City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good evening everyone. I'm Mayor Erica A. Stewart and I'm here to say that all of the city council is present and if you could join me in the pledge of allegiance. Let's go ahead. City Attorney, can you report out on the close session, please? Thank you, Madame Mayor. The council did meet in close session on one matter of conference with legal counsel on a matter of existing litigation. That is a claim filed by Brett Cross against the city, claim number 26-020, and there was no reportable action taken on that matter.

Thank you so much. Um before we get started, I wanted to just say a big thank you. I know not everyone's in the room, but a big thank you to uh city staff and Calpali for an amazing Saturday. Um it is St. Patrick's Day today. Some of us are wearing green. Happy St. Patrick's Day. And uh on Saturday there was quite an event, a giant concert at Kpali and um not a giant illegal street party. So thank you so much for all the work that was done and thank you to the students. So, I wish them all the best in this uh week of finals and u we'll move back to our regularly scheduled meeting. So, with that um we have no uh proclamations today, but don't worry, next meeting we have like three or four, so we're good to go. Uh with that, I'll have the city manager. Can you go ahead and uh do your report, please?

Thank you very much, Madame Mayor and Council, and welcome everyone um joining us this evening. Good to see everyone. Um, we do have a few items to go over this evening and then we'll end the report with a little bit more details coming from our uh, public safety folks as well as a a couple of guests from Calpali to just talk a little bit about that event Saturday morning and how things went. So, we'll just bring up our slides here. Um, perfect. First up, we want to make sure folks are aware that we are um providing a community compost giveaway in a couple of weeks here at the end of next week on March 28th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Our solid waste and recycling program are inviting all of our residents again to this spring compost giveaway event on Saturday. It will take place at the Combo Gas facility located at 4300 Santa Fe Road. As a reminder, if you are arriving with a pickup truck or trailer, please please bring a tarp to securely cover your compost uh load before leaving the site. Um, but we're really excited to provide this opportunity for everybody to come pick up again free compost that is produced locally from food scraps and yard trimmings that are collected through our green cart program. So, you can see the end result of all that work you're doing and separating your waste in that way. Um, it is free compost for anybody, so please come on by. Next, we want to remind everyone we're super excited. Uh, as of 8 o'clock this morning, our new Cultural Arts District parking garage is officially open. Um, we conducted a ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday, which was a really great event. Uh, we began building this parking garage in November of 2023 after more than 20 years of public engagement, planning, and design.

Um it the purpose of this project again is to increase transportation options for downtown and to support our vibrant cultural arts district including the children's museum, the future new slowrep theater, uh the expanding slow museum of art, and our history center. So please come uh check it out. We today and for the next 28 days, parking will be free in this garage. So let's say that again. free parking, free, free all day for 28 days in this brand new parking garage. So, please go check it out. Um, that's being provided through April 13th. Uh, after that free period ends, our rates will be the same as all of our other parking garages. So, just a reminder, you can get your monthly garage permits for $45 a month. That provides unlimited access to not only this brand new, beautiful garage, but all of our existing garages. And this garage includes uh 41 EV chargers. So if you need to uh charge your EV, this is a great place to do that. Um however, there is an additional charging fee of uh 50 cents per kilowatt hour for those folks taking advantage of that opportunity. Also want to remind everybody we do have a business validation program. So if you're interested in participating, it is $1 an hour if you are a business and then you can offer those validations to your customers. So, that will also be available at this new brand new garage. Um, we're really excited to bring this investment to life. Uh, it really sets the stage for our vibrant cultural arts district downtown and, um, again provides not only daily parking for visitors, but overnight parking for a downtown residents as well. And continuing on on this theme, we're really excited that um we're we're continuing to offer our old slow trolley services. Um they will begin on Thursday, March 19th um to provide more

opportunities to ride and explore downtown for free. This uh route shown up on the map includes a stop at Nepomo near Monterey Street that is near our new garage, providing convenient access to the west end of our downtown and that new uh cultural arts district. It will operate Thursdays from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. and then from 5 to 9:10 p.m. Uh, all trolley rides are free and we really want to say thank you to a sponsorship from Know How to Go, which is a program offered by the San Lucispo Council of Governments and we'll be hearing from them later today. Uh, which provides transportation information for seniors and people with disabilities throughout the county. In addition, with the construction of the garage now complete, routes 1B, 2A, and 2B will return to their normal service along Palm and Nomo streets. And I was hearing from some folks who live in the area that seeing uh our bus service resume was really great to see that things are are back to operating uh as usual down there. Um, so these routes will no longer detour down Oso Street and the temporary stop at Pismo and Nepomo uh won't be served, but we will go back to our uh service that we had previously. Next up, we want to make sure folks are aware we're really excited to be kicking off our Regetti Ranch community park project really soon and we will be offering a public information session um really especially for folks who live in that area, but of course it is open to anyone. So, city staff from our public works and parks and recck departments will be hosting again a dropin opportunity for community members to come and learn more about this park project which is scheduled to start construction in April. Um, Wednesday, March 18th, between 4 and 6:00 p.m. out at the site uh of the future park location at the intersection of Tibberon Way and Ranch House Road. Uh, we will be holding this information session. you

can come on out um take a look at you know some of the the plans for the site um where the phase one amenities that will include turf fields, playgrounds, bike park and pickle ball courts uh as well as restrooms and parking lot will be built there in the future. Um, just one note, uh, parking is limited in this area until we complete the parking lot that goes with the new park and so we encourage people to walk or bike or carpool to come vis visit us during this event. For more information, you can go to slowcity.org/slowinotion and there's more information there. Really encourage anyone and everyone to get hooked up with slow motion as well. It's a great place to get information about up-to-date um updates on our uh construction projects. Next, we'll just highlight uh our next regularly scheduled council meeting will be April 7th. Um we've got our legislative platform coming back. Uh our general plan annual report and a bianual climate action plan progress report update and an update to our 2027 climate action plan. So really looking forward to that conversation with council. And next up, um, we will ask our deputy chief, Brian Emoroso, to come up and talk a little bit about how it went over this St. Patrick's Day weekend. And then we also have a couple of guests, uh, Ryan Guss and George Hughes from Calpali, who are here, who will come up and share a little bit about how it went from their perspective after we hear from Deputy Chief. Good. Is this on? Okay. Good evening, Madame Mayor and members of council. Brian Amaroso, deputy chief for the police department. Um, we are really happy to report um what we experienced this weekend um from St. Friday's Day, St. Patrick's Day weekend. As you're well aware, it started Saturday morning at 3:17 a.m. is the typical uh kickoff

for party activities. And obviously in prior years uh we've seen that devolve to a large street party that was very impactful for the neighborhoods uh impactful for public safety a lot of dangers etc. Um we had a lot of success last year. Uh we put a lot of effort into the plan and this year uh we built upon that success. We had a very similar plan. Um we scaled back the amount of officers we had. Even though we had some problems last year, um we still had an overwhelming law enforcement presence. Um so utilizing those same theories, um we scaled back a little bit in some of our allied agency help. Um and then Kalpali and I'll I'll let them discuss uh the details of their concert. Um but also stepped up and kind of expanded what they were offering for their uh concert venue. So super happy to report the concert went really well without a hitch. Um, we saw absolutely zero attempt of street partying in streets or sidewalks. Last year there was still a little bit and we had to utilize our law enforcement presence to make sure to clear it out. This year that was not even necessary. Um, so a huge uh kudo I think and recognition to the students for hearing the message um and heeding it and you know having fun in a responsible way and a way that doesn't impact our neighborhoods. Um, looking at at some of the response, we had 21 allied agencies assist us um, from up and down the state from Southern California, Los Angeles area all the way to Northern California, San Francisco area. Um, again, like I said, we didn't see really any attempts on taking over those uh, streets. Um, there's some metrics up on the screen there. Uh, noise was about the same from last year. About 40 calls for service, give or take 11 citations were written. Um, there was a handful of parties. They were all early morning as people were preparing to go to the concert. Um most of the parties were very small, five people,

eight people. Um one was 50. That was the largest we had which was far smaller than what we saw last year. Um only two arrests and both of those were actually downtown. They were not uh related to the event. Um eight citations for uh seven for open container of alcohol and one for public urination. And in comparison, last year we had 12 citations for uh open container and one for uh public urination. Um we did have 20 medical calls. Uh five of those were transported to the hospital for intoxication. Um and you know, we'll have some full statistics. Just to remind you, the safety enhancement zone was actually started last weekend and then encompassed this weekend and then today for St. Patrick's Day. Um also want to add, so today is St. Patrick's Day. Uh typically we have a very large um bar crowd at 6:00 am. We usually start having parties at 4:30 and five o'clock and then people go downtown. Um we did not have any parties this morning. We didn't have any noise complaints. Um we had a large police response just slow PD and uh the bars were absolutely empty. There was one bar that had about 25 people. The rest of them were literally zero and they closed a couple hours later because there was no business. Um, so we let most of our people go, kept some people uh on bicycles downtown just in case, you know, a later resurgence happened and we just haven't seen it. There's a few people, but minimal impacts to, I would say, zero impacts downtown. Um, and this is really been a successful year. Um, and I want to end with really thanking the partnership with Kalpali. Um, the staff at the police department, work with them, uh, weekly, multiple meetings a week for the last six months planning for this. uh, Deputy Chief Aaron Schaefer, Lieutenant Caleb Kemp, and Lieutenant Brian Trainer, uh, which Brian did the majority of the planning for this and they really knocked it out of the park. So, we're really happy, really pleased

with the results. And with that, do I turn it over to Calpaly and happy to answer questions if anyone has any afterwards?

Thanks, Paul. Uh, yeah, we had over somewhere between 11,000 and 12,000 people. Um, we had 10,000 get arrive before 6 a.m. Uh, last year we had almost everyone arrive arrive right at 6 pm or 6 am, sorry. Uh, and that caused a big backup and a lot of a a dangerous situation for sure. We never experienced a line uh at the entrance. So, we really had a steady flow. Um, I call it a steady river of people from 4:30 a.m. until 6 6:00 a.m. Uh, and then we saw some people start to trickle out actually because they wanted to get to the bars downtown and and continue their uh, festivities down there. Um, overall super successful event. Uh we had sobering centers on site that allowed for those that were really struggling to um be taken care of um and they were taken care of extremely well um and then either transported back to their dorm room um or a few I believe uh to the hospital if they needed further attention. Um overall it went as well as we really hoped for um just from a safety perspective and of course a damage perspective um which are paramount in our planning. Uh other than that, I don't have too much to to mention. We passed out 8,500 burritos on site. Um so the cleanup has been extensive. Um but we're getting there. Um the fields uh managed really well this year. Uh we were really lucky with the weather leading into the event uh where last year it rained the entire week. So u we had a lot more uh field damage. So from a cow's perspective, um we were really happy with how it went. And uh obviously there's always going to be some takeaways. um if we were to be forced to do it again next year. Um but I love the sound of morning or afternoon on the green. Um I don't know about you all, but we'll see. Yeah, George, anything?

So, thank you again for having us here and thank you for again for your partnership. We couldn't have done such a successful event without the partners here in the city and with your slow police, fire, EMS. I mean, it was a credible partnership. So, just a little bit more on the planning efforts. Uh, as you know, we had a no guest policy that we enforced. Um, so the it was a campuswide a uh effort to provide access restrictions and that began Thursday evening and went throughout the weekend throughout all of the residence halls to mitigate any massive parties but also just to not allow any nonresidents in that sometimes might have a different uh a different agenda in mind. That was staffed by 20ou sorry 200 plus volunteers all working throughout the night for three nights straight. So really, really proud of our Cowpoly staff that pulled together from all over the campus, faculty, staff, MPPPS. It was just truly an amazing turnout to help us because that was a key thing to our success this year as it was last year. Um, as you know, we had road closures and we checked IDs of folks that were coming in at night. Uh, we did turn away some cars that were not residents and they were trying to sneak in. We had a no parking policy for any guests. So, if you did not have a permit, you could not park your car on campus throughout the weekend. So, um we got some complaints on that, but again, it was all to keep non-residents off off campus. As uh Ryan had said, we had uh safe observation sites set up. So, we had one last year, we had three this year. They were very well utilized. So, they assisted 33 students uh during those times. And what's significant about that is if we didn't have this option, those 33 individuals would have either gone to the hospital or they would have gone uh to the drunk tank at the jail. So it was a wonderful opportunity for us to give these individuals someplace to go and be safe and be taken care of and not have to have something on their record or a medical bill and that sort of thing. So we'll be looking at even expanding that more uh next year if if we have to do

this. So, uh, we also had medical reserve corps, um, and they were proactively riding around in carts. So, if you were on campus, you probably saw some golf carts that said medical crew on the back of them. They were looking for people who might need assistance and they were actually flagbound by some of our students who were worried about their their friends or their roommates, you know, so they were being great bystanders and pointing out to those individuals and then they gave them a transport over to the observation sites. For our stats, we had two physical arrests, one sight and release that was then transported to the hospital. Um, two of those were for assaults. They weren't alcoholrelated, but they were probably alcohol-related. Um, and we had six 11 transports to the hospital for over intoxication. Five of those were brought back pretty quickly um by our staff from the safe observation site and then they were continued watched over at the safe observation site. We had 68 referrals to office of students rights and responsibility. Majority of those were from the residence halls um for various violations either um drunken not drunk but alcohol violations being under 21 having alcohol in the dorms. Um we had very minor damage but we did have some uh I think we had a total of maybe a dozen ceiling tiles broken throughout. So another good another good win there. Um we also did receive some some complaints. So we had four calls. This is into our dispatch, so I don't know what came into SlowPD's dispatch, but we had four calls into our dispatch of complaining of the noise and 12 emails that came in that uh Courtney Kau will be responding to every one of of those emails. So, we do understand uh the noise is very frustrating at 5:00 in the morning. I really wish that I didn't have to get up at 1:00 in the morning and come in. Um so as we look forward to um planning for what might occur next year, you know there's a lot of unknowns because we are as you know we're switching uh to a semester system and uh you know they they're going to be on break during this time but we are

hearing that the students are are wanting some sort of of of of event that at that time of year. We're hoping to change that culture and as we said turn it to an afternoon on the green and not a morning on the green. Um but there more to come on that. So happy to take any questions. Thank you. City manager. Did you want to add to that?

Thank you. I I would love to just take an opportunity to to echo the thanks um to our entire team and to Calpali. Um truly this is this was a a really um important partnership that we worked on together. um that Calpali throughout, you know, has been planning for very diligently to get to this point. Um on on the city side, you know, our uh our entire team really helped lift and get to this point, but certainly our police department through the planning that they have been doing since uh probably March 18th of 2025 um all the way through uh last weekend and then through today. Um, just to give folks a little bit of the behind the scenes, it it really requires the work of our police, our fire department, our public works department, our parks and recreation department because they really came in and helped deliver food and burritos to the folks who were working during this event in the middle of the night and in the wee hours of the morning. Um, our IT department who was on scene helping making sure that all of our communications and you know, infrastructure is working well. administration. It really takes a team to support um what needs to happen in order to make sure something like this works okay and is safe. Um I I think I'd like to remind folks of where we were a couple years ago when the level of concern really was appropriate because of what we were seeing on the street in 2024. And we really tried to assure people that our collective goal between the city and the university was to shift what we were seeing and shift the behavior, reset this from a street party type of event into something else that was more productive and safe. Um certainly I don't think anybody would love to this to continue in the wee hours of the morning. I'm certainly there with everyone else that a afternoon on the green sounds a lot better than a middle of the night kind

of thing. Uh and so we we certainly understand the concerns about the noise from the concert at that hour. Um and yet the result was incredibly important for our community to get the essentially to get our safe our safe streets back. Um so our streets were completely clear um and our properties and community members who were um able to remain you know well safe in their in their homes. Uh, and I think that the really the work that we did to get to this point and what we know we'll continue to do to to shift this um is really important groundwork and I want to just express thanks to our all of our collective teams for for getting here. um Calpali's investment and commitment to providing this alternative is a huge hugely important part of how we made this shift along with the 21 allied agencies. So again, other officers and support that we got from departments up and down the state, um from Caloes, from folks in in lots of different um agencies and capacities coming in to help us to make sure that we were really carrying our end of the bargain in the deal with our community to make sure they knew we were taking this seriously and we are serious about keeping the community safe. So really want to thank everyone uh and you know all of those uh cities and agencies that lend their support to us uh in the mornings and um really glad for the for the outcome here. So my apolog I no I really appreciate those comments. I mean it was a massive planning effort for more than 6 months and uh as the city manager had had had said we started talking about this right after last year's and um the execution of that plan was flawless. I have never seen anything like it before when there are so many

working I wish you could have seen behind the scenes like like I could. It was I was so proud of everyone, the hundreds and hundreds of people who were responsible for making this happen for our city and our community and our students and our campus. I'm really proud of everyone. That's awesome. Thank you so much for your words as well as um city manager. Um, the one thing I was wanted to try to make sure I'm totaling between your report and deputy chief Amaroso is so it sounds like for the sobering centers there were 33 total between ours and yours as far as the different individuals who went to the that was just for the three we had on campus. I don't have the numbers for the one in the city.

Okay, got it. Do you want to add to that? Although we do have a sobering center in the city, I don't believe it was used. So the numbers that I um was our slow PD dispatch information of the 20 medical calls and five transports. Got it. Okay. And then one drunken public we had again was downtown, not related to the event.

Right. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Um well I whether it's a on the green afternoon or morning next year or whatever that looks like. Um, I did hear some comments about um the base. Um, and so curious if there's a way to point it a little bit more internally to the camp as far as noise versus into the community. Um, any thoughts on that?

I mean, we can definitely take a look at it. It the the uh shape of the field will make it a little bit more of a dangerous entry. That was the whole point of how we configured it this year. um was to allow for as much space as possible, but it's definitely something we'll consider when planning a future event. Perfect. Thank you. I heard it last year and this year, so I thought I would bring it to you all. Um and sorry, there was one more question I had. Oh, and as far as the bus routes, um I didn't hear too much complaints around the changes. I don't know if, um our team, did you hear anything? I'm seeing head shaking. No. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much. Uh I see a couple more questions. Council member Shoresman,

thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to again thank you all. I heard lots of positive comments from students um and they, you know, had a great time. It seemed like everybody was relatively safe. Unfortunately, not everybody. You know, there are these small number of incidents that occurred and we did get a couple of emails and phone calls um from people that were um concerned about the noise, but uh it sounds like you'll all be doing an an afteraction review and taking good notes. It's always good to do that while it's fresh in our minds. And um the the one thing that I wanted to um just sort of make sure that we think about is um

and I just lost it. Um anyway, yeah, it it's going to come back after you leave. You can call me and it's going to come back to me after I after you leave the podium, but um thank Oh, I remember what it was. It it was the fact that, you know, while while this was a great outcome and we've had two good years in a row, uh probably too early to assume that this is like true culture shift. Um but we did have, you know, some anomalies. This is finals week uh this week, so maybe there are more students hopefully studying. Um sorry, what? It was finals week last year, too.

Okay, so finals week. um changes in the CalPoly schedule next time that will hopefully defay some of the activity around the event. But I just want to encourage us to continue to think about how we're going to respond in light of those changes to really try to continue to take the temperature down on this whole scene.

And if I can just respond with, you know, we're really going to reach out to our students this year, you know, and see how was how is the change in quarters of semester? Spring break's going to be different time. What what are what what are you sensing students especially our ASI government leaders you know what are you hearing you know so we can start getting ready for what may or may not occur at this time at a different time do they try to move it to a different weekend we'll get on top of it thank you and then uh last question uh I don't think you have all these totals yet but will there be a point where costs are um shared out with the community from our end as well as from yours

definitely Okay, great. I often hear, "Well, how much did that cost?" I'm like, "We're not we're not there yet." Um, and then as far as all the stats that um you shared, is that somewhere available on the Calpaly site so people can look at that information? Uh, it's not posted on any site, but I'm sure we're going to get some media requests on it, so it will be memorialized in some sort of media report. I'm sure. Perfect. Thank you. Well, thanks again. We really appreciate you coming and sharing. Thank you for the report, um, Deputy Chief. And with that, we'll move on. Thank you. City manager. Anything else from your report? That was cool. That's it for me. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Well, that was a um a big big day this weekend and um hopefully everything else continues to go smooth today. So, with that um we'll move on to public comment. So, public comment is the time for you to share your input about items that are not on the agenda. Um, and city clerk, do we have any members of our city that will be providing public comment? Yes, we have two. Sean Harris and Garrett Gilman.

Thank you, Mr. Harris. Uh good evening. Um so yeah, this is uh this relates to my previous public comment. Um I was detained December 29th on Bulock Lane in the dark at 6:15 in the morning on my way to work. Um so I gave public comment a month or so ago regarding my detention interrogation by ICE on the street in Unlet Street at 6:15. Uh the St. Timeless police chief or assistant police chief gave uh exhausted litany of reasons why his department was precluded from assisting federal agents from uh my detention and rounding up illegal aliens. Uh a lot of it was based on the uh California values act and two other ones he mentioned uh uh the the rounding up of you know he wasn't said is the police department wasn't involved in that um you know my detention and uh all that. Uh so his statement was similar to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's uh statement um uh uh in uh all sincerity after the Munich conference that there would be peace in our time even as Germany is rearming would invade Poland within one year. Our federal government has both a huge network of privately run detention centers or to use another World War II analogy concentration camps. Our police chief, whether knowingly or unknown unknowingly, is being used as a useful idiot by a federal government highly worried about Americans becoming unified in their opposition to federal policies uh that are bipartisan and that have done nothing uh but see our country's industrial base get sent to China, has seen our wealth get concentrated into fewer hands and has seen wages decline, has seen the dollar get debased, and has seen the opulent lifestyles of our elites become even more opulent even as Americans struggle to put food on their tables. As a reminder of how public officials can lie to the public, I'd like to remind the council uh mayor and city manager uh that during the Vietnam War, the Secretary of Defense Robert McTary spoke publicly about bombing the

Ho Chi Min Trail, but never admitted to bombing Laos as it was being done. To do so would be admitting violation of Laos and neutrality. And at the same time, President Richard Nixon also denied bombing Cambodia for over a year while secret bombings began in 1969. Our current Secretary of Defense and former Fox pundit Pete Hegsth, like the former Iraqi Minister of Information, uh, colloquial known as Baghdad Bob, tells us that the trillions of dollars we give we give to the Pentagon, uh, is being well spent and that attacking Iran is in our national interest, even as even as our social safety net is, uh, being shut down and old folks are forcing dog food to survive. My point is this, uh, that the city council and city manager need to run an audit. as I mentioned in my previous uh remarks uh of uh all electronic and written communication between the Soundless Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security on December 29th and find out whether uh what police chief Scott was indeed true said was true that so slow PD didn't assist the feds in my detention. Ronald Reagan even said a trust but verify. If this city council isn't deep into the internal workings of the police department on a regular basis, it'll be too late when with the open collusion of all police departments across country, the salami slicing of our civil liberties and the contempt for our sacred defenses containing our bill of rights as seen by my detention and street uh streetside interrogation by mass coons working for Washington will become normalized.

And most of us won't blink when our peers in the box. And next we have Garrett Filman. Great. Come on up.

My name is Garrett Filin, uh, mayor and council. This is going to be a little bit different than the previous one. Uh, I am here to advocate for a mandatory rental registry. Um, we've been doing it for multiple years, kind of on the policy end, and I was thinking that maybe doing a song might help to motivate y'all as well. So, you are going to get a reason to pass the rental registry this year based on the song I believe I can fly. And if anybody knows it back here, you can just wave your hand like this. Okay. So, I used to think that I could not go on trying to pass this rental registry for so damn long. But now I finally see the finish line. So please God pass this thing before 2029. Oh yeah, I believe that you all can do it. This is very serious. There's money in the budget. Yeah. So start working on it. Pass a registry this year. Come on everybody. There ain't nothing that you need to fear. Just think about how amazing it would be. All the data the planet nerds would need. And I don't like making threats, but I'll keep singing stupid songs until this gets past this year. So come on all be my heroes of city hall and pass this registry all. I yield my time.

Thank you. That's the end of the closed session. I mean, sorry, the um public comment. Thank you. All right. Uh with that, we have um the consent agenda, which is non non-controversial items. So, uh Do you have anything you would like to pull to any of my colleagues? I see nothing. Uh, is there any public comment for consent agenda? No, there's not. Thank you. And do I have Thank you, Council Member Marks.

Uh, yes. I'd like to move approval of the consent agenda. Uh, all of the staff recommendations made in the consent agenda. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman. Uh, I'll second. And I'd also like to thank the Human Relations Commission for all the work you did on uh the grant selections. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you. Um and with that, can we have roll call, Council Member Marks? Yes. Council member Shoresman. Yes. Council member Boswell, yes. Vice Mayor Francis, yes. Mayor Stewart,

yes. And I also would like to thank the HRC, uh the Human Relations Commission. I I know that all of a sudden pulling uh all together and looking at grants all over again is a lot of work. So, thank you very much. And that's a yes for me. and that is a 50 for the consent agenda. With that, we'll move forward to public hearing items and business items. So, first we have a presentation on the local roads first proposed ballot measure and we're considering a resolution of support. So today we have deputy director mo of mobility services Jennifer Rice and then slow cog representative Annie Bowski and I see one other but I no okay come on up Annie All right. Good evening, Madame Mayor, members of council. I'm Jennifer Rice, the deputy director for public works for mobility services, and I'm joined tonight with Annie Bowski from Slowcog. the St. Louis Bispo Council of Governments and tonight we're here for

council's consideration of a resolution to support a proposed countywide half cent transportation sales tax measure. Um the intent of that is to improve the region's competitiveness for state and federal transportation funding and capturing an estimated $1 billion over 30 years um in funding opportunities that may not otherwise be available. Um so the recommendation tonight is to adopt a resolution in support or consider adoption a resolution in support of the St. Losabispo County Transportation Expenditure Plan and in support of the proposed countywide 0.5% transportation sales tax measure being placed on the November 3rd, 2026 ballot. Um on January 20th, the city council received a presentation from Slowcog regarding the proposed halfsent transportation sales tax measure. Um, and the council also provided feedback on the draft transportation expenditure plan. Around that same time, slowcog staff received comments from all cities within the region as well as the county board of supervisors and have since prepared a final transportation expenditure plan. Uh, during February and then now in March, each city has been or will be considering approval of the final expenditure plan. And tonight is this council's opportunity to consider that final plan. With sufficient support, the slow cog board may consider final action at its June 3rd meeting to submit the measure to the county board of supervisors, which could then appear on the November 2026 ballot.

Uh during the January 20th council meeting, the city council generally expressed support for advancing the sales tax measure. Council members did provide feedback to slow COG staff on the draft transportation expenditure plan. The staff report for tonight's item did include a summary of that feedback and how it was incorporated um or conveyed to the slow cog board at its February 4th meeting. Um the comments were primarily in regard to the distribution metric as well as the mapping of the sub regions and these comments were shared with the SLOCG board at its February 4th meeting. Ultimately the final transportation expenditure plan continues to reflect the distribution by population and the mapped sub re sub regions as originally drafted. Um, but at this point I will pass the presentation off to Annie Bowski to further discuss what modifications were made to that final plan as well as the schedule for the next steps. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to present. My name is Annie Bowski and I'm of course here representing Slowco and I'm here to follow up on the January 20th meeting to seek approval for the transportation expenditure p plan which was approved by the SLCOG board at the February 4th meeting or the February 4th SLCOG board meeting to accompany a proposed ballot measure that would give voters in Slow County the opportunity to approve a dedicated transportation tax to generate funding at the county level to fix, repair, and update our transport transportation needs. As the regional transportation agency, SLCOG is represented or has the largest governing body in all of Slow County and is represented by a member of each of the seven cities along with the five county

supervisors representing the unincorporated voice, including Mayor Stewart. In short, SLOCG connects communities by working with local jurisdictions to allocate state and federal funding mainly generated by the gas tax. And I know everyone has seen this slide before, but um this is basically the reason why we are here today. So 25 counties representing 89% of Californians have a voter approved transportation tax and slow county does not. And that is why we continue to fall behind. Even looking at our neighbors um since 2016 who have a voter approved transportation tax, they've brought in hundreds of millions of dollars um to focus on their transportation needs within the county. And it's not just the funding funding collected at the county level. It's the ability ability to leverage funds back to the county from the state and federal government. If Slow County did have a transportation tax in place, we would have brought in approximately $200 million or $270 million since 2016 and been able to win back approximately $430 million in leveraged funding to the county. And this is a follow-up slide also from the last time we were here on January 20th. Um, this is what a 0.5 or half cent sales tax for every dollar would look like in slow county and how it's broken down into four different categories. If approved by voters, this would generate approximately $35 million a year. And the first pot of funding would uh be about $19 million. And about 55% of the 35 million, this would be for local road repairs, safety, and improvements. And this would be broken down and distributed among the eight various uh jurisdictions within the county. And this is funding that the individual jurisdictions could

completely have control over and decide where it was going to be sent with no over spent with no oversight from Slowcog beyond ensuring that the money was spent on transportation needs within the jurisdiction. Additionally, 40% of the funding would go to um go for regional corridor improvements, which we broke this down into four different sub regions within the county. And um central county, which of course includes the city of St. Louis, Abyspo, would receive approximately $3 million of this per year. So this would be for quarter improvements such as improvements to the 227 or the 101. Um, additionally, there would be 4% allocated for mobility improvements for seniors, um, disabled and veterans. This is definitely something that doesn't get as much attention as kind of the big highle flashy projects. But, of course, with an aging population within the county, this is definitely a need. There are many individuals out there who have trouble just getting to doctor's appointments or the grocery store. So, that's why this 4% is included. And additionally, there would be a max of 1% for administrative costs. So this would be approximate this would be um kind of audits um programming um kind of other backend administrative things that we would need to take um to share this information to make sure uh the public knew what we were doing with this funding and next slide please. So, um, as Miss Rice Miss Rice mentioned, we, um, had our draft expenditure plan that we brought to the board on January or the council on January 20th, um, we, um, took a lot of jurisdictional feedback, which we were very happy to hear and we did make a few changes based on that jurisdictional feedback. Um something that does not affect cities but the board of supervisors divid decided on is to

divide the uh 55% share for road repairs um divide that um based on population among the five um equally among the five supervisorial districts for the unincorporated areas. So that does not affect cities but that is something that uh the board of supervisors did decide on. Additionally, we did um we had a lot of suggestions on how to make reporting a lot more more efficient. We want to make this uh easy for cities um easy for slow staff, but we also want to ensure the public is getting the information they deserve and knows how this money is being spent. Um so we tightened up the um memorand or the um maintenance of effort clause. Um we allowed for a little bit less uh reporting. Um we had it originally twice per year. Now it's an average of once per year. Uh we moved the performance audit from um every 3 years to um every 5 years. So those are just a couple examples of how there were some small edits made among the original plan. And next slide please. And additionally, as Miss Rice uh mentioned as well, we did take a lot of considerations that we did not or the Slowco board did not put into the plan. So, of course, one of those was looking at um different ways of how to divide the funding. Um in the end, it seemed like the easiest way for the voters to understand how the money would be spent. So, that's why we uh continued with the original um division of funds via population. Um it was also requested that there either be kind of a uh general project type versus a list of specific projects. And um we were advised by the SlowCog Legal Council that we can discuss general project types but not to um necessarily mention specific key projects. And there's also um the uh subregional

map was asked uh to be changed but we did end up um keeping that the same. And then there was also a discussion on potentially um incorporating Calpali's population into um the city of St. Lucabispo which we did keep that separate as well. Next slide please. So just to reiterate what a voter approved half cent um sales tax would do for slow county. It would have zero impact on additional cost for housing, groceries, utilities, uh prescription medicine. It would raise estimated $35 million per year. Um that's about a billion dollars over the 30-year sunset period. we'd be able to leverage funding back to the area estimated a billion to a billion and a half dollars over that 30-year sunset period. Um, it would be a transportationon fund, so it cannot be used for anything else. Uh, visitors would pay their fair fair share. It would speed up project delivery, of course, reducing costs and uh allowing for more improvements to be made. And just a look at our timeline and where we are at now. Um, we've gone around tonight is our final round of presentations. So, my colleague is in Pismo Beach right now and we're of course here in St. Lucispo and we've hit five cities already with uh five out of five city councils approving the transportation expenditure plan and voting it to move forward. We originally wanted to um bring this information back to the so-called board on April 1st, but we've of also gotten word that there is a potential citizens initiative in the works. And what that would do is um it just um kind of Sloh has no uh oversight on the citizens initiative, but we want to ensure our board of directors um has the most information possible. And if citizens do want to take on an initiative like this, we want

to give them the opportunity to do that. So, we've moved the initial uh slow board presentation from April 1st to the June 3rd board meeting. And if everything aligns, we will have a measure on the ballot um in November of 2026. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions um you might have. And thank you so much for having me here this evening.

Thank you so much. Great presentation. Um, can you go back to the slide where you talked about the citizen transparency? I know we talked about something kind of like what we have at the city, the revenue enhancement oversight committee. We talked about something like that, the slow cog version of of the RIO. Can you go back to that slide? Uh, the oversight committee. So, do you have anything that you'd like to share about like how that oversight committee would be created or what that would look like?

Definitely. So, the um citizens oversight committee um I don't believe we we've taken that slide out, but basically we would have a citizens oversight um committee and what their main key job would do would be to review the finances of um how the money is being spent say by each jurisdiction and it would be directly reflective of the slow board of directors. So we have as mentioned 12 people on the slow board. So there would be one representative from each of the seven cities along with a representative from um each of the five unincorporated areas uh based on supervisorial district.

Perfect. Thank you. And then as far as um I think it was slide nine talking about the um not exact projects and I know that was um not what we talked about when we had that larger group or like community members understand different projects that are happening in their community and um was hoping you would expand a little bit more as to why we wouldn't give at least an example of what we're talking about as projects. Definitely. And this comes um straight from the Slowco Legal Council. So uh I don't listen to everyone, but I do uh listen to a lawyer who uh tells me what to do. So we are more than open um to hearing. Um there's of of course um maybe Jennifer or um city manager uh Miss Cheney would um share what kind of projects this could potentially fund. Um, so we can talk about highway improvements, um, kind of safe routes to school programs. Um, so, um, even, uh, transit improvements, but we unfortunately can't name, um, specific projects. Obviously, I live in Paso. They have a few key marquee projects that everyone probably knows about. Um, I think there's probably one marquee project here in St. Louis Abyispo within the city that's very important to people. Um, those are all examples of what could potentially be funded by this measure. it's by getting um by specifically mentioning them and there's other counties who have specifically mentioning their these projects and then priorities change and they're kind of tied into specifically um aligning with those projects when they no longer directly make sense. So that's kind of um why we unfortunately can't mention that. So, I would love to go on and talk about how these um projects could be funded, but it's against kind of um what was advised to do that.

Completely understand. Just thank you for sharing that out loud. City attorney,

I I can probably add just a little bit of color to that. And it it is uh probably stemming from some recent interpretations that suggest that naming specific projects can be categorized as advocacy uh versus information sharing. And that's based on, you know, the presumptions that are embedded in. You do um sort of popularity screening, polling during the course of these types of things that point you to projects that people might uh prefer over others and to sort of highlight some of those to the neglect of others that are equally available for funding. Um there's been some recent case law suggesting that that could cross the line over at advocacy. So, I suspect that that's where that advice came from. Thank you so much. Appreciate that, Council Member Marks.

Thank you. Yeah. Um, I uh I was on the uh Slowco board uh long ago in 2016 when we tried and came very close to passing a very similar measure. So, I'm uh basically supportive of of what you're up to here. But I had a question about the citizens initiative. Um I actually got an email today and I thought it was going to explain something about what the citizens initiative was. Um and it didn't. And so my question is um have they just copied the slow cog measure word for word or is it different? Do you know? going to please.

I don't know if if you know the answer to this, but I'm I'm concerned that it might slow uh measure has been so carefully tailored and now the various cities are approving it, but I don't know if the citizens initiative actually is a mirror of the slow cog one.

Yeah. So the um transportation expenditure plan that we're discussing today was of course approved by the SLOCK board back on February 4th and of course that is all considered public information. So we got a public information request um for our um board approved version of the transportation expenditure plan. And from what our knowledge is um the citizens initiative has taken that and used I believe a very very similar if not exactly the same version. So they are basically mirrored um from each other. So it contains all the same safeguards um kind of the same duration of funding and so on and so forth. So it's um

basically the exact same plan. Um we can't dive too deep into that as slow staff but basically from our understanding it is um exactly or very very similar um to uh that plan and the advantage of the citizens uh initiative is that it would take a lower percentage of voters to approve it. Is that correct?

Yes. So if a citizens um initiative went out, they would have to collect a certain percentage of um registered voters signatures that was representative of the same election that had happened a couple years back. So it's our understanding that they're collecting approximately um 12,000 signatures and that's a certain percentage of what the last midterm election of people who voted um within that election, they would collect that amount of signatures.

Yeah. So my question is if the citizens initiative ended up on the ballot um what percentage of the voters would be required to pass it? Yeah, definitely. If the um to start off just with the Slowcog um measure, if that were um approved by the board of directors um the SLCOG board of directors, of course, the cities, which were pretty far along on that, and the board of supervisors, and we would need approximately 66% of um the vote for that measure. If citizens um if enough signatures were given for this initiative, we would need 50% plus one um to pass the measure. So obviously there's quite a difference in um the vote tally there.

And how will they they decide uh will both measures be on the ballot or how how would that be decided?

Definitely not. if um it would um so from my understanding the citizens initiative has worked with the um county um voting operations system and it would basically be up to um either the Slowcog board or just Slowcog to kind of step aside and let that go ahead or if they um say the SlowCog board or Slowcog staff wasn't comfortable we would need to go back to our board of directors and they would need to approve our measure to be on the ballot. So it would make it of course um a little bit simpler in this world if we did if the citizens initiative um were to achieve that number of signatures that they needed to just step back and allow that to happen. And that would also allow give the citizens a voice for what they want to put something on the ballot.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman. Thanks. Just two quick questions and kind of piggybacking on u on council member Marx's question about the timing of the board's approval and the the changes to the TE that you're talking about here. So has the board already approved the changes that you've talked about to the TE or is that still yet to come? The Slowcog board. Sorry.

Thank you. No, thank you so much. Um yes, the um Slowcog board has fully approved the transportation expenditure plan. We're just bringing the final version back to all the cities right now. So that's um so no more changes can be made unless we want to kind of start this process all over again. We're just u bringing this back to the cities to ensure that um they know kind of what the changes are and even though they were kind of subtle just um letting people know that there were some changes made to this. Great. Okay. Thank you. And then the the the version that the citizens initiative is based on is based on this this final one.

From my understanding, they requested um the final version of the transportation expenditure plan and they're using a at least from my understanding the same or incredibly similar version. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, also just wondered if you could clarify the change to section three a little bit where it talks about there was a like a line added that says over the life of the measure is monitored and reported by the citizens oversight committee. Can you just kind of clarify what exactly that means?

Yes, definitely. So, basically what that would mean is it's not always going to be perfect. Exactly. How kind of say um if can you go back to the that slide please? So say for example um this particularly applies just to the 40% of regional corridor improvements. So not specifically what the various jurisdictions are getting because they have full oversight of that of course as long as it's transportation related. But for the um regional corridor improvements, at some point there's going to be one project that's ready and may take a few more funds, you know, and the SOCOG board would vote and have oversight over all of this, but it would be overseen by the citizens committee. So if say a big project was ready up in North County and they needed a little bit more kind of funding so they could leverage some something at that level, it would definitely be recorded and tracked and overseen by the citizens um committee and definitely the so-called board to that say maybe if the central county was willing to give up some funds at that time, it would go up to the north county, but it would be obviously recorded and tracked so that at some point when that project was finished, it the um funding that was used from um central county would come back down.

So the the idea is that each region would sort of be made whole over time so that if they kind of gave some of their money, so to speak, to one region to finish a project that later on they would kind of get that back. Yes. Okay. Perfect way to say

that's what I thought, but I just wanted to make sure. So thanks for clarifying that. And I'm going to add to that just a little bit from the conversation we had on the board, which is on the SLCOG board, which is it's a regional board trying to look at things regionally, but yet there wasn't a clarity that no one part of the county would potentially constantly get the money versus another. So even though it's regional, they wanted to have some more clarity and transparency and accountability for the community members to know that that's what we'll be doing. So, thank you for the context. Yeah,

I don't see any other questions. The only other question I had, um, you may have said it and I'm sorry if I missed it, uh, earlier when talking about the citizens initiative. Um, what date do they need those signatures by? So from I'm not sure of the specific date, but um our um goal right now is to bring this back to the uh slow board by um June 3rd. So, I believe they're in the process of collecting signatures right now and then it will take um a little bit of time and my understanding at this point is we'll they'll have some knowledge of if there is um the ability to put a citizens initiative on the ballot um by the June time frame.

And I apologize, I just don't have too much clarity on that. No worries. Maybe there'll be some people in the audience who are speaking. Who knows? All right. Well, thank you for that. Um do we have any public comment, city clerk?

Yes, we have two public speakers. Rachel Whan and Brad Brook. Good evening, Mayor Stewart and council members. I'm Rachel Aen and I'm speaking on behalf of the slow chamber of commerce in strong support of this resolution. We appreciate the city adding your perspective about the funding allocation of this plan. It's clear that you have what's best for the city of Slow in mind and we appreciate that. As the economic and service hub of our region, the impacts on the city's infrastructure are real and your perspective matters in this conversation. Your perspectives are important and they should continue to be a part of this conversation moving forward. Should you affirm support for this initiative, your action is significant in moving this inf this infrastructure forward for our community to exercise their choice at the ballot box in November. As your staff report outlines, our region is facing a significant transportation funding shortfall and without a local funding source, many of the projects our community demands will simply not happen. Without becoming a self-help county, we are leaving hundreds of millions, potentially over a billion dollars of state and federal funding on the table. If not for a local match, vital funding will continue to flow away from slow county to other communities who have already enjoyed this revenue advantage. If this resolution does not move forward, it risks stopping the measure entirely. That means saying no not just to this allocation but to all the funding that comes with it. We also want to acknowledge the citizen-led effort better roads for also county which we have deeply supported

since its inception. The committee has been working incredibly hard and we are hopeful we will succeed in qualifying for the ballot. But collecting nearly 18,000 signatures by April 17th is no small feat and not a guaranteed outcome. That is exactly why Slowcog's role is so important. While our efforts are separate and our our desired outcomes are the same, unlock hundreds of millions of state and federal transportation grants to benefit Slow County. Our region will benefit tremendously whether this ballot initiative comes forward from Slowcog or our citizens committee. To be clear, these are not competing efforts. They are complimentary strategies to achieve the same goal. Your vote tonight sends a message to the community. The average voter will not distinguish between a slow measure and a citizen-led measure. They will remember whether their city council supported investing in safer roads, better transportation, and our local economy. A no vote, regardless of its intent, risks signaling a lack of support that could ultimately impact the success of any measure in November. A yes vote means keeping every option on the table. It means continuing the momentum and showing your community that you're committed.

Thank you. Good evening, council. I'm here uh Brad Brewald and I've been involved with the 2016 measure. I was very disappointed that didn't pass because we lost out on, as was said by both Slooog and Rachel, you know, nearly $700 million in funds that we could have received over the last nine or 10 years. um that's been a little hard on us. So, um I uh have been working closely with the group uh the citizens initiative group to figure out how we can get this on the ballot. As Rachel said, it doesn't matter which whether this slow measure or whether it's citizens measure, it's the same measure. That's what's being proposed. And the reason that is is because we had to run all this by the county clerk to make sure that our language was adequate. It's been vetted by the cities. It's run by the county. So, there's been a lot of uh effort put in already through Slowcog. They've done a great job. They've got a lot of feedback and if somebody approaches us and says, "Well, we want to change something." I don't see how we can do that at this point. I think we'd have to go back and get feedback from the various agencies. So, I'm just here to say I support this measure. As Rachel said, a no vote would be a bad thing for the initiative because it doesn't the public doesn't understand the difference. The main difference as was said is 50% versus a twothirds vote. So, um just here to say we'd love to see us go out and win this measure and bring in the 35 million a year plus the grant monies that would, you know, could double that. Uh our our neighboring counties, which we do work in all over, um they've been benefiting from this for years. And you can see there's a lot of public improvements that have been made in those counties. So, I'm just here to say I support it and I hope you do, too. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment, city clerk? Nope. That was it. Thank you so much. With that, um, any additional questions? Are you ready for deliberation? Okay, let's deliberate. Vice Mayor,

yeah, I'll keep it short and sweet. I've long been a massive supporter of the spout measure. It's a no-brainer in my book. Um you I made clear some of my concerns around the real impacts of uh you know our role as a jobs hub and Calpaly uh and all of those road users that are added there and particularly the um multimmodal uh needs that we have to get folks back and forth from campus. But um that's not going to get in the way of of my support tonight. I want to see this thing get across the this last threshold. So I'll be supporting.

Thank you, Council Member Boswell. Thank you. I'll also be uh supporting uh this effort tonight. As I've said before, uh for me, the biggest argument for this is how much money we're leaving on the table uh with our ability to use this funding to leverage additional funding, particularly knowing that the counties around us are doing that. Um and that's, you know, taxpayer money. We all pay into that and uh we should be getting our fair share of it back. So that's why I'll be supporting the measure. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

I'll make three supporting the measure. I think we have been leaving a lot of money on the table. It's important that we become a self-help county and other counties have been doing this for a long time and we've been losing out on the opportunity to do even more. We have as a city put a lot of money into developing our infrastructure and our active transportation network and this will allow us to do even more of that. I was pretty vocal in our feedback session about my my biggest concern about the formula being the regional split. And I think the the re the regions are uh not the best and they uh they leave out some pretty major uh connections between the city of slow and some of our neighboring communities uh who will get less uh money just looking straight at the uh at the formula. But I think it's important for us to keep as this hopefully passes. It's important for us as a community, as a council, to continue to advocate for the projects that we think are important and that are central to lowering our vehicle miles traveled and helping improve connectivity between our city and our neighboring communities. So, I I look forward to the funding that will uh come our way as a county and also to having a voice uh from a community member of ours on the oversight committee to help move this forward. So, thank you for the presentation today and and thanks for the folks that came and spoke as well.

Thank you, Council Member Marks.

Thank you. Um yeah, well I like I said I was a big advocate for the measure in 2016 which lost by what 400 votes or something. It was just really close. Um but I do think Slowcog and the consultants have learned a lot from the analysis of the the reason that uh the 2016 measure did not pass. And so although I I might share a council member Shoresman's perspective, from the point of view of our city, from a regional point of view, the way it's put together right now, I think it has a much better chance of passing because when you looked at the areas of the county that voted against it, you see now that they're getting quite a big share of of the funding. So, it's uh to me very carefully crafted and I will support it. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And I agree with my colleagues. Um you know, I I've sat with Congress members. I've sat with state representatives that said so many other people are coming to us with uh a stake in the result. money. You know, there's I wish there was a better way to stay stay uh stay skin in the game, but really looking at um how do we come and ask for money and then not put anything on the table? And so I I hear their requests and I think it's true. And so I I I don't want to leave any more money on the table. These are huge projects. Um we are a city of 50,000 people and only 275,000 in the entire county, maybe 281 now. Point being, we cannot afford some of these very large um infrastructure projects and so we need this funding to work. So I really um support where we're at right now with this resolution and I'm happy to um move the um uh sorry move the resolution to um accept um moving forward. Sorry, my brain just also just stopped. Um I move for so moved the resolution of the city council of the city of St. Louis Abyispo to support the county transportation expenditure plan. And with that uh is there a second? Council member Boswell.

Second. Thank you. City clerk. Can we have roll call? Mayor Stewart. Yes. Council member Boswell. Yes. Council member Marks. Yes. Council member Shoresman. Yes. Vice Mayor Francis?

Yes. Thank you so much. It passes 50-0. Thank you so much, Miss Bowski. We really appreciate your presentation and all of the hard work that you and everyone at Slowcog have spent time with on this um project. And let's hope that 26 um works out better. Thank you. With that, we're just going to take a fivem minute break and then we'll come back and uh work on CAP slows uh update to their strategic plan. All right, welcome back. Uh we'll be getting the update on the caps homeless services division 202528 strategic alignment plan and caps good neighbor day policy update. So with that I'll pass it over to Daisy Wyberg and Lauren. Good evening, Mayor Stewart and council members. Sorry, one second. Get the presentation. My name is Daisy Wyberg and I have the privilege of serving as the homelessness response manager for the city of San Los Aispo. This receive and file item is being brought before council as anformational update on CAPSO's homeless services division 2025 to 2028 strategic alignment plan and the caps good neighbor policy for 40 homeless services center. The strategic alignment plan was a city-f funded initiative to support caps's long-term planning to create sustainability for their homeless services programs and operations at 40 prao homeless services center. As the only operator of an access center and low barrier shelter, warming center, and safe parking program within city limits, CAPSO's impacts on the homeless community in the city of Slow are

far-reaching. The development of a dedicated strategic alignment plan was intended to support these ongoing services and programs by assessing the organization's current operations, identifying future opportunities and challenges, and developing goals and priorities to guide future planning efforts. City staff, leadership, and council members participated in CAPSO strategic planning process, including an organization assessment, a community partner survey, and strategic planning envisioning sessions. And the completed plan was approved by the CAPSLow board of directors in August of 2025. Caps staff will provide an overview of the priorities outlined in the strategic alignment plan, as well as implementation updates since the plan's adoption. Capslo staff will also be providing an update on the draft 2025 caps good neighbor policy for 40 Praau homeless services center which is being brought forward for council's review. Capsow's original good neighbor policy was implemented in 2018 in alignment with the opening of 40 prao. The policy was created by caps staff to address community and stakeholder concerns with the opening of the shelter. However, the policy was not reviewed or approved by council. The conditional use permit application for 40 PRAO which was approved by the planning commission in December of 2014 and amended in January 2020 24 included a separate neighborhood relations plan as a condition for approval. Caps's good neighbor policy and neighborhood relations plan out similar operational procedures. However, the good neighbor policy serves as a more comprehensive framework for caps's homeless services at 40. In March 2025, CAPSLow staff initiated a stakeholder engagement process to revise the 2018 Good Neighbor policy in response to stakeholder and participant concerns. As service models, client needs, and community conditions have changed since the opening of 40 Praau

and Capso's client volume has grown year-over-year, an update to the policy was needed to keep in line with current operations. The overarching objectives of the revision process were to ensure that the policy was being implemented in alignment with best practices and stakeholder priorities and that client and caps responsibilities were clearly outlined and upheld to maintain a safe community on and adjacent to the 40 campus. Caps engaged community partners, neighboring businesses, staff, and clients to provide input on the policy updates. The capsule good neighbor policy was created in alignment with the city's overarching good neighbor policy for homeless services which was adopted by council on May 20th of 2014. The city's good neighbor policy established a framework for how homeless service providers should operate within the community. The policy outlines the city's expectations for homeless service providers to maintain safe, clean, and respectful neighborhoods while supporting highquality homeless services. It also set requirements for communication, accountability, property maintenance, and collaboration between providers, neighbors, and city departments. The city's good neighbor policy is not changing at this time as the policy continues to serve as an effective and relevant framework for homeless service providers operating within the community. I would now like to hand it over to CAPSLow's community services program director, Lauren Ramos, to present um the updates on both of these items. and give me you can introduce yourself while I pull up your slides.

Good even uh good evening Mayor Stewart and council members. Um Lauren Ramos, community services director here for Jack Lee who couldn't be here tonight. Um I want to start by saying community action partnership across the country really does three things. We provide high quality services. We advocate for people and we create system change. And we're really here tonight and you're going to see all three of those throughout the the next couple minutes that that's what we do. Um, I would like to also start by thanking the city for being a part of that system change um that we've gone under. Our homeless response system has drastically changed in the last five to six years. Um, and the city's been a major player in that. I look around the staff on the side here um have been been in that. Uh, Emily Francis has been a big part of that. All of you guys have been a big part of that. Um, I'd like to also uh thank you for the funding that we received to be able to do that work every day. And we're here today because we got funding for a strategic alignment plan. Um, so thank you for that. And I'd like to also thank Daisy for her partnership on a day-to-day basis. Um, we talk pretty frequently. Um, and the work we do wouldn't be possible without her. Um, she did a great playbyplay of this and I'm going to fill in the color, but I don't think I can possibly do it detailed enough because we're talking about strategy and a policy. Um, and so I'll do my best to give as much color to this presentation as I possibly can uh, and get us out of here before breakfast. Um, so to start, three three things. I want to do some level setting with some facts and I'm I'm down to debate these u passionately. Um, and then I'll give you some quick highlights about capsule homeless services and I'll go into a little bit more detail about the origination of our plan and then we'll go into the good neighbor policy. So, just some facts to start us off and make sure we're all on the same page. Homelessness is a complex issue. Um, and it it it really occurs when people lack

stable housing. Like bottom line, it's complex and it it starts with stable housing. Um, it's a result of multiple factors that often come together at the same time and we could debate those all night with no resolution. So, I'm not going to go there. Um, homelessness is without a doubt a regional issue. So, I'm glad the item after us is the regional compact and I would gladly support that as well. Uh, homelessness is effectively responded to based on decades of research, no matter what someone in Washington DC says, by focusing on connecting people to stable housing as quickly as possible and providing supportive services. If you do this work for any period of time, you'll find out it's very difficult to help someone with those underlying causes without stable housing. Um, we do that every day. Um, the other fact I want to throw out there is we're in a housing crisis. There's no way to negotiate or or say we're not. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition's recent report called The Gap revealed that of the 1.3 million extremely lowincome renter households in California, there are 321,664 available units. It's 25% of people have available unit. Um, and so any effort taken to support stable housing either on the micro or the macro level should be reinforced. I won't sing a song, but the rental registry would be a great idea. Um, jumping into some highlights about our current operations and the operations leading up into our strategic plan. Uh we've been on the the front lines of addressing homelessness since 1989 and we continue to adapt our service delivery not only to the changing needs of our community but also the muchneeded evolution of our homeless services system. Um we provide programs and services that not only help people exit homelessness but we've continued to expand our focus on preventing

homelessness in in the first place by providing atrisisk households with supportive services. 40pieto homeless services center and I want to remind us that it is a homeless services center. It's not a shelter. Um continues to be the only access center countywide and we serve based on average VIP spat scores those individuals with the highest acuity of needs. Last week a daily average of 192 people came through our access center to receive services. In the past 12 months, 52% of all first-time enrollments in homeless services in our county were conducted by Capslo. Last year, we provided 126,411 meals. This is in partnership with PE people's kitchen, who provides lunches 364 days a year. And we were able to do that by recovering 161,41 pounds of food, which also supports the city's climate goals. We provide various sheltering op options. Daily average of 141 individuals receive or families receive shelter at 40 Praau. This is very impressive given that it was built to be a 100 bed shelter. Uh our housing focused shelter program. Since the beginning of this program in August of 2023, 367 households have achieved housing. We also provide safe parking. We are the only safe parking in the county. In the last year, we doubled the number of spots from 12 to 24 in partnership with the city as well as the faith community. Our supportive service for veteran families, which we don't brag about enough, serviced 88 families so far this year. 28 of those are new veteran families. and we are in conversations with the Veterans Administration to go through the review to say we've hit functional zero with veteran homelessness.

Um, our least attractive thing that we do is our coordinated entry system. We operate the coordinated entry system for the county. This is a system designed to ensure that all people experiencing a housing crisis have fair and equal access to the assistance to the assistance they need. Uh, I'd like to pause here and use this as an example of our evolution as a system. Five years ago, we were using the coordinated entry funding to fund a case manager at three different agencies, which is not really the intent of that funding, and we've now elevated and matured our system through that funding. Moving on to the the origination of this plan that we're going to present tonight. Um, it really dates back five or six years ago when a lot of shifting was happening in our system. Uh I think historically caps was the leader of the system. Um we had a leadership change at caps within our division. We expanded programs. We modernized our our philosophy to low barrier housing focused trauma-informed uh and really made the shift to look at ending homeless homelessness not containing it. And then there was this thing also called COVID that hit that uh shifted things a bit. Um other things that were happening in the context uh the state of California has rolled out various plans and initiatives to end homelessness. Uh the county of St. Louis Abyspo developed a countywide plan to address homelessness in 2022. The development of the county's homeless services division. The city had homelessness response managers. Um the homelessness response plan in 2024. So there was all this planning that was happening and we were shifting what we were doing. Um, we had a lot of conversations with city staff um, and really the city stepped forward to do a deep dive on what we were doing and where we needed to go. And that's really where the word alignment came out of.

There was all those plans happening. We wanted to make sure we were aligned. And we'll I'll have a slide here in a little bit to to show you that. Um, you can actually go to the first slide. Okay. Okay. Jumping into our plan, the strategic alignment plan and our our road map. Um it really started with an amendment to our general fund contract in July 2024. Um that August we went out to bid um and were able to select Cobalt Collaborative because of their ability to understand the local environment and those other plans that were in place. Uh we kicked off the planning process in October of 2024. Um and then we did our surveys and you can see the process we went through here. We went deep on all of these different components and a lot of people participated. Um the eight interviews, it's not eight interviews, it's eight group interviews. Um including clients was a the the biggest guiding factor through this whole process was getting client input. Um and then went on and on. Next slide. I will say I'm not going to read through this whole whole slide for you, but I will um show that this is a living breathing plan. Um the the the full document has even different words than are on this slide because we've we've implemented and we've changed and we've adapt adapted um our our work. And so even some of these words here uh this is a big output for us. We were we didn't have a vision as a homeless services division. Um we didn't have a clear mission. Um but through all the planning and all the input, this is where we landed. Um and again, I mentioned that we're in crisis and our vision is to get out of that crisis. Next slide. Um you can actually go to the next one. I'm going to run through these and I'm not going to go into detail. This is where we could spend all day going into detail of what this is what the plan is, but I also want to highlight a couple things

that we're already doing. Um, I would also say that a lot of these uh priorities and strategies overlap. Um, think of this as a vin diagram plan. So, efforts in one area may benefit efforts in another area. Um, and this is a three-year plan. So, we did not intend to to launch, you know, 24 initiatives July 1st. Um, so there there's some things that have not started or were in planning stages. There's some things that were already happening that we continued. Um, so I'll just give some examples as we go through this and if you guys have questions at the end, we can we can go into this. Uh, 1A for example, um, we we have to continue to do this. We've done a lot of this work at at identifying gaps, safe parking is a great example of that where the point in time count showed an increasing number of vehicular homelessness and so we expanded that program. Um, I think one of the future efforts we need to do is look at outreach and do we have too much outreach as a community? Um, I'm not saying we do, but it it's one of those things that's starting to emerge that we're starting to step on each other's toes in terms of outreach. Um, 1B as another example. Um, we responded by opening back up night by night beds at 40 PRA when other comm community or other providers in the community shut down their night by night beds. So, it was a need that we identified. Go to the next slide. Again, I you guys are very smart people. You can read a slide. I'm not going to read it, but I'm going to give some examples as we go through. Um 2A, launch a countywide public education. We continue to do our I'm home social media post. Uh I wish we could really highlight every person that we do that that gets housed, but we also want to have client voice and some people choose not to do it. Um so you get to see a few of those. Um we have started um discussing training of staff um people that do this work every

day. Uh it's it's challenging when people confront you of of the work that you're doing. And so we want to we want to elevate the voice of of the people doing the work as well. To be an example of of something we're doing and this really came out of the good neighbor policy is we're initiating quarterly stakeholder meetings with the community. Um, we continue to do tours, uh, and we continue to, like I said, train staff and encourage one-on-one conversations with, I would call, naysayers of the work that we do. We try and invite those people in and and have conversations with them. Um, next priority three, uh, sustainable funding models. Uh, I think in the nonprofit world, there's great ideas and programs and then how do we get a funding model to match up with it to produce the outcomes we want? This is always a challenge in what we do. Homeless services is no different. Um, but I would say uh expanding revenue, we've leaned heavily into the Cal AIM initiative. Um, and SenCal is starting to probably be our largest funer as an agency now. Um, so we're turning more into a medical organization than we have in the past. Um, but it's been been great to to have that that revenue come in. Um, cultivating uh faith-based partnerships as an example. Uh, we have an outreach now location at St. Stevens Church downtown. Uh we're grateful for that. And then obviously the safe parking with Journey Christian Fellowship, Renovate Church, Congregation Beth David, um is another example of how we're implementing this plan. Um priority four, regional collaboration. Um I mentioned the night by beds. Uh but we're also piloting within coordinated entry the night by night beds and we're hoping to roll that out across the whole system in the county um to again get people access to those as quickly as possible. Um 4C as an example, we we have a great working partnership with 5CHC and Echo

um in the south and north. Uh we have started to work more collaboratively on funding. Uh we have a shared letter of support we submit and we're we're working on equal funding right now. I think we need to move to more equitable funding as we move forward. Um priority five and I apologize I'm going super fast. Okay. Uh 5D is an example of something we're working on the 46 um the family housing project. Uh we have we have purchased the land. Uh we've secured architects and environmental consultants. Um which we now have an approved campus design which will include 74 total units, 42 shelter or 126 beds and 32 permanent supportive housing beds. Um, we have an approved site investigation report for the cleanup of the land. We're really cleaning dirt right now. It's super exciting. Um, yep. So, moving on. This is where we really focused on how are we aligned um with both the city and the county plans. The the state plans became too cumbersome to be real honest. There was too many of them. Um, and so we really focused on a local level. Where did our plan align and where did we fit in? And I I think we did a pretty good job hitting most areas. That's our strategic plan. Um do we want to pause there for questions or do we want to jump into good neighbor policy?

Yes. Council member Marks. Um yeah, my question is I'm really happy about the plan for the housing of uh families next door. This is the land that the city um staff works so hard to very hard through a receiverhip program and all that and there's all this hazmat. I know it has to be cleaned up. My question is whether the policies the good neighbor policies and the strategic plan will also apply to the new housing next door.

The good neighbor policy definitely will. Um we we wrote it and when we get into that we'll we'll see that we took out program specific language because our programs change pretty frequently based on funding. Um so the good neighbor policy yes the strategic plan sets us up for operations of that I think um when we go into and we talk about uh in the plan and are working on uh organizational structure um I can't possibly see hails behind me and he manages 40 proto I can't expect him to manage 40 proud and that um right it just would be humanly

okay so it's it's in development is what It's in development. Yeah. And this is again is a three-year plan. I would guess that the opening of that would be in align with us redoing this. And that was one of the recommendations we have from the consultants is at the end of this let's redo the process. So thank you for the question.

Can I ask you one more question? Um, I often often am asked, well, how many people that are working with CAPSOW are from our county and we have other county homeless service providers and there's often confusion as you share about coordinated entry and then the other service providers. Can you give just a little bit more on the kind of rewinding back to the facts section?

Yeah. Um, I don't have the exact figures off the top of my head. In general, of the people that we service at 40 praau, um 80 to 90% of them are slow county residents. Um and about 30% of them are from south county, 30% of them are from the central and slow and then 30% are from north county that we service. Um yes. Thank you. And then do you want to share about the coordinated entry versus the other homeless prov homeless service providers?

Coordinated entry really sits on top of the whole system. um and is intended to, like I said, get people to the resources they need as quickly as possible. Um as well as prioritize those most vulnerable community members. Um I the example I like to use if there we have a a elderly woman in a wheelchair and we have a 24 year old male, we're going to give the bed to the elderly woman and and that's really the intent of the or the coordinated entry system is get people connected. We've historically only used it for permanent supportive housing. Um, our system often refers to it as the housing queue. Um, but it's not it. We are, like I said, five years ago we were using it to fund a case manager. Um, and now we've actually invested in the system. The county's invested heavily into an HMIS system. Um, it's it's it's really put our system on steroids to be more efficient with the limited resources we have.

Perfect. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you so much. This is a really exciting night and I'm just so grateful to to you all for for being here and for um presenting to us, I know there's been an incredible amount of work that has gone into this. And I I do have to say having kind of watched parts of this at least um I've never seen a group more excited to take on a strategic plan and enthusiastic about than the product that came out of it. So, um, really excited to have you here tonight to tell everybody about it. Um, I'm I'm a little bit curious. You know, I, uh, used to be on the Capso board. I'm I'm not currently, and I know there was a lot of kind of hitting the ground running as soon as the strategic plan came out, and I'm curious now that it's starting to kind of become part of your day-to-day. What are some of the challenges that have emerged that were sort of unexpected? um some of the things that maybe are taking a little longer to uh tackle that are part of that strategic plan and um maybe counter to that, what are some of the successes that have come a little bit more quickly?

Yeah, I think I'll start with the successes. I think the the biggest success we've had is the increased use of data and decision-m across all parts of this plan. um that was that's it's threaded throughout, but it's one of those things that we just we're talking about data more frequently and making decisions based on that versus feelings or thoughts or theory. Um I think if I had to since you put me on the spot, one of the the challenges um is really around you the the structure within Caps. um we really are kind of like nine different nonprofits with a admin support over that which is um I think very costefficient as a community um to do it that way. We only have one CEO instead of nine. Um we're only paying one CEO salary for example. Um but getting those support departments for lack of better terms to be more engaged in this process. They don't they they have a lot to do. Like I'm not I'm not saying this negatively. Um it's just been a challenge that to get them to focus as much as I would like them to on this plan. This is my baby. Um and so they have nine different focuses and trying to get those focused here. Um but that from a day-to-day service level and what people experiencing homelessness experience when they deal with us, they don't feel that or see any of that. That's more an administrative challenge.

Well, thank you for that a little bit of peak behind the scenes. I I do want to say I know you all are kind of functioning on a bit of a shoestring, but I'm really impressed by how much you're you're able to get done with what you have. And then I will also say that I really saw a change in how you were approaching uh tackling this this crisis of homelessness in our community. And I'm just so impressed by um those changes that have been implemented already. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

Yes. Since we're talking about this part of the presentation first, I did have a couple of questions about some of the strategies that you kind of zipped through. And actually, one of them is you you kind of summarized uh the 46 PRAO project and you rattled off the numbers of what it's going to include pretty quickly. Um too quick for me to really process them. So, could you say again what um what the plan is for that in terms of number of beds, permanent supportive units, all of that? Yes, the current campus design is really I'm going to say two buildings. Uh it's we're looking at prefab um kind of Lego buildings that will come in. It will actually be five different buildings but they'll look like two buildings. One will be family shelter um and really a family service center kind of replicating what we have at 40 PRA um with all services on site, case management, a daycare u built-in um case management, staffing, um laundry facility, all all of the things that that we have there just for families. Those units we're designing to be almost like a a hotel room with the door in between. Um so in three pieces so we can house very large families or we can do smaller smaller families like a mom and a child. Um and so that will be 42 shelter units uh maximum of 126 beds. So depending on how we slice and dice those on any given night. Um and then we are talking to we won't be the permanent supportive housing provider that's not in our kind of capabilities as an organization at this point. Um there'll be 32 permanent supportive housing units in the other building um kind of operated separately. We're talking obviously to Haslo and People Self-Help. They're our two main providers in the community um to operate that. Um so we're looking at how we would do that. Would it be a ground lease on any sort of things that may happen there? So um so yeah, those were the numbers. Did that answer your question?

So the permanent supportive units will be it doesn't sound like they'll be tiny homes. It's not going to be like the welcome home village kind of model. It's going to be apartment style. Apartment style with kitchens and bathrooms in them. But the uh the more family shelters will be more just like rooms. Um not necessarily entire like self-contained units, it sounds like. Okay. Thank you so much. And we are building the shelter units to be able to evolve into permanent supportive housing should we want to go that route, but we're building them as shelter units. Awesome. But they will have kitchenetses and all the all the amenities that would be required to call them permanent supportive housing.

Excellent. It's good to be able to have that flexibility because you know hopefully someday we will actually solve this problem. That is the goal. Um and people will just need places to live. Um 1 C I I was also a little bit curious about especially as you know we've been having lots of conversations at this dis about uh safe housing and uh education education for tenants and landlords and so I'm curious of you mentioned that not not all the strategies and objectives have started yet and I was curious that targeted landlord engagement campaign um to prevent evictions is that one of the strategies that you've started and what does that look like? Yes. Sorry, I sorry I'm getting super excited.

Yes, please.

We have started the initial part of that one and three kind of key things we've done. Um, one is within our supportive service for veteran families. We actually receive funding for landlord incentives. Um, which is really targeted at getting new landlords and keeping landlords. Uh, and we've learned a lot from that. The challenge we have with that funding is it can only be within the first 90 days of a placement in a in a unit. um we're on day 91 if tenant breaks a window we can't we can't help out. Um so there are some challenges with that funding particularly but we're we're we're gathering a lot of learning efforts from that. Um the second thing we've done um we're starting to build out a stabilization unit. Uh this is for once we house people the the folks that will be the case management after that point to continue and and maintain um where staff are out talking to landlords a lot and we're learning a lot from that scenario as well. Um and then we we've added a family this is a small piece that kind of overlaps here. We've added a a second um family housing navigator um focused on families because that's a their families are harder to house typically um to find the right units in the right location where the school is and all that kind of stuff. Um so we're we're in the initial phases of that, but we are looking to expand that quite a bit.

Excellent. Are you able to you you mentioned your increased reliance, I guess you would say, maybe that's my word, on on SenCal funding and and CALAM. Are you able to leverage some of the um housing navigation and sustaining services funding for some of the um some of those navigation type issues with a lot of our housing navigation efforts are are now funded solely by SECL. Um the SNCL funding isn't enough to do it. So that's where we have to offset or leverage grants to be able to do it. But yes, the the the housing trio as they they are referred to were we're engaged in all all of those services.

Excellent. I'm sure I'll have more questions later, but thank you. Thank you. Other questions on the plan. Not at this time.

Okay. I'm going to jump into the good neighbor policy. Uh, and the good neighbor policy is a client-driven internal document um that outlines expectations for behavior both on site and throughout the immediate neighborhood. Um, capsule participants, neighbors, and partners share responsibility for maintaining a respectful, safe, and healthy environment. The good neighbor policy is not our neighborhood relations plan. As Daisy said, um, that was included in our CUP. So, it's a little bit different than that. um kind of want to walk through um again that vin diagram. This doesn't fit perfectly in any one of those strategies, but it kind of overlaps a couple of them. Maybe strategy 1B, responding to emerging needs and best practices, or strategy 2B, stakeholder engagement, or maybe 3B, uh cultivating corporate partnerships. Um but this this plan or the good neighbor policy originated um in a theoretical sense prior to opening 40 proud. Um and then like I said earlier COVID happened so things evolved. Uh we had philosophical operational changes to a low barrier model. Um really started engaging the the most vulnerable in our community. Um, and so it really just became time to re re-evaluate this and bring it up to date with our our current implementmentation and our experiences with the previous good neighbor policy. Um, so I want to kind of jump into the timeline that we walk through uh our stakeholder engagement and these will kind of blur together a little bit and then what we identified and and the adjustments we made. So in March, uh we started with a really broad conversation with our on-site um partners, Sunreet, People's Kitchen, CHC, Teima. Um and we got some specific feedback from them. Um the early dialogue surfaced shared priorities uh across all those partners. We wanted clearer participant

expectations. We wanted to strengthen the safety language. We wanted more structured avenues for communication with our neighbors. and partners emphasized that the policy should reflect our our movement to low barrier services. Um in April of that year, we focused on an internal review and refinement of the issues that they had raised. Um we then um in early June a created the first working draft of the new policy. Um it remained at that point it was very conceptual um and it wasn't very integrated. It was all over the place, but it was a it we started to integrate their their concerns. We then hosted a second partner meeting and reflected back the new language um and got additional feedback. That June we also had our first participant listening session. Uh we hold town halls at 40 and we do one during the day services and one during night services. So we capture both kind of audiences. Um and participants really raised a lot of concerns about our good neighbor policy in particular. um about the inconsistent communication around expectations with it. Um and looking back reading it, it was very inconsistent. Um unclear uh neighborhood boundaries where when we said neighborhood, what did we actually mean? So we wanted to define that as we work worked through this. Um and then a lot of uncertainty about how rules were actually enforced at 40 Prao. Um July we shifted gears quite drastically with our audience and we went to slow PD and slow fire department and really focus on the safety sections of that. Um and what came out of that was really distinguishing between emergency and non-emergency contacts. Um our team that was in our meetings here at the city there our calls to emergency services was through the roof at that point. Uh I think we've broughten it down to a

relatively okay level. Um and then also reinforcing uh expectations around drugs and alcohol and and weapons on site. Um it was just unclear how we were going to do that in the previous policy. August we went internal a little bit more and talked to supervisors and frontline staff um and really got feedback from them about how impractical the plan was. Um and so all all this feedback um through the process and we got go to the next slide again I'm not I don't want to go into detail on every single bullet sub bullet point on this but I will highlight some um this is really where we updated the plan um and you have copies of the plan. Um, for example, we updated the identity and purpose of 40 proud homeless services center. Um, focused on that low barrier and comprehensive services. Uh, we removed a lot of language. I think I mentioned this earlier about program specific our funding changes every July 1st. And so we kind of reinvent ourselves and so we took out a lot of that program very specific program language out of there. Um, we clarified the neighborhood conduct expectations. Uh, and we're very explicit about loitering and lingering in nearby businesses and bus stops, camping, disruptive behavior. We were very clear on what that was and what it wasn't. Um, we strengthened our safety framework as I mentioned with with PD and slow uh or with the fire department. Um, and we removed some outdated and maybe inappropriate lang language in there about a neighborhood watch, which isn't really our role as a service provider. Um so we took that out. Um we modernized communication pathways. We clarified the the caps hotline and the 40 proto um phone number of who to reach

out to. Um and we we clarified our response times um on if it was an emergency, how quickly we're going to respond. If it was a non-emergency, how quickly we respond. Um, we updated our property standards and this actually flowed into the strategic plan a lot with our our grounds and uh maintaining lighting and those sort of things. Um, we refined the enforcement expectations. Um, and we we gave some very clear consequences that would be delivered if you you violated the plan. Um, obviously they're not prescriptive, but it gives us some framework for both clients and for staff. Um, we integrated our rights and responsibilities. This we had updated our rights and responsibilities. Um, I think we actually used to call it the program rules and guidelines or something like that, but we wanted we shifted it to be what are clients rights and what are their responsibilities to ensure those rights are for everyone. Um, so we incorporated that into this. Um, like I said, we removed programmatic language. Um, and then we incorporated a lot of the business feedback around loitering and safety and visibility to be able to to make it very clear on who is responsible for what. Um, and I just would like to kind of end this section with um a question you might be asking, which is we went through all this effort to update this plan. Why are people still ordering on Pra Road? Um uh and so I would just say from time to time people break the rules and they get barred from services that we call it a a suspension um from services. Um but I I really would like Can you go to the next slide? Um there's a gray area in this work. Um and it really the great partnership we have with the city of St. Louis Bispo particularly the police department um is where this happens. So, I'm just going to walk through a general scenario. Someone violates a rule, we usually give them a couple chances,

right? Like we we try and engage them. Our goal as a service provider is to engage people in services. That's our number one job. Um I like to say even the meal we provide to people is a way to engage them in services. It's not the meal is important. Don't minimize I don't want to minimize that. The meal is very important, but talking to people and engaging them in services and helping them on their journey to end their experience of homelessness is most important. Um, so we we do engage, we engage, we engage, we engage. Um, but sometimes we have to suspend someone from the building. Um, like I said, we had 193 people in there this week. Um, for the benefit of 192, we may have to suspend one person. Um, we're very clear on what the expectations are. We have a what's called a paneling process by which they can come back into services. Um, which includes sitting down with staff, explaining what happened, coming up with a plan to make sure it doesn't happen again. Um, sometimes it's just we'll have people say, "I just want to serve my time and then I'll come back when my time's up." And that's fine. And we restart again and we engage and we engage and we engage. Um the challenge becomes when we suspend someone from services who is homeless and we are the only uh access center in the county. They have nowhere to go. Um and so it it becomes this challenge. Um just was that yesterday we got a call from JB Der that there were people loitering on their property. Um and this is an example of the great relationship we have. I think they emailed me, Daisy, may have emailed all of you. Um, everyone was on the email, but we responded within an hour and had caps staff out there. The CAT team was out there, police officer was out there. Um, and we set some expectations that they needed to move on. We, as the service provider, set some expectations about engagement and trying to get them back

into services. Um, so it's this gray area that I I is why there's people there. Um, they've broken a rule inside and we have to maintain order. Um, but we want to engage them. And so this this challenging conundrum we always find ourselves in of do we kick them out or not and do we how do we engage them? And so um it's just it's just a challenge. um we don't have enough shelter beds for everyone experiencing homelessness. So they have to go somewhere and unfortunately it is oftentimes to the streets. So um the partnership is fantastic. The situation is not fun every day. So I'll I'll stop there with the good neighbor policy. Thank you. And I I think what you kind of um commented on is there's two aspects. There's enforcement of the policies and then there's also how do we help the human side the person that is now not able to be in 40 and at the same time where else will they go? So I think that has been a constant uh conversation for decades. Um and um I think community members are frustrated with that answer that where else do they go? And the answer is I don't know. Um and that doesn't feel great for community members and we're trying to figure out what do we do in that in in that place. Uh Council Member Marks.

Um yeah. Well, um I'm I've got a couple of sort of freeway related questions. Um occasionally some of these loitering people decide to loiter in the middle of the street,

which is right next to the freeway on-ramp. And I personally have been very happy to avoid hitting anybody. But um there's that aspect about um just besides just hanging out, engaging in some kind of dangerous uh activity or fighting with each other, throwing things at each other, throwing things at cars and like that. So my question is whether there's any kind of monitoring of especially the um uh the street that's just right outside uh the shelter. So

yeah, we have staff that are out there every day. Um I think the other thing I forgot to say is our um our paneling process, which is the process for people to get back in. We've increased the um efficiency of that quite drastically. U we used to only do it once a day. Now we're doing it on the hourly basis. I don't

I mean we send out the communication emails any it used to have to flow all the way up to Jack as the director and Jack is all over the place in meetings and and so now we've we've um trained staff and it happens at the front line um to be able to get people back in um and so we're out there like I said the JB doer situation we had staff that rolled out from the from 40 Prao to go engage those folks to get them back into services as quickly as possible. Um we've also um worked really hard to not completely suspend people. Um and so we we have a kind of tiered system now where they may be just just barred for the night services or just barred for day services or

um we rarely bar someone 100%. Um and then the other layer that we've added is the St. Stevens outreach hub. Um, I was in a staff meeting the other day and we were talking about a particular uh client and our supervisor at St. Stevens said, "I know you guys are going to suspend them. We'll enroll them at St. Stevens uh and we'll get them engaged there." Um, and so we are we are out there. We don't control everyone's behavior. We try and encourage them and support them in making the the right choices. So, yeah. Um, are you still are people still able to get um bag lunches if they can't Yeah. um be there inside

the bag lunches and then we we've actually enhanced our food program to do actual to-go containers that actually it's the same meal that we're serving inside. So we bring it out to the curb for those people that are suspended and 99.9% of the time people are not suspended from warming center or community meals. Um and so yeah,

I just wanted to add more on the um highway 101 and CALR front. Um, in addition to our collaboration obviously with CAPSLow, the city meets with Calrans and CHP quarterly. So, we just had a meeting last Thursday and we are in close contact with our district 5 CALR contacts and CHP um in terms of any locations along Highway 101. So, we're our CAT and MCU teams are are monitoring that and sharing locations and we we share that kind of as those come in with with CALR. they have a cleanup scheduled next week and they inform our team. We share that with all of the outreach partners. Um but in even that PRA location in particular is one of theirs that they consider a level one by their standards. So if there is anybody which we have in the past had an encampment right there near the PRA offramp. Um and they treat that as a level one which you know entails an immediate removal. And so we try to monitor those. We either receive those directly or encourage people to report them to Calrans. But we do have good working relationships and have really tried to build that with Calrans and CHP because we realize because of the close proximity with 40 Praau and Highway 101 that is um just obviously a high-risisk area.

Thank you. Thank you for that, Council Member Shoresman.

Yeah. Um great policy. It's the first time I've really reviewed the whole thing. So, I appreciate all the changes that you've made and uh and the comment that um I think you actually made this about the strategic plan, but a lot of these documents are living documents and I can appreciate that you have to change when when behavior changes or situations change. Um, one of the things that I know is probably uh comes up a lot is when you have an incident as you mentioned the example um with JB Dur when something happens either in on somebody's property or in relation to a community member and they call in a complaint. There was some language in there that talks about um ensuring that reporting neighbors receive timely confirmation of action occurring and I'm just wondering what that means and what that looks like.

Yeah, depending on where it originated, we will respond typically in the same fashion. So if it came in through an email, we're going to respond with an email based on our response. Um we cannot give specific client information. The JB Der example had pictures. So, we're not going to say even the person in the red shirt, this was their consequence. Um, but we will respond and say it was responded to. Um, DIY actually beat me to the punch and reported that one back to them. So, there was no additional follow-up on our end for that one. Um, if it's a phone call, we'll get on the phone and respond um based on what it is. Um and and part of the good neighbor policy too, kind of I think tying part of your question in is um if someone's not barred from services and they violate the good neighbor policy, they will be barred for services.

Does that make sense? So it's not just it's not just for people who are barred from services. It it's we have we have quite a few people that just come in for day services. Um our day services not you don't have to be homeless. So, people that are housed, they may come back for for lunch. Um, but if they're walking down the street and violate the good neighbor policy and that gets reported, that will be addressed with that uh client. So, what if somebody is already barred from services and you get a complaint about them? Because I'm sure you still get complaints about people don't necessarily know, community members don't necessarily know who's able to use the shelter or the services and who isn't. So, I can't double bar them, right? Um what do you how

we may extend depending on it the the length of the bar the length of the suspension based on the severity of the situation. Um but our our number one response is engagement. So we often look at those complaints as an opportunity to engage. And I know that sounds crazy but hey I heard you were doing X Y and Z. Let's talk about that. And then how do we quickly shift that conversation to be about something housing focused? Um, our staff do an amazing job of being able to take some wild left field idea and get it back to housing. Um, and it's just it's it's magic to see it happen. So, we do often use those as opportunities to do that.

Yeah. I uh on the point in time count had a member of your team on my point in time count group and I marveled at the way they approached these individuals and with empathy and respect and just you know they were a comfortable um presence around these folks who were obviously not wanting to be woken up or not wanting to be bothered in that moment. um and they just handled it um with grace and uh yeah I was I was watching and learning for sure. So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? Well, thank you so much for this fabulous presentation. There's so much happening all the time in your world uh caps low and uh I know you highlighted a few key key main big complex issues but I know you also do a a great deal more. Um but before we go into any more of that I want to make sure is there any public comment. No there's not.

Okay. Thank you. Um so without any other uh questions this is just a receive and file. Um I I guess as as we have this next conversation, the Rose Regional Housing Compact, um we may have some conversation that aligns and um hope you'll stay for that conversation as well. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right.

Okay. So, next we have the conversation of the regional homeless services inventory, regional homelessness and affordable housing compact for slow county. Um, and I believe director Timmy Twe, are you joining us as well? No. Okay. All right. So, I'll pass it back to you, Daisy. Hello again, Mayor Stewart and council members. Daisy Wyberg, homelessness response manager for the city of St. Los Aispo. I now have the privilege of introducing the slow county regional homelessness and affordable housing compact and homeless services inventory in partnership with the county's homeless services division. The recommendations for this item are to adopt a draft resolution to approve the St. Louis Abyispo County Regional Homelessness and affordable housing compact and to receive and comment on a report and presentation from the county of St. Louisispo's homeless services division. Homelessness in St. Louis Abyispo remains a complex and visible challenge as we just discussed um that transcends jurisdictional boundaries and requires coordinated regional solutions. Individuals experiencing homelessness often move among communities in search of services, shelter, employment, and support networks. As a result, actions taken by one jurisdiction can directly affect neighboring cities. Historically, each of the seven incorporated cities and the county have implemented local strategies to address homelessness guided by our respective policies, resources, and community needs. While these efforts have resulted in important local investments and efforts, they have at times operated in parallel rather than as part of a unified regional framework. The regional compact aims to formalize the ongoing regional efforts, providing a framework to guide coordinated action while preserving local authority and policy discretion.

The successful completion and support of the regional compact and services inventory may also assist the county and cities in advocating for additional state funding for homeless services as regional collaboration is often an important factor when the state makes budget allocations and grant funding awards. Recognizing the need for stronger alignment, the county and the incorporated cities collaboratively developed the regional compact which aims to move the region toward a more coordinated approach for addressing homelessness. The compact affirms the following shared commitments which the county will address more in depth during their presentation. In addition to the compact, the county developed a regional homeless services inventory which is intended to convey the homeless services investments, commitments, and services being provided by each jurisdiction. The report was informed by a survey where each jurisdiction had the opportunity to provide feedback on their respective efforts to address homelessness. The homeless services inventory is organized into four sections. Strategic planning and coordination, funding contributions, land use and planning, and direct services. And the compact and homeless services inventory were reviewed and adopted by the county board of supervisors last Tuesday on March 10th, and they are being taken to each city council for approval. I would now like to hand it over to the county's deputy director of adult and homeless services, my colleague Linda Belch, who will be presenting these updates. Good evening, Madame Mayor and council members. Thank you for the opportunity to present. My name is Linda Belch. I am the deputy director for adult and homeless services with the county of St. Louis Abyispo. Homelessness is a

regional challenge and today I will share a brief progress update, a short funding overview, and share why approving the regional homelessness and affordable housing compact is the next necessary step to sustain and accelerate local results. The five-year plan was approved by the Homeless Services Oversight Council in 2022 and adopted by the county board of supervisors the following month. The plan recognized that addressing homelessness requires partnership across sectors and requires the collective efforts of public, private, and nonprofit organizations. We must work together to build a seamless, well-resourced system that is easy to navigate and minimizes barriers for the people we serve. The plan was designed with the shared responsibility in mind. Reaching these goals depends on coordinated efforts by the county, the cities, and community stakeholders. In that spirit, we have worked alongside each other to implement systemwide changes, address gaps, and advance our collective vision. One thing is clear, the five-year plan set aggressive goals and asked for systemwide support. And it is evident from our progress that everyone is showing up and the difference is noticeable. In the past two years, across the board, we've built capacity, including a dedicated homeless services division, dedicated homeless services managers embedded within cities, data modernization through HMIS migration, expanded shelter and affordable housing, and targeted behavioral health interventions like the Sobering Center and CAT teams. We launched practical pilots including the rotating safe parking pilot with the city of St. Louisis Abyispo which has achieved a 60% exit rate to permanent housing and improved coordinated entry and point in time processes. We launched the public facing dashboards and are working on custom city reports as well. All of this

is underpinned by growing regional collaboration. The homeless services system encompasses more than those individuals counted on the single night of the point in time count as a system experiences both inflow of people experiencing homelessness for the first time and outflow as people exit to permanent destinations. In 2025, our numbers show an encouraging trend as we saw more people exiting into permanent housing than entering for the first time. While our HMIS data shows an overall increase in the number of unduplicated persons served between 2022 and 2025, we should consider this a positive indicator that revising and strengthening the homeless services system, including the migration to the new HMIS system, has paid off in more comprehensive data capture that shows the true scope of need in St. Louis Bispo County. At the same time, as measured by the point in time count from 2022 to 2024, the county of St. Louis Bispa as a whole saw a 31% reduction of individuals who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness and a 19% reduction in overall homelessness. Early results from the 2026 point in time indicate we will see another drop in both of these measures resulting in a drop of 24% in total homelessness and a 42% drop in unsheltered homelessness since the plan began. What is most important here is trajectory. Overall, the homeless services system saw a 31.7% increase in persons served, a 42.5% decrease in first-time homelessness, and a 44.4% increase in permanent housing exert exits when comparing 2024 to 2025. While improved HMIS participation contributed to better data capture and likely accounts for some of the increase in the numbers of persons served, the decrease in first-time homelessness

reflects significant investments in prevention. And the increased exits correspond with substantial increase in affordable and supportive housing units coming online. The chart before you shows funding that comes through the homeless services division. One item to note is this is not inclusive of all funding invested into homeless services on an annual basis as some county departments such as behavioral health also receive funds for homeless services and those are not included in this chart. Additionally, as demonstrated by the regional inventory, cities provide funding directly to homeless services providers. However, as a collective, our biggest risk is shrinking state and federal funding and a lack of a dedicated ongoing funding source for homeless services. The largest source of funds in the past several years are one-time funding made available through grants such as the homeless housing assistance and prevention or HAP program. While there is one more HAP round planned, HAP round 7 has been reduced to 500 million statewide, which is half of what previous rounds were allocated for. Additionally, by design, counties are eligible for HAP funding based on unsheltered homeless data. This means that St. Louis Bispo County will be eligible for less funding in HAPS round six and seven than we were in prior rounds because of our success in deploying those dollars and achieving results. At the federal level, HUD is also pro proposing significant changes to the continuum of care program. The most recent COC notice of funding contained new restrictions limiting limiting COC funding to no more than 30% of the total award in St. Louis Bispo County. Much like most other COC's, almost 70% of our COC funding goes to support permanent supportive housing projects. If this 30% reduction remains, St. Louis Bispo County will lose around $652,000

in funding that currently supports permanent supportive housing programs. This will mean hard choices between redirecting other funding sources to this activity or seeing those programs close. Considering the reality of shrinking resources, intentional collaboration and positioning ourselves in the most competitive position possible are more important than ever. Homelessness is a countywide challenge requiring unified action. We know that actions taken by one jurisdiction can directly affect neighboring communities, making regional coordination essential. The compact formalizes and strengthens the collaboration to improve outcomes, efficiency, and competitiveness for funding. It focuses on better alignment of efforts and resources and aims to position the county and cities to be more competitive amid shrinking resources. In 2025, the homeless services division in collaboration with the county's executive office worked closely with the steering committee comprised of city managers from Atascadero, St. San Louis Abyspo and Grover Beach to develop the regional homelessness and affordable housing compact. The document recognizes the complexity of addressing homelessness in San Louis Bispo County and sets forth a voluntary collaborative framework through which participating jurisdictions commit to shared principles to guide individual and collective actions. By coordinating regional efforts, the compact strengthens the region's ability to expand housing opportunities, services, and resources for people experiencing homelessness. It promotes collaboration to increase access to shelters, supportive housing, affordable housing, and services that help individuals regain stability. This compact is currently in the process of formal adoption by the entities with a plan to hold a joint signing ceremony once all jurisdictions have approved it. The compact recognizes one simple truth.

The vast majority of people experiencing homelessness in San Louis Bispo County have lived in our county for more than 5 years. They are longtime residents, our neighbors, and part of our community. The compact seeks to build momentum and consistency around a shared set of principles. Having shared principles is essential because they give every jurisdiction a common foundation for decision-making. They help us align policies, coordinate services, and pursue joint funding with a stronger, united voice. These principles also ensure we communicate clearly with the public and hold ourselves collectively accountable for measurable progress. The compact helps move the region from a collection of individual efforts toward a more coordinated and mutually reinforcing system of response. Importantly, each jurisdiction maintains its own authority while working toward shared regional priorities. By approving this compact, we strengthen our regional partnership and position our communities to respond more effectively and position ourselves to be more competitive for state and federal resources. The compact includes a homeless services re inventory which documents programs, investments, and services provided by each jurisdiction. The intent for this inventory is that it become a living document and updated on an annual basis. This inventory improves transparency and helps identify opportunities to strengthen coordination and address gaps in housing and services across the county. This report provides a comprehensive look at the strategies, investments, and collaborations underway across all seven cities and the county to address homelessness. It highlights not only the breadth of services being provided, but the strong regional collaboration that continues to grow between jurisdictions, service providers, and community partners. I want to highlight three data points that stand out as particularly important. First, every city and the county participates in the unsheltered point in

time count and in the homeless services oversight council, demonstrating full regional alignment in data collection, system measurement, and systemic decision-making. Second, all jurisdictions contribute funding and resources directly or indirectly to core homeless services such as outreach, shelter, and rapid rehousing. This shows clear countywide commitment to sustaining and investing in the system. Third, the county plays a critical role as the lead for key federal and state compliance activities, including administration of the homeless management information system, oversight of HUD planning and reporting, and serving as the lead applicant for many state and federal streams. Approving the compact to give us structure without mandates. It formalizes collaboration, aligns our shared principles, strengthens competitiveness for grants, and promotes clear communication with the public. It also helps us manage encampments while maintaining safety and stewardship. To be explicit, the compact does not transfer zoning or land use authority. It does not obligate new spending. It is not a JPA and does not impose programs or policies. Each jurisdiction keeps full autonomy. Approving the compact builds on the collaboration that's already working. It strengthens our colle our competitiveness for scarce resources, reduces duplication and improves outcomes with shared accountability. It is low risk and high impact. Thank you and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you so much. This was um it's a long time coming and a lot of work. So really appreciate um this report today, but also appreciate all the work that it's taken to get to this point. um quite honestly before you even in in your role you know watching this conversation happening between the supervisors and staff and HSOC and many conversations I got to have with people so just really appreciate your work um with that are there any questions wow that's rare granted this isn't the first time we've had this conversation so I think that's part of it vice mayor

thank you so much I'm really grateful to you for putting this together and for coming tonight and exciting to see this regional collaboration. I had a question about um you know the the phrase I think you used was uh structure without mandates and I really appreciate you know getting everybody to the table and uh kind of getting this collaboration started but I was a little bit curious about you know as we move through this and it sounded like we're going to hopefully revisit every year um that self- assessment model I was wondering if we're going to move towards uh hopefully collecting some more details on like the elements of the pieces that each community brings to the so we can get into the nuances of where our gaps might be within different parts of the community and and just curious about what kind of the vision is for down the line.

Yeah, thank you so much for asking. So the vision really is uh pulling together the city and the county to do that kind of deep dive analysis. So the inventory is designed to be visually accessible. There's a significant level of detail that can be provided. Um but those conversations should absolutely happen so that we have a clear understanding of where those gaps lie and where those opportunities can be found. Awesome. And in an ideal scenario, um how long do we kind of imagine it will take to start to build that inventory and when can we expect to kind of get into all of those details? So the uh hope is that we can adopt the compact and in a signing ceremony in April or May and then following that we're ready to get to work.

Oh, fabulous. Thank you so much. Thank you, Council Member Marks.

Thank you very much. And I appreciate all the effort that's gone into this. It's a, as people keep saying, a very complex and difficult set of circumstances to deal with. Um, so my question has to do with um just um the fact that uh clients move around. they don't necessarily stick to one city or one CSD and like that. So my question is whether uh in terms of arranging services and case management there's any effort to kind of um uh keep track of of people as they as they move around. I mean the the compact seems very um solid and really like a good step forward. Um however in terms of actually delivering the services to the people who are moving around h how how would the compact um facilitate that or how would it affect that?

So the you heard um Lauren mention the coordinated entry system and I think that's definitely an opportunity that we could more fully leverage in our community. Um, right now we use that primarily for access to things like permanent supportive housing, but we've had conversations around how can we use that to facilitate access to shelters or to prevention services so that there's not that duplication that can sometimes occur. Um, so I think those are the opportunities we can more fully explore to see how can we leverage resources from one community to serve the entire um needs of what we have in our county.

Uh, Daisy, did you want to add to that? I'm just going to add even from a more like kind of day-to-day um perspective, just knowing all the collaboration that happens at kind of the field level and through HMIS um that the different outreach teams are entering data and being able to collaborate with service providers in North County, South County. Um there are a lot of um I think great efforts happening at kind of regional collaboration meetings. The city hosts um outreach meetings with tea and caps and other outreach partners. And so I think there is a lot of work that all of the the field staff is doing um to make sure that they're kind of coordinating between different cities throughout the county. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

Yeah, not really a question, but more of just a comment and to kind of give a little bit of color to what the staff here are saying. Um, some of you are kind of asking about digging in deeper into the inventory and the services that are provided. And maybe by way of a little bit of a plug, there are three uh subcommittees uh to the homeless services oversight council that do some of that deep dive into talking about the services that are provided across the county and where there might be gaps. uh we have a services committee and a data and performance committee and a coordinated entry committee that all look at different aspects of those things so that they can kind of do like you're saying and dig a little bit deeper and try to uh troubleshoot some of the issues and and fill some of the gaps. Just wanted to add that.

Thank you. you and I know that you know um as you shared the money uh slide you know this is a a continual concern of um we've shared earlier from um caps of the housing crisis but also u without the wraparound services um there's a there's an additional crisis when it comes to mental health and medical and so you know how we get to where we want to go to truly reduce um homelessness by 50% in our county h how do we do that and what does that look like? And I think that if we're working on the um on the same path and towards the same vision with this compact, I think we have some um chance kind of like we were talking about with uh transportation earlier and and how do we do this together? We're at that point that collaboration seems to be key to be able to be su successful. Uh Council Member Shoresman. Yeah, I did have one question sort of um along the lines of what you were talking about with um the uh the different pots of money in the shrinking funds. Uh we we know that in some ways uh those communities that have had a lot of successes are kind of going to be penalized in some way. There's going to be less money coming our way because our point in time count has been showing that our numbers are going down. And so maybe there's the perception at the state and federal level that well you don't need that money anymore because you're you've you're solving that problem. So um has there been any discussions I know you just presented to the board about some of this uh last week I think it was. Have there been any discussions amongst um the board or service providers about how to fill those gaps or how to collaborate in ways that will um you know do more with less or do the same amount with less. Thank you for asking. So uh really we are looking at that collaboration. So

what funding do we have through behavioral health? What funding can we leverage with SenCal? What do we have coming into the county from state and federal resources? and then really mapping out um how they can be most thoughtfully used, right, to have the most impact. Unfortunately, at some point there's just not going to be enough and some services are going to be lost um just as the reality. But we are really using our HMIS system to identify what our most impactful uh pathways to housing are so that we can ensure we're prioritizing those uh to the best of our ability with the limited funding that we have.

Thank you. Um, actually kind of going on that same conversation around money. One of the things we were talking about with our budget recently, um, as I'm sure you all are doing as well, going through how do we deal with losing money going forward and one of the things that I saw was with our licensed psych texts, the LBTS, that was truly o opioid settlement money. And so as we look at going further, has there been any discussions that you've seen that could continue that conversation around um county or state funding those LPTs for the different cities? And then um kind of simultaneously to that question uh I guess part B um the HMIS has been so successful to be able to actually have that transparency and information with each other. um and not every aspect of our homeless um services team can have access to HMIS. So just trying to figure out if no LPTs, how do we work with HMIS?

Yeah, thank you. Such good questions. So to answer the LPT question, I'm not part of that particular conversation, but I can certainly reach out to my peers in behavioral health and inquire. Um I know that there is strong intent and commitment from the conversation they have been part of. they see the um impact of having those LPTs and how positive it has been in the community. So um while I don't know the like specifics, I can say there's definitely um interest in finding a path forward for that. Um outside of that, the question about HMIS access, I know right now the LPTs are kind of the conduit for that. Um, and if that does become a barrier, then we're going to have to come back and look at how do we continue the work that's being done with the staff that are doing the work to make sure they have the resources and information they need to be effective as they can be.

Great. Thank you. Well, if no other questions, I'll go to public comment. I just want to make sure. All right. Any public comment?

Yes. I have one speaker card. Geraldine Clemens. Hey. Hi. I'm Jerry Clemens. I'm a member of There I go again calling myself a member of St. Louis Abyspo City. I'm a citizen of St. Louis Abyispo and I am not representing uh the HLO board on this uh and what I'm going to be talking about. It was already mentioned of the uh changes that HUD is proposing. Well, the loss of money and there's another aspect of this. HUD is proposing to discontinue the allowance of mixed status families in the housing choice voucher program. Currently, if a member of a household does not have a citizenship status required to be eligible for assistance, they may still remain in the household. However, the family subsidy is prorated so that ineligible non-citizens do not receive assistance. As a result, these families already pay more than 30% of their income toward rent. HUD is not proposing just to change this rule going forward, but to stop sub subsidy to any family that currently has an ineligible non-citizen in the household. Okay, I am going to go okay over this. If implemented, this rule would terminate assistance for nearly 70 local families, including 154 eligible citizen children, likely resulting in eventual eviction. The only alternative for many families would be separation, removing one or both parents from the household. This is this would be devastating emotionally, economically, and as in many cases, the

parent at risk of removal. We don't need any more of this stuff. We We already have a major impact of what's being, you know, shoved around here by this administration. So many parents, kids, we're supposed to be protecting our kids, all children, and we're not doing it. Well, at least we're going to try to protect our children. My big ask here is that we do everything possible because we're gonna have to do it locally because the feds aren't going to do it. So statewide that and and like I just said local. That's why it's so important. Just keep doing what you all say that you know you want to do and it's quite evident in this. Um, and wraparound services are really so important. Um, anyway, and I also used to be a licensed site tech. I no longer do that. Worked in substance abuse. And I also want to say I happen to live in a housing area where the majority of the people happen to have been homeless at one at one time. And um who knows maybe these can lose their housing. Anyway, thank you very much.

Thank you. The last speaker was it. Okay. Thank you so much. Well, with that, we'll bring it back to um adopting the draft resolution um the approving the St. Louis Bispo County Regional Homelessness and Affordable Housing Compact. Um I am ready to move that forward. Uh, Councilman Boswell.

Oh, I just uh just quickly uh thanks for the presentation and the great information. Um, glad to hear the uh initial numbers out on the point in time count. Looking forward to getting those uh final numbers. And uh just ask that uh keep please keep us up to date on changes in the federal funding or federal policy um and the implications on that for your operations and impacts to the city. Uh definitely want to stay a breast of that as quickly as possible so that if we need to move quickly as a city we're prepared to do that. Thanks. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Oh, sorry, Council Member Shoresman.

Yeah, just also thank you for the report. Thank you, Daisy, for all the work that you do on behalf of the city and all the coordinated efforts with the county and um I know I see you at almost every HSOC meeting. So, I appreciate your advocacy in that area. Also, uh I I'm prepared to support the the resolution here. It outlines mostly what we already do. I realize it's a conceptual document and maybe there's some desire and need to get more specific. Um but I do appreciate the inventory. I think it really shows when you look through the inventory how much we do as a city. It shows obviously what all the other cities in the county do as well. Um but we have a a dot in almost every single one of those areas. Um so I don't uh I don't think that that we can be accused of not working in this area. And so I am just really looking forward to uh ways that this might in this shrinking funding landscape help show the coordination that we have here in this county and and I I hope it does actually make us more um look more desirable to funders that are out there. I know I think our collaboration and some of our other projects already have helped draw funds into this area. with a shrinking pot of money at the state and federal level, it becomes even more important that private funders that are out there that like to support doing this work uh and that our community members see that we're bought into this and maybe that will encourage them to to to try and do what they can as well. So, um I'm happy to make the motion or support the motion as soon as it's ready. Um I will move approval of the resolution.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I will uh second that. Wonderful. This is uh truly when you have such a smooth 5-0, it's because of all of the work that has been done. So, truly just want to thank you. Um, city clerk, can we have roll call? Council member Shoresman, yes. Vice Mayor Francis, yes. Council member Boswell, yes. Council member Marks, yes. Mayor Stewart,

yes. And the motion passes 5-0. We look forward to continuing the work together and hoping that we can help find additional funding to not just say, "Hey, well, you did some good work. There you go. Good to go." Really, we have a lot more to go still. And so, thank you for, uh, continuing to work together with us. Awesome. Well, um, at this point, we've gone through all of our major public hearing and business items and it's time for liaison reports and communications. Vice Mayor,

I'll just jump right in there because I had a very uh light week here. Um, I do want to give a plug to a super cool event I went to called uh News and Bruise on the the 12th. uh was put on by uh CalPoly professor Kim Bishop and the Tribune. Um and it was a really cool experience. The idea was to kind of get journalists out into the community and have community members get to interact with them. Um you know, there's kind of a an atmosphere of low trust in uh media these days. And so this uh was designed how to break down barriers, show that these are members of our community. And it was it was really cool. And I think the Tribune's intending to do more events like that. And I'd encourage community members to get out and talk to all these journalists out there and see what kind of stuff they're excited about and doing in the community. And um other event I attended was the Cultural Arts Parking District ribbon cutting with all of you. So that was fabulous. And I'll leave it there.

Thank you, Council Member Marks.

Thank you. Um well, the next air pollution control district meeting isn't until May 20th, but I just wanted to get the word out there that um the recruitment time for uh a public member uh of the hearing board, the air pollution control district hearing board um is a quasi judicial board that hears conflicts between industry and um the air pollution control district. uh regulations or staff determinations. Um and it also acts at the time of an air pollution emergency if there is one. Um so right now they're looking for a public member. This would just be um someone who's interested in uh preserving um clean air for and people's health in terms of uh particulate matter. also a public member alternate. Also a medical member alternate. So there has to be a medical member and an attorney. We have the attorney uh members right now. There has to be an engineer. So they're also looking for an engineer member alternate. And the application period closes on the 29th of April. So if you know any anyone who would uh be interested um it doesn't meet unless um unless an industry actually is going to appeal a determination by the air pollution control district but they've been very active in terms of the um oceano dunes issues and uh periodically that comes up. So, um, the other thing is the county water resources advisory committee. Last meeting was cancelled. The next one's

coming up, but I don't know exactly when it is. Um, on the 9th of March, I addressed the community academy. It was the kickoff and, uh, the room was packed, the the library um, across the street, the community room. It looks like a very uh interesting uh diverse and alert uh group of people interested in learning about um the city functioning. And there were a number of um uh really uh excited and uh um how do I say um just um really um a lot of staff members there who were really obviously uh happy to get this community academy launched. It's I believe a three-month is it a three-month pro project? How long does the academy last? Eight weeks.

Eight weeks. Okay. So, two-month project. Yeah. Um on the 11th of March, I attended the Praau uh road overpass or interchange meeting at St. Louis Ranch. Again, that was well attended and um um the public I think is really interested in in what's going on there. there. Um, we received an update in an email from Matt Horn today and if you have a chance to check out the visual um, representations of how it's going to work, it it's really uh, outstanding. So, that's all I have for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Boswell. Uh, thank you. also uh went to the parking garage ribbon cutting the nice warm day

here in the summer of San Los Spispo um capso meeting uh this Thursday uh there's also a LFCO meeting uh this Thursday although as best I can determine there's no um items relevant to the city on the agenda also uh in my liazison role with slow climate coalition I met with them on my monthly meeting and just a reminder a month from is slow Earthfest on April 18th at Santa Rosa Park. Um and then finally um got to spend uh the weekend at the Civic Well Policy makers um conference. Um yeah, very uh informative um there were good discussions around wildfire and wooi including some interesting initiatives that might be coming uh over the next uh year in the state. Uh discuss transportation equity. Uh there was a really great discussion around neighborhood scale energy solutions. I've already talked to staff a little bit about a few of the things I learned there. Um and link between housing and climate action. So it's very beneficial and uh hopefully will uh help me bring some additional ideas to many of these items that we have coming up.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

Uh yes, thank you. So yesterday was it already? Um can days are running together. No, it was last week. Uh SCC um the student community leaison committee I attended that um was a good you know sort of last meeting before the Calpaly uh morning on the green concert. So there was some uh discussion about that but also the uh chair um broke us up into groups and had us discuss uh what's worked in the past for us CLC what um goals we might want to make for the future. they are very interested in uh using some of the small sort of fund that SCLC has accumulated to make an impact, make a positive impact and do some constructive projects um uh to make SCLC more visible in the community and also um see what you know not only just to create visibility but also to create impact. So that was a good discussion. Uh, I unfortunately had to miss the IWMA meeting and downtown slow board meetings last week as I was out of town for a pension trust conference for one of my other um, hats that I wear. Um, but I still managed to get uh, nominated for the IWMA budget ad hoc committee. So, I will be serving on that over the next few months. um also attended the parking structure uh the the toasty parking structure uh groundbreaking or not groundbreaking um ribbon cutting yesterday, but it was great to see you all there and and such enthusiasm from the neighborhood as well. And last but not least, I had a conversation with the Solstice Consulting Firm that is working with the county on doing an evaluation of the potential for um uh next steps, I

guess I would say, with the with Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and whether they're I think they're doing an analysis to see what the impacts might be with a 5-year extension versus a 20-year extension and putting together a report for the county on that. So, I uh had an interview with them on that. And uh this is last but not least, tomorrow at the Veterans Hall from 1 to about 4:15 p.m. we have our regular homeless services oversight council meeting, but from 1 to 3 is a public listening session to help get updates. some of the same information that Linda presented tonight, but also some more data on the status of what we've done and how how far we've gotten on the goals and objectives in the five-year strategic plan. Uh followed by a listening session and goal setting and priority setting process for the next year's uh worth of funding. Uh followed by the regular HSO committee meeting after that. So uh hope to see some of the members of the public there and I'll leave it there. Thank you. Um yeah, this was a busy couple of weeks. I appreciate I had the solstice conversations today as well. Um really be really appreciate able to share what was going on with our thoughts of our city and kind of how um the the long term can look for uh Diablo. Um, going back to Wednesday or the 4th of uh, March, we had the RTA meeting and um, we talked about uh, the summer the K through 12 youth ride free. So, we're uh, already planning for that. Um, we had to push off unfortunately for about a month a tap to ride. Uh, that will launch in April and you will be able to use your phone or credit card to get onto the uh, bus. So that is really great. But don't worry, they are not removing the cash ability, but the

majority of people can get through uh with credit card or um phone and that will make things a lot um quicker and more efficient. Um and then lastly, we had an update on the battery um or sorry the electric buses and uh seven electric buses are now in service with RTA. They've got four more coming this uh year. And they also uh finished installing the fast charging station. So that was really fun. Um and I have to say that every every couple of months we get to really celebrate um people who have been with RTA for a long time and the amazing customer service that internally and externally the staff provide is amazing. Uh I also got to speak to a couple of classes and clubs at Kpali in my mayor role and um definitely Greek life is hearing that uh there's a lot of challenges with Greek life and noise and housing and uh even in meetings that were not anything to do with Greek life. That was the constant question. So they're trying to figure out how do we work together going forward. Lots more to talk about that in the future. Um, CL Smith, I just want to thank um, Vice Mayor and uh, Amanda and Megan from the uh, public arts and parks and wreck the and to thank our artists as well. It was great to see this community mural and we're on the next phase. So, only one more phase to go. And uh city manager and I along with um deputy city manager and um members of the economic development team here at the city, we all attended the reach uh ideas and action summit down in Santa Barbara. And it was very interesting to see the regional opportunities, different ideas about how to bring economic development here. um also how to deal with the challenges of housing and to hear how some of the other cities and potential future cities um yep

that's a future city um for the California to look into what does it look like to um run a city very differently. So it'll be interesting potentially no lowincome will be existing there um due to um jobs that they plan to create uh on their own. It'll be kind of like an islandish but on Cal on California property. So looking forward to hearing how that works. It's a very interesting conversation and um just wanted to also thank the girls softball association. I got to throw out the first pitch. Sometimes there's those fun things you get to do as mayor and this was definitely one of those fun things uh for the opening day and watching you know the under six. I think there were four uh teams in the under six all the way through um practically high school and that was a lot of fun. Uh I made it over uh into that box area, not quite over the plate, but right next to it. So I felt I felt proud that I wasn't too short or too far. Um the cat um the cultural arts parking structure. Uh that was an amazing day. And yes, it was quite toasty and and sweaty, but um this is a long time project. And one of the things that we talked about the day of is that this is a project that really actually started I've always thought about it as 20 to 25 years because of the actual planning, but truly this project started in 1991, the picking this lot or picking this area. So, I just want to um say thank you to everyone through the decades who has helped make this project happen. And we've heard many people from our community share about their concerns around safety. And if you go to this um parking garage, I'm very proud that we were able to um truly build safety fencing and features throughout the entire structure. Um we also listen to our community members who didn't really want us looking in their backyard. So I

appreciate the last minute changes happening from our team here at the city to figure out with construct with the contractors. How do we change that? How how do we change the fencing there so that it's not uh visible? So, I just, you know, there's constantly so many changes and yet this is just a huge project. Um, two more things. I wanted to thank uh Victor Reyes Morales. He came up from the Los Angeles um uh office from our governor's office. Uh city manager and I met with him today to kind of share some of the successes and challenges of um the governor's office and uh actions in St. Louis Vispo. So wanted to share what we're doing in housing and transportation um homelessness and so many more things. So um you know hoping for some funding and some and thanking people for the funding for uh the courthouse and many more things. Lastly, if you uh don't have your calendar absolutely packed, uh Thursday at 5:30 the doors will open for Loretta J. Ross. Um many of you I'm sure are familiar with what cancel culture is. She is the polar opposite. Um she has worked with many people on how do you call people in in some challenging conversations. And I'll tell you um as she describes herself having a 300B black woman walking in to the KKK uh is not something you experience very often. And uh she did this because she wanted to figure out how do we help in these moments of hate? How do we help in moments of violence? and how do we say how do we work uh work on these issues together going forward and so um if you have had a chance to watch her TED talk or read her book or her articles uh she's absolutely fascinating woman and I look forward to um seeing her speak on Thursday at Qua thank you to the diversity coalition thank you to Buen Vino and thank you to many who have helped u make this possible she doesn't come out to the west uh west coast very

often so it was a big big deal so that is all I have thank you so much. Like I said, it was a busy busy couple weeks, but um we will see you back here in two weeks. Um we have um April 7th, we have our next regular meeting. We do have a special close session this Thursday at 9:00 am u to talk about personnel. And with that, I just want to say good evening and thank you for being here. Okay.