Santa Cruz County mayors sit down to discuss challenges this year

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION) In a show of collaboration, all four mayors in Santa Cruz County sat down together over Zoom to talk about the challenges facing the region over the next few years.

While the COVID-19 pandemic remains a primary concern, housing, homelessness and wildfires still present a mountain of issues that they believe only working together can solve.

Catastrophic wildfires marked the end of summer in Santa Cruz County last year. But before all that, a radical new method to tackle the threat of fire was unveiled: PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoffs.

PSPS events first started back in 2019. At best, they were chaotic.

"This power grid is so outdated. It needs so many upgrades. The amount of work that PG&E should've invested over the decades, it's a failure," said Scotts Valley Mayor Derek Timm.

"We're sort of in a learning pattern with them. I think we're getting better at expressing what we need, and I'd like to see the company do more around helping local businesses and residents who lose either food or whatever it is during those shutdowns to make sure that there's some kind of reimbursable program," said Santa Cruz Mayor Donna E. Meyers.

Housing remains a regional issue in all four cities, and the state is now threatening to crack down on municipalities who are not meeting housing quotas. The pressure is felt most acutely in Capitola and Watsonville, where mayors say there is really nowhere else to build.

Watsonville Mayor Jimmy Dutra says his town is so dense, the only place to build is upwards. Two housing projects in the works will be three to five stories tall. There is also more low-income housing being proposed. But a culture of NIMBYism, or Not In My Back Yard, can impede progress.

"There have been council meetings that we try to build projects and we have had hundreds of people come to protest the building of a housing project," said Mayor Dutra.

In Capitola, the mayor says the city is mostly built out, but the saga of housing at the mall still continues. Part of the challenge: the complex is owned by seven stakeholders and discussions are at a standstill.

The mayors say working together on this issue and others will be key going forward.

"We are from small community and a small county and collaboration is the only way we're going to be able to begin our recovery as we move out of this pandemic," said Capitola Mayor Yvette Brooks.

Another added challenge to cities because of the COVID-19 pandemic: the budget crisis. The economic impact has meant tax revenues for cities has gone down. Governments have had to make cuts to staffing and programs.

For Santa Cruz, the pandemic has sucked the life out of big economic drivers like the boardwalk and beaches, which means less in Transient Occupancy Taxes. They are now looking at structural budget cuts for the coming year.

"It's going to be a little bit of a long haul to get up out of this and back into positive, or at least revenues that are sustainable and can take care of some of our PERS obligations and other things. So it's going to be a long recovery," said Mayor Meyers.

Cities in California now anticipate a combined total of nearly $7 billion in general revenue shortfalls in the next two fiscal years and that number could keep going up.

PREVIOUS ARTICLE: In a Zoom event put on by the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce, four Santa Cruz County mayors sat down together with the public to discuss the challenges they are facing this year and for the future.

The Collaborative Conversation with Our 4 City Mayors event included Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Capitola and Watsonville. The panel discussion was moderated by Lookout Santa Cruz.

Among the topics discussed: the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness, budget issues and housing.

"I think collaboration is key. Obviously, this is my first time as mayor and I haven't had the opportunity to work with other mayors before, but this group of four is unique and is powerful and is even more mighty if we come together," said City of Capitola Mayor Yvette Brooks.

KION's Josh Kristianto will have a more detailed look on Sunday at 8 p.m. after the Super Bowl on CBS.