The Nightingale often pretends it isn’t, one hopes for something with enough aesthetic sensibility to conquer the basic manipulativeness of the premise.
The problem with so many of these films is their insistence on graphic depictions of sexual violence—as if viewers couldn’t possibly imagine being overpowered and taken by force.
The sickening fact is that far too many viewers know exactly how it feels, even without—as here—the multiple shots of our heroine, Claire (Game of Thrones’ Aisling Fraciosi), experiencing an assault.
We’re also supposed believe it’s news that rape would dehumanize us to the point where we’d want bestial revenge. The first prong of this fork underestimates our sensitivity, the second prong overestimates our genteelness. It’s surprising how little rape one needs to be ready for revenge. If a movie heroine wants to barbecue a rapist’s balls, I’ll hand her a match and a bottle of KC Sauce.
It’s 1825 in Van Diemen’s Land, today’s Tasmania, during the closing of a war of extermination against the local aborigines. This genocide, as Robert Hughes writes in The Fatal Shore, ended with the last native stuffed and mounted in a vitrine. The 20-ish Claire is an Irish criminal sent to the penal colony for some unspecified misdeed. She lacks the “ticket”—the papers that’ll enable her to leave the area, and the sardonic military officer Hawkins (Sam Clafin) who still owns her, despite her marriage to the man she loves, Aidan (Michael Shaesby).
Hawkins slaps her and throws her across a table; later, she’s subjected to a cabin invasion in which she loses everything. The assaulters are traditional grindhouse thugs: Hawkins the brute leader, Ruse (Damon Herriman) the slavering follower, and one scaredy-cat (Harry Weaving, Hugo’s son) who snivels in terror. After he leaves her for dead, Hawkins seeks to cross the unpacified island overland, to get to a northern garrison town. He hopes to outrun the bad news that might cost him a promotion. He hauls his vile soldiers with him, as well as an elderly native guide and a small parcel of yokels in shapeless hats.
Claire gets her husband’s rifle and his pony and tracks her rapists. TheNightingale might have increased its appeal by going full True Grit, cutting the assault time and amping the frontier menace. Like Rooster Cogburn, the aborigine guide Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) is discovered nursing a bottle, refusing to help until he’s bribed. Like Mattie Ross, Claire shows her mettle by challenging a raging river on horseback, and like Mattie, Claire misfires her gun right when she has her quarry in her crosshairs. Kent insists on real-life consequences to this horror—that Claire’s thirst for vengeance is shallower than she thinks, and she sickens from the taste.
A plus in The Nightingale is the terrain. Shadows of lone dead trees stand against the gloaming. Claire’s dreams of the crying of a baby fade into the nocturnal shrieks of the Tasmanian devils. The juicy chortle of the currawongs mirror the loneliness of the forest. Kent chose to shoot in Academy ratio, which means aggressors can steal in from the side of the frame unnoticed, just as the pursued can jump out fast into the underbrush. During Claire’s first ordeal, there’s no room to escape. She dominates the screen in wrath or in sobbing anguish, her pale face laced with a victim’s blood.
First-time actor Ganambarr has a voice with little inflection, and there’s some bits of acting that aren’t in his range. In a mourning scene, Kent first hides his face, then goes long and wide, so his wail of grief fills the skies. The man has a gift for comedy. Ganambarr is warm and likable, with a kind of cool stoner’s self possession. There are a few incidents of mordant humor—a farmer blasts at Billy as he tries to steal a bag of flour from his hovel; the slug hits the bag and gives Billy a slapstick dusting right in the face.
As with an indifferent Western, something just keeps you watching this, no matter what—even in the wandering last hour, when Billy and Claire are separated and later rescued by Quaker types. The title is fraught. On one level, The Nightingale takes its name from Claire’s sweet singing of a capella Irish ballads. Likely it’s also meant to echo the legend of Philomela, the raped woman transformed into a nightingale (fussy scholars insists it was actually a swallow).
In Metamorphises, Ovid retold the primordial rape-revenge story, bridging the eons between Sophocles’ lost Tereus and Shakespeare’s ghastly Titus Andronicus. In Horace Gregory’s translation, Philomela’s outraged sister considers various methods of payback: “Cut off the genitals that injured you.” How ancient, the elements of this peculiarly basic form of entertainment.
The Nightingale
Directed by Jennifer Kent. Starring Aisling Fraciosi, Baykali Ganambarr and Harry Weaving. R; 138 Mins.
Admit it, you don’t really go to a fashion show to see the latest in clothing trends.
You want to see the art and craft these innovative designers use to dress their models. Pivot understands this, and doesn’t hide the fact that a fashion runway is really just another art show.
You will be dazzled by the outlandish, absurd and gorgeous outfits these designers have concocted for the upcoming show at the Rio.
We could be more specific, but that would spoil the fun. This show will feature Lisa Agliano, Ellen Brook, Lisa Ford, Charlotte Kruk, the Great Morgani, and more.
INFO: 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 21, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $25. Information: riotheatre.com.
WANT TO GO?
Go to santacruz.com/giveaways before 11 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 16, to find out how you could win a pair of tickets to the show.
With Labor Day just around the corner, you might want to get some celebratory bubbly to share with family and friends. It’s a day for kicking back and enjoying some nice food and good wine, and one of the latter would be Barry Jackson’s2016 Sparkling Rosé ($60). With its bright aromatics and exquisite flavors, it will delight all your senses.
Jackson is an ace winemaker who has mastered the art of producing fabulous sparkling wines. His méthode champenoise sparklers—made with the same technique as the best champagnes and sparkling wines—are in huge demand, and he is also busy consulting as a winemaker for other prestigious wineries. The best way to try the Rosé of Pinot Noir is to head to his Equinox tasting room and experience all of his wines, including still wines under the Bartolo label. You’ll mostly likely find Barry’s wife Jennifer there and ready to help you.
Equinox Wine, 334 Ingalls St. Unit C, Santa Cruz. Open daily 1-7 p.m. equinoxwine.com.
An Evening with Friends
An Evening with Friends is a fundraiser for Hospice of Santa Cruz County. Enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres, wine and champagne as you bid on live and silent auctions. A raffle is included, as well as dancing to Santa Cruz band Extra Large. Libations aplenty are donated by local wineries and Ben Rush of Coldwell Banker. The event will run 4:30-9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Sesnon House in Aptos. Early bird tickets are $100; $125 after Sept. 4.
Experience the Barrels of Corralitos and enjoy wines from six Santa Cruz Mountains wineries, including Alfaro Family, El Vaquero, Lester, Nicholson, Storrs, and Windy Oaks. Tickets include wine tasting, live music and food for purchase. The event will be held 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1.
I first tried the “gut shot” after Thanksgiving rendered me comatose yet again. It was the third helping of stuffing that did it, but it was Kathryn Lukas—and Vogue—that helped me to undo it with thearticle ”Why ‘Gut Shots’ Are the Key to Healthy Holiday Eating.” I never looked back.
Lukas is the founder of Watsonville-based Farmhouse Culture, which makes organic fermented foods. Her gut shot is sauerkraut brine, flavored or not. Though Germans and other kraut-loving Eastern Europeans have been drinking sauerkraut juice since the beginning of time, it was Lukas that popularized the “shot” in California. The vitamin-rich, probiotic sour drink can help reduce bloating and stimulate the release of enzymes to help the body digest food more efficiently, particularly if it’s overloaded. For me, it meant I could be a functioning member of society post-Thanksgiving dinner.
What began as a condiment turned into a fermentation empire for Lukas. Farmhouse Culture is perhaps best-known for its kraut, which Lukas began making in 2005. They also have Kraut Krisps (flavored chips made of cabbage) that have also been saving guts all over America.
Lukas’ interest in fermented foods led her to eventually co-author a cookbook with her son, Shane Peterson. The new book, The Farmhouse Culture Guide to Fermenting, was released in August—a mother-son collaboration where, Lukas says, styles and personalities collided.
“We use muppets to describe our personalities. I am the Swedish Chef, and he is Beaker. I’m all about getting the flavor right and throwing things in there, and he likes to measure everything as we go,” Lukas laughs. “I don’t really measure. So for the book, I come up with the ideas for the recipes—and that’s not to say he doesn’t have a few in there—then we tweak it together. He would perfect the ratios for salt or kraut juice through a lot of trial and error.”
Peterson also wrote the book Fermentering, which is a best-seller in Scandinavia. The new Farmhouse Culture book contains more than 100 recipes, including sauerkraut, kombucha and even fermented ketchup. It details the history and importance of fermented foods, and how to better incorporate them into our diets—though Lukas says that the latter is likely to be its own book further down the line. “I’m working on recipes that incorporate ferments into the everyday diet, a lot of that stuff didn’t make it into this book,” she says. “Like how to eat fermented foods with breakfast.”
When Lukas first started Farmhouse Culture, she sold at Santa Cruz farmers markets. She says she would actively avoid talking about the health benefits because she didn’t know much about it. It wasn’t until she read Michael Pollan’s 2013 New York Times article “Some of My Best Friends Are Germs” (which delves into the trillions of microbes in our bodies, and how they are linked to our overall health) that Lukas became much more interested in the gut, the microbiome and the health benefits of fermented foods. “It’s funny, when I talk to my doctors, they actually know a lot less than I do,” she says. “There are very few people in the world that know a lot about how the gut works. It’s such a fast-moving science, it’s hard to make definitive statements about it.”
The human microbiome has an estimated 100 trillion microbes, the bulk of which live in our gut. When people talk about the gut, it’s usually a reference to the processes that occur in the small and large intestines. There are viruses, fungi, parasites, bacteria and more that coexist within the intestines, similar to a bustling traffic stop. It’s when these microbiotics aren’t happily coexisting that the body starts to be susceptible to illness and disease, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.
Probiotics and prebiotics are live, active bacteria present in foods and supplements that can potentially augment symbiosis microbacteria, leading to more efficient digestion. As Lukas and Peterson’s book points out, research hasn’t quite caught up with what the “ideal” microbiome looks like, but there is speculation of a strong link between a healthy gut and a healthy person.
Probiotics should be consumed according to professional guidelines, and can lead to some pretty nasty bowel-related results if ingested too much—I know from experience. “If you are getting ready to make changes in your lifestyle, get some baseline testing to understand what’s going on with your microbiome,” Lukas says. “Then add fermented foods and fiber or whatever you want to add. Then check again and see where you are. That’s the ideal way to figure out how much fermented food is right for you.”
Particularly with the gut shot, overenthusiasm can cause unwanted distress and multiple trips to the bathroom in a short period of time. Lukas recommends starting off slowly, with a little bit of fermented food here and there.
“Try a fermented carrot, or a little bit of kimchi with a meal. Sip on a kombucha,” she says. “But for the beginner, I wouldn’t recommend eating two cups of sauerkraut in one sitting. Definitely not.”
Kathryn Lukas and Shane Peterson come to Bookshop Santa Cruz at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 12, for a free event celebrating their new book. farmhouseculture.com.
Earlier this year, Jacob Pierce did a cover story on accusations of sexism and bullying at Santa Cruz’s City Hall. There was a wide range of reactions, but many could be summed up by the reader who wrote, “Reading this article, I found myself shaking my head at the petty, immature antics of the Santa Cruz City Council.”
Chris Krohn and Drew Glover were the two councilmembers at the center of the controversy. While Krohn struck an apologetic note at the time, Glover was defiant, calling the accusations “laughable.” That didn’t quiet the brewing storm, and talk of a recall effort against both politicians began soon after.
It’s hard not to think about the new report on the complaints against Krohn and Glover in the context of that potential recall. In this week’s cover story, Pierce returns to the topic to analyze the report’s findings and consider what supporters and detractors of the embattled councilmembers are likely to take away from it. Perhaps most importantly, his story looks at the bigger question hanging over all of this infighting: where do we go from here?
Re: “Slipping Through Time” (GT, 8/14): So let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Black American directors are hardly ever associated with Shakespeare, and Black female directors taking on Shakespeare are even more rare. With that said, the existence of an adequate platform to discuss director Raelle Myrick-Hodges’ choices in The Winter’s Tale is essential. At opening night, I was blown away by the nuanced ways in which she skillfully navigated a deeply intentional subtext of race and power in her strategic placement of characters and blocking. The weight of representation was palpable, the comparisons to an American legacy of racism which haunts us today as a national emergency, unmistakable. It would be a huge loss to not be able to see, understand or acknowledge her work, and demonstrates how one’s position in society dictates what is visible to one’s conscience.
To start, we begin the play in the 1940s because it represents a time of illusory, whitewashed glamour that fails to cover the horrors of lynching and Jim Crow racism. We cannot ignore the sinister pull of Hermione’s (Karen Peakes) white womanhood as she insists that a Black King Polixenes (Lindsay Smiling) stay as her “guest or prisoner.” The imminent danger to Polixenes fills the stage as we watch King Leontes (Ian Merrill Peakes) become psychotically consumed by jealousy and rage at the thought of Polixenes having touched his queen. In this moment, Myrick-Hodges draws clear references to Emmett Till, and the historically violent obsession with perceived transgressions against white womanhood by Black men, itself a byproduct of the legacy of slavery and the making of American capitalism.
Leontes cannot be convinced otherwise, and goes on to wreak havoc and ruin in the lives of his most beloved relationships. His tyrannical ideology, his privilege and entitlement being centered at all costs, smacks so clearly of our current president that it’s almost funny, until one considers the real atrocities being visited on mothers and children at this very moment. Leonte’s disgust at the thought of Polixenes being the father of the baby in Hermione’s womb oozes with eugenic rage. At the same time, the refusal of Lady Paulina(Chavez Ravine) to come to Hermione when called and her silent, yet powerful, confrontational stance towards Leontes are an allegory for the historical resistance of Black women as the collective conscience of America, even while being reviled and shunned.
In short, the directorial choices being made by Myrick-Hodges are both nuanced and pointed as they invite us to unpack a tangled web of jealousy, patriarchal ownership and vengeance for perceived adultery, as it relates to race. The fact that none of these choices have been touched upon by any reviewer of this production of The Winter’s Tale is an example of how the realities of Black American lives are still largely misunderstood and unacknowledged. If we are asking Black female directors like Raelle Myrick-Hodges to produce plays by William Shakespeare, we owe it to the work to insure their choices are centered, discussed with critical thought, intersectional analysis, and their intentions made perfectly clear to reviewers and theater patrons alike.Representation is important, and it’s easy to feel good about providing it. Looking at our own privilege, entitlement and patriarchy is more difficult to do, but it’s the only way that we can move forward. I commend Myrick-Hodges for pushing us towards waking up.
D’mitra Smith Sonoma
When reached for comment about this letter, Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges said, “It’s hard not to have an emotional reaction to being seen.” She also said she found Santa Cruz Shakespeare to be a “safe space” for creating the vision she wanted. ‘The Winter’s Tale’ is in its final week; it closes Sept. 1. — Editor
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
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GOOD IDEA
The Santa Cruz Water Department has completed fieldwork for the first pilot study of aquifer storage and recovery, also known as ASR, at its Beltz 12 well facility. The citizen-led Water Supply Advisory Committee recommended ASR as a way to bank excess winter surface water in depleted underground aquifers for future use during dry conditions. Recharge could play an important role in the county’s local water supply, and signs are so far encouraging. The study’s final results will be available this fall.
GOOD WORK
The Institute for Local Governments has awarded the city of Santa Cruz a 2019 Beacon Award for Energy and Emissions Reductions. The Beacon Program supports and recognizes action by California local governments to address climate change, promote energy innovation and create more sustainable communities. The program recognized Santa Cruz for its greenhouse gas emission reductions, energy savings and sustainability best practices.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Mayors, city council members, and legislators come and go, but neighborhoods don’t go anywhere.”
The Santa Cruz Vets Hall has reopened in downtown Santa Cruz, and local singer/songwriter Trianna Feruza will take the stage with dancer Maleah Rose for a musical extravaganza with special guests like Side Piece, plus artists Genoa, Know Morals and live spoken-word poetry.
INFO: 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31. Veterans Hall, 846 Front St., Santa Cruz. 454-0478. $10/$15.
Green Fix
Breath and Oneness Anniversary
Breath and Oneness in Capitola is celebrating the end of its terrific twos and the beginning of its third year of keeping the community happy, healthy and well. In celebration, they are inviting everyone to a weekend of yoga, movement, music, meditation, and more at discounted rates. There are classes happening all day, everyday, all weekend long. Check online or call for a full schedule.
INFO: Friday, Aug. 30-Sunday, Sept. 1. Breath and Oneness, 708 Capitola Ave., Capitola. 515-7001, breathandoneness.com. $20 two-day pass/free for members.
Monday 8/26-Friday 9/20
‘Time Untethered: Creative Life after Cabrillo’
The newest Cabrillo exhibit features the work of seven artists who have retired from the Cabrillo College Art Studio and Art Photography programs. Honoring each artist’s time and legacy at Cabrillo, the exhibit also spotlights personal artistic practice and the joys of retirement. An eclectic range of disciplines, materials and approaches are represented, from oil paintings and pastels to textiles and experimental analog photography. Special reception 4-6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7.
Join Indie Award-winning Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser, Ryan McKasson, Eric McDonald, and more than 200 musicians, singers and dancers in a celebration of music, song and dance at the culmination of this year’s Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School. All seating is general admission—first come, first served—so get there early for the best seats!
INFO: 8 p.m. Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, 307 Church St., Santa Cruz. valleyofthemoon.org. $25.50/$27.50 general admission.
Wednesday 8/28
‘The Two Noble Kinsmen’
Each year, Santa Cruz Shakespeare continues the tradition of showcasing the season’s intern acting company with its celebratory Fringe production. This year’s effort, The Two Noble Kinsmen, is a world premiere adaptation of what is believed to be Shakespeare’s last play, and a possible collaboration with Jacobean tragedian John Fletcher. The Two Noble Kinsmen is directed by Dash Waterbury and features an all-intern cast and crew. The play tells the story of two best friends who fall in love with the same woman, exposing the adventures and absurdity of love at first sight. How drama-tic.
INFO: 7:30 p.m. The Grove in DeLaveaga Park, 501 Upper Park Rd., Santa Cruz. 460-6399, santacruzshakespeare.org/tickets. $27.50.
This is part one of a two-part series on the city of Santa Cruz’s harassment policy. — Editor
“Caustic.”
That’s how Santa Cruz City Manager Martín Bernal describes the current work environment at City Hall in his cover letter atop a new report investigating the conduct of two Santa Cruz city councilmembers.
“It is imperative that we refrain from engaging in conduct that might be reasonably perceived as abusive, or that which may create an intimidating and uncomfortable working environment or cause morale problems,” Bernal writes in the letter.
The much-anticipated report detailed employee complaints that the city’s Human Resources Department received earlier this year concerning the conduct of councilmembers Drew Glover, who was elected in November, and Chris Krohn, who was elected in 2016. It all started at a February City Council meeting, when Mayor Martine Watkins referenced “perceptions” that Krohn and Glover had been bullying her because she’s a woman. She attributed that observation to people in the community, but she didn’t deny it, either. As reported in a GT cover story at the time (“Bully Pulpit,” 3/6/19), other politicians and community members echoed Watkins’ concerns—among them, county Supervisor Ryan Coonerty, former Mayor Cynthia Chase and former Councilmember Richelle Noroyan.
The new report, which was released last week, deemed that claim unsubstantiated. But the report also addressed other complaints against Krohn and Glover—both of whom are now facing a combined recall effort—and each had one conduct complaint against them substantiated. Although all five of the complainants were women, independent investigator Joe Rose did not confirm any instances of gender discrimination.
In his cover letter, Bernal writes that morale at City Hall “has suffered considerably” in the current work environment. “This is completely unacceptable,” he adds.
The report attempts to lay out what the city can do better in the future, including tips for councilmembers like Krohn and Glover, but also for Bernal and Watkins.
“There’s work to do,” Watkins tells GT. “I know the report findings have recommendations. I’m 100% open to that, and I hope my colleagues are as well.”
ON HALL
It’s not clear whether the report will do anything to ease tensions at City Hall.
Less than 24 hours after its release, Glover had two Thursday morning meetings. The first meeting was with Vice Mayor Justin Cummings, City Councilmember Sandy Brown and a city staffer.
Some details of the conversation are unclear, but the meeting became heated, and the staffer became upset. Bernal had a meeting with Glover later that morning. By 11:30 a.m., Bernal had sent out a message to employees across the city outlining new instructions for interacting with Glover. Effective immediately, the only employees who were to interact with Glover would be department heads, Bernal and the assistant city manager.
“I felt like I had a duty and responsibility to ensure that it didn’t happen again with any other staff,” Bernal says of the reported heated exchange. “But I did tell him in my conversation that I was going to do that, because I didn’t get any response from him with respect to taking any accountability at all.”
The decision has frustrated Glover.
“I don’t think I can talk about it,” Glover says. “It’s an internal matter. Regardless of the cause of it, I disagree with the decision to do it. For this exact reason—why? What’s going on? Can I talk about it? Probably not. It’s indicative of the way that conflict is dealt with in the city.”
This past November, voters elected Glover, along with Vice Mayor Cummings and Councilmember Donna Meyers.
JUST ASKINGCity Councilmember Drew Glover says that it’s his style to ask tough questions in council meetings.
Glover and Cummings serve in a council majority with Krohn and Brown. Together, the four of them make up the more left-wing faction of Santa Cruz’s all-Democrat city council, although Cummings has shown an independent streak, occasionally serving as a swing vote on the seven-member body.
According to the report, Cummings told the investigator that he’s seen some councilmembers “interrogate” others, in an apparent reference to Krohn and Glover’s style of questioning their colleagues.
Cummings added that when councilmembers start “calling people out,” “grandstanding” or acting “grandiose,” their behavior could be considered “demeaning, humiliating or offensive” to others, and some other councilmembers and many community members feel that these theatrics get in the way of the substance of the meeting.
“That starts to compromise the city’s ability to function,” Cummings said in the report.
Council meetings over the past few months have not just been characterized by clashes between councilmembers, but also by tense exchanges with city staff.
The only conduct complaint against Krohn that was substantiated actually happened at a council meeting. It involved a sarcastic snorting laugh at a meeting after a staffer began an answer with a phrase along the lines of “In my professional opinion.” Krohn says he doesn’t remember that moment, but two witnesses remembered it, and he’s apologized.
The only substantiated claim against Glover was submitted by Councilmember Meyers.
As the appointed independent investigator, Rose looked for possible evidence as he tried to corroborate the narratives in the conduct complaints. The Sacramento-based lawyer did not deem any of the claims unfounded or false.
Responses to the report have ranged from anger at the councilmembers’ behavior to sarcastic indifference about the findings.
Such emotions were on full display on the Santa Cruz and Central Coast Politics Facebook page last week. “My goodness.. so someone’s feelings got hurt on the council?” user Denica De Foy asked facetiously in one comment. Most comment threads devolved into arguments about the recall, for which groups are gathering signatures.
Glover and Krohn both openly admit that they ask tough questions of other councilmembers and staff, and they say it’s their style. Perhaps as a result, meetings have been running long. Under the current council, meetings have been starting as early as 10 a.m. and sometimes going past 11 p.m. The new majority has also directed staff to bring back items to the City Council on tightened deadlines. Bernal hinted in his letter that the current approach doesn’t lead staffers to create their best work, and even suggested that it may open the city up to potential lawsuits.
It’s worth mentioning that the city staff has seen two recent high-profile departures.
Although neither mentioned the current work environment as a reason for leaving, former Santa Cruz Assistant City Manager Tina Friend took a pay cut to become city manager for nearby Scotts Valley in June, and Finance Director Marcus Pimentel left this month for an administrative post at the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency.
Krohn and Glover both believe their approach is good for the city, and Krohn says he wants to make sure that important policy work is done in public.
Glover says that he knows tough conversations can make people “uncomfortable,” but he’s repeatedly argued that it’s time to move away from the notion that being uncomfortable is necessarily a bad thing. He also says he doesn’t want to be “a rubber stamp” for staff recommendations.
“That’s one thing I’ve become known for in my time on the council, is asking tough questions,” Glover says.
CLASH AT CITY HALL
Just after 11:15 p.m. on Feb. 1, Councilmember Donna Meyers was wrapping up a 45-minute meeting with two community members, both UCSC officials, in a City Hall conference room.
Glover had the room reserved for the next slot, when he planned to meet with three or four of his several interns. Meyers says it was about 12:03 p.m. when they got up to leave—a fact that one of the UCSC officials verified to Rose. (Glover remembers the time being closer to 12:10.) When Meyers and the community members opened the door to leave, they found Glover standing in the doorway, where he expressed his disapproval that Meyers had gone over her time, and taken up some of his.
“We’re done. I’m sorry that we ran a bit late,” Meyers remembers telling Glover, according to the report.
“This is very inappropriate that you don’t respect the calendar for the meeting,” he responded in Meyers’ recounting. The community members, who go unnamed in the report, felt uncomfortable as they squeezed by, cautiously sliding out around either side of Glover and into the hallway. Meyers apologized again, waiting for Glover to back up. She remembered it being difficult to get out of the room. Meyers said that as she walked toward her office, Glover followed her, repeating his frustration and saying that she wasn’t appreciating or valuing him.
Partly based on witness testimony, Rose substantiated the claim and wrote that Glover had embarrassed Meyers by being “needlessly and unjustifiably antagonistic.” Rose wrote that the encounter did long-term damage to Glover’s working relationship with Meyers. The newly elected council had only met twice at the time the run-in occurred.
Glover contends, however, that even before their run-in at City Hall, he already had an icy relationship with Meyers, who declined to comment for this story. Meyers also had a second claim against Glover, which went unsubstantiated.
Glover says he’s not sorry about what happened that winter afternoon, but he is sorry that it made Meyers feel uncomfortable, and he wants to ensure that doesn’t happen again.
“It’s a great opportunity and learning experience for me, with engaging with Donna Meyers and potentially other people in general,” Glover says. “I could have brought up the issue of being late in a one-on-one meeting with her, but that would be assuming that we have a relationship that allows us to have one-on-one meetings, which I don’t believe that we do. And that comes from our ideological differences, her behavior towards me, her perception of my behavior towards her. It’s just an uncomfortable situation.”
In addition to the two substantiated complaints against Glover and Krohn, there are six other claims in the report, including three informal claims initiated by Watkins. The mayor tells GT that when she first made her comments, she didn’t realize that they would spur an investigation, but according to a city memo from Human Resources, the follow-up is required under California law. It’s Watkins’ understanding that the investigation began as a result of other complaints, starting with one the following day.
Some of the complaints detailed multiple instances of conflict. One female staffer who came forward recounted to Rose, through tears, Glover’s “really upsetting” pattern of questioning her morals, character, professionalism, competence, and ethics.
That was one of several complaints that went unsubstantiated.
Former mayor Chase, who has criticized Glover’s and Krohn’s styles of discourse, says that it is important to look at the bigger picture of all complaints and their context, even though the investigator didn’t establish any evidence of gender discrimination. A clear pattern of problematic behavior starts to emerge, she says.
“A lot of it is just being able to find evidence to prove that things happened,” says Chase, who has cited the behavior of her colleagues—Krohn included—as a reason she didn’t run for re-election last year. “I don’t know all of the circumstances. But I do know that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. If more than one person complained, that shows a pattern of behavior, and that’s troubling.”
PATH FORWARDCity Councilmember Chris Krohn says he’s sorry for a sarcastic laugh at a staffer earlier this year, though he says he doesn’t remember it. PHOTO: JULES HOLDSWORTH
The Rose Report noted that Watkins didn’t reach out to Krohn and Glover in advance of going public, or try to mediate her concerns in private conversation before her remarks.
Even though the mayor’s own complaints weren’t substantiated, Watkins doesn’t have any regrets about speaking up. She says that her words created a space for other women to come forward, including women who otherwise may not have. (The staffer who came forward the day after the mayor, for instance, had her complaint substantiated, Watkins notes.)
Afterward, Krohn sent two emails to the mayor hoping to discuss the matter and never heard back. Watkins says HR advised her not to respond until the report was finished, as there would be an opportunity for dialogue at that time. The report’s release, she adds, took longer than anyone anticipated.
As it considers possible next steps, the City Council will have an opportunity to address the matter, and could even issue a public censure—a form of reprimand—against the two councilmembers.
But the report also sheds light on a few possible procedural flaws.
Cummings says one takeaway from the investigation is that neither he nor Glover received a copy of the city’s Respectful Workplace Conduct Policy until they were more than a couple of months into their terms. Cummings received his copy in late February. Glover received his copy in March, after complaints had begun rolling in. Glover and Krohn both describe the on-boarding process as terribly inadequate.
Be that as it may, Watkins says that everyone on the council is an adult, and they should know how to behave like it.
Glover, for his part, notes that the concept of conduct policies is not new to him, given that he sees himself as “someone that supports worker rights and policies that support workers.”
But it’s still difficult for Cummings to put the on-boarding process and timeline out of mind when trying to figure out how to think about Glover’s alleged violation.
“If someone breaks a rule, you should sit them down and let them know they did something wrong,” Cummings says. “And if it continues, then you should do something.”
MEND TIMES
Some Krohn and Glover supporters have groaned at the Rose Report’s $18,000 price tag, but if the city pays careful attention to pages 123 and 124, it could get its money’s worth.
The report’s final section has five recommendations, all of which Human Resources Director Lisa Murphy has signed onto. One is that the City Council should receive immediate training in three areas, including Santa Cruz’s Respectful Workplace Conduct Policy.
Additionally, Rose wrote that, “Councilmembers should avoid making public accusations of misconduct against one another and against staff without first privately and internally addressing these concerns and attempting conflict resolution and rectification when possible.”
He added that the city should review its post-election on-boarding process for new city councilmembers, and that all councilmembers and “selected staff members should participate in professional mediation and conflict resolution services.”
Glover says that Rose is the third outside expert, in recent months, to recommend that the City Council seek conflict resolution services.
Rose referred all questions for this story to Murphy’s office, which referred GT to Santa Cruz Management Analyst Ralph Dimarucut. Dimarucut says that the city is working on a scope of services to hire a mediator.
The Rose Report mentions the Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County as a possible resource. Lejla Bratovic, that nonprofit’s executive director, hasn’t heard from the city, but she says that the center does handle work like this.
Bernal says that it has typically been the city’s policy to send councilmembers a copy of the conduct policy after they begin harassment training, which they have six months to complete.
But he says that he’s receptive to making changes, including the ones outlined in the report.
“We’re completely open,” he says. “It’s not like we say, ‘Here’s the on-boarding process. Take it or leave it.’ If [councilmembers] come and say, ‘Hey, I don’t think I got enough information on this,’ then we’ll arrange for something else. We’re always available to them to help them with whatever they have. We make staff available to them all the time. It’s not like it ever ends. There’s a lot to learn and take in when you’re a councilmember, particularly who’s never been a councilmember. It takes a while.”
This fall, Santa Cruz County could become one of the first local governments in the country to take decisive action on sea-level rise by altering permitting rules for residents who want to build seawalls or other forms of armoring around valuable coastal real estate.
But as property owners confront the potential eye-popping costs of warding off rising tides, environmental advocates also warn of a catch-22 scenario. Further armoring the coastline, agencies like the U.S. Geologic Survey and California Coastal Commission have warned, will also speed up the demise of vulnerable landscapes—namely, public beaches—that make the area desirable in the first place.
“You essentially drown the beach or flood the beach,” says Gary Griggs, a UCSC earth sciences professor who has studied the effects of armoring on California beaches.
Still, he says, there are few easy answers to the existential crisis that comes with trying to prepare a beach town for dramatic changes in the coastal environment. Denial is more untenable with each new shattered heat record, and paying millions of dollars for “beach nourishment,” or adding tons of sand back to waning beaches, is another expensive Band-Aid. Retreating from the shoreline and forfeiting billions of dollars in coastal property may be the surest bet, but there are obvious drawbacks.
“The scientists have been dealing with this for a while, but it’s going back to local governments,” Griggs says.
In September, Santa Cruz County spokesperson Jason Hoppin said the Board of Supervisors will wrestle with these questions when they revisit a long process of updating local rules for coastal development.
Among the changes proposed in a 248-page county report released earlier this year are allowing for more armoring within urban areas of the county, establishing new mitigation fees and criteria for geologic monitoring, and shifting financial liability to private property owners in the event of climate-induced damage to homes in hazardous areas.
The result is a “hybrid approach,” the county report says, where rural areas would be prescribed a “managed natural retreat” as tides rise, and urban areas around the city of Santa Cruz would hew toward “conditional accommodation, acceptance of risk, amortization and adaptation.”
“It’s one of the first examples of a county adopting a policy to armor an urban area,” says Dan Carl, a Santa Cruz native and Central Coast district director for the California Coastal Commission. “A lot of people don’t seem to realize that this debate is going on, and this debate will go a long way towards identifying, what is this county gonna look like along the shoreline in both the short and the long term?”
It’s also not just seawalls. At both the city and county level, policymakers are moving beyond years of climate studies to grapple with what to actually do about increasingly immediate risks for the region’s shoreline, water supply and famous agriculture industry.
In addition to the county’s local coastal program update, the city of Santa Cruz is evaluating how to adapt West Cliff Drive to increasingly unavoidable climate impacts, and how to expand emissions-reducing measures like electric transportation beyond the most affluent residents.
“Over the past few years, there’s definitely been a significant increase in awareness and knowledge on climate and where things are going,” says Nancy Faulstich, a teacher turned director of Regeneración-Pájaro Valley Climate Action. “Frankly, it’s all so little and so late.”
Amid a national conversation about the feasibility of a New Green Deal to jumpstart renewable energy, job training in sustainable industries and large-scale climate mitigation, one big question is how to balance property concerns and concerns about people likely to bear the brunt of extreme heat, stronger storms and potential complications like food or water shortages.
“I’m concerned about life and death,” Faulstich says. During heat waves in the Watsonville area impacting farm workers in recent years, she says, “We’ve heard reports of people fainting, getting taken to the hospital.”
While much of the political conversation revolves around coastal real estate, Regeneración is lobbying officials to consider solutions like reducing emissions by locating farmworker housing closer to jobs, or new kinds of funds that could compensate farm workers for days when it is unsafe to work outdoors. At the county’s more northern end, advocacy groups Santa Cruz Climate Action Network, the Romero Institute and a local branch of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby are organizing events like a “Global Climate Strike” planned for Sept. 20-27.
Regeneración has also launched an “ambassador program” where locals share infographics and climate updates in either English or Spanish.
“There’s a lot about the general environmental movement that’s been very alienating to a lot of people,” Faulstich says, which she hopes may be changing. “Spreading information one by one is really key.”
CLIMATE COSTS
Just how much it might cost to try to climate-proof the Central Coast, even temporarily, is still an open question.
A 2018 study focused on the nine-county Bay Area put the current market value of 13,000 properties at risk of “chronic inundation” at $8.6 billion, illustrating a disconnect between short-term property values and longer-term climate risks. In late June, a recognizable home on the ocean side of West Cliff Drive sold for $5.5 million, despite a track record of battles about armoring with the Coastal Commission.
Armoring projects can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Carl says there is the potential for “fees up into millions of dollars” if the county or state agencies like the Coastal Commission strictly enforce efforts to mitigate impacts on public spaces.
Already, groups including the Coastal Property Owners Association and two organizations affiliated with the Pajaro Dunes development near Sunset State Beach have raised concerns about hurting home values if the county moves ahead with a proposal to add deed restrictions noting geologic hazards to properties that add new coastal armoring.
“The public should not be responsible for risks undertaken to benefit private property owners in voluntarily developing within hazardous areas,” states the county’s report on the issue.
How armoring may hold up over time is also uncertain.
“At what point do you say we can’t build walls any higher?” Griggs says.
As it stands, about 25% of the Santa Cruz County coast is armored. After high-profile debates about adding seawalls in areas like Opal Cliffs, the county estimates that about half of the shoreline in the urban area around the city of Santa Cruz is armored. In Southern California, where Griggs says 38% of the coast is armored from Santa Barbara to the Mexico border, about two-thirds of beaches are expected to disappear by 2060 if current trends hold.
“The same thing would happen in Santa Cruz,” Griggs says.
As another winter storm season draws nearer, local officials are attempting to balance efforts to reduce carbon emissions that fuel climate change and brace for more immediate fallout, says Tiffany Wise-West, the city of Santa Cruz’s sustainability and climate action manager.
“We have to do both,” she says. “I mean, I don’t know what more there is to say about it.”
