NewsChannel 5 Webcast: March 19, 2015

king city’s police department is one step closer to getting a new leader. welcome to this special web edition of news channel 5, i’m spencer washburn. and i’m amanda gomez. city officials say they’ve picked a candidate they want to be the next police chief. city manager michael powers confirmed that a new police chief has been selected. right now, the city is in the process of conducting a background check and negotiating a contract. until then, the city won’t release the candidate’s name. just over a week ago, we told you that the city had narrowed down their search to just 4 candidates. the watsonville youth city council wants to know how other kids in the community feel about safety. they’ve just released a survey for other teens to anonymously fill out. news channel 5’s mariana hicks has more from watsonville. *trt:outcue::*@00-06 mariana hicks//watsonville@06-11 watsonville//teen youth survey gauges safety@14-20 maria renteria//sophomore, watsonville high school@39-46 felicia davidson//watsonville youth city council member @56-108 joann borbolla//counselor, watsonville high schooltrt: 132 soc in: the survey was released just three days ago. and since then, there have been over 400 responses.one came from watsonville high school sophomore maria renteria.. she thinks things can get pretty wild in watsonville.maria renteria//sophomore “i mean, at times, safe, but not all the time. especially at night cause yeah, it’s crazy out there now.”in fact, she says she avoids certain parks after dark.it’s insight like this the watsonville youth city council wants to know.. and that’s why they’re trying to reach as many teens as possible to fill out the survey. either online or at their school.felicia davidson//senior, youth city council”the intentions of the survey are to get a sense of how youth feel here in watsonville, instead of having adults and other people just kind of guess about what’s really going on. we’ll go out and ask them.it’s not just about safety.. but their social life.. what are they doing? who are they really hanging out with? and the survey is anonymous — a better chance for honest answers. joann borbolla//counselor, watsonville hs sometimes students don’t feel safe coming forward to adults regarding certain instances. because a lot of times, children are fearful of retaliation if they do come forward with information. the information will then be used to create action two years ago the youth city council got 14-hundred responses when they did a similar survey. this year, they’re hoping for 18-hundred. we’ll post that story here on our website on the home page. as the drought drags on… governor jerry brown has proposed a big plan to help californians hit the hardest. the governor and legislative leaders want to spend 1 billion dollars in bond money… for drought relief. the proposal comes as california is dealing with its fourth dry year.. and agencies on the state and local level are still calling on residents to do more to conserve the state’s dwindling water resources.. the 1 billion dollar proposal would put more money towards two big issues.. water projects.. and drought relief. most of the plan deals with funding water supply and flood prevention projects that have already been approved by voters. that includes accelerating spending on last year’s 7-point-5 billion dollar bond measure. the plan would also provide immediate help to communities facing dire water shortages and unemployment caused by the drought. communities could get more money for emergency drinking water and food. this is a struggle and it’s going to be something that we’re going to have to live with, for how long, we’re not sure.” the legislation will need majority approval from the state legislature which is controlled by democrats. republican legislative leaders joined brown at a news conference today but were not involved in negotiating the deal. and today the u-s drought monitor released it’s newest outlook. it found that california’s drought has not improved from last week. nearly 40 percent of california is still in an “exceptional” drought. that’s the highest drought category. and the state’s drought situation is actually worse compared to last year. back in march 2014, only 22 percent of the state was in an “exceptional” drought without that need rain, local water agencies are asking you to conserve and at least in our area on the central coast.. people are listening. monterey regional water district officials say in december, the monterey peninsula had the lowest water use in the state! people only used about 33 gallons of water per day. in january, water conservation dropped slightly because it was hot and dry. *right now, customers in california american water have been successfully staying below state limits.. we have a regulatory drought on the monterey peninsula where we have to meet certain targets or we move to higher levels of conservation* if the drought continues to drag on, district officials say the state could push for even more restrictions later on. the santa cruz water district also says that customer water use is picking up slightly.. but residents are still meeting the governor’s call for a 20 percent reduction. right now, customers are being asked to voluntarily conserve water and they are. the district says people are conserving about 20 to 22 percent of water. when mandatory water rationing took place last summer, people were conserving about 25 to 30 percent. so far no mandatory restrictions are set for summer, but the city could change that in april. we also spoke with san benito county water district officials. they say water use is going down. the district does have water waste restrictions but isn’t issuing any penalties. and the soquel creek water district is also seeing an increase in water conservation. water use is 19 to 23 percent down from last year. they’re also looking to start a pilot project to help people make personal water budgets in april. stay with us on news channel 5 for updates on the drought… and local efforts to conserve water. we’ll have developments.. both on air and online. the monterey county distrct attorney’s office say it is not filing charges in the fight involving salinas councilman jose castaneda… at least for now. earlier this month, police were called to the councilman’s home after getting reports of the fight. castaneda says an unknown man showed up to his parents house.. and got aggressive. while the office isn’t charging either man, it does recommend that the police deparment investigate the case further. the woman accused of stabbing a 14-year-old boy to death in 2013.. pleaded not guilty today. angela zuniga is charged with murder in the death of ricardo ruiz. salinas police say zuniga attacked ruiz, after confronting him about his gang affliation. he later died at a hospital. just this month, a judge decided there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial. she’s expected to be back in court on april 14th. the santa cruz volley ball coach accused of trying to have sex with a teenager.. pleaded not guilty today in court. kjell nilssen faces several charges. investigators say he met the victim while coaching at the shoreline volleyball club. nilssen is actually a convicted sex offender, who was not supposed to be working with kids. he’s expected to be back in court on april 9th. monterey park elementary school officials confirmed there were four cases of whooping cough at the school last month. but they say all the children have been treated.. and are now back in school. the school’s principal says the students were all in the same 5th grade classroom. they received an all clear by doctors.. before returning to school earlier this month. school officials say they’ve taken several precautions.. including fully sanitizing the classrooms the students visited. we’ll have more on this story coming up on news channel 5 at 10 and 11. a big mess near las lomas today. chp says a big rig carrying soil.. overturned along san miguel canyon road around noon. officers say the truck was going about 35 miles per hour when it overturned. the driver was not injured. and we’re getting reports that the santa cruz county bomb squade is detonating a suspicious device along willis road. residents are being warned .. they could hear several loud explosion. we’ll bring you more tonight on news channel 5 at 10 and 11 happening tonight.. the seaside city council will decide whether it will opt out of using monterey county 9-1-1 dispatch services. seaside is the latest city that’s considering breaking it’s deal with the agency. and just last night, pacific grove city leaders discussed ending their deal with monterey county’s 9-1 services. last night city leaders approved a letter of intent to pull away from the county’s services. the city is looking at other options, including possibly contracting with salinas for 9-1-1 services. just this week, salinas city council voted to send a letter.. about its intent to stop using the dispatch services. today the u-s-d-a was in salinas to hear about growers’ needs for more export and trade around the world. the usda’s deputy under secretary for farm and foreign services says california is the nation’s largest agricultural exporter. alexis taylor was part of a group touring one of tanimura and antle’s fields in salinas. taylor met with some growers to hear about issues they’ve had exporting. “they see some really big demand in abroad particulary in some of the asian and south east asian countries. currently the u.s. government is in negotiations with 11 south east asian countries and it has huge potential particularly for this part of california.” since the 2007 e-coli outbreak linked to central coast spinach, taylor says congress passed new food safety standards, and says they’re now among some of highest standards in the world — another reason the demand for california produce is so high. it was another beautiful day here on the central coast. so what can we expect tonight. our chief meteorologist dann cianca is here with your forecast . u-c president janet napolitano is apologizing today.. after she was caught on videotape.. making a controversial comment about a student protest. *”let’s just break.” “let go.””let’s go.””we don’t h to listen to this crap.”* she made the comment wednesday, when dozens of student protesters wearing just underwear interrupted a u-c regents meeting in san francisco. her comments set off a hailstrom of anger from students.. and on social media. many of them called for her to step down. *”i don’t know where she’s coming from, but i’m assuming that she never had to deal with these issues personally. i would understand why there would be a disconnect there.” * during another meeting today she asked for “empathy and understanding” she also said she was sorry for using a word.. she usually doesn’t use. new details tonight about last month’s deadly commuter train crash in oxnard. n-t-s-b officials released an intial report.. confirming that the driver of the ford f-450… accidentally turned onto the tracks..and got stuck. he then abandoned his truck.. put on it’s hazard lights.. as the metro train approached. a student engineer hit the emergency brakes.. but the train still smashed into the truck. the train’s principal engineer died … 31 passengers and 2 crew members were also hurt. a southern california motorcyclist pulled a few stunts while being chased by chp officers. officers say they initially tried to pull him over for reckless driving but he took off. during the hour-long change a helicopter caught him popping wheelies and *standing* on the bike as it whipped along city streets at high speeds. he finally surrendered at a gas station. the watsonville police department just got a little bigger thanks to measure g money. watsonville police held a badge pinning ceremony for new officers devon mcmahon and aaron chavarria. both underwent 10 months of training before being hired to the department. police officials say they were hired with measure g funds… that’s the city sales tax which generates money for police, fire and emergency services. salinas’ annual firework stand lottery.. took place today.. after getting dozens of applications, officials held a drawing to see which lucky schools and organizations would get to take part in the fundraiser. in the end, 12 schools and groups were picked. those include boronda meadows elementary, salinas american little league and the steinbeck rotary club. celebrating the environment! that was the focus of one big event at a marina school today. this was all part of “zero waste